Liam's first communion

May 30th, 2009. Liam's First Communion celebration, it was a special day for him.







Some photos of our day at the Boston Dragonboat races, June 5th.

Ethan is home

We went into the hospital early yesterday morning for Ethan's palate surgery. When the surgeon got a good look in his mouth, he realized that the repair was more extensive than he had thought. Ethan had a hole in front of his teeth, behind his teeth and his palate needs to be lengthened & repaired. He was concerned about everything healing properly since fistula's are really difficult to repair, so he concentrated on the hole in front of his teeth only. It took less time and when he came out to talk, he said he would do the rest of the repair in 4-6 months time. This upcoming surgery will be more involved and he felt that by splitting them up into stages he will have a better chance of success and good healing.

So Ethan came out of surgery feeling pretty good (the surgeon had numbed everything). He only received a little pain medication, more for aggitation from the anesthesia and then we rested most of the morning in his hospital bed. In the afternoon he started getting very active. He was drinking apple juice, then using the potty, and was very determined to get all the monitors and the IV off. He succeeded in pulling his IV out and luckily they said it could stay out. When he started dancing and jumping around the room we decided to ask if we could go home. Dr. Meara was very nice to let us go, they called to check on him too. We got home just before bedtime, Ethan took him medications and fell into a deep sleep. I was so happy to sleep too after being up since 4:45am.

Today he woke up around the usual time and I haven't needed to give him anything for pain. Just don't attach a monitor to the kid and his fine! Yesterday when I kept asking if anything hurt, he only pointed to the IV and the pulseox light on his toe! He is on a soft blenderized diet and that is the biggest challenge. He wants to eat the same things as the other kids, cookies, cereal - regular food, but had to settle on applesauce. With his first palate surgery he wasn't walking or eating regular food yet, so it was not a huge challenge to feed him. This time is different... and we will be doing it again in a few short months!

I did ask the surgeon if he felt we could hold off on this next surgery (selfishly not wanting to put him through this again so soon). But he had reviewed the findings of the speech therapist and felt that we can't wait if we want him to have the best chance at developing normal speech.

Thanks for checking in on Ethan and I hope everyone is doing well. I will try to post some pictures during nap time. Patrick is off work this morning and giving me a break while I post this.

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!