Fun in the snow

It snowed here last night and this morning. It wasn't as much as they expected — some places in Oklahoma about an hour or so northwest of us had 24 or more inches — but we ended up with a few inches, which was pretty wild since we are a week into spring. The strong north wind made for some pretty deep drifts, too.

This was Jake's first real snow since he's been home, and we wondered how he would react. He seemed to like looking at it from inside, so today we had to head out into the white stuff and have some fun. We threw snowballs, built a snowman, made snow angels and had a good time. After we had been out for a while I asked him if he wanted to go in and he shook his head vigorously and said "No" quite vociferously. He likes the snow.

It was fun. It's been a fun couple of days for Jake. He spent Friday with my parents, as he does every Friday while we are at work. Papa had to leave to make his school bus run, and when he came back he drove the bus home. It's not a huge bus, it's a mini bus, but when Jake saw it through the door he got pretty excited. He wanted so much to see it so we put on our coats and Papa took us for a drive around the block. Jake really had a good time, he had a big smile on his face the whole time. Like I said, it's been a fun couple of days for him.

So, here are the snow pics:

All dressed up


Taking in the scene


Trying to walk






Snow man. Jake's taller than someone!


Snow angel

How was lunch son? Hey, where's the dog?

I fixed lunch for Jake and I today before we left home, he for day care and me for work.
After he ate, he came up to me carrying his empty plate. I asked him if he enjoyed his lunch and he nodded. We are trying to get him to work on his consonant sounds as much as possible, so I said, "It was a hot dog," hoping he would repeat hot dog to me.
Instead, he momentarily got this concerned look on his face and looked at me. "Hot Rod?" he said, (although it comes out more like "Hah wah") then looked around and pointed toward our back yard.
"No, not Hot Rod, hot dog," I said. Then I got up and went to where Hot Rod was sleeping in the hallway. "See, there's Hot Rod."
Hot Rod is our 15-year-old chow dog. He has been with me since he was 8 weeks old. He got the name because his mother's owner said he was always on the go as a puppy, "like a little hot rod." I liked that and the name stuck.
Little did I know that 15 years later that name would turn out to momentarily scare my son at lunch time.

Kevin

Hear and there

Jake went for his 1 month check Monday to see if the tubes in his ears are working.
We got a good report. His hearing is in the normal range and his localization of sounds are spot on!
The tubes are doing their job.
We have seen some improvement in his hearing, but we never really noticed a lack of it before. There were some clues, but for the most part he heard the important things.
He's always responded well to vocal noises.
In the past month he has started vocalizing more, but we don't know if that is the tubes or coincidence.
He does have trouble with his consonant sounds due to learning to speak wrong with the cleft, but his vowel sounds are great.
He's working with his speech therapist weekly and us daily on the rest.
After the doctor's appointment, which was late, we went shopping for summer clothes, sandals, a few more puzzles that grandma bought for her house and a cowboy hat. Then we managed to dodge Oklahoma's storms and got home.
He also got a new Elmo video, which he watched last night and loved the dancing segment.

Who's more curious?

Sunday was another gorgeous day. After church Jake, Violet and I had lunch with my parents at one of the Chinese restaurants in town. We ran into another family from the area that has adopted 3 kids from China and are in the process of adopting No. 4. Jake got to see his buddy from the Chinese New Year celebration.

After we got home, we had another great adventure outside. The man who farms the land that surrounds our house has put some cattle out on the wheat. Being the curious creatures they are, they all had to come up to the fence to check us out. I guess they haven't seen many Chinese boys in these parts. LOL

Just who is more curious?





Looks like the beginnings of a moonwalk here.



No trip outside is complete without a ride on the lawn tractor.



Nice weather, a pretty sunset, a porch swing and someone you love. It doesn't get any better.

In the wilderness

Sunday was a gorgeous day, so after church Jake, Violet and I went over the Roman Nose State Park, a nice park not too far from where we live. It's got a couple of lakes, some fun trails to hike, gypsum hills. All in all, it's a beautiful place.

We hiked around, admiring nature's beauty, and enjoying Jake's continued marveling at the world around him.

One other note. On Saturday, we celebrated Kevin's birthday belatedly along with the birthdays of Kevin's brother and his brother in-law. All told, those distinguished gentlemen are 147 years old, so rather than put that many candles on the birthday cake, Kevin's dad put three candles - a 1, a 4 and a 7. Kevin decided Jake should be the one to blow the candles out, to show off his new-found talent. Two weeks ago, before his surgery Jake would not have been able to do that, since all the air would have gone out through his nose. Now, with a palate he can blow through his mouth and has become quite good at blowing out candles. It was so great to see him able to do it, and the big grin he had was worth it.

Here are photos of our day Sunday.

5 months and a good report

Today marks 5 months since Jake entered our lives - 5 wonderful, eventful months.

Also today, we went back to the cleft palate surgeon so he could check on Jake's progress. Jake is doing great. The doc said he normally has kids come back 2 months after the surgery, too, but he said Jake is doing so well he doesn't need to see us for 6 months. One more week of soft foods/liquids, not feeding himself and having to wear his arm restraints. We all will be glad when those are a thing of the past.

Better

Jake doesn't have a fever so I guess we dodged the strep throat bullet. He still has to take the full course of the antibiotics (10 days), but at least he's not sick.

Does he, or doesn't he?

Last Friday, Jake's day care provider called. She had taken her son to the doctor and he has strep throat. Oh great, so here Jake is in the midst of recovering from surgery and he might have been exposed to strep. Things were OK over the weekened, but on Monday Jake had a bit of a fever (the highest was about 100.2).

So, we took him in the doctor, and she said she wanted to put him on antibiotics to treat strep because he had the recent surgery. She didn't even test to see if he does, she said better safe than sorry.

From what I understand, you no longer are contagious after 24 hours on antibiotics, which will happen this afternoon for Jake. As a result, he's staying away from day care today. Violet will leave work late, and I will go in early. Hopefully, neither of us will end up with strep.

Jake goes back to the palate doctor Thursday so the doc can see how the repair is holding up. Jake has really been good during his recovery, although he does tire of the arm restraints and he still wants to be able to feed himself. Soon, little man, soon.