Dragon Boat Festival

Yesterday was beautiful summer day; perfect for a dragon boat festival ...our local FCC put on a wonderful day for the kids...a dragon boat parade, dragon boat races, hulahoops, bubbles, water balloon tosses, sack races, a perfect playground, and such good food!...we had the best time... that is...except for the minute when Cecelia discovered just what happens with water balloons!!!(see picture number two above)

Enchanted Forest

My class went to Enchanted Forest for our annual end of the year school trip last week...it was so much fun. Enchanted Forest is like an old time kiddy park(opened in 1956) combined with great water rides...there is enough to do that all the ages I teach are quite satisfied to spend the day...a wonderful time was had by all!!

No Surgery for a year!

Cecelia, Amanda, one of my students, and I went to Boston last Monday and Tuesday and met with a speech pathologist and Cecelia's surgeon...the surprise for us was the decision to hold off the next surgery for at least a year...Cecelia's receptive language(that which she understands) is at about 4-5 years while her expressive language is at about 2 years old, this being a combination of her clefting and the fact that she only heard Mandarin for almost two years...Both the pathologist and the surgeon were happy with her progress so far...the bad side of no surgery is that her fistula(hole in the palate) does cause her to lose enough air that she won't be able to say any "plosive" sounds till it is repaired...however, they both feel that her palate tissue is still too sensitive and new from the prior surgeries and that she could run the risk of losing tissue altogether, which we obviously don't want...they also felt that given the fact that she won't be attending school(where she could be made fun of) and also that she is the size of an 18-24 month old, she can get away with speech issues for a long while yet...

so now we are happy to have a leisurely summer to look forward to and to the fact that next summer, at age 4 1/2, her next surgery should be much easier to explain...

Tubbie Pictures and a trip to Boston

Cecelia had a wonderful bubblebath tonight after a stressful week...next week will be even more stressful - we go to Boston on Monday to see a speech pathologist and her surgeon so that together they can decide when and what her next surgery will be...we have talked to Cecelia more this time about her cleft and what needs to be done to fix it...and she really gets it...she has shown some anxiety which has come out in other ways...but i really feel it is directly related to her better understanding of her cleft...she is one of the strongest little girls I know and she WILL triumph!!!

Time with Friends

Last weekend, our good, good friends, Betty and Paul, invited us to stay with them for a few days at their timeshare in Cape Cod...it was a perfect time...

and we miss them...

Summer is almost here!!!

Summer is supposedly almost here, but you would never know that by the weather we are having..it is so cold!!! sweatshirt and jeans weather!!! Here are a few more pictures of our little sweetie...

Cecelia eats nothing sweet...only green things, red things, orange things, and yellow things...BUT especially the green things(Caesar salad is her favorite, hands down!)...well, I should say nothing sweet unless it is loaded with chocolate...a girl after my own heart!...see picture one!!