Disney Part 1

This time of year is always busiest for our family. It might be because we have 6 birthdays, Easter and Mother's Day between April and June. It's all I can do to keep up with one event at a time! So needless to say I'm a little behind on the blogging. I'm going to try to start playing catch-up over the next few days.

So, starting with our Disney trip! We wanted to take advantage of Caroline being free before she turned 3, so we headed up to Mickey land at the end of March, right at the beginning of Spring Break.

We got up there, put on our awesome magic bands, and checked into our hotel. We discovered that the All Star Music resort offers family suites. It was great! We had a bedroom, living room with two pull-out beds, a kitchenette, and two bathrooms. It was so nice to have some space and to be able to spread the kids out for bed time. After we checked in we let the kids pick out a souvenir from the hotel gift shop and explored the grounds before it was time for bed. I, unfortunately, had strep throat and was only on my first day of antibiotics so I was pretty worn out and went to sleep with Lily. Thankfully my fever broke that night and I felt much better for our first day in the Magic Kingdom.

Our goal was to get to the park when it opened to beat the crowds. Thankfully our kids never sleep in. Once all the munchkins woke up we ate a quick breakfast in the room, and then I started hostage negotiations with Caroline to get her to put on her Minnie Mouse outfit. We gathered up the necessary supplies (autograph book, mouse ears, Pluto, magic bands, enough snacks to feed my small army, and sunscreen) and headed to the bus. Lots of other people had the same idea we did, and we ended up all standing in the aisle for the drive over to the Magic Kingdom. Poor Brian had to hold Lily and I'm pretty sure he thought his arm was going to fall off. She is a chunk! We lugged our kids and stroller off the bus and headed to the entrance. While we were walking in we saw some friends from home - crazy timing! The kids' first priority was to see Pluto, but since he wasn't at the entrance yet we went straight back to Fantasyland. We were able to go on several rides quickly with no lines. Unfortunately our kids aren't fans of the dark, so I spent most rides convincing whichever kid was next to me that the ride was fun, exciting, and not at all scary! We also quickly learned that Matthew is still afraid of characters (except Pluto apparently) and Caroline is shy around the princesses. She didn't want to get close to Belle for a picture, and Matthew literally crouched in the fetal position and hid his face the entire time we were in Enchanted Tales with Belle. The favorite ride of the morning was definitely Dumbo.

Since the kids had already eaten multiple snacks by 10am, we decided to get an early lunch at Belle's castle. There was a deceptively short line outside which moved at an incredibly slow wait. We finally made it inside.... and waited again. By the time we were able to order our food all three kids were hungry and tired and hot and it was not pretty. Then we found a table and waited for them to somehow magically bring us our food. They must be utilizing the GPS in the magic bands to find people, because the servers brought food directly to the correct table with a sideways glance at all the hungry people staring at them. We quickly ate and felt much better. Then it was time to split up and use our fast passes! I took Caroline and Lily to meet Rapunzel, and Brian and Matthew went on the Barnstormer. Matthew LOVED it! Caroline did not. She talked to Rapunzel and gave her the autograph book, but wouldn't budge from the line or take a picture with her. So Lily and I did! We also went on to meet Snow White because Caroline wanted nothing to do with that either. Our next fast pass was to meet Cinderella, so I quickly nixed that idea and changed it to the race cars with Brian and Matthew's.

We met up with the boys and stopped to see Minnie and Daisy. Surprisingly Caroline was a little braver around them. I have no idea why characters that look like people freak her out, but giant mice and ducks don't. After getting some more autographs and pictures we previewed the teen years with the Tomorrowland race cars. Matthew apparently drove pretty well with Brian. I rode with Caroline and let her steer. I'm pretty sure we didn't go straight the entire time. It's amazing I didn't hurl. At this point it was getting pretty hot and everyone was tired so we decided to make our way back to the front of the park. This time Pluto was there! Of course we had to wait in line to see him. Both kids were beside themselves with excitement! We got some Mickey ice cream while waiting in line. Poor Caroline dropped hers after only a few bites, but that sweet girl said "It's ok Mommy, I don't need it." You can tell by her mouth that she definitely enjoyed what she had! When it was our turn to see Pluto they both ran up and hugged him! You can't see Caroline in the first few pictures we took because she was behind Pluto hugging his leg. Their ear-to-ear grins were just precious. Definitely the highlight of their day!

