Emily taught herself a bit of Heart & Soul on the piano, so of course I want to share. She’s been taking piano lessons for a couple of months and she’s very motivated to learn. She seems to be able to pick up songs by ear and, like Ana, she’s got a good ear for music. I guess I’ve got a budding musician on my hands!
Emily’s Performance
Apr
11
2011
Emily performed at her school variety show yesterday. The video in my last post didn’t have great sound quality – you couldn’t really hear her. This one is much better. I’m so proud of her!
Ana was perfect as well.
I’m so proud of both of them. Everyone was amazed. I wish I hadn’t turned off the camera when Emily was done because the cheering was way loud. There were about 300 people in the room.
Emily sings Firework
Apr
4
2011
Emily has grown into a very good singer/performer. She takes after her dad, who is a drummer/musician and her big sister Ana, who has just about the most amazing singing voice I’ve ever heard. I, personally, don’t have any musical ability whatsoever, so I’m the odd one out in this family. I still have bragging rights though, which is why I’m posting this video!
This is Emily rehearsing for her school’s variety show on April 10th. I’m hoping to get a better quality video of her at the show, but this will have to do. That’s her dad playing drums in the background.
And speaking of bragging rights, here’s Ana singing her variety show song – The Rose…
What good is a mommy blog if I can’t occasionally post videos of my children singing?
Quick Update
Mar
2
2011
Emily went into NYU on Monday for a check up to see how she’s progressing. Her top teeth moved another millimeter forward, so she’s now officially got a (slight) overbite! We’re very excited. Emily can put the gear on all by herself now and she proudly showed the staff at NYU. It looks like she’ll be all done with the head gear at some point in May and that will be a major relief. We also officially got a surgery date for her bone graft – July 7th. I’m dreading it, of course. We’ll just take it day by day, I guess. Here’s a few updated pictures of her and Ana.
She’s wearing a fake spy mustache. Can you tell it’s her?
Here’s Ana hanging out on Emily’s bed
Another one with the mustache. Hmm…maybe I should try to take some more pictures.
Goddess of the pink eyes
Jan
16
2011
Emily got some make up for Christmas, which I’m starting to regret because she keeps coming downstairs fully made up in varying shades of pink. She likes to slop it all over her eyes even though I keep telling her to keep it away from her eyes (it’s nontoxic kids’ make up so at least there’s that).
Here’s a shot of her latest new look.
That right there is her “I’m a supermodel” face.
She’s doing pretty good with the head gear, now that we’re more than six weeks into it. I wish she would wear it more often – we probably average a little less than 14 hours a day because we are able to get her to put it on fairly early at night and she sleeps with it on without any problems. She’s decided she doesn’t want to wear it to school anymore and, really, who can blame her? She can actually put it on all by herself now, even though it now requires six rubberbands (three on each side).
She had an appointment at NYU a couple of weeks ago and Dr. Grayson (her orthodontist) said the width of her palate had widened 4 mm’s and her jaw has come forward nearly 2 mm’s. Though this sounds like a small amount of movement, it is very good early progress. I can actually see a big difference in her teeth, particularly in the two front teeth which used to be much closer together (now they are so far apart it looks like she’s missing her to front teeth). She’s an expert with the plate now and can speak completely normally and eat comfortably. She does hate the head gear and we’re all looking forward to the end of that!
I’ll post another update after her next visit at NYU which is scheduled for the end of January.
And speaking of thankful..
Nov
30
2010
I’ve been composing this post in my head for the last week, and I hope I can finish it before one of the kids notices I’m gone.
So Emily got her head gear last Monday. As per my previous post, this actually consists of two pieces – a palate expander and anterior pull head gear (her “mask”) which sits vertically across her face and is attached to the palate expander with the world’s smallest rubber bands. It pretty much covers her entire little face.
Needless to say, Emily is not pleased. Even so, she pretty much wears it without complaining. She did extremely well at NYU last week when everything was being installed. We were at the hospital from 12:30 to about 4:30 with lots of waiting (as usual). At one point we all had to sit in the waiting room while Emily got the palate expander glued into her mouth and the NYU staff was really impressed at how well behaved Emily was (and brave) without us there.
The first day was the hardest for Emily – she had a hard time talking with the plate in her mouth and she was VERY self conscious about the head gear. It’s a lot easier to get on than it looks though, and we didn’t have much trouble putting it on. I’m also happy to say she’s sleeping just fine with it (although it did fall off one night and Emily was beside herself – she thought she was in trouble).
We have to clean Emily’s mouth out with a water pick because her top teeth are will be covered by the plate for six months. This took some getting used to (we were all drenched that first day). Now, of course, we’re professional water pick users.
