Rachel was a riot to watch. She was squaking and yelling. Frankly, I'm surprised she didn't scare off the ducks. LOL. She has no fear of the ducks that would waddle pretty close to her. She just kept squaking and clapping her hands in excitement.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Feeding the Ducks
Cousin McKenzie is spending the afternoon with Gramma today. We decided to take the girls to feed the ducks at a nearby Veterns Hospital that has beautiful grounds with a little lake.
Rachel was a riot to watch. She was squaking and yelling. Frankly, I'm surprised she didn't scare off the ducks. LOL. She has no fear of the ducks that would waddle pretty close to her. She just kept squaking and clapping her hands in excitement.
Rachel was a riot to watch. She was squaking and yelling. Frankly, I'm surprised she didn't scare off the ducks. LOL. She has no fear of the ducks that would waddle pretty close to her. She just kept squaking and clapping her hands in excitement.
Friday, March 24, 2006
All Packed and Ready to Go...
...to Gramma and Papa's house for the weekend for her first sleepover away from Mommy and Daddy! 
Mommy and Daddy are going away for the weekend to celebrate their 10th anniversary.
Mommy and Daddy are going away for the weekend to celebrate their 10th anniversary.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Speech Evaluation
Today was Rachel's speech evaluation with the speech pathologist from our craniofacial team. It went well. It was pretty interesting the things she did in order to see where Rachel is in her language development.
Adrianna, the speech pathologist, had a box of objects that she introduced to Rachel. She asked her to do certain things with them and observed how she responded and reacted, also watching for any vocalization or sounds Rachel made.
Her observations were that Rachel is a little delayed in her receptive language. This means her ability to take in what she's being told, or being asked to do. And obviously she's delayed in her expressive language...her being able to verbalize or sign.
The plan is, once her official report has been written and submitted to the board to review, to start speech therapy, once a week for an hour. Therapy will more than likely start the second week of April.
She also suggested that we pursue Early Start, California's Department of Developemental Services. In Rachel's case, because she was born with a cleft lip and palate, she most likely is eligible for speech therapy through the State of California. Involvement in the two programs will only reinforce one another and make each more beneficial. Unfortunately, I've tried contacting the local office a few months back with no success. But I recently discovered there is a mother of one of Hannah's classmates who can help get my information to the right people as she works in the system.
Meanwhile, while we wait for official therapies to begin, we just need to keep on doing what we've been doing...reinforcing words and signs.
Adrianna, the speech pathologist, had a box of objects that she introduced to Rachel. She asked her to do certain things with them and observed how she responded and reacted, also watching for any vocalization or sounds Rachel made.
Her observations were that Rachel is a little delayed in her receptive language. This means her ability to take in what she's being told, or being asked to do. And obviously she's delayed in her expressive language...her being able to verbalize or sign. The plan is, once her official report has been written and submitted to the board to review, to start speech therapy, once a week for an hour. Therapy will more than likely start the second week of April.
She also suggested that we pursue Early Start, California's Department of Developemental Services. In Rachel's case, because she was born with a cleft lip and palate, she most likely is eligible for speech therapy through the State of California. Involvement in the two programs will only reinforce one another and make each more beneficial. Unfortunately, I've tried contacting the local office a few months back with no success. But I recently discovered there is a mother of one of Hannah's classmates who can help get my information to the right people as she works in the system.
Meanwhile, while we wait for official therapies to begin, we just need to keep on doing what we've been doing...reinforcing words and signs.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
Always into Something
For some reason, ever since we moved Hannah's room around and I put this little chair next to the bookcase, Rachel loves to sit there and look through the books.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Speech Update
Last month at Rachel's yearly Craniofacial Team appointment, it was determined that Rachel needed a speech evaluation and speech therapy. After having left several messages on various voice mails over the past week, the speech pathologist finally returned my call today to let us know that our insurance approved the initial evaluation and 19 sessions of therapy! I assume after 19 sessions she gets reevaluated at which point the insurance will approve for more visits. Anyways, Rachel will have her speech evaluation next Thursday, March 23. Should be interesting to see how they test her!
Friday, March 10, 2006
One of the Big Girls
Hannah's friend Emma came over this evening for a few hours. All Rachel did was follow those two around and want to play with the big girls. She was happy when she was placed at the same table as them for dinner! And pulled up a chair to join them when they watched a movie. 
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Cousin Kym's Wedding
This evening my cousin got married. It was a beautiful wedding and we all had a great time. 
Here, Rachel sits...quietly...and breifly, looking around at where she could possibly go next.
One of the added touches at our place settings were the goodie bags placed on the girls chairs. Inside were things to keep them busy during the reception...a miniature My Little Pony, a slinky, a silly straw, some bracelets, and a Wooly Willy (you know the picture of the bald man and you use the black magnet dust to give him some hair and a beard). I was excited to see the Wooly Willy because we have something similar where you make pictures using a magnetic wand and magnet balls to make pictures and Rachel absoultely loves that thing. So she had fun with the Wooly Willy.
Rachel was all over the reception. She just kept walking around, checking things out. And when it came time to dance, the dance floor is where you could find Rachel! She was having a good ole time dancing around and being silly. She was hilarious to watch! 
Here, Rachel sits...quietly...and breifly, looking around at where she could possibly go next.
One of the added touches at our place settings were the goodie bags placed on the girls chairs. Inside were things to keep them busy during the reception...a miniature My Little Pony, a slinky, a silly straw, some bracelets, and a Wooly Willy (you know the picture of the bald man and you use the black magnet dust to give him some hair and a beard). I was excited to see the Wooly Willy because we have something similar where you make pictures using a magnetic wand and magnet balls to make pictures and Rachel absoultely loves that thing. So she had fun with the Wooly Willy.