We left the Magic Kingdom and went back to our hotel for a bit to rest. All three kids took a nap, and I did too! Then we went back into the park for dinner. We decided to take the monorail this time, because that's pretty much all Matthew talked about doing all day. Not such a smart idea. We drove to the Polynesian to park, but they were under construction and didn't allow us in. So we headed over to the Contemporary. We parked there and then got on the monorail. The Contemporary is only one stop from the Magic Kingdom if you get on it going the right way. We didn't. So we had to make two other stops. Normally not a big deal. But this time, we got to the first stop and they were having technical difficulties with the train GPS. Not sure why you need GPS on a vehicle that moves on a single one-way track. So we had to wait 15 minutes for them to change a part. Then we got to the next stop and they had more problems. This time they had to shut the power off to reboot the computer. Joy. We finally made it to the park, and we were all so hungry that we went straight to find dinner. Once everyone's bellies were full we went back to Fantasyland for some more rides. Since the lines were shorter Matthew and I rode the Barnstormer together and Brian took the girls on Dumbo. We also rode the carousel again, the tea cups, and another round of Dumbo. By then we were spent and went back to the hotel for the night.

Letter to Lily

Dear Lily,

Today you will be having surgery to close your lip and gum line. Many people would say to repair or to fix your lip, but I don't think your lip was ever broken. I think you are perfect just the way you are. Yes, I know that closing your cleft will allow you to have correct speech and language development, enable you to eat better, get rid of your constant congestion, and allow you to live a "normal" life where people don't stare at you and ask questions. And for all of these reasons we are closing your cleft. I just want you to always know that you are perfect just the way you are right now. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God doesn't make mistakes, and there was a reason He created you with a cleft. I view your cleft lip and palate as gift, because without it I don't know if we would have you.

Later today your face will look different. You will still be beautiful, of course, but you will look different. I will never again see your adorable wide smile, watch you stick your tongue in your cleft when you are laughing or concentrating, or watch yogurt stream down your chin because it won't stay in your mouth. Ok, so maybe I won't miss cleaning up that one as much, but it's still pretty funny and cute. I am thankful for all the pictures I have of you in the three months that you've been in our arms. In fact, I made sure to have family pictures taken before your first surgery so we could capture you just as you are now. I tell you this because I want you to be proud of your story. I want you to know that you are beautiful not because of what you look like on the outside but because of who you are on the inside. I want you to know that you are loved. Not because of how you look or what you do, but because you are our daughter. I love you sweet Lily!

Love,
Mommy

Lily's Baby Dedication

While we were waiting and waiting to bring Lily home, something that I dreamed about was the day when we would have her baby dedication at church. On more than one occasion while I was sitting in church tears came to my eyes just thinking about that day. The day we would finally have the gift God had given us in our arms. The day that we had fought and prayed and hoped for. And the day we would take the precious gift God had given us, turn around, and give her back to Him.

One of the many reasons we wanted to adopt from China was because Christianity is illegal there, and we knew that the chance an orphan would hear about the gospel was very slim. We wanted to not only give a child a hope and future here on earth, but an eternal hope and future as well. By dedicating Lily to God, we are vowing to raise her in the Christian faith, teach her His word in the Bible, and raise her to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

One of the things that I love about baby dedications at our church, is that each baby has a verse selected for them based on the meaning of their name that is prayed over them and framed as a keepsake. Lily's name means pure, innocent, beautiful, and her verse is Phillipians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

After Pastor Steve presents Lily with her verse and asks us a few questions about our intentions to dedicate her to God, he and Kristin and the entire church pray for Lily and for us. We were so blessed to have many friends and family members there to share in this moment with us, and we really appreciate all of you! It meant so much to share this special day with you. It was so neat to finally be standing there, in front of our friends and family, with this precious child, and see a prayer answered and a dream come true.

"Big Girl" Syndrome

The past few weeks Caroline has really been into being a "big girl." I don't know if it was the new big girl bed that we got her or the fact that she sees Lily as little, but she is obsessed! In fact, she is so concerned about being a big girl that she cried at school last week because she wanted to go to the big girl (3 year old) class. No, she's not 3 yet, but she apparently thinks she is since she recently told me that she's almost 4. What?! Slow down little girl! Thankfully our preschool is wonderful and let her go up to the 3's class. She of course loves it! Here are some recent pictures of our sweet "big girl".

 Borrowing Matthew's rain boots

We match! Yes, I did bribe her so she would get dressed. She's very picky about her clothes and only wants to wear the same 4 t-shirts. Desperate times people!

