New development

I went to see the plastic surgeon, Dr. Meara yesterday and he decided it was time to revise Ethan's palate. He is leaking a lot of air which is affecting his speech and he gets a lot of fluids through his nose. So it is scheduled for June 8th. It is good thing for Ethan, I just was not expecting another surgery so soon. I hope all goes well and I will post afterwards. There will other procedures down the road, the focus now is to give him the best opportunity to speak correctly.

Spring is here!

Wishing all the moms out there a happy mother's day! Liam wrote a great story about his mom, mentioning more than once that his mom's favorite thing to do is sleep in! How well they know me.



Now that spring is here we are enjoying the warm weather and spending a lot of time outside. We also decided it was time to start potty training Ethan! Not fun, not something I enjoy and although we have some good days with no accidents we also have some really bad days. Hopefully by the time he starts preschool in Sept, he will mostly trained.






Ethan's vocabulary is really expanding rapidly. The downside is that he can not say most consonant sounds, so it is difficult to understand him. We took him to an appt at Boston Children's Hospital last week. They tested his speech and the therapist recommended that he receive speech therapy 2-3 times a week and right now he only sees the therapist once a week. So I was on the phone all week trying to find another therapist, no luck so far, hoping this week goes better. Other than the speech therapy, everything is the same, no surgery until he is 4-5 yrs old.

Liam is busy with school and travel soccer. We are talking about a trip to Vietnam, that would be a wonderful thing if we can figure out how to do it with Ethan being so busy. It might be a trip for Patrick and Liam this time around, I will keep everyone updated. Nyla is busy with rec soccer, school and ballet. She is learning to read and is sooooooo excited to start first grade in September. Hope everyone is well and I will post again soon.

I am sorry for the long delay in posting. Life has been busy. The best part of vacationing in Florida for winter break was getting out of our daily routine. The kids had a great time at the Disney parks and were much braver than I thought they would be on some of the scary rides.

Ethan is doing well, yet speech remains a big issue for him. The only sounds he can say are the vowel sounds and m, h, w. He continues to work with a speech therapist one day a week and he will transition over the summer to the 3 yrs+ program. I am hoping that he will qualify for services 2-3 days a week, he has a lot of catching up to do and it isn't happening quickly. My big question is whether another surgery would help or is therapy the answer. I am hoping that we will get some answers at his next appointment. That is not until May, so until then we are going to sit tight and wait.

Hope everyone is well and I will write again when we know more!

Ethan in action

Ethan proudly shows his creation. He was left unattended for a few minutes and decided to mix fruit loops with butter spread (an entire container) into his cup of milk, yummmm.

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone and happy holidays!!! We are having a wonderful Christmas at home. My sister's family and parents made it safely here after an ice storm and 2 snow storms in a week! The weather has improved significantly and we hope they have a safe journey home! We have all enjoyed having company for our first Christmas in NH.

We are doing well and Ethan is in the full swing of terrible 2's. He had tubes placed in his ears a little over a week ago and had no problems after the surgery. The right ear was pretty plugged with fluid, I hope this will help with his speech in the months to come. He is trying to communicate with both signs and verbally. Ethan is truly a remarkable boy, full of spunk and mischief. Sometimes you just have to laugh even when he is being bad and knows it!

Happy Holidays to everyone from the Nguyens!

Ice storm pictures

The ice storm that hit New England 12/18 knocked out power to over 400,000 homes and businesses. We were very lucky to only lose power for one day, most lost power for up to a week. We are thankful that most have power now on Christmas Day.


The view of our backyard trees weighed down by ice after the storm.

Terrible 2's

Well, we had about 3 weeks of sleep, then Liam decided to teach Ethan how to jump out of the crib! We had a few bad nights and we finally convinced Ethan to sleep on a crib mattress on the floor of his room, but he was still waking up. Then he decided he wanted to sleep in a big bed. So sometimes he sleeps with Liam and sometimes alone with a bed rail but at least he is sleeping better.

Ethan's energy and strong will are making some of our days very long and exhausting. If anyone has any advice I am open for comments or just reassurance that one day I will not be chasing a 2 year old for 10 hours each day.

In a couple of weeks Ethan is going to have a new set of tubes put in his ears. They will hopefully last a year or two. I am hoping that helps with the shouting - which he does a lot!

I also brought Ethan for an appt with the plastic surgeon at Boston Children's last week. They took a 3D image of his face and want us to meet the whole Cleft-Craniofacial team in the spring. He doesn't plan on any surgeries unless we feel it is necessary for his speech and even then it would be just a touch up on his palate to reduce air escaping from his mouth (which makes it more difficult to produce certain sounds). Because his face with change a lot as he grows, they basically feel it is better to wait until 5-7 yrs of age to do some of the procedure he requires (nose, lip, gum line).

Overall, Ethan has come a long way. He is very tall and tough, pretty soon I think we will weigh more than Nyla. He is also very affectionate, giving lots of kisses and hugs. Although he occationally hits when not getting his way or to provoke his siblings, he no longer bites which was a big problem after we brought him home. I think once he starts preschool and gets that structure in his day, he will act out even less.

We had a great time visiting with family and friends over the Thanksgiving break. Warmest wishes to everyone over this holiday season!