18 Month Speech Evaluation

I may be a few days late, but here is our little Halloween "chicken-duck." Coop had a blast at the downtown  Scarysville going from vendor to vendor with his pumpkin pail in tow.

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Today we had Cooper's 18 month speech evaluation and a visit with Coop's surgeon. The time change has not been to kind to my kid. Sunday he didn't seem to mind the time difference, he woke up an hour early and went to bed an hour early. Today though, that's another story. For some reason Cooper decided to skip both naps so he would be such a delight for the hour car ride and the doctor's appointment. Yeah right. Poor little guy was miserable all day. Not to mention the appointment was at 3 in the afternoon. 

Luckily, Joel was able to make it home in time to share the company of our grumpy child. For me though, he was a life saver. I've had to go to these kind of appointments alone, and by the time I get home I'm usually exhausted!

Dr. Senders did a quick check-up of Coop's ears, palate, and nose-unfortunately Coop's lip isn't healing as well as he'd like. Apparently Coop has a lot of scar tissue, and it is still really firm and red. So basically, this will only delay any revision in the future. The doctor stated that most cleft children will have a revision before they are preschool or school age. Personally, it's really not any bad news for me. I was hoping there wasn't another surgery in the near future. They do the revision more for cosmetic reasons anyway so he said to visit back in another 4-6 months. 

We also met with the speech pathologist Dr. Goodrich. She evaluated Coop on how many words he can speak, and the sounds he was making. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to get a good evaluation when you've got a fatigued 18 month old who really doesn't want to cooperate. She is concerned that he is backing a lot (not making sounds in the front of the mouth) and isn't sure if he's nasal sounding or not. She suggested we see a local worker to see if they can get a better evaluation and start early intervention if needed. As for quantity of words, Coop is doing great. She implied that his word recognition and ability to communicate through his own language is fantastic. After all, my kid is a genius...he just can't speak very clearly.

Overall we received a clean bill of health and my little guy has gained two pounds in the past month! That's amazing for all the trouble we've had with his weight gain. Cooper James is now 24lbs at 18 months of age. What a chubbers I have! 

Apple of My Eye: 14 Months

I'm going to start this out with some pictures:

One of the last shots with my old camera. What happened you ask? Well, as of last Sunday I..wait for it...I finally got a DSLR camera! I have been wanting so passionately to own a DSLR since I was a teenager in high school. Now my dream has been realized and I can put all my ideas into motion. Sometimes, I feel as if my head is going to explode holding such an abundant supply of  ideas, and I need some creative outlet to artistically let them all out. 

Here is just the first of many. It's been years since I've used any SLR camera, let alone all the new gadgets I have to play with on my new camera. Practice makes perfect right?

Who couldn't love this Jack-O-Lantern smile?

When it comes to food, this little one gets DOWN!

So Crisp

You see that hamster? That was the cause of this tantrum. Coop gets quite obsessive over these. He is deathly afraid of them, yet he pretends he's a big boy and touches them. Here I guess his vulnerability finally broke through and he let me know what he really thinks of the hamsters. Notice I say hamsters. One wasn't good enough to scare the dickens out of this poor child, recently there was a purchase for two more.

The lovely Lovey

His Vroom Vroom Vroom

Hearing race car sounds. Coop will go around the house saying vroom vroom vrooom while pushing his race car around. It's a sweet an innocent sound. But then his sweet  vroom vroom vrooom turned into a scary devil like sound that rattles deep into his chest. This new sound is for his tractor. A much deeper, dark, scary vroom vroom vroom.

Today was Cooper's second Cleft Panel meeting. My morning started bright and early at 4:30.I was heartbroken having to wake my sweet angel who was sleeping so peacefully, but we had to be out the door by 5:30 to make his 8am appointment.

The ride to there wasn't too bad, Coop chugged down a cup full to the rim of milk most of the drive and ate his nutritional breakfast of Shredded Wheat. You see, on a normal day Cooper doesn't even get up until 8:30 then regularly naps again at 9:30, so waking up at the crack of dawn for a four hour appointment was a recipe for disaster! He did well for the most part.  Although, I did have to pack half a grocery store to keep him that way.

He is in the 10% for weight and 27% for height. For some reason, my son is a freak of nature by literally eating all day and not gaining any weight. He has been 20lbs since March! I know he's extremely active but really??

After the meeting was over, it took as little as the tires rolling on the pavement to knock Coop out. To be expected right? Wrong, he slept for maybe 15 minutes before waking up with a shrilling scream that lasted oh I'd say..an hour and a half!

The sweet, peaceful  angel I mentioned earlier...

 The Tears, Oh the Tears! This Momma's heart was breaking for him.

Dad made it all better, and we made it back with dried up tears and a sniffle-free nose.