 I'm a princess girl!

 Last night in her crib! I don't know how she fit in there with all that stuff.

 So excited about her new bed! She has to line up all of her animals every night before she goes to sleep.

She loves running super fast!

Much Overdue Lily Medical Update

I have been meaning to sit down and give an update on Lily's surgery and progress since it happened last Monday, and I just haven't found the time! And it has taken me three different occasions to finish this post. So here goes:

Monday we woke up bright and early and headed up to All Children's with Lily. We got her all checked in and were quickly called back to the pre-op area. We had a quick visit with the RN, anesthesiologist, OR team, and Dr. Ruas. Then we waited for our turn. And we waited. And we waited some more. Turns out our surgeon works faster than the hospital's sterilization machine so they bumped a few surgeries in front of us while they waited for the machine to finish. Lily was a trooper, even though she wasn't allowed to eat since the night before. It helped that Brian found these mobile stairs they use for rehab and let her climb up and down them over and over again. Finally it was our turn and they took her back.

She always cries when we hand her off to the nurses, then they take her down the hall and use the mask to make her sleepy. Then they put in her IV and start the surgery. This surgery was a rather quick procedure (the lip and gum line repair will be much longer) so we waited in Dr. Ruas's conference room. He came out about 20-30 minutes later to let us know that everything had gone well. Then we had to wait another 30 minutes or so while Lily was in recovery so we decided to head down to the cafeteria to get some food. All Children's has these beepers like you'd get in a restaurant that they use to tell you your child is out of recovery. Ours went off right after we went back upstairs to the surgery waiting room. We were led back to the post-op area and found our sweet Lily asleep in a nurse's arms. She handed her off to me and I just sat and held her while they monitored her. Apparently she was super mad when she woke up and nothing would calm her down so they gave her some morphine.

After her vitals were registering consistently for about 10 minutes it was time for us to head up to our room for the night. Since Lily was still asleep I was able to carry her up instead of putting her back on the stretcher. We continued our peaceful cuddling time for another half hour or so, and then little miss Lily woke up! At first she was pretty groggy and just kept looking at us sleepily. Unfortunately this was quickly replaced with lots of screaming when she realized that her arms were restrained with no-no's. For those of you unfamiliar with these lovely things, they are hard plastic tubes covered in fabric that Velcro around her arms and attached together with a strap behind her shoulders and back. Considering how much she hates her carseat and ergo carrier, I knew we were going to be in trouble with these things.

 

The next several hours are kind of a blur. They were filled with lots of screaming, lots of crying, us trying every trick in the book to calm Lily down, and finally ended with some additional morphine. She finally was able to settle down and sleep a bit longer, but not much. We finally realized that maybe she was hungry and needed to eat something. We had asked Dr. Ruas immediately after the surgery if she needed to eat anything different, and he told us that we shouldn't have to change her diet too much. Then the nutritionist came in and told us that Lily would need to be on a full liquid diet until her next surgery. That pretty much left us with options of oatmeal and chicken broth for a month. Have you seen this girl eat? I don't think so! The SLP said soft foods, and the nurses were on team liquids. Thankfully our nurse realized that Lily was much older than most CLP kids, and since she had done well drinking water she got us some pudding to try. Lily really enjoyed that chocolate pudding, and started to act more like herself. It was also at this point that we decided to take her no-no's off. The combination worked, and she was finally playing and smiling again! She was definitely still more clingy than normal and I was anticipating a long night with her sleeping on me.

 

Brian snuck off the cafeteria to get us some dinner, and we took turns eating across the room from her so that she wouldn't get upset about not being able to share our pizza. I was pretty exhausted from holding a screaming toddler most of the day, so around 7:30 I lay down on my "bed" for a few minutes to rest before I had to hold Lily and sleep. The next thing I knew it was midnight, Lily was asleep in her crib, and Brian was asleep on the couch. Score! Lily was stirring because it was time for her next dose of pain medicine so we called the nurse in. She took it well, but then wanted to snuggle with me. She slept on me for about 30 minutes and then I put her back in the crib. The pattern repeated every 4 hours when her pain medicine wore off. A much better outcome than I expected!

