Oct 19 2010 - dalia's pumpkin, video then and now

Last weekend, I looked over all of the photos that I've taken of Dalia since we met her in China. It was astounding to me just how much she has grown and changed. I know, it's obvious. When people see her after a month or so, they always comment, "she looks great!" or "she's getting so tall!". But seeing those photos from March compared to being with her now really made the change apparent.

And then there's her lip and palate. Wow. I've attached 3 video clips from my camera -- one from last March, before her first surgery for her cleft lip and hard palate, and two from last Saturday. In one, we're listening to the Beach Boys, and Dalia is looking a photo of herself taken in China. The last is of her sitting on a chair, talking to herself and talking to her bunny. NOTE - am having trouble uploading video... will try again soon!

Today, we went to see Dr. Laub (again). She'll have to have another surgery #4 in January to try to repair her fistula (hole in her palate). She's doing fine; the concern is that she is developing speech habits that will be hard to break if we wait longer to repair it. And then there's the little problem of food and liquids that come out of her nose... which cannot be comfortable for her! Though she has always known this.

She has worn her mudboots (thanks, Mia and Freeman!) for 5 days straight. She will probably wear them until she grows out of them... which will be soon.

When I picked her up at Playlab today, it was almost naptime. She was in a small room with Howdy, and classmates Charles and Mark. Howdy was reading, and the kids were on their mats. As I picked Dalia up, she said, "bye Howdy, bye Izzy..." So cute to see her talk to her little friends!

beautiful fall day with Dalia

We had such a good time with Grandma Patty! Grandma left early Monday morning. Dalia still says every day, "Grandma!" Or, "Grandma, home." Last night it was, "Miss Grandma" (as I've been saying, "I miss Grandma"). Dalia does not forget people. She hadn't seen our good friend, and her "Aiyi" (auntie) Renee in 2 months -- and when Renee visited her, she remembered her instantly. Her vocabulary is stretching and bursting like a large, plump balloon. When I put her in her carseat to take my Mom to the airport, it was still dark. She said, "Mama! Moon up there." We've been reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?" She can say it by herself. She also says, "bunny, bunny, what do you see?... panda, panda what do you see?"

Alisa, her speech therapist visited last week after not seeing her for a month or more. Within minutes, she said, "It's happening, I'm falling in love all over again." She is very impressed with Dalia's pronunciation. We need to work on B and P sounds. She was sick the week before last, fever and impetigo - again. Also took her up to see Dr. Laub, her surgeon, and got confirmation that she still has a fistula (hole) in her soft palate. Ugh. More surgery. Hopefully not any time soon as I cannot imagine putting her through another surgery, another hospital stay, another two weeks of stage two baby foods (liquids/soft foods). But, we will see what he says in a few weeks.

She loves Playlab (day care). She is known and loved there. She has four core teachers, Howdy, Hayley, Marcie and Sara. She also has the benefit of many of the Parent Child Center staff who rotate in and out during the weeks -- bringing the food for breakfasts, lunches and snacks, which is home made and prepared at the Center down the road. Monday afternoons she goes to the Center while the staff is in a meeting - so she plays more with Peggy and Ruth. This is extra meaningful for me as I am on the board of the PCC -- and now have another reason to appreciate this place and its people. I was so sad to have to call in every morning to tell them that Dalia wouldn't be coming in again because of her fever.

Friends, colleagues, and Middlebury College people (parents, alums, students) are interested in her, want to meet her and play with her. Today, after going to the cider squeeze at Jill and Ebens, we went to the College football game. Packed stadium, gorgeous clear blue sky fall day -- leaves in peak color, views of the mountains around. So fun to share her with new and old friends.

She has grown out of many of the wonderful hand me downs that we received... the khaki padded jacket from Ruby, the blue corduroy dress with the kitties on it from Vivian... and the pink Pumas (also from Ruby). Most days she only wants to wear nothing -- or a bathing suit, like the 45 degree rainy day that she refused to wear anything but her bathing suit when I needed to take her to the doctor's office and then go into my office to pick up my computer. Everyone had a good laugh seeing her run down the hall in her blue bathing suit with the hearts on it while we were all freezing our butts off. Fortunately, we have bigger girl hand me downs from Lily, and a new batch of winter hand me downs from the Pratt-Calahans and the Cady-McCrellishes (NBS community).

I've been behind on the blog but will get back to writing and posting photos of our beautiful girl.

school days

Welcome Grandma Patty!

This morning, Patty, Dalia and I drove toward Playlab, Dalia's daycare, at the Hannaford Career Center at Middlebury Union High School (affiliated with the Parent Child Center).

As we turned into the parking lot, Dalia sat up, eyes lit up, and said, "Howdy? Howdy?" -- Howdy is the name of her favorite teacher. She loves Howdy, she loves "school." She's been going to day care for the past 2 1/2 week -- went right in and played with the play-do and the dolls and the markers right away. We are SO fortunate to have this child!! And so fortunate to be able to send her to such a positive place. 15 kids, 4 teachers, some rotate from the Parent Child Center but three are there every day. The kids go for walks through town, they explore the new bridge being built over Otter Creek, they walk to the river and look for frogs, they go to the playgrounds.

Today, my friend, Pam saw Dalia on one of her walks. She waved to Dalia and Dalia waved back. Mama was happy.

