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!

Ethan Update

Ethan is doing really well. He says MINE but it comes out "MI" and he is attempting a lot of other words like milk, ball, yellow. Although his cleft palate is repaired, it is definitely not functioning 100% and air escapes through his nose, so many sounds do not come out as intended. Melissa is his new ST and she sees him 1x/wk. He is much more willing to work on speech lately, he was just so motor for the first year that it was tough to get him to focus.

We made an appt with the cleft clinic in Boston but they just rescheduled it into December. I am anxious to hear what their insight might be as far as future procedures. I am pretty certain that he won't have surgery until he is 3-4 but I could be wrong.

The best news about Ethan is that after 14 months at home he is sleeping! After we had been here a couple of months we decided to stop going into his room at night when he whined (which he did off and on all night). It seems to have worked and now he sleeps until about 7am! It is so nice!!!! There was a point when I was going to email everyone I knew for help! You would think that after the 3rd child I would know what I was doing but obviously not! Ok, hope everyone is well, talk to you soon.

Fall pictures

Hello everyone, hope you are having a wonderful fall. With the failing economy I know that it has been one filled with anxiety as well. I started working per diem as a RN and I feel lucky to have my little job.

We enjoyed the fall colors here in NH but I honestly think the fall is more dramatic in NW PA, the hills are so beautiful in Warren. We have a great view from our back porch though and soon we hope the kids will be sled riding back there (not that I am wishing for winter!).

Hallween night was fun because we had company! The first time in the new house, one of my high school best friends Sara came up from Cape Cod with her son and husband. It was so wonderful to catch up on our lives, we hadn't seen eachother in over 10 years. The next day was Patrick's 40th birthday and they helped us celebrate.

A day in Boston

Ethan happy as always!

We decided to take the kids to the Boston Acquarium last Sunday. The kids enjoyed it, a new experience. We also walked along the Harborfront and found an art festival.