Since we would be discharged in the morning, Brian left early to go to work so he wouldn't have to miss a surgery day. I was excited because I planned to get up with him around 6:30 and then have an hour to myself before Lily woke up. As he was about to walk out the door, the resident who works with Dr. Ruas came in to check on Lily. Much to my dismay, she flipped on all the lights and then went over and opened Lily's mouth. So much for some alone time. Lily was mad, and nothing I could do would calm her down. She was awake too early, tired, hungry, still with an IV in her foot, and in a strange place. Finally I decided to take her down to the playroom on the floor. She wouldn't leave my lap, but at least she wasn't crying. She played on me for about 15 minutes and then ventured away. She discovered a shopping cart and disappeared into the hallway. I knew that a shift change was about to happen and I wanted to let the nurse know that we wanted to be discharged ASAP so I coaxed Lily and the shopping cart down the hall back to our room. Sure enough the nurses were in there, and after reporting what the resident told me said that we could be discharged sometime this morning.

We went back to the playroom until it was time for Lily's next dose of pain medicine. Then it was all I could do to keep her entertained while we waited to be discharged. And waited. And waited. Thankfully she found it great fun to climb in and out of the stroller they had brought us and fasten the seatbelt. Finally at 11:00 they told us we could leave! They took Lily's IV out, had our prescription ready at the pharmacy, and off we went. Lily was obviously exhausted, and any time she is even a tiny bit tired or hungry in the car she cries. So I knew this was going to be a fun ride. Sure enough, she was not happy to be strapped in, especially with her no-no's. She started crying in the garage and didn't stop. And lucky me, there were two accidents on the Skyway so it was bumper to bumper traffic literally from the toll plaza to the base of the steep incline. A 35 minute trip took over an hour, with her screaming almost the entire way. I had to stop by Rowlett first to get the minivan from my dad, then head straight over to the preschool to get Matthew and Caroline. We finally made it home around 1:30. Hallelujah!

 

  

Lily's Cleft Appointment

On Friday we took Lily up to All Children's for her first appointment with the cleft team. I was a little worried about how she would do because the appointment was at 12:45, which is - you guessed it - right in the middle of nap time. Add a few strange doctors shoving things in her ears and mouth, and I was expecting a total disaster. We fed her an early lunch and prayed that she would sleep in the car on the way there. She slept for about 20 minutes, then woke up crying because her poor neck was at all sorts of strange angles and her head kept hanging forward. I remembered a little too late that I could tilt her carseat back a little. (FYI she is normally not so uncomfortable, but we moved her to the Jeep and the seats are super straight up. I swear we aren't bad parents ;o)

Anyway, we got there and signed her in, she got weighed and measured, then we headed back to the room where we would see 8 different specialists. The audiologist came in first and took us back to a soundproof room to do Lily's hearing test. I went in with her and had to keep her sitting on my lap and facing forward. The wall in front of us had three sets of speakers - to the left, right and center - and positioned around the speaker were robotic or mechanical animals in boxes. There was a dog right in front of us that would bark and walk, but obviously couldn't go anywhere because it was in a clear box. That one was great for getting Lily's attention when she started squirming. To the right was a monkey playing drums, and I'm not sure what was to the left because I was instructed not to look around and influence where she looked. The audiologist would play sounds of varying volumes in the different speakers to get Lily to look at them, and then activate the animal to keep her interest. She did pretty well with most of the sounds, but there were definitely several that I heard that she didn't even react to. Oh, did I forget to mention that she finished amoxicillin the day before for a double ear infection? So basically the hearing test was kind of pointless. The audiologist said that she might have hearing loss, or she might not, it was hard to tell since she still had fluid in her ears. She recommended another hearing test in 2 months. The ENT that we saw a bit later was more encouraging. She said that her hearing test was right on target for fluid in the ears, and that when the fluid was gone she would probably have normal hearing. However, the fluid might not clear out on its own which is very common in cleft kids. Then she would require tubes. Apparently about 90% of kids with clefts require tubes. She's going to check Lily's ears again at one of her upcoming visits, and if the fluid is still there then she'll have tubes put in during surgery.

After the audiologist we saw the speech pathologist. She was impressed that Lily was comprehending many English words and that she has learned a few signs. She encouraged us to teach her more signs to help her communicate until she's able to talk and showed us a few strategies for teaching them to her. Then the social worker came in and talked to us about what to expect during our hospital stays. After that was the ENT, along with our surgeon Dr. Ruas. They examined Lily's cleft and talked a bit about what approach they would use. Dr. Ruas was hopeful that Lily would be a candidate for using braces to start closing her gum line which would enable her to have one surgery instead of two. Unfortunately when the orthodontist got there and looked in her mouth (Lily was NOT a fan of this or of him as a result) he didn't feel that he could do it with only one tooth on her left side. So that means that we will be having two separate surgeries - one for the lip and gum line and another several months later for the palate.

