Standing Tall

Henry has to wear the restraints for another week. The small hole in his mouth (about a centimeter in length, starting with an eraser sized hole, then tapering off...picture a comma) is slightly smaller, but not strong enough to withstand a finger in it. So, one more week of restraints. I don't think he minds. In fact, I think he's come to terms that he may have to wear them forever. He as learned to crawl, roll and now pull himself up to standing.
Today, Owen was drawing, and Henry was "helping" by handing him markers. After a bit, Owen decided it was time to play with chalk on the other side.

A very serious artist.

Does this count as playing together?

While the restraints are getting grosser and grosser with food, snot, goo... I think Henry's getting cuter and cuter. This is him waking up from a nap.

First Beach Trip of 2011

Today, we took our first trip to the beach of 2011. We went with Robert and Michelle, and their girls Paige and Presley. We journeyed to Cannon Beach. It was a perfect day; not too hot nor cold, not too windy, not too busy, and most importantly all four kids were in great moods. We, mostly meaning Lucas, took 165 pictures. I'm not joking. So, I did edit quite a few pictures out, but I'm also posting a lot. Part of a perfect day is that everyone is photogenic, including all the birds. Me and Henry. He had such a great time! I can't wait until he's out of restraints and can crawl around a bit... I bet he can't wait either!

Me and Owen being jumbo jets on the beach. We only had one crash.

Owen and I were the only ones to dip our feet in the very COLD water. He loved it. His feet were bright red and he wanted to stay in much longer than my feet would let us.

Lucas took some amazing pictures of the seagulls.

We bought a loaf of Wonder Bread to feed the birds. Owen loved screaming like a seagull, throwing the bread, and then screaming again when the birds got close. He had such a great time!

Owen ran and ran and ran.

An amazing family photo! Even Owen has his "smile face" on. (is it too early to use this as this year's holiday cards?)

Self-portrait.

I think this picture looks just like Lucas when he was about this age.

Michelle and Paige.

Robert and Presley.

Silly Henry.

I love this little guy!

Owen found a BIG stick, and started to draw in the sand with it. He drew the big "apple" on the bottom left of the photo.

Last picture at the beach. "sand on face mommy!" He had such a good time, we all did.

He even finally fell asleep in the car.

OMSI

We took Allie, Kaiya and the boys to OMSI while they were in town. We all had a great time.
Here's Kaiya playing with a ball floating on an air blower. Henry playing in sand. He had such a fun time.

Owen, very seriously, steering a crane.

Happy, drooly, Henry. It's so nice to see him smiley again!

Yep, that's Lucas with all three kids...

Owen eating some artichoke.

A better picture of Lucas and two of the three kids.

After such a busy morning, Henry took a nap. He's learned how to roll over while in restraints!

Happy Boys

We took a lot of pictures this week. Lots of happy cute boys... Owen and firetruck in the "time tunnel" Owen playing with MiMi's necklace.

Happy Henry

Time tunnel with Penguin.

and one pensive Owen.

Allie and Henry

Allie and Kaiya came into town for the past week. It was nice having extra family in town to help with Henry during his recovery, and it's always nice to spend time with Allie. Overall, I don't think Henry and Kaiya got along. I think Henry has a bigger "personal boundary bubble" than Kaiya likes to give him. She loves going in for hugs and kisses, and Henry wasn't so sure about them... Kaiya kept trying though... They did play together quite a bit without tears, but there were a lot of tears.

Allie was quite good at feeding Henry. He would eat a lot for her!

He really likes his Aunt Allie.

Note the close personal space. This picture is about .25 seconds before the tears.

Sigh...

Some facts about Henry: he's the one in 8,500 kids who has Pierre-Robin. He's the 1% who almost didn't need tubes in his ears during cleft palate surgery. Both the surgeon and pediatrician in the past week have used this analogy: "you know the Bell curve? Henry is the kid on the far right side..." Knowing all this, we shouldn'thave been too surprised that he's one in a lot that developed a hole in his brand new palate.

On Tuesday, we had our routine two week post-op check. Dr. Waldorf noticed a small hole in the middle of his palate. It only went though one of the two layers of repair, and she wasn't too worried. Our instructions: don't worry, keep the restraints on another week and continue the soft foods. (the last two were easy to comply with)

Last night, Henry was more cranky than normal. Lucas and I looked in his mouth and the hole was a lot bigger. Panic set in. We also noticed the "cleft palate breathing" again. The sound of air escaping from his palate through his nose. More panic, more expletives. We called the doctor, and were told to come in first thing this morning.

So, this morning we went to the doctor. She is so nice and reassuring. Yes, the small hole is bigger, and yes it goes all the way through. BUT, she is happy that the muscle portion of the repair is intact, and this is the functional part of the palate (for speech). She drew a picture of the incision. Picture a straight line in the middle of your mouth. The hole is in the middle of this line. Almost under the nose. Her hope, is that this hole will heal by itself in the next 6-12 months. Best case scenario: no surgery. Worse case: surgery to close the hole. Middle case: he keeps a small hole and is the kids that can squirt chocolate milk out his nose.

Sigh... Henry better take good care of us when we're old... he has caused us a lot of stress. Good thing he's cute! Lucas has taken to dealing with the stress by reading cookbooks in small enclosures.

Our next post-op appointment is next Wednesday. Hopefully we don't have to see her before.