ENT Visit and "Good News and Bad News"

Micah and I headed down to Cincinnati yesterday for his 3 month ENT (ear, nose and throat doc) and audiology follow-up. Micah has had 2 confirmed ear infections and a suspected ear infection since we have had him. On his last infection, he was definitely pulling and rubbing at his atretic ear. Also, I can get all the way up to his crib before he turns to look at me. My totally un-expert diagnosis was - I think he is getting ear infections in BOTH ears (so I wanted to talk to the doc about going ahead with the CT scan of his ear), and I think he is retaining fluid in his left ear (so I wanted to talk about tube options). I gave the nurse the updates, and when the doc came in he brought up both points! It's so nice when the professional's opinion lines up with your own, isn't it?? So, he is getting a tube in his left ear . . . don't know when, because we are going to get his little private area fixed up at the same time (ok, he's getting circumcised) and we have to get a referral to urology, go for the initial visit, and then coordinate 2 surgeon's schedules. His CT scan is scheduled for next Thursday (he has to be sedated). That means that I have to put off his shots for another week - I don't want to risk him getting sick or they won't do the scan.

OK, now for the good news/bad news section. The good news is that Micah is now standing up in the middle of the room and walking around. The bad news is that now that he is up and walking, he has discovered that he can actually OPEN the bathroom doors. That means I will be heading out SOON to buy toilet locks. He got into the toilet 3 times today before we figured out that he was actually OPENING the door . . . I just thought the other kids were leaving the door cracked open. Yuck.

Sorry, no pictures today. Kind of like a "grownup" book :)

Micah's First Steps

Micah has been working hard this past week trying to master his next big milestone - walking. (Click on the word "walking" to see the video). OK, truth is, Mommy has been working hard this past week trying to get Micah to stand up long enough to take a couple of steps. He just loves to crawl. He stands and plays. He cruises furniture and walls. He loves to be on his feet. But when it comes time to walk, he prefers to crawl. Well, last night, he surprised us by taking 6 or 7 steps. I tried all day to re-create the feat for pictures, but he would have none of it. He finally decided to cooperate, and Peter caught it on video . . . Yeaaaaaa, Peter! Sofia could barely contain herself . . . as you can see at the end of the video. Molly squealed. The dog ran around. Micah just kind of looks at us all like we are crazy! Do we REALLY want him to start walking?? Yup!

The Communication Lightbulb is . . . Plugged In!

Everybody keeps asking how Micah is doing. Yesterday's post was a family affair . . . today will be a Micah only update. In short, he is keeping us busy, and wearing us (and himself) out.

You may be wondering about the title for today's entry. Well, I think Micah is finally STARTING to get the idea about this whole tw0-way communication thing. The lightbulb is not ON, but I can see that the lamp has been plugged in. I think the bulb may even be glowing :) He is currently using 3 words consistently - unprompted and with meaning. Those 3 words would be "all gone" (ga-ga), "Mama", and "milk" (mmmk). I would like everybody who reads this to try to say "milk" without opening your mouth. Go ahead - press your lips together, say "mmm" and then get a good strong "K" sound . . . but DON'T OPEN YOUR MOUTH. Not so easy for you and me, but Micah sure has it down pat. He will lay in my arms while drinking his bottle and say "Mmmmk. Mmmmmk. Mmmmmk." The only problem is that every time he says it, he expects me to sign it. If I don't, he pulls at my hand until I do. He will say more (mmmmmmmmoooo), up (puuuup uuuuup), and bye-bye with prompting. He signs "dog" (but never when a dog is around) and will sometimes wave. He recognized several signs - milk, caterpillar (one of his favorite toys), bear, all done, cheerios, cheese, toast, peaches, bath (he signed and said that one today), and horse. When I say he recognizes them, I mean he ranges from total comprehension to him looking at my hands with this "that-looks-familiar-what-the-heck-does-it-mean-I've-almost-got-it-agh!" look on his face. He likes for me to sign words ON him - he will grab my hand, pull it over to him and lean in waiting for me to sign on his body. His favorites for me to do are Sofi, Peter, Molly and Daddy. Recognition is a great first step. Now we are just waiting for him to start using some of this great language.

Now for development - We took Micah back to the International Adoption Clinic last week for a 3 month follow-up visit. They re-evaluated him in several areas. When we visited them in June for his initial evaluation (he was 15 1/2 months old), they came up with these results.

Gross Motor: 9 months

Language: 8 months

Fine Motor: 6 months

Personal/Social: 5 months

At our most recent visit (he was 18 1/2 months old), they came up with these results.

