Memorial Day Weekend

Max and I enjoyed our first Memorial Day weekend. It was truly nice to be able to take a deep breath and not have to rush off in the morning. We enjoyed a music festival, we did some house projects, we saw some friends, and we went sailing for the first time with our friends Brent, Heidi and Griffin. Nothing like a one and three year old on a boat together. Entertaining for sure!!

It's also been a month since his first surgery, and he is just healing so well. His scar is visible if you know what to look for, and he is still wearing his nose stints, which we'll try to keep in there as long as possible to have his cartilage reshape. We clean his nose with saline solution, and also put a small silicone strip on his scar to help with the healing process. These are little events he does NOT enjoy (I'm sure it's really sensitive), but we get through them o.k.

Of course there are little memories made every day, and I wish I had time to write them all down. Here are some fun ones to remember: Max has been starting to drink out of a glass. No sippy cup - he's going for the ultimate test right away. That's been very fun to watch. Also, the last part of our bedtime routine involves me singing him some songs while he's lying in his crib. Now usually, he would start to cry when I would leave. Now, however, he waves good-bye before the second song is over, almost like "yeah, o.k., I know this one already. You can leave now, Momma!" He has discovered the volume control on my clock radio, and loves to turn it up full force... at 6:00 A.M. Then, when a song is playing, he starts to dance, swinging his hips back and forth, and looks back at me as if to say "Oh yeah, check out these moves..." And lastly, his transitions at morning drop off have lost the red-face crying episode. Now we enter the room, sit for a little bit together, saying hi to some of the kids, I say goodbye, and he reaches for his teacher, Cathy, without tears. When I pick him up, however, it's still the same laughing fest as before. I hope we never loose that!!

Mother's Day... and Beyond

Mother's Day marked the end of the honeymoon - our three month maternity leave. We had a great day at a beautiful beach off the Kitsap Penninsula, where Max and I, along with our friend Mary, took a long walk among the tide pools of this huge beach. It was truly lovely, and a great way to end this chunk of time together, besides the fact that it was my first Mother's Day. Sniff...

On then with the reality of our lives. Max is part of a day care just up the street from us. Besides a traumatic drop-off, he has a great day with lots of explorations and connecting with other one-year-olds. When I pick him up in the afternoon, he is, as they say in my family, completely cooked! Now that the days are getting a little longer, we are able to enjoy some time outside, taking Nona on walks, or, if I'm feeling really ambitious, going running. In any case, bed time is around 7:45, and he is ready!

His mouth looks great! We had out two-week post operation check-up on Monday, and were told that his scar is healing great. However, it will start to look worse than it does right now as it's continuing to heal. The surgeon gave us some silicone patches that Max is supposed to wear as much as possible. We try, but with Mr. Droole, it's very difficult to make anything stick to his mouth. Of course, that whole area, along with the nose stints, continues to be very sensitive; he does not like it one bit when I touch his scar. Can't blame him!

So our next step is to continue paying attention to how the scar heals. Then, in about 4-6 months from now, we're due for surgery #2, which will deal with the inside of his mouth, and closing the big gap he has in his palate. More on that later, I'm sure!

Great recovery

It's amazing to think that we have been home less than a week. Max is doing so great. His lip is healing very fast. The outside of his lip (under his nose) is actually held together by glue, and it's slowly dissolving, along with the stitches underneath it. His face isn't as swollen any more. His nose stints are staying open, thanks to some frequent squirts of saline (he doesn't like that at all!!). But best of all, he isn't touching his face at all, so he doesn't need to wear the Frankenstein arm braces as much as I had thought. He mostly wears them at night, when he's bound to suck on his fingers, but during the day, he's free. That has definitely made the recovery more pleasant.

Here are some pictures I took a few days ago. He looks even today. :)