I feel like I could go on and on with the details of dealing with this new challenge, but I’d rather just say thanks for a lot of things. I’ll punctuate my thank yous with some cute pictures too (naturally).
Emily’s wearing a lovely fake mustache she got from a vending machine in the NYU waiting room.
Thank you NYU (Dr. Grayson, Shelley, Margie and everyone who is involved with Emily’s care). Thank you all for head gear, and for nonsurgical intervention, and for fixing my child. We would all be lost without you.
Here’s a shot of Emily right before we left for NYU last week.
Thank you to my entire family who are so supportive and wonderful – to all of you – mom, Jim, Ana, Janne, Amy, Chloe, Layla, Lisa, Susan…everyone – you are Emily’s foundation. She needs you, we need you and without you all I couldn’t be so strong.
A shot of Emily’s first hour or two with the plate in her mouth. She wasn’t very comfortable.
A very special thank you to Emily’s teachers, Kristin and Patrick, who went WAY above and beyond by offering to help Emily wear her head gear at school (to the point of having us come in and do a demonstration for the class, then show them both how to put the head gear on!) It takes a special kind of person to go into someone else’s child’s mouth and mess around with tiny rubber bands and saliva. Seriously. I am in awe of both of them, and so incredibly grateful for the loving support she’s getting from her teachers and friends at school.
Okay, I’m done, but can’t resist one last cute picture:
Emily’s Thanksgiving dinner – she had the plate in for only three days and she was eating just fine, and speaking almost completely normally. Did I mention how thankful I am for Emily? She’s my bunny and I love her so much.
We Are Thankful Every Day
Nov
20
2010
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Emily learned this song from her wonderful music teacher at her school.
We ARE thankful every day!
What’s next for Emily
Nov
4
2010
I have been meaning to write this post for the last couple of weeks, ever since our last visit to NYU which was on October 13th. Since then, Halloween has come and gone (which is a great opportunity to show a picture of Emily in her Halloween costume):
Okay, now that that’s over. So Emily was seen for all of five minutes by Dr. Cutting (her surgeon) and Dr. Grayson (her orthodontist) on the 13th. At that time Dr. Cutting confirmed she will need a bone graft this coming June, when she’s 7.
FULL SCREECHING STOP.
Okay, so maybe I convinced myself that Emily wouldn’t need another surgery until she was 8 or 9. Or maybe I just didn’t realize that Emily was approaching the window of surgery (ages 6-8 is around the time kids get a bone graft for a cleft), but whatever it was I was telling myself, I finally had to face reality. It’s coming, and it’s coming fast.
And if that’s not enough, why not bring on some elaborate head gear while we’re at it? So, in preparation for the bone graft (at least, to my understanding) Emily will need to start the head gear process I mentioned back in 2009. She went back to the city today with her dad and got a mold of her palate. They’ll take that mold and use it to create a palate expander which will be glued into her mouth for the next six months. She gets that placed in two weeks (11/22 is our appointment). She’ll also need to wear anterior pull headgear for 14 hours a day – that’s pretty much all the time, except for when she’s in school. Here’s what that looks like:
Emily is a trooper and even though she’s worried (she’s said as much) I know she’ll do well with the mask and that six months will pass quickly. That’s what I’m worried about actually, because surgery is terrifying and recovery means soft foods and other things (like a splint in her mouth for two months). She pretty much loses an entire summer of her life. An entire summer! That’s an eternity when you’re seven and you love to swim. My heart is already breaking, but I’m also glad that we’re getting it over with while she’s still so young. I’ll write with an update after her next visit.
CleftStories.com is a top blog!
Sep
17
2010
Hey, we won a prize!
I’m not sure how we got on this list, but it’s pretty cool to be recognized. Click on the badge to see a list of other top cleft blogs!! I see we’re in good company – a lot of our friends are on this list as well.
*taking a bow*
My first and fourth graders
Sep
13
2010
Well folks, TODAY’S THE DAY! Emily and Ana started school and are now happily ensconced in academia (or so I imagine, as I sit here in the beautiful silence of my home office). I wasn’t able to get very good pictures this morning – the bus showed up at our house (this is a new thing for this year – woo hoo!). I only had time to snap a couple of shots before they were gone. I’ll try to get a better one of them tomorrow.
Yeah, not the best shots. I don’t know if Ana is trying not to laugh, or holding in a cough (she’s got a sinus and ear infection – great way to start school, eh?) Look how tall Emily has gotten!!!
BYEEEE!!!! (is it me, or does Emily look like she’s having second thoughts?)