Surgery has been set!!

Hello again,


I have had really good intentions to update this blog more often, but we all know where good intentions lead!  Little Nicole has continued to transition really well to the North American way of doing things... some notable events and life lessons learned she has learned are listed below (but not limited too!)

1) Why eat 1 plate of pasta when you can eat 4?
2) When you eat too much watermelon, activities are limited the next day (I am too polite to get into details... lets just say it wasn't pretty).
3) Pools are fun
4) Sometimes there are gates in front of stairs that block where you want to go, if you can't climb over them, climb under them.
5) Stairs can be dangerous (refer note 4)
6) You can get into more mischief when Daddy "watches" you.

On the medical front, we have firm dates for the surgeries - her lip will be done on October 2, and the palate on November 14th.  While we are certainly anxious to have these done, there is also some worry attached.  She will be in the hospital for 2-4 days each time.  Nicole continues to wear the tape across her cheeks to relax her muscles and bring things together - it really doesn't seem to bother her which is a blessing.  It certainly does not slow her eating down AT ALL!

As for Alex, she continues to be a great big sister and has been very proud to show off her new toy (oops... I mean Nicole) to all her friends at camp, soccer & baseball.  As one of our friends aptly put it, "you got her a real live dolls" - it is true.  Nicole continues to follow her big sister around like she is a rock star.

I don't know that there will be too much to update you on for the next month or so until the surgery.  We have several appointments through the month to monitor her progress (ie. orthodontics etc) and to prepare her for the big day.

Stay tuned!

And so it begins...

Greetings!

In my last post, I indicated that our regular daily lives are not that exciting and indeed that has not changed.  However, I did promise to update as to Nicole's medical progress and so here is the most recent!

We have essentially been getting back to our "new norm" over the last 2 weeks, Nicole has met most of her extended family (cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents) as well as some friends.  So far she has charmed most of them!!

Here are the girls with Grandma Helen and Grandpa Charles (my family)

and Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Ray (John's)

We also have been on our first bike ride, picnic, splash pad etc!

On the medical front,  Nicole also had a bunch of "firsts".  We started with the pediatrician appointment - uneventful outside of the fact that she has to have all of her vaccinations retaken and had 4-5 viles of blood taken to test for any diseases etc (this is standard for all international adoptions).  She had 2 vaccinations done and the rest will be done over the coming months.  Did I mention the stool sample?? That was my personal favourite....

We had our first round of appointments at Sick Kids this week - they have a whole cleft lip/ palate team  consisting of Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Plastic Surgeons, dentist, orthodontists etc... we met ALL of them!!  Nicole was not a particular fan of the dentist or the orthodontist (who taped her lip to retrain the muscles, this will hopefully reduce some of the tension on the stitches when her lip gets fixed).  I think she bit the dentist's finger hard - the Dentist was very nice about it but I think that Nicole feigned innocence....  Surgery is being scheduled for 6-8 weeks, she will be in the hospital for 2-3 days depending on how well she tolerates everything.  She will have the tape on until the surgery - it is changed daily - needless to say, she is not the biggest fan!

Round 2 of appointments is in 10 days when we get to see our friendly Ears, Nose, Throat Specialist and she will be lucky enough to get a hearing test!  To top off the day, she will be lucky to see the orthodontist again to check out her lip.  Let the good times roll!