What y'all have been waiting for...

I know that you all have been waiting for an update, so here it goes. Since our last update, we have had a lot happen. Michael has continued with speech therapy. He is saying new words everyday. He is also saying new phrase and is able to let us know what he wants. One Sunday, I was in the kitchen and Michael looked at me from the living room. He said, "high chair, bye bye, please." The only time we say high chair is in a restaurant, so the translation of this is, "I want to go out to eat for breakfast please."

On Tuesday April 14, I received a call from Michael's daycare. When they went to wake him up, he had a bloody nose. There was so much blood that they compared it to a CSI crime scene. I picked him up and took him to our family doctor. He could not find anything wrong and gave us some suggestions to keep it from happening again. We followed his directions, but Michael had two more nose bleeds during the next week. These were at night. (I will have to warn you not to get on my bad side, because I have become very good and getting blood out of and off of things.) We became regulars at our doctors office. I must admit that I was starting to think that Michael just had a crush on Ms. Carolyn (the nurse that we go to church with) and wanted to see her as much as possible or that he was trying to play hooky from school. On our last visit to the doctor Michael was diagnosed with a sinus infection. He showed no signs of the infection until over a week after the first nose bleed. He started antibiotics and seemed fine after that.

On April 25, we went to Joseph's baseball game. Joseph has become a very good ball player. It is a lot of fun to watch him. After the ballgame Baba, Uncle Wo (Joe), and Wo Wo (Joseph), went fishing while Michael and I attended Ms. Lilly's birthday party. She goes to daycare with him and was turning 3. There were about 7 kids in attendance. This was the first birthday party that Michael had been invited to. He had a great time playing with everyone and singing "Happy Cupcake" (this is what he says instead of happy birthday) to Lilly.

The week of April 27th was pretty low key. The biggest thing to note is that Uncle Wo's birthday was on April 29.

On May 2nd, we took Michael to Chesterfield Berry Farm for the Strawberry Festival. We all had a lot of fun. He rode the barrel train, rode a horsie, fed the animals, and so on. We also learned that even though he does not seem to care for the strawberry that he LOVES the strawberry milkshake. That evening Gamma and Papa stopped for a short visit on their way to Alabama. They stayed in Alabama for a week and then came back through the next weekend. There will be more on that in a bit.

May 4th was a big day. It was a long day, but a good day. We went to the cleft clinic at VCU to meet with the team of doctors. Michael saw a psychologist, an ENT, a speech pathologist, an audiologist, a pediatric dentist, an orthodontist, and the surgeon who is the head of the clinic. He weighed in at 41 pounds and was 36.5" tall. However, he was wiggling so much that I think he was a little taller than that. The ENT found that one of Michael's ear tubes has come out and that he was starting to get an ear infection. Therefore, he had to go back on antibiotics. All of the other doctors were very happy with his development. We were told that we got the "gold star for parenting" which made us feel good. We also found out that Michael will have surgery this year. During the surgery, they will do multiple procedures. This will keep him from having to get anesthesia multiple times. They will do a uvula repair to finish closing his cleft. They will touch up his nose where it is a little flat to help him breath better. They will also replace the ear tube that has come out. He will have to stay in the hospital overnight again. We are praying that he comprehends what is going on more this time and is able to process it better. Last time we were in the hospital he stayed upset the whole time he was awake. For those of you who know him, it takes a lot for this kid be like that. The surgery will be sometime between the end of August and the end of September. Once we know the date, we will let everyone know.

The rest of that week was pretty calm. Gamma and Papa stayed at the house again on May 8th on their trip back to New Hampshire. This time they did not only have their dog Chloe with them. They had a puppy with them. His name is Thibodeaux (tib-a-doe). It was so cute to see Michael play with the puppy and say "hib-a-oe." On Saturday, we all went to Joseph's baseball game. Then, Gamma and Papa packed up and headed to Aunt Carrie's house for a short visit.

Sunday was my first Mother's Day. It was a wonderful day and there are more posts below about that.

Enjoy these pictures from the last few weeks: