Melee Christmas

Our Christmas morning was a bit wild, hence the melee Christmas. Hunter and Madison know the drill and tore through their presents quickly. Jack was clearly overwhelmed by the gifts. We pulled some back and slowed down to help him cope. He likes to study his gifts and play with each one individually.

Madison snuggled up with Hunter on Christmas morning, showing him the tricks of cell phone use. We decided to get him a cell phone this year to use for emergencies. He said it was his favorite gift.


Hunter was buried by this massive gift from Grandma and Grandpa. This Pirates of the Caribbean boat is big enough for both boys to sail the high seas.

As always Jack loved playing with his twin cousins Axel and Conrad. I think he has missed being around babies. He always shows us baby in sign language when we head over to Craig's parent's house. It precious to see how careful he is with the boys.



And, of course, he was pretty interested in their riding train toy...

Catching up with Jack at Shriners

I don't know if I've said it clearly here, but we are grateful for the gift Shriners' Children's Hospital of Boston has given our family. Before Jack ever landed on American soil he was welcomed into the Shriners family.

To date, he's received two surgeries to close his palate from Dr. Michael Lewis and his team. Here are some pictures from the most recent surgical visit.


Here's the old pro working the moving sidewalks at Logan's Delta terminal. The good news here is that the shirt we bought in China for him is finally getting small on our little guy.


This is a shot from the night before the surgery in Jack's room. Ironically, we stayed in the same room as his first surgery here. We were so impressed that Jack showed no fear about being back in the hospital or even in the same room.

I have debated about whether to post this picture. Finally, I decided that I wish I had know this was a possibility with the cleft palate surgery. Jack has a thick thread through his tongue to allow the doctors the ability to pull his tongue in the event he has trouble breathing. We didn't know this would happen until late the night before the surgery. Jack hated having this thread there. He tried his best to swallow it on several occasions. When it finally came out, he seems much more at peace. (It was in for 24 hours).


In typical Jack fashion, recovery was quick. We'd booked flights leaving on Sunday, but Jack was ready to go only 48 short hours after surgery. Delta helped us reorganized and we headed out on Thursday afternoon.

Jack has become the prince of the Delta Crown room. Its unusual to see other children in the Crown room, but he settles in and relaxes better than most adults. Of course, with Ariel the Little Mermaid seranading you, its hard not to relax. The milk cup in the foreground was the beginning of the two week liquid diet, during which I can happily report that our little guy lost no weight!



Jack has more than earned his wings, so he posed with the pilots.

Christmas Boat Parade

Merry Christmas

Jack experienced a family tradition of ours - the annual Christmas Boat Parade. We head over to Craig's parent's house for dinner out on the dock while the boats cruise by.

Here is a sweet little Santa's Helper.

There is boat covered in Christmas lights passing in the background. Clearly a Florida holiday tradition, especially with short sleeve shirts.

Jack shouted his very best "Merry Christmas" to all the boats.




Here's the rest of the crew...Pat you are there in the back. :) Thanks for keeping up with the blog. I will do my best to post more often.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1163026766

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family!

Of course we are beyond grateful to share our family Thanksgiving tradition with Jack - Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Some day we will bring him down to Central Park West to our favorite watching spot, but for now we are so happy that he is here with us.

On this day of thanks, we want to thank Dr. Lewis and the team at Shriner's Hospital in Boston for all they have done for Jack. We also thank Jennifer at Lifelink for her continued support.

To families who are still waiting to bring their children home, we send our thoughts and prayers.

To our travel family, the Mansens, we thank you for your friendship and bond.

Lastly and most importantly to our family here in Florida and in chilly New England - thank you for all of our love, support and encouragement!

Red Ribbon

Discharged & Heading Home

Our beautiful little boy continues to amaze us. Yesterday afternoon he rally turned the corner after Dr.Evan removed his tongue stitch. Last night he was fired up and ready to play. he started drinking fluids and didn't need the pain medicine. This morning during their rounds, the doctors decided we could go home. I am writing this post from my cell phone at the lovely Crown Room in the Atlanta airport. We all look forward to sleeping in our own beds. We thank everyone for their warm wishes of love and support.

Jack is out of surgery

Jack is out of surgery. This has ben far harder and more emotional than his first palate operation. He's swollen and in pain. We haven't really been able to hold him either. He has to stay inside an oxygen tent with moisture.

Happy Faces

The kids are really enjoying each other. Hunter and Jack has become great buddies. When we pick Hunter up from school Jack claps in the backseat.