Gross Motor: 11 months

Language: 13 months

Fine Motor: 12 months

Personal/Social: 10 months

The lady who did the evaluation was a little fussed about the lack of progress in the gross motor area, but the doctor said to just wait until the 6 month follow-up before getting too concerned. He has made great strides in other areas . . . his focus has been on things other than learning to walk. We are now spending lots of time walking all bent over (that would be the adults are all bent over - holding his hands, the back of his shirt, his overall straps, etc.). I have seen an improvement in his assisted walking in just the past week.

The little guy continues to laugh and giggle up a storm. I was standing next to the crib last night, swaying him back and forth and getting in my last cuddles before putting him down. I noticed he would laugh . . . and stop . . . and laugh . . . and stop. I finally took a look. His hand would lightly brush over the top of the rail to his crib everytime I swayed toward the crib. I have no idea what was so funny about that, but I got a kick out of his giggles. He is doing a bit of climbing. He loves to put blocks, balls, small toys, etc. into the tube of his ball popper (see picture above). Luckily we have been able to get everything out so far. I think I reported in an earlier post that he likes to crawl through the kitchen, open my pantry, take out the baking powder and corn starch containers, build a tower out of them, and then leave the kitchen. He has now graduated to the baking powder, corn starch, and Mrs. Dash seasoning blend. Who-hooo! 3 stories tall! He continues to be a one-baby wrecking machine, capable of destroying an entire room in 3 minutes flat. He has now discovered the craft cabinet - he can pull out the drawer of crayons and empty it completely. The drawer also makes a comfy seat (as pictured above). And last, but not least, he thinks it's hilarious that he can now reach the door handles - booooing! giggle, giggle, giggle. booooooing! giggle, giggle, giggle. booooooing! giggle, giggle, giggle.

Lost Teeth, Surgery, and 2 Birthdays!

Last week was quite the busy week!! Molly has had 2 slightly loose teeth for some time now. She has also had 2 adult teeth coming up behind those 2 loose teeth for quite some time now. FINALLY, after forever, Molly has lost her first tooth - yippee! I took a picture, but it came out all fuzzy. Use your imagination :) Luckily she lost it before her surgery. I think she was a little worried that it would fall out during surgery.

Next on the agenda is the afore-mentioned surgery. Molly was scheduled to go under the knife at 11:30 on October 1st. She had to stop eating at 1:30 am, and had to stop all liquids by 7:30. After that, NOTHING in her mouth at all. I had a plan . . . I woke her at 7:25 and gave her a glass of white grape juice. Everything went smoothly. At 8:15, I was wrestling with my curling iron and trying to keep Micah from getting into the toilet/ grabbing the curling off the counter/slamming cabinet doors while shouting directions at Molly (brush your hair, get your coloring books, brush your hair, where is your blanket, brush your hair, brush your hair) when suddenly Molly walked into my bathroom. She spied a pile of animal crackers that had migrated from my pocket (confiscated at church the day before) onto the bathroom counter. She said, "Oooooh, my animal crackers!" I said, "Uh-huh. . . .Micah, NO, that's hot . . . animal crackers?? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Too late. We found that 1/2 an animal cracker can push surgery back by 3 hours. Molly was really good the whole day. I could tell she was nervous, but she finds so many ways to entertain herself. When it was finally time to go, the nurse gave her a Tylenol/sleeping medicine concoction. It was really funny watching her sloooooowly go under. She got kind of giggly, and squealy, and her speech got kind of slurry, then she started waving at things that weren't there . . . . Watching her come out was about the same. She was a sleepy little thing for several hours. On the plus side, she got to have popsicles and blue slushies. One of the pictures I am posting shows the side effects of the blue slushy. The doctor said everything went well. They had to cut down through 3 layers of muscle to get to it, but it all came out once they got down to it. There was quite a bit of bleeding, but that was to be expected since they had to cauterize all of the capillaries feeding into it (hemangiomas are an abnormal build up of blood vessels in the skin or internal organs . . . consisting of dense, usually elevated masses of dilated blood vessels.) . She is left with a little soreness and a 3 inch long scar running down her back just to the left of her backbone. Now, the challenge is to keep her inactive for 2 whole weeks!! She stayed home Tuesday, but went back for a half-day stint on Wednesday. Thursday it was back to business as usual. Wow.

Todd's mom took care of Micah the whole day. She then got to care for Sofia and Peter as well, thanks to the delayed schedule. It sounded like Micah was a little angel for Grandma the whole day. I should have expected it - he is such an easy-going little guy. Thanks, Grandma!

