Cleft clinic visit

Will's cleft visit was the last week of May and I'm just now posting about it. He got to see the speech pathologist Dr. Riski who he will now work with. It helps he knows where the two toy draws are and that he will get a prize from the treasure box when he finishes! He worked hard to make the speech sounds he was asked to do. Unfortunately since we have added the allergy medication he has very little "nasal secretions" and mucus to limit his hyper nasality. So we are to keep working with him on his sounds having him whisper or close his nose with his fingers pushing the nostrils closed (not his favorite thing to do). He is still making many sounds by slamming his vocal folds together (glottal stops) to be understood. Dr. Riski wants the school speech teacher to work on his speech with him closing his nose or whispering so he doesn't get the bad habits reinforced.



When we meet with Dr. B. he said we need to do a sphincter pharyngoplasty to improve his speech. Surgery is scheduled for October 4th to take advantage of my fall break. We knew he would probably need 4-8 surgeries so we were not surprised, but hate to see him have more surgery. We are only suppose to stay up to 23 hours in extended recovery.

Puggles awards!

Tyler and Will and the other 3 boys in their class took part in the AWANA award's ceremony at church on 5/23/10. I had a hard time getting both of the boys in the same picture. So Tyler is sitting with his friends M and D. The next picture is Will and B our youth pastor's son.




The last two pictures are from their presentation
in front of the church. They were to say what they were holding and at the end say God made everything. It took two tries to get it correct.
They loved going to Puggles and are sad they don't get to go anymore. But when told they would move up to Cubbies and be with some of their friends that are a year older (4's) they were very excited.

More from the Zoo

I love the look on Will's face! With the man in the Yellow hat, you can see part of Curious George in the background.
Not sure of the name of the brown dinosaur, Tyler was distracted and Will wasn't sure what to think about the character or taking a picture.

Zoo member night

We went to the zoo member night and brought along our neighbor's daughter Torri. The boys love Torri and she really enjoys interacting and helping the boys. We only saw the Giant Panda bears and told her we would bring her again when we went to see the animals.



Their were many story book characters in the pavilion that were doing readings, and posing for pictures. Their was also a family friendly band and in the children's zoo area was a DJ playing dance music. The boys enjoyed dancing with Torri who really seemed to like dancing. She had played in a soccer tournament during the day and was tiered, but excited to go with us.
Not sure if the pictures will post.

Maisy!!

The boys went to the library to have story time with Maisey. One of the librarians read two Maisy books to the kids (about 30) and then they could line up and meet Maisy. They both liked him, they just were never looking at the camera at the same time.

Friday adventures

Tyler has had a cough off and on for about 3 1/2- 4 weeks, when I noticed how long it had been going on as noted on the family calender I called to get him an appointment. He has chronic sinusitis and is raspy. The nurse practitioner was surprised his ears were clear and that he only sounded raspy in front not on his back. I guess I need to listen to both sides when debating to take him to the doctor's.

I have been saying he feels heavier, he was 36.5 pounds at his well child visit an now he ways 39 pounds.

The boys were suppose to have a birthday party at the local park, but it rained hard most of the morning and their was a good chance of evening thunderstorms. So the party got moved to Chuck E Cheese. They had lots of fun, it was very energy draining for us.

Tyler's recent medical visits

Well Tyler finally made it to the podiatrist, as I had to reschedule his first appointment because of a problem with a temporary crown. The toe nail on the left toe may have a fungus that is causing the strange looking nail and to grow straight up. We are to file the nail down and apply a fungus medication preferably twice a day and return August 12th. He has had alot of problem with an ingrown toe nail on the other toe. The doctors answer for this was the growth plate/bed for the toe is arched instead of straight. To fix it involves surgery and trimming the nail bed and treating it with a chemical to not grow back. Since the other toe probably has the same problem surgery won't be scheduled till August or September so we can take care of both toes at the same time. At least we have meet our deductible, at this point we may reach our out of pocket maximum before October. At least their are things we can do about the toes.

Today he went for a physical therapy evaluation he was low in two of the three areas: locomotion and object manipulation. He has at least made progress in the stationary skills, such as standing on one foot, and jumping in place not over things and such. The therapist recommends a "burst" of therapy to get him back on track for his age, hoping he maintains the skills as he has for speech. She also said some of his trouble with object manipulation like throwing and catching a ball have some fine motor components and we have an OT evaluation set up for early June so we hopefully get all of his therapy in this summer and he will be able to keep up with his peers.

The PT was impressed with the Playball program, I brought this weeks newsletter to share. We should get a written report in the next week or two.