Catching up? Or Maybe Not!!

6 Months!! I can't believe I haven't written anything for 6 months. But now it's summer and I'd like to get back to writing. Only, so much has happened in the last 6 months there is no way I can "catch up". So, I'm not going to even try. But here's just rundown of the girls. And then, I'm going to try to move on and post things that are current more often. Try. :-)

Sadie:
Sadie is doing great! She's done with surgeries (at least for now..there's the possibility of 1 more when she's a good bit older, but maybe not). She's wearing a splint only at night and has been for quite some time. We haven't even been to the OT in probably 3 months or more. We will visit the OT at least once this summer. And probably an opthamologist to have her vision rechecked. But that's all for her. The last time we saw her hand doctor in Atlanta was March. We don't go back until September. 7 months without driving to Atlanta! It's been wonderful!! (though we do love Dr. P and his amazing staff!)

Sadie is doing wonderful developmentally. She's been receiving speech services through our school system for the past year and while she does have some language "quirks"..her speech has really come so far. She talks NONSTOP! I mean that literally - she never ever stops until she goes to sleep. (To her future teachers: I'm sorry. But it's true.) And she doesn't meet a stranger. ever. She's engaging and friendly and precious and people are just attracted to her personality. Just do me a favor. If you see us in the grocery store and you don't actually know her (or she doesn't know you!), please don't try to hug her. We've been working hard on her hugging people she knows only. Sadie played soccer this spring and loved it. Well, she loved the fun little games they played at practice. At the games, she loved socializing with "ALL MY FRIENDS!". She did score one goal in a game - it was for the wrong team..but hey, in 3 & 4 year old soccer, it just doesn't matter. She did a victory dance and everyone cheered for her regardless. Sadie celebrated her 2nd "Family Forever Day" in early May. Hard to believe it's been 2 years. She is the perfect fit to our family. Her wish list for the summer (we wrote them down tonight) includes playing in the sprinkler, putting a cup of water under her shirt and dumping it on herself, making a hat for her stuffed Mickey Mouse, tickling mommy, and blowing bubbles.

Hannah:
Also good. She's had a break of all things medical until recently. We've gone back and forth with hearing tests, ENT visits, and audiology visits this spring. Hannah had her tubes removed at the end of January. And has had a couple ear infections since then. She's failed hearing screenings and tested with a mild hearing loss. But she still has holes in her eardrums from the tube removal (they'd been in 3 years so it was a risk). We just went back to the ENT today and the holes are still there. Her ENT wants to surgically close them but thinks we might want to wait a bit first. The holes act like a natural tube and prevent fluid build up. And Hannah has another surgery coming up this summer so we're putting the ear surgery on hold until probably next spring. The only downside of that is it means she will continue to have a mild hearing loss for most of her 2nd grade year, just as she did for her 1st grade year. It's mild, and didn't seem to effect her academically, but it's something we'll be watching closely. She has a harder time in noisy environments particularly.
Hannah had 3 teeth pulled by her oral surgeon about 2 months ago. She racked up with the tooth fairy for 3 teeth since she was so brave! The teeth were pulled so they'd have time to heal before her did surgery in that area of her mouth this summer. Actually, in about 2 weeks. Hannah will have her bone graft surgery to repair the hole in her gumliine left from her cleft. They will be taking bone from her hip and packing it in her gumline where there currently is no bone. This will give her permanent teeth a place to anchor to when they come in. She'll be on a soft diet again for a while (not sure exactly how long, but after her regular palate repair it was a month!). She'll also have some activity restrictions for a couple weeks.

Hannah just finished 1st grade and she had a wonderful year. She's reading like crazy and one of her favorite things to do is have me give her math problems to solve in the car. She was also just dismissed from speech. We had a "graduation from speech" celebration and she was quite proud of herself. She should be. She's worked hard and done beautifully. To go from absolutely no speech and language at 3 years old to where she is now at not-quite 7 is amazing. Of course, she's had some great help with her wonderful therapists! She has a few little "quirks" left, but they are so minor that we just address them as they come up and move on. And I've realized - many 6 year olds have a few little language "quirks" anyway. Hannah's extracurricular activity of the year was Girl Scouts. She was a Daisy Scout and she had a blast. Her favorite thing was Daisy Camp this spring (just for the day - they won't spend the night until next year as Brownies). She tried her hand at canoeing and archery. She was pretty good at the archery and she loved every minute of it! She's also made some great friends through her troop this year. I limited Hannah to one activity outside of school (other than church) this year because 1st grade was enough of a jump for her with no nap and homework, etc. It was definately the right decision for us. We're going to have to do some discussion and compromising on 2nd grade I think. Hannah has informed me that next year she wants to do Brownies, dance again (she used to be in dance and took the year off), play basketball, and be a football cheerleader. Oh, and she wants to do baton too. I'm glad she has many interests, but it's too much for me and it will be too much for her. She needs "down time" to just play. And we all need down time to just be together and do things as a family. That time is sometimes hard to come by during the school year. So, we'll be hashing all that out this summer to come up with one or two activities. Hannah celebrated her 4th "Family Forever Day" just a few days ago. 4 years ago I became a mom for the first time..I can't imagine living a life different from the one I live now. Hannah's wish list for the summer included: dumping buckets of water on each other, bubbles, the park, making a hat and a crown, riding her bike, painting all over her whole body (we did that a couple summers ago), going to grandma's house, and fishing.

Ah, summer! I love summer!!

(okay - was going to go back and add some photos..blogger is being crazy. Maybe they'll get added later. But I'm going to post anyway)