And for the final bit of news. Sofia and Molly had their birthdays on Wednesday, October 3rd. Happy 10th and 6th, girlies!! I am posting a picture of Sofia reacting to opening her present from Peter . . . when she started to open his present, Peter ran and hid behind a chair. Todd and I thought he was scared she wouldn't like it. Turns out, he was scared of what he thought she would do when she saw the present. Turns out he was right to hide! She saw it, screamed, and LAUNCHED herself at him! Who'da thought a Webkinz horse could bring out such excitement? I am also posting a shot of Molly seeing her Barbie Dream House (rescued from a friend's attic after 20+ years of storage). She hit frequencies with her screams that I didn't think were humanly possible. Guess they enjoyed their gifts. Sofia had her birthday party on Friday - she was off for parent-teacher conferences. Molly will be having hers this week on Saturday.

Oops, THIS is the final bit of news. Micah is finally starting to get the idea of how to use a spoon. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are two thousand words.

September in a Flash

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted! Things keep happening, and I think, "Wow, I'll have to put that in . . . " Oh well. Here goes.

September started with the Venema family heading off to Camp Kern (YMCA Camp) for Family Camp over Labor Day weekend. This was our second year there, and it was every bit as fun as the first year. Thanks to Myrna and John for inviting us!!! For those of you who don't know about Family Camp, it is a fun-filled weekend with more outdoor activities than you could ever imagine. We did rock wall climbing, rappeling, verticle mazes with looooong, hiiiiiiigh zip lines, high ropes courses, swimming, hiking, BB guns, archery, canoeing/kayaking (Molly in picture above), giant swings (Peter in picture above), long mine tunnel slides, horse back riding, camp fires, human clue games . . . I'm sure I'm missing a few activities! All the kids were troopers. It's really crazy to look up and see your 5 year old rappelling off a 50 foot tower, or to see them flying down a 100 yard zip line. Some day I might get used to seeing them do this crazy stuff. (I just have to keep reminding myself that I used to do crazy stuff, too. Wait, I STILL do these crazy things.) I was a little worried about how Micah would react to being away from home and sleeping in a porta-crib, but he didn't seem to miss a beat. He wasn't too thrilled about being put into a climbing harness, though :) (I have tried to put the harness picture on here TWICE, but it refuses to attach in the correct position - just tilt your head to the left and pretend it's on there right.)

Sofia is again being lambasted by homework at school. She's doing pretty well this year. I think it's mostly due to her new study technique :)

Next in our month was a continued effort to figure out what's up with Molly. I noticed a huge bump on her back when she bent over for her scoliosis check during her kindergarten physical in August. She had an ultrasound which showed that it wasn't the quick easy little fat pocket that the doctor was hoping for. Then she had a 30 minute long MRI (no sedation!!) which pretty much ruled out any malignancy (whew!). Then we were off to a surgeon at Dayton Children's Hospital. He seems to think it is an hemangioma which is embedded in her muscles just to the left of her spinal column. She will be having surgery next Monday to remove it. However, that is happening on October 1st, so you'll have to wait until the October update for more on that :)

We have been going to the Dayton area's Family With Children from China (FCC) playgroup. There is a little girl there who is only 6 weeks older than Micah who came from the same orphanage. I love to see Micah and Ella together!

Finally, Micah went down to the International Adoption Clinic in Cincinnati this past Monday for his 3 month check up. He is now officially, completely ON THE CHARTS!!!! His head is in the 50th %ile, his length is in the 10th %ile, and his weight is just above the 3rd %ile. The scales say he has gained 3 pounds since we came home, but my arms and back would swear to a 5 pound gain at least! He is doing all kinds of new things - imitating sounds, putting blocks INTO things, building towers (mostly he just knocks them down and we build them, but he is finally building them himself), climbing, going down stairs, starting to drink from a cup, FINALLY starting to eat some table food, he laughs and giggles all the time . . . he is just a ton of fun.

I came home the other night after taking Sofia to her flute lesson and found Todd and Peter out working on the lawn mower. Micah was set up on the drive with a 5 gallon bucket filled with water. He was SOAKED from head to toe - but only on his front side! He had been standing at that bucket for about 45 minutes just splashing and splashing and splashing . . . If I had to say what his favorite activity was, I would say splashing in the water. He does it in the bath, buckets, sink, dog water, toilets . . .

It's time for me to close. Micah is awake and ready to tackle the afternoon. Check back for more updates. Really, I will do them more often!

First Day of School and an Itchy Head

Hmmmm, looking at that title, I'm feeling a little creepy . . . most people put "school" and "itchy heads" together and come up with lice! In this case, that would be a most incorrect correlation :)

Three of the kiddies started back to school yesterday. Sofia is in the 5th grade (when did she get so big?), Peter is in the 3rd grade, and little Molly started KINDERGARTEN! We took the obligatory first day of school picture at the front door. This year we somehow managed to add the "gansta" pose, as well. Looking at that shot makes me wonder how I managed to get them into the car and off to school. Truth be told, when I got out of the shower at 7:00 AM, all three were up, dressed, hair combed, beds made and breakfast nearly done! We didn't need to leave the house until nearly 8:00. Ahhh, if it would only last. Today, I had to wake up Molly at 7:10, and drag Sofia out of bed at 7:15 . . . Peter had a repeat of yesterday. They all had a great time yesterday, so I have high hopes for a great year.

OK, now for the itchy head. I finally managed to capture a shot of Micah scratching the top of his head with his toes at the dinner table. My other monkeys think it's hilarious, so . . . monkey see, monkeys do.

Back and a Loooong Break

So many people have been after me to update our blog, but I just haven't been able to find the time. 4 kids, a hubby, dog, cat, hamster, frog, a house, gymnastics, riding lessons, doctor appointments . . . I've been lucky to find time to breathe!

I haven't figured out how to do captions for pictures yet - so this one to the left was taken at the airport when we got back from China.

Everything has been going wonderfully here. Micah has slid into the family like he has always been here. It took about 2 weeks to get totally comfortable in his car seat (he made the 6 hour car trip back from Chicago with nary a whimper). It took a few weeks longer to get the high chair routine down (I had to sit with my feet in his high chair and Micah on my legs. I would feed him, laugh with him, and gradually slide him closer to my feet. He would laugh, eat, and whip his head around to be sure my feet were still there. This went on for a couple of days. Finally, I pulled my feet out from under him, and . . . he went into a hysterical crying fit. The next day Todd took over and had him eating pancakes in his high chair within minutes. I take credit for laying the groundwork!). He is mostly adjusted to baths (Todd keeps slipping on his swimming suit and hopping in the tub with Micah - I have a very clean husband). The stroller, however, still seems to be an "acid" stroller. He sees it and starts screaming. I have decided that the true purpose of a stroller is to carry the diaper bag and other purchases while I cart the kid on my hip.

Micah has gone to see the docs/therapists down in Cincinnati at the International Adoption Center. All of his blood work has come back just fine - no HIV, syphilis, Hep B or C, all immunizations took, liver and kidney functions are fine. He has visited the ENT doc (ear, nose and throat). His hearing test was - right ear has a 65 dB loss, and left ear is at 15 dB. This was pretty much what we expected. We will get more accurate results as he gets older and can respond a bit more responsibly. His TB test came back reactive, which seems to be very common in kids adopted from China. It can be either that he was exposed to TB, or it is a reaction to a vaccination that they give in China. We had a chest x-ray done to be sure that he does not have the disease - all clear. Now we get to give him antibiotics for 9 months as a safe guard in case he was exposed to it and is carrying the "bug" in his body somewhere. It will be a pain to get this bitter tasting crushed pill down him for the next 9 months, but worth it in the long run. He has gained 3 pounds since we got him, and grown a full inch!

Now for the fun stuff. He crawls like a speed demon. Loves to escape from Daddy and climb the stairs to play in the toilet in our bathroom. He can demolish a room in about 10 minutes. He is cruising furniture. He loves to imitate baby birds (open mouthed "AAHH", to which he expects us to do a nice, loud, "AAHH!!" back to him. Quite a funny sight when all 4 kids and myself are doing this walking through a store.). He thinks it's fun to pull his right leg up and scratch the top of his head with his toes WHILE SITTING IN HIS HIGH CHAIR (still trying to get a picture of this). He can snarf down 2 pieces of pizza as fast as I can. His favorite position is upside down. He finally started feeding himself a couple of weeks ago (unfortunately, he started with blueberry pancakes - not the cleanest thing. He ended up with blueberries all over his face, hair, clothes, arms, neck, etc. ). He's got lightning fast hands and will catch hold of ANYONE's hair who has the misfortune to walk within grabbing range. He loves to hug and cuddle. He loves to give kisses (unfortunately, he gives kisses on your nose with his teeth - have I mentioned that he slobbers ALOT?). He sleeps very well - 10 hours at night and a couple hours in the afternoon. I just have to put him in his crib and he plays himself to sleep. I could go on and on. He's totally awesome. So far, things are much easier that we thought they would be.

Negatives - diapers and drool. Enough said.

Sofia, Peter and Molly have been champs through this whole process. They think Micah is the cutest baby in the world and really have fun playing with him. I hope that these feelings continue as school starts up again. "Mommy time" will be at a premium once school, homework and extracurricular activities start up, so I can foresee that some jealousy issues might pop up. Hope not!! Micah seemed to be attaching to both Todd and myself . . . until Daddy went TDY for a week. He would have nothing to do with Todd for a while when he came back! We expected it, but it's still hard to see it happen. We get to go through that again next week. Ugh.

Well, I'd better sign off for now. Lots to do around the house while the little guy is asleep.