Many Faces of Ricky

5 months with us...

Ricky has now known us for 5 months. I believe we have come a long way with our bonding. He is truly a joy. I can look back at my journaling and I had such a rough time at the beginning. I never thought I would be where I am today with him. So for those who are going through this now or will be going through the bonding in the near future - it does get better. It is worth all the tears and agony I went through. I cannot fathom our life without him. Things are different for the family and we are still sort of struggling with our schedules and enough time for everything but we are working on it.

Bill and I are in constant amazement on what a clown he is. I say it with love that he is a clown.

As far as his strep and palate. I think the new antibiotics are working. Hopefully we will knock this out. We took him to see Dr. Burstein yesterday - our craniofacial guy. His palate looks really really good - that are his words. He also checked for fistulas - nothing. So all we have is a small opening in the back - not an issue. Nothing is infected, nothing is ripping open.

As far as speech not much progress - he is babbling alot... I cannot get him to do a B on a consistent manner. Just m's. He did say Mama to me. So I will count that as his first word.

I will try to get some updated pictures this weekend.

Strep

Well Ricky has strep. Normally in a non-cleft child this wouldn't be a big deal.
Ricky was on Omnicef to get rid of Sinus Infection. We were on week 3 of the prescription. We were doing better. Bill and I thought we finally got this under control. Well nope!
On the drug that is suppose to treat strep, Ricky got strep.

Ricky's palate didn't close all the way. He has an opening way in the back. We knew it, the surgeon knew it - told us not to worry. Well now he may have strep up the opening. Which isn't good. It can deteoriate the palate closing - meaning like a zipper effect it can open. We are now on super duper meds plus we have to see the plastic surgeon next week.

This kiddo cannot catch a break.

Ricky's Laugh

This is my first attempt of a video off our camera. I wasn't really interested in the picture but the voice to capture Ricky's laugh so excuse the lack of quality picture. You will see Ricky sign more after some tickling!

Who is this Masked Man???

Is this our new superhero?!?!?!

Happy Late Birthday to Emily

Emily turned 8 on Thursday. I haven't really had a chance to post because this week has been crazy. Emily's dance recital was last night - We had practice the night before her birthday. I'm very proud of Emily - she did a terrific job at her recital. It was a very long night. We were there from 3pm to 11 pm.

I cannot believe my little baby turned 8. I can remember her birth like it was yesterday.

Here are some pictures of her recital plus some from her family birthday party which was today.

Happy Kid!

Ricky's personality for the most part is happy, silly, crazy, and funny. I don't remember Emily being this amusing. I think Ricky is a clown. We saw peaks of this in China. He loved to run around with Bill's hat on so he couldn't even see. This picture is from China the second day we had him.

He tends to make toys out of things. Shoes, hats, paper etc. become his toys. His books right now are his skateboard across the kitchen tile floor.

Ricky also has the best laugh. I'm going to have to video tape it. It will make an unhappy person laugh.

Here are some more pictures of the little man...

Updated Photos