Rachel was all over the reception. She just kept walking around, checking things out. And when it came time to dance, the dance floor is where you could find Rachel! She was having a good ole time dancing around and being silly. She was hilarious to watch! 
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Loves the Big Girl Bed
Ever since we moved Hannah's room around and put her bed in the middle of the room, for some reason, Rachel loves sitting on Hannah's bed. She doesn't seem afraid of the openess and possibility of falling off either side of the bed. 
Monday, February 20, 2006
Some Pictures of the Cutie
Rachel's hair is getting so long and thick. Today I tried pulling a little bit of it up and she actually kept it that way for most of the day. With her hair up, she looks so much like a little girl rather my almost 18 month old baby. 
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Cleaning her Plate
I served Rachel's dinner on a sectioned Winnie the Pooh plate tonight. After clearing out the majority of the mashed potatoes, she realized there were characters under her food. So rather than clean her plate by eating everything, she cleaned her plate by removing everything from it and putting it on her tray in order to see the other characters that awaited her beneath her food!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Craniofacial Team Appointment
Rachel had her appointment with the Crainiofacial Team this afternoon. This is an annual appointment, one in which we originally had scheduled for September, but got cancelled and moved to today. The last time Rachel saw the team was when she was just 4 weeks old, so long ago, at the very beginning of this journey.
Wearing her new "My Surgeon Gave Me This Smile" shirt from Plotkindesigns. Everyone loved it!
The appointment went well, once we were finally seen. We knew we would have to wait, in fact they called on Friday and moved our appointment from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, but it was well after 5:30pm before we were placed into a room. It was after 7:00pm before we even left the building. We saw a total of four doctors, the pediatrician, the speech therapist, the dentist, and the ENT. After already waiting for hours in the waiting room, and the waiting in between doctors coming into the room, Rachel had had enough. She kept pointing to her clothes and to the door, meaning she wanted to put her clothes on and leave. After daddy showing her how to use paper towels to create makeshift pants, LOL, she was trying to recreate what he had done. 
Unlike at our last team appointment, our questions were few. And those resolved around her speech. For being 17 1/2 months old, Rachel's words are few. Granted she's only had a palate for a few short months now, but the words are still few. Our concerns were valid. The Speech Therapist felt she needed a full speech evaluation and more than likely therapy to follow. She will also have a hearing evaluation to make sure her speech hasn't been delayed due to any hearing loss. That's not really a concern of ours, but it is pretty routine to do a hearing test right about now. She's pretty behind in her speech development, but it's nothing that can't be corrected with therapy. 
The pediatrician and ENT were pretty uneventful, both confirmed her ears look great and the tubes are still in place. The pediatrician got a good look at her palate repair, and so did we! Dr Martin did an awesome job on her palate repair. You would never know that her mouth was once a dark, deep, endless hole. Her palate looks perfectly normal except a straight line down the middle. The dentist took a look at her teeth (all 7 of them) and suggested that we get her established with a dentist to get her in the routine of being seen, etc.
They were passing out pieces of Valentine Cake to the patients and families, Rachel is enjoying her cake using a tongue depresser rather than the fork.
Other than the issues with her speech and the recommendation to get established with a dentist, the appointment was pretty uneventful. I'm so glad to have been at today's appointment, at this point of having three surgeries behind us, than where we were at on September 27, 2004, at our very first appointment, just at the beginning of this journey.
Wearing her new "My Surgeon Gave Me This Smile" shirt from Plotkindesigns. Everyone loved it!
The appointment went well, once we were finally seen. We knew we would have to wait, in fact they called on Friday and moved our appointment from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, but it was well after 5:30pm before we were placed into a room. It was after 7:00pm before we even left the building. We saw a total of four doctors, the pediatrician, the speech therapist, the dentist, and the ENT. After already waiting for hours in the waiting room, and the waiting in between doctors coming into the room, Rachel had had enough. She kept pointing to her clothes and to the door, meaning she wanted to put her clothes on and leave. After daddy showing her how to use paper towels to create makeshift pants, LOL, she was trying to recreate what he had done. 
Unlike at our last team appointment, our questions were few. And those resolved around her speech. For being 17 1/2 months old, Rachel's words are few. Granted she's only had a palate for a few short months now, but the words are still few. Our concerns were valid. The Speech Therapist felt she needed a full speech evaluation and more than likely therapy to follow. She will also have a hearing evaluation to make sure her speech hasn't been delayed due to any hearing loss. That's not really a concern of ours, but it is pretty routine to do a hearing test right about now. She's pretty behind in her speech development, but it's nothing that can't be corrected with therapy. 
The pediatrician and ENT were pretty uneventful, both confirmed her ears look great and the tubes are still in place. The pediatrician got a good look at her palate repair, and so did we! Dr Martin did an awesome job on her palate repair. You would never know that her mouth was once a dark, deep, endless hole. Her palate looks perfectly normal except a straight line down the middle. The dentist took a look at her teeth (all 7 of them) and suggested that we get her established with a dentist to get her in the routine of being seen, etc.They were passing out pieces of Valentine Cake to the patients and families, Rachel is enjoying her cake using a tongue depresser rather than the fork.
Other than the issues with her speech and the recommendation to get established with a dentist, the appointment was pretty uneventful. I'm so glad to have been at today's appointment, at this point of having three surgeries behind us, than where we were at on September 27, 2004, at our very first appointment, just at the beginning of this journey.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
First Time to the Movies...
We went to see the new movie, Curious George, today. It was Rachel's first time to the movie theater! And she did pretty good. She got a little squirrely here and there, but for the most part she sat well for the hour and a half movie, not to mention all the previews and before movie slides. The movie was pretty good in my opinion.
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