Holding on tight to his big brother. Jack loves anything that Hunter does. He is so daring and fearless. I get a bit worried by his courage, but with this next surgery coming up, I know how much he needs that courage.

We head back up to Boston on Monday. The surgery is scheduled for Tuesday morning. The surgeons hope to completely repair his soft palate. If you are curious about the surgery check out this link - http://www.plasticsurgery.org/patients_consumers/procedures/CleftLipPalate.cfm

Jack's Birthday in August

My apologies to everyone who followed our blog for such a long time. We have been keeping very busy in the last few months. I will do my best to include updates on the big things. I thought a good starting place would be Jack's third birthday party.

Elmo is a favorite of Jack's. We found a perfect Wilton cake pan at Michael's Craft Store and Hunter helped me bake and decorate.

Nana shows Jack some of his Mommy's handy work.

We want to add some excitement (also called stress) to the party, so I ordered an inflatable waterslide. It was nearly as tall as our house and took up much of the front yard. Hunter and his friend Michael had a blast sliding from the top. Jack preferred to play in the pool of water at the bottom of the slide. He did slide down, but liked being lifted to the middle and sliding from there. Now, I will admit that I had to be selective with the images I included... Before the party Craig and I saw Hunter having so much fun we thought, "why not?" He and I slide down several times. It was fun, but the landing was not soft. The base of the pool was a thin layer of plastic over the grass (no padding at all). We both hurt our backs and hobbled around for the day.


Here's Jack giving me the reassuring look, "Mommy don't worry, I won't let Hunter kick me in the face."

After the water slide adventures, Jack celebrated with presents. He loved sitting on the ottoman surrounded by gifts, but who wouldn't.

He got a music card and that may have been his highlight. He still has it and carries it around.


Nana and Grampie got Jack a Harley Hot Wheel. He scoots all over the house with it. He hasn't started pedaling yet.



Jack seemed to really know what he was doing during the Happy Birthday song and candle blowing out. I wonder if they did something like this in China. We did have a picture in collection from Rongxian of children sitting around what appeared to be a giant cake. Perhaps they did a shared birthday party once a year. All I know is that my little guy loves his day.

Weekend End Get-Away

I know this doesn't exactly seem like a beginning of the great weekend get-away...but we did start at the Chevy dealer. Our Suburban's air conditioning stopped working on the driver's side. We've brought it in twice before and it was supposed to be fixed. The departure was delayed by about three hours, but the good news was...the air broke again before we got out of Florida. :)

Saturday morning the kids played at Centennial Park in Atlanta.

We visited the Coca Cola museum...Craig wanted to know when we would go to the Cheez-It museum.
Jack watched his first 3D movie.

Jack absolutely loved the Coke bear. He kept hugging him even after the picture was taken.

Later that night we went to the Georgia Aquarium. The kids popped up inside the penguin habitat. There is actually a penguin in this photo (look inside the cat litter box looking thing).



We returned to Stone Mountain for the first time since I was pregnant with Hunter. Jack and Hunter enjoyed the skyway ride to the top of the mountain.


It was a hazy day and we couldn't see too far, but we had a good time with everyone.


And then...we surprised the kids with a new adoption!






Meet Luca, the Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff).



Jack didn't hold him...but I felt this picture should be included to help you share in the moment. Our car ride home took 10 hours!

The Super Boys

My Incredibles

Jack as "Jack-Jack" and Hunter as "Dash"

Nana, the boys are ready to fly to Boston to see you. They send their love to you, Auntie Chris, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Mary and Cousin George!

Birthday #2 at the Climbing Gym

Nana, Mom, HAWK, Auntie Chris, Corinne, Grampie, Uncle John & Aunt Laurel scaled the walls at the climbing gym this afternoon. (After watching the 11 minute home-made safety video)


Each of us were attached to an "auto-belay" by our harness. The harness was tight across the middle and formed a serious wedge situation.


The colored tags indicate pathways you can follow to the top. Some were easier than others. Hunter found them all easy.


Hunter started climbing this wall well after John and I, yet he swamped us. He just flew up the wall.


This was a highlight for Hunter and Uncle John.

Then Uncle John raged up to the top of the wall! (I got this picture from the top of the wall...meaning I am right beside him at the top.)

You can see the crew at the bottom...it felt like a long way down.

Corinne says, "I am holding on for dear life...take the freaking picture."



Grampie and Nana got into the action scaling the wall with ease.


Here's the most impressive picture of the day. Auntie Chris made it to the top of the wall. Craig caught this shot of her coming back down the wall. As he said, "rappelling at high speeds."

Happy Birthday my Boy!