Next a pediatrician came in. She examined Lily briefly and asked us if we had any concerns. We didn't, but she promised to send us a developmental checklist for 18 months so we could see if Lily was on target. We also saw a pediatric dentist who thought that Lily would only be missing one tooth. He told us that if the baby tooth is missing the permanent one will be too. Last was the nurse who coordinates everything. She told us that she would be calling us in a few days to schedule our appointments.

All in all we were there from 1:00 to 3:30 and Lily did amazing! The only times she got upset were when someone was examining her. The rest of the time she was wandering around the room laughing and entertaining us. I think she was loving having two parents all to herself! She is definitely a brave little girl.

So, for those of you who want to know, here's what our upcoming process looks like.

Next Monday we will be heading up to All Children's to have impressions and photographs done of Lily's mouth. These impressions will be used to make the Latham device that will close her gum line. We have to be there at 6am, yikes! And she has to be put under which of course makes me a little nervous.

Then a week later we go back to All Children's and Dr. Ruas will put the Latham device in her mouth. The nurse told us to expect an overnight stay, which I was surprised about. I guess Lily will have to drink before they let us leave, and she will be pretty uncomfortable.

A month after that on March 3rd we go back to All Children's again for surgery to close her lip and gum line. This will be a more major surgery, and we will be in the hospital for several days.

After that she will need several months for the lip to heal completely before they close her palate. I will be glad for the break from surgeries for a bit! While the next few weeks will be busy, at least we will have this part of our journey behind us soon. We would really appreciate your prayers during this time. For Lily, that her pain would not be too unbearable and that she would feel safe with us by her side during this scary time. For us that we would be wise in making decisions and not too nervous! Also that we would be patient during her recovery. And also for Matthew and Caroline, who will be very excited to be spending extra time with Baba, but will probably struggle with the extra attention that Lily will be getting.

I've started drinking coffee

I've started drinking coffee. This has become my new answer when people ask me how things are going with three kids. Yes, it's true, the girl who doesn't like coffee has started drinking it. There's just something about three kids 4 and under that just sucks the energy right out of you! That and the fact that my parents conveniently bought us a Keurig for Christmas. They bought it for the hot chocolate and tea, but it came with coffee so I figured why not?! If you know me, you know that I can nap pretty much any time any where and I'm a huge fan of sleep. But now that Matthew doesn't nap every day and my amount of free time has almost disappeared, I was desperate. So coffee it is. It's not so bad.

Ok, so you probably want the real answer to that question. How are things going? How is Lily adjusting? What about Matthew and Caroline? What's it like with 3? Here is my attempt to answer you as accurately and honestly as possible.

How are things going and what's it like with 3 kids?
Amazing, exhausting, exhilarating, tough, crazy, exhausting, fun, entertaining, and exhausting. Yes, I did mean to include exhausting three times. Did you not just read about Ms. I Hate Coffee turning to the dark side? After the first two weeks home when I was thrown right into the fire with all three kids by myself and Brian working lots of hours and Saturday to make up for when we were gone, things have greatly improved. Brian took off almost two weeks over Christmas and New Year's and we really started to get the hang of things. Every day gets better and better as we figure out how to juggle three. And now we usually have all three kids in shoes when we arrive places! Bonus!

How is Lily adjusting?
Remarkably well. She has really lit up and let her personality come out. Brian took over most of the bottle feeding and bedtime responsibility when he was home, and she has really bonded with him. Now when he comes home she lights up and walks as fast as she can to the door with her arms up. So adorable! She also has said Dada a few times. I mean, super cute, but seriously why do they always say Dada first? I'm the one you slept on for two weeks! So back to Lily. I know that she was in an orphanage for the first 16 months of her life, but I honestly don't see any delays aside from her speech. She has great social interaction with her siblings and other adults, walks everywhere, attempts to climb on everyone, mimics sounds and actions, plays with all her toys appropriately, and seriously loves the fetch game. I don't know a toddler who doesn't find throwing objects on the floor and having an adult retrieve them to be the most entertaining game ever. Too bad for her this is not my first rodeo and I give her two throws before the object goes away.