Today, we also went to visit Dr. Laub for Dalia's second post-operative appointment. All looks fine, though there is one of the fistula (holes) that is clearly still healing. We leaned Dalia back to take a look into her mouth. I could see perfectly -- a sore spot ... and a tooth!! In the middle of seemingly nowhere (no other teeth). But Dr. Laub couldn't see... so, Grandma Patty made Dalia laugh by blowing up a rubber glove... and finally Laub confirmed.

Now - we work on her speech, or rather, SHE works on her speech with her speech therapist and on her own. We see if she still has the strong nasal sound with air coming out of her nose when she speaks. And we see the speech specialist on the Cleft Lip/Palate Team in the spring.

Her vocabulary is multiplying. She can now say several two-word sentences and three-syllable words. Moccasin. Dalia's room. Come back, sun! Grandma in there. Elmo sleeping. Night night, Mama.

aug 30 surgery... all went well

Dalia is asleep, it's 9:21 p.m. I'm relieved to say that her surgery went well today. No complications. Platelets normal, healthy. Brave girl. Dr. Laub repaired two pinholes in the back of her palate and one large hole up front. I won't go into the details here of how he did it... but I will tell you off-blog if you are interested. She was screaming when she came out of anesthesia... IV in an uncomfortable place, it took 4 adults to hold her down. Sound familiar? She was screaming for Mama and she called down when we arrived at her bed.

Took a bottle, slept, up, slept. Then, "walk" -- we walked down the hall and into the wonderful toy room she went. "Off!" i.e. put me down -- and she sat on the bouncing zebra with music. This was 2 hours after her surgery. Played more with toys in the room for a while - amazing sight to see this tough kid. Slept more, rode around in pink car, the red car and the blue chaise car. Ate 2 cups of ice cream and.... nothing came out through the nose!!! It's a first.

Now it's pain management and keep her full of liquids (soft foods). Home tomorrow.

Day care at Playlab starts next week!

Photos from Grandma Patty's - August 2010

Happy Birthday Dalia

For Dalia's birthday, her brother, Calder designed a colorful three-tier cake, made up of three of Dalia's favorite shapes -- heart, star and triangle. It was beautiful! He and Grandma Ginger baked and decorated it with colorful frosting, flowers and streaming ribbons. It looked festive in a Chinese way. Grandma Gin-Gin, Grandpa Ralph, Mama, Baba (Daddy), Calder, Henry, Blair, John and Virginia all came to celebrate. Truly a joyous occasion. I was thankful all day that this little girl has come into my and our lives.

She has grown so much since we met her on March 7th. Every day is a day to appreciate her! We gave her a Xi Yang Yang sweatshirt and matching backpack that we bought in Lanzhou, China, when we bought her some colorful sneakers. We kept it for her over the past 6 months. Good to see that even though Elmo is her new favorite, she still loves Yang Yang. ("Pleasant Goat" - her favorite Chinese cartoon character)

Dalia and I are at Grandma Patty's in Wisconsin. Today was a big day as she took a swimming lesson at the YMCA with 3 other little boys and their mamas, along with me. Ginger has taken her swimming in the Middlebury town pool - it's clear she's been ready for lessons. The Y kiddie pool is perfect, with a gradual ramp into deeper water. We kicked, we splashed, we submerged, we swam after balls, we sang songs. This may be the first class Dalia has taken. She was somewhat distracted by all of the action but I think she liked it. She loves to swim! She is leaning to blow bubbles in the pool water -- a huge step with her new lip. We'll return the next 3 days. She was the only Asian child in the pool.

She has been saying many more words, words with multiple syllables, and putting phrases together. "Hummingbird"; "Come back, sun"; "Grandma's house", "running shoes," "bathing suit", etc.

Her diet is rich in good foods - for dinner, she had salmon, hard-boiled egg, almond butter, a fresh peach, garbanzo beans, rice milk, water, and zucchini bread. She still loves popsicles and has learned to slurp.

She remembers names of people she meets and talks about them afterwards. What good company you are, Dalia!

1, 2, 3, go!

Dalia has learned this handy phrase. First picked it up while standing on the dock, watching listening to Tal and/or me look out at the pond, count down, and jump in. Now she uses it whenever possible! "One" is clear, then comes two beats, then "go!"

The good news is... she is back to her usual healthy, strong, funny self. She is trying new foods like almond butter, which she calls "ahm". She's having a blast every day, so busy playing outside in her sandbox, going into the pond occasionally, visiting the chickens in their newly renovated home - thanks to Tal, playing in the garden with Ginger, being held (and visiting chickens) with Ralph, going to the playground with Renee, picking and eating wild blackberries with Mama.

The not so good news is that her palate didn't close all the way -- there was a tiny opening which has since gotten bigger, after the surgery. So.. we will go back to Dr. Laub and Fletcher Allen for another surgery, outpatient if possible... (hopes not high) on August 30. Her platelet counts are normal now. However... she went back on the INH/Isoniazid medication for TB virus. We'll see later this month how her platelets are, hopefully still normal. She has endured many doctor visits and taking of blood.

I returned to travel for work the past 2 weeks, went to NYC for 2 nights last week and the week before. It was tough to be away, though I knew she was not missing me very much, as she was with her Dad and Grandparents. I walked in from having been gone and it for her was as if I had never left. I hope!

Will add more photos tomorrow.....