handsful

We had our doubts when we were in China. She was very apprehensive about her first baths, and HATED having her hair rinsed! Once home, she began liking baths and then eventually loving baths. Her FAVORITE part now is having her hair rinsed…we pour cup after cup, she shakes her head back and forth wildly, smiles her biggest smile, and quickly signs “more! more!”.

We waited till the water in the pool was a little warmer…though, not warm enough for mom (I’m the bathwater kinda swimmer), so dad took her in for her first dip. He went slowly as first, taking her deeper and deeper. She never looked concerned or frightened at all, and soon that smile started creeping up.

Randy bounced her, spun her, even dunked her under twice. Loved it all. He put her in her floaty and she splashed and splashed. The other kids splashed her and she screamed in laughter. After about 25 minutes, we noticed her shaking a little bit and decided she’d had enough…even though she didn’t want to get out! We call our other 4 kids “fish” because they love swimming and are that comfortable in the pool. We’re now 5 for 5!

One happy Momma on Mother’s Day! Our day in a nutshell…went to church with the kids while Randy was in the air, on his way back from CA. We arrived home and there he was! The kids received presents from Dad’s trip, and I got a beautiful new watch! Lunch out at the Times Grill (yum), a couple of errands including chocolate milkshakes (double yum), and back home for yardwork and swimming. A wonderful day!

More pictures tomorrow…including some of a certain someone who took her first dip in the pool today. ;)

Happy Mother’s Day to the ladies who have their children today, and to those who are staring at the pictures of their little ones, so far away, anxious to have him/her in their arms. And, especially, to those still waiting. I’ve been there, both with my bio kids and with Lainey. Your wait will end, and you will be a mom. I look forward to the day when I can rejoice with you! Hugs…

When I read on our science curriculum today that we were to make electrical circuits, I thought maybe I should put this one off till Randy could be around and help. I’m pretty good with potting soil or raising caterpillars (truth be told, we currently have larvae changing into ladybugs in one cage, 5 cocoons that will soon be Painted Lady butterflies in another, and way too many tadpoles to count in a bin outside). But, electricity? I’m proud to say that we all figured it out and our circuits were a success. How fun to make lights light up with just batteries and copper wires! The kids loved it and so did I.

Here are a few random photos of the little gal from this week…

What is it they say? Don’t buy toys, just buy boxes.

First masterpiece!

Bye, see you next time!

The very beginning of what would become 3 coats of new textured paint on the back porch. Looks great and he’s tired!

The big kids enjoyed an awesome program at church this weekend, that lasted Friday night and then ALL day (9am-9pm) on Saturday. They were in groups by age/grade/gender, had great speakers, bible studies, discussion time, and fun with water and shaving cream. Could it get better than that? We did have to pull the boys out for a couple of hours for their last regular season baseball game. They won and are in 1st place going into the playoffs. Go Red Sox!

So, with the big kids gone, we had some “only child” time with Lainey. Here she is on Saturday morning, enjoying some diaper time.

I love her huge smiles when her eyes disappear! Mine did the same thing when I was a kid.

Dinner Saturday night was Chinese take-out (and Firehouse subs for me)…here she is being silly with daddy and her fried rice.

Abbey had her Real Life Group (6th grade girls bible study group) at church tonight and was in charge of desserts since they were having a party. She made these cupcakes all by herself and was quite proud. So was her mom.

Hey, Payton…where is your cleft palate?

Lainey turned 22 months today. Oh my goodness, only 2 months till she’s TWO!?!?!

Lainey already has a hobby…daddy downhill skiing! (great view of her cleft, eh?)

As of today, Lainey has had all of her in-office doctor visits required before her palate surgery can be scheduled. Here’s the low-down on those visits…

ENT: Lainey has fluid in both ears, and will most likely need tubes placed during the palate surgery. I say most likely because they weren’t able to repeat the tympanogram (first one done during the clinic appt on 3/20) during the ENT visit, so they will do that prior to surgery and if it shows she still needs them, they will place the tubes.

Plastic Surgeon: The surgeon wants to close Lainey’s entire palate in one surgery, if possible. He’ll do that by making incisions on both sides of the cleft, and pulling the muscle flaps over the cleft, closing it. At least, that’s the way I’m understanding it! There will still be a gap between the front of the palate and her clefted gumline. That’s where the dentist comes in…

Dentist: She was a superstar patient for the dentist, allowing them to clean and polish her teeth and get great views of her gumline and teeth. She has 2 teeth on the left side (cleft side) and 4 (all that should be there) on the right. Her 2 year molars aren’t in yet. He’ll do x-rays in 6 months to see what permanent teeth she has, and the timing of her gumline surgery will depend on what he finds. They will, sometime between the age of about 4-10, take bone from her hip and re-build her gumline where the cleft is. So, the dentist doesn’t need to be involved in her palate surgery.

