Children's Hospital Cleft Check Up

First of all, can you believe it has been almost 4 years of having Tyson home? We can't either, but at the same time, it's as if he's always been here.

Here's just a quick run-down of his appointments:

Audiology: Hearing is in normal limits in BOTH ears! Whooo Hooo!

Pediatrician: Happy with his growth and progress, and noted he is very social :)

Surgeon: Happy with cleft lip repair from last December, and we began discussing the Bone Graft Surgery, which won't be until he loses all of his baby teeth, and since he hasn't lost any...it'll be a few years. And he too commented on Ty's energy and how talkative he is.

Social Worker: Just checked in with us to see how we are doing--GREAT!

Speech Therapist: Still happy with progress. But this is a sticky one. Our visits are always right after his birthday, so he seems further behind with articulation. Yet they understand that schools don't see what they see because they assess earlier in the year. That's just the way it goes. They will continue monitoring him. And they (there was an intern too) were very entertained by Tyson and his descriptions of the books they used for assessment.

Orthodontist: This was the last appointment of the day, and at this point, Tyson was D-O-N-E. But I also learned the most. Tyson will need a palate expander before the bone graft. Again, this will be after all the baby teeth are gone. We will most likely use Children's for this as well, which is going to require multiple trips to Children's Hospital in Seattle, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. I was VERY impressed with the orthodontist! He was great with Tyson, even as Ty wasn't on his best behavior.

Other than Tyson asking every Asian at the hospital if he/she was from China, it all went well. That scenario played out multiple times, and thank goodness all involved were very understanding when Tyson would say, "Well I am from China!"

The next day, we were off on our first official camping trip of the summer. We went out to a remote area and enjoyed time with two other families. Here we are as hiked down to some beautiful falls. Tyson can squat forever and play in the water!



He also enjoyed playing in the lake!


More to come as we have more fun this summer, and Tyson gears up for "GULP" KINDERGARTEN! (Oh Lord help me...)