As for sleeping, I am happy to report that she is now sleeping in her own crib!!! Considering that only a few weeks ago she would only sleep on me, I find this to be pretty miraculous! It all started when she fell out of our bed. Brian had put her to sleep in our bed, and we were out in the kitchen when we heard her cry. We decided to wait for a second to see if she would stop before going in there and she did. Great! A few hours later we go in the bedroom to go to sleep and find her asleep on the floor. Apparently that crying we heard was after she tumbled, but it appeared that Cajun broke her fall because she was laying half on him. Me being the amazing Mom of the Year candidate that I am, said, why don't we just leave here there? She's happy and then we can actually sleep in the bed without getting kicked in the face repeatedly! Brian, the more rational and obviously more compassionate parent, suggests that instead of that why don't we move her into the pack and play.Yes! Genius! So begins the process of getting her out of our bed. For a few days we'd put her to sleep in our bed then move her to the pack and play when we went to bed. When she was waking up happily in there we decided to try putting her to bed in the pack and play. As long as we were laying on our bed next to her she was fine. A few days later she was waking up a lot and getting mad because she was rolling into the edge of her bed. So we decided to move her to her crib in the same way. It worked! And we all finally slept soundly all night! Until last Friday. Then she got sick and was up multiple times a night. I'll tell you about that in a minute. But the last two days we've been putting her to bed in her crib successfully!

We took Lily to the pediatrician the second week we were home. As I'm driving there I realize, she's afraid of men and this pediatrician is a man! This is going to be amazing! Thankfully she was fine. She loves being in her diaper, so within minutes of being there she was quite the happy camper. She just walked all around the room playing with all the toys I brought her and then chucking them. The doctor was great with her too, and didn't have any health concerns aside from her speech. She weighed 23 pounds 13 ounces, and had gained almost a pound in 3 weeks! Then she got a few shots, poor baby. The first one she just kind of looked at me, then when she got the second one she cried but stopped as soon as I picked her up. She's so tough!

The last little Lily update is that she is currently on antibiotics for an ear infection :o( Starting on Friday night she was sleeping terribly, waking up crying almost every hour. She was also super cranky and irritable during the day Saturday. I thought it was just because she was tired, but the terrible sleeping and crankiness continued into Saturday night and Sunday. I have only experienced one other ear infection with my kids - Matthew had one when he was a baby - but she was having the same symptoms he did minus the fever. She had been congested, so I knew it was possible and ear infections are one of the complications of a cleft palate. Then Sunday afternoon she got a fever and I knew that's what it was. The poor thing was burning up even with Tylenol. First thing Monday morning I called the doctor and took her in. Fluid in both ears! Not that I want her to be in pain, but I was so glad that there was a reason for the awful sleep and crankiness. I don't know how much longer I could have survived with her that way! I missed my smiley girl! Oh, and side note, she's gained another pound. A pound in 2 1/2 weeks this time! Soon she's going to be sharing clothes with Caroline!

How are Matthew and Caroline adjusting?
They treat Lily like any normal siblings treat each other. They love her and are so sweet to her, and then they shove her down and yell at her. We are working on that second part. It didn't help that we just had Christmas and they have new toys that they aren't too keen on sharing. Now they are in such a habit of saying "No Lily" that it's their first response when she comes close to them. Something else we are working on...

It's been really fun to watch Matthew and Caroline bond with their new sister. When we were in China it took Matthew a few days to warm up to her, but then when he realized he could make her laugh he realized she wasn't so bad. He does a great job of showing her how to play with toys or how to do different things. I love listening to him explain things to her and get excited when she does them. He could do without her crying in the car though - he says that it makes him feel tired. Me too buddy! Caroline is like Elmyra from Tiny Toons. She LOVES her sister, but maybe a little too much sometimes. She really wants to help her up when she falls and give her hugs, but Lily's not such a big fan of either of those. My favorite thing is when Lily is crying and Caroline goes and brings her a toy to help her feel better. She also talks just like I do and says "It's ok cutie, don't cry sweetie, here you go Lily-boo".

What's next medically?
We will be traveling up to Tampa to meet with our cleft palate team next Friday the 17th. We will be meeting with and having Lily examined by 8 different specialists! Speech and language pathology, audiology, developmental pediatrics, plastic/craniofacial surgery, pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, psychology, and social work. This is why we are so thankful that there is a team near us. Otherwise we would be visiting all of the different places separately. While Friday will be a very long day, it will totally be worth it!

And here's what I know you all read these posts for. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks: