The Remainder of the Day

The remainder of Rachel's day consisted of her playing with her new toys, and helping Mommy bake a cake and decorate it for her party tomorrow afternoon. She got birthday phone calls from Gramma and Papa, and birthday mail, and even birthday wishes left here on her blog. For dinner, Rachel chose pizza, so we tried out a Round Table Pizza in the neighboring city. The pizza was good and Rachel enjoyed playing the games, her version of playing the games...we gave her no quarters to actually play, she didn't know the difference. LOL.After dinner, Daddy really went down hill as far as how he felt, he had a fever and body aches and we've cancelled Rachel's party for tomorrow afternoon. The girls and I went to visit Gramma and Papa for the rest of the evening, this way they could see Rachel on her birthday, and give her her presents.

Rachel was supposed to have a Doodlebops party. The Doodlebops are a musical group with a show geared towards preschoolers on The Disney Channel. Rachel was going to greet her guests as Dee Dee Doodle. She wore her costume to show Gramma and Papa. For some reason, she was very careful in opening these packages, she peeled the tape off and handed it to Hannah and plowed right through her gifts. She got an outfit for Nite Nite Bear, a new Fall outfit for church or school, and a bouncy ball that you sit on. Papa blew it up and while her legs are just a little bit too short, she had a lot of fun! It really wasn't that late, but Rachel was tired. She crawled up onto Gramma's couch, covered herself with the sheet, and fell fast asleep, staying that way for the transfer into her carset and out into her bed. She was one tired birthday girlie!

Birthday Morning

"It's my birthday? I'm so excited" says Rachel
upon Hannah wishing her a Happy Birthday. You would have thought it was Hannah's birthday with the way she was up before the rest of the family with her bed made, dressed for school, and hair accessories laid out. LOL. Once everyone else was dressed, Rachel wasted no time in wanting to open up her birthday presents.

Hannah reading the birthday card
from Aunt Kim, Uncle Ed, Ryan, and Abby.
It's a wardrobe for her Snap and Style Doll!!
It's Tinkerbell! After taking Hannah to school, Mommy and Rachel stopped at Starbucks for a birthday apple juice! She didn't want to do anything else, except go home and play with her presents. It was already 90 before 8:00am and I'm glad Rachel didn't take me up on my offer to go to the park and play. We're not sure what the rest of the day entails. With it being a holiday weekend, there is hope of Daddy getting off at 3:00 and then perhaps we could go to Disneyland for the evening!

Let the Birthday Celebration Begin...

We're having a small party Saturday night with the Grandparents and my brother and sister-in-law and nieces, Gramie is not able to come because she's having a yard sale, so Gramie came down this afternoon to take Rachel and Hannah out to dinner for Rachel's birthday.

Rachel chose McDonalds.After dinner, they came back home and Rachel opened her birthday presents from Gramie. She got a new pair of Ariel pajamas for when it gets cold (yeah right!), a set of Strawberry shortcake dishes, and a Veggietales floor puzzle.

'Reading' her birthday card.
Her new strawberry shortcake dishes.

Preschool Countdown

We're still waiting for our informational and welcome packet from Rachel's preschool teacher, but I do know that school starts on Tuesday, September 11th. So today her and I made a countdown to preschool chain!

Appointment with the Audiologist

Surprisingly, Rachel's tympanogram results were better than those in June, while there was still fluid in her ears, it was much less than in June, but still not as good it was last August, when she had tubes still in her ears.

After the tympanogram, the audiologist did a few more tests, some were geared towards kids a little older, but she did good on a couple, and was distracted on another. We see her ENT next week to discuss today's results and whether or not tubes should be placed or just watch and see for now.

Thanks for the prayers for todays appointment!

Ear Infection...Again

Rachel was just not acting herself yesterday. She was whiney (more than usual) and felt warm at times. She woke up in the middle of the night feeling hot again. So this morning, I took her to be seen at Urgent Care. And just as I had suspected, it was her ears. She has the beginnings of an ear infection, and her throat was red and swollen as well. Don't let her somber look fool you to thinking she feels poorly. She was giggling and laughing and being silly just prior to me taking this picture. She then proceeded to pull her dress over her head and ask "where's Rachel?". LOL.

Tomorrow, she has her repeat hearing test. Which I'm not sure how helpful the test will be seeing how she has a mild ear infection. Next week we see her ENT to discuss tomorrow's results and whether or not to put tubes in her ears again. At this point, having now had two ear infections since we saw him at the end of June, I'm sure he'll be recommending tubes.

However, prayers would be appreciated that she'll cooperate for her hearing test tomorrow and that the audiologist works well with small children. :)

A Week From Today...

And Rachel turns 3!!!

Cooling Off with the Hose

Some Clothes for Nite Nite Bear

This morning, Gramma took Rachel to Build-A-Bear to pick out an outfit for her Nite Nite Bear as a reward for being potty trained! It was the last of four grandchildren to get their 'potty present' as Gramma calls it.

Giving her bear a 'fluffing'.
In her new clothes and shoes.

Potty Training Update

This time two and a half weeks ago, I was pretty discouraged about Rachel's potty training. She had going potty down, but not pooping. I thought for sure I was going to have to call the Preschool Director in the next week or two and give up Rachel's spot.

However, thanks to the advice of a fellow mom (Thanks Jackie!!), to put together a treasure box, Rachel is getting the concept of pooping on the potty and has only had one accident in the last week!!! Tomorrow Gramma is taking her to Build-a-Bear to get an outfit for her Nite Nite Bear as a reward for (finally) getting the potty training done.

Isn't She Cute?

Rachel has been playing with the little sister of one of Hannah's fellow Karate classmates the last couple of weeks during Karate. Her Mommy brought this dress last night for Rachel to have, and she loves it!!!

Rachel Takes a Nap!

Rachel fell asleep in the car yesterday afternoon as we were returning home from meeting Gramma for lunch. She stayed asleep as I carried her into the house and stayed asleep for over 2 hours!

I thought at the time it was a glorious thing. I had two hours in the middle of the day to re-energize and have some peace and quiet. Rachel pretty much gave up naps last Spring, when she got a big girl bed, or perhaps I should say, I gave up the battle of trying to make her stay in her bed and fall asleep. LOL. However, when she was still awake at 10:00 last night (I didn't let her sleep past 3:00), I had second thoughts about just how glorious those two hours were.

An Afternoon of Fun and Fellowship

This afternoon we went to some friends house with a pool. Rachel was soooo excited to be going to Caleb's house. Caleb is a friend of hers from Sunday School, they are only 4 months apart in age, and Rachel absolutely adores him. They played so well together all afternoon outside the pool and in. I had the most adorable picture of the two of them sitting on a little bench eating hot dogs, but something went haywire with my camera and I lost them.

Rachel loves the pool! She really exhibits no fear and a couple of times she jumped right off the edge into Steven's arms. Here she is trying to figure out the snorkle. She had so much fun, and played so hard, that she was asleep before we even got home, and it was only about a 5 mile drive home!

Evaluation with the Speech Therapist

This morning Rachel had an evaluation with her speech therapist. In the past, for a previous evaluation, as well as most of the time when she was in speech therapy, Rachel doesn't cooperate very well as far as talking. We were hoping today would be different. It wasn't. LOL. Once Adrianna stepped foot into the exam room, Rachel stopped talking. After a while we were able to get her to say some words with the help of some M&M's.

With the speech she was able to observe, Adrianna was very pleased with Rachel's progress and said her speech development was typical of a normal 3 year old and that Rachel's speech will only get better once she starts preschool next month. Rachel's speech is not nasally (something common in cleft palate babies) and the glottal sounds we were once concerned about, she no longer makes.

So for the time being, no need to reinstate speech therapy, or even look into the speech services through the public school system. We'll watch and see how her speech progresses in preschool and re-evaluate in February, when we see the Craniofacial Team, and contact her sooner if her preschool teacher has trouble understanding her or her speech isn't up to the level of the rest of the kids in her class.

From the moment we walked out the door, all the way home, Rachel didn't stop talking. Little Stinker.

Cleft Related Posts

Just wanted to let anyone know that if you are visiting Rachel's Journey and you are specifically looking for Cleft Related posts, they are categorized and listed on the left side of this page.

Visiting Uncle Bart

We were invited down for the day to my Uncle Bart's place today. My Uncle Kirk and Aunt Candy were spending the weekend with my Uncle Bart, so we got to visit with them as well. We've not seen them in quite a few years, my Uncle Kirk has never met Rachel, so he got to meet her and see what a character she is.

Rachel was especially excited to learn that she was going to go swimming. She's been asking me all week to fill up the little kid pool, and I keep forgetting. She did such a great job in the pool. She even went under the water, which we took advantage of seeing how she no longer has tubes in her ears. She loved it! After the pool, and after going to dinner, Uncle Bart took us to a park near his house. This park was soooo awesome. I really, really wished they had parks like this around our house. It had cool things to climb on and play on, it was clean and well taken care of, it was beautifully landscaped, and you weren't scared or anxious about any of the other people at the park. :X After the park, we went down the road to the beach. The water was exceptionally warm and the girls had a blast splashing and kicking and going into the water. Rachel reminded me so much of some old home videos that my parents have of me running from the incoming waves when I was little. Rachel was running from the little waves and was laughing and jumping and squealing. After the beach, we went for ice cream and then back to Uncle Barts' place for a bit. The girls were worn out from swimming and playing at the park and probably the fresh air! Rachel was asleep before we even loaded into the car, Hannah wasn't too far behind that, and neither was Mommy. LOL.