Now, we wait to hear from the surgery coordinator. Our clinic coordinator is sending us a packet of info on what to expect both before, during, and after surgery. Two things I’m anxious about are feeding her for those 3 weeks after surgery AND keeping her hands out of her mouth. She’ll be on various levels of a liquid diet, fed either with a syringe and tube contraption of regular cup (NO sippy cups!). She’ll wear devices on her arms that are referred to as “no-nos” to keep her arms in a straight position. The ones we’ll use can be seen here, www.snugglewraps.com.

Here are a couple more pics :)

Another view of her trick…work those abs, girl!!

We were visited by some mallard ducks the other day.

Look at this adorable bow holder and bows! My ladybug group held a hairbow swap, and Kim sent this…couldn’t believe how many bows there were and she made the holder!

It would go something like this:

Mom: Lainey, mama and dada aren’t feeling well…could you please sit quietly and play with your toys for a bit so we can rest?

Lainey: Yes, mama, rest as long as you need to!

Mom: Oh, thank you darling!

End of dream sequence…

Truthfully, toddlers don’t care if you’re sick. And, it’s been a rough couple of weeks around this household! It all started when we went home to NC. Marley, Ethan, and Abbey were all sick and had trips to the urgent care. The next week, Payton and I were under the weather. Last weekend, Randy joined in and had a whole weekend of feeling absolutely horrible. I decided for a second helping and have been sick this whole week. Ugh. Thankfully, I’m feeling much better today…maybe the plague is leaving??

I’m so glad that Lainey has avoided ALL of this so far, and pray that she stays well. And honestly, she’s been great. The other kids have been great helpers, playing with her when we couldn’t. She’s also started playing more with her toys lately and having fewer breakdowns, which has definitely made this week easier than it could have been. God in his wisdom also saw fit to make sure that Randy and I were NOT sick at the same time.

Here are a few pictures that we managed to take in between feeling cruddy…

Yep, she was.

We start homeschooling early around here.

Hey, I got it RIGHT!!

EJ trains her in unloading the dishwasher (after taking the sharp knives out, of course!)

Two months ago today, we received an amazing gift! In a way, it feels like so much longer than two months…almost like she’s always been here. She’s changed a lot since that day in Hefei!

The other morning, Ethan asked if Lainey was up yet. I told him I was going to get her in a minute. He asked again about a second later and I asked him why he was so anxious. Without blinking, he said “cause she spreads joy”. The big kids rush to see her in the morning, love playing with her during the day, and insist on giving her kisses before nap and bedtime!

A few notes on how she’s doing these days…

* her sleep is consistent, naps and bedtime. She doesn’t fuss at all, just smiles and waves at us from her crib. It wasn’t always like that, so we’re thankful.

* she still eats great, and likes pretty much anything we put on the plate. She loves fruit (mandarin oranges), veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes), pasta, rice, yogurt, etc. We give her daily antibiotic to her in a few spoonfuls of yogurt each night. She gets so excited when she sees it’s medicine time!

* She’s doing well with her signing…more, all done, food/eat, water, milk, shoes, want, ball, night-night, daddy (which she seems to use for both of us), and please

* “umma” and “ma-ma-ma” are still her main vocalizations. She does have a first word that she started using about a week ago. She points to her eye and says “eye”. She can now say “oooh” and “ohh”, but not too often. She will purse her lips together for kisses.

* She can point to her eyes and nose and sometimes mouth. She understands lots of words, too many to list. She’s still not consistent understanding mama and dada, but we work on it a lot.

* She’s been off the bottle totally for more than 2 weeks and is doing perfectly with a sippy cup (no spill-proof valve, though, she can’t suck due to her cleft…so drinking can get messy).

* She’d still prefer him to stay away from her face (we call him the “lick-headed mutt”), but she actively approaches Jack all the time now. His new favorite place is directly under her clip-on chair at the kitchen table…wonder why?

* Remember at first she hated soft things…no blankets, pillows, and she really hated stuffed animals. Loves them all now. Especially her toddler sized pillow (hand-me-down from big sis Marley) and pink flowery blanket.

* Just today, she has started reaching out to us to give us hugs and kisses. Tonight, she was lying on the couch and I had my head right at her head. She grabbed the back of my neck, pulled me close to her face, and gave me a kiss. Does it get better than that?

Happy 2 Months, Lainey.