Sports..sports...sports....

This little fellow is a busy guy.  He LOVES his sports as I'm sure I've mentioned several times.  Currently he is playing in 3 sport leagues which consist of flag football, soccer, and coach pitch baseball.  This is in addition to weekly speech therapy...WOW...BUSY!!  Not only does my little guy have some mad skill, but his heart is in it 100% too.

Surgery time...

Surgery to get bilateral ear tubes inserted again was a success.  As Brandon is getting older he is definitely more aware of what is to come.  Even though I was trying not to tell him where we were going until the last possible moment, I'm sure he sensed it.  He was more "clingy" than usual when I woke him up, he told me he loved me several times, and when I told him we were going to go see the doctor about his ears he immediately said "NO SHOTS!".  We were fortunate that Brandon didn't have to get an IV for this procedure, they just used a mask to put him under anesthesia since it was a short procedure.  Even though I knew this was a pretty simple surgery, seeing my baby wheeled off to the surgery room and watching him wave Bye to me was tough.  I'm happy to say everything went well and my Bubba is back!  Doctor said he had some really thick fluid in his ears that has likely been a huge contributing factor to the hearing loss Brandon has shown recently.  We will follow up in 2-3 weeks for another hearing evaluation and check up and hopefully we will see some improved speech as well.  I can already tell a difference in his hearing as he heard someone whistling in the background on TV and asked me if I was whistling.  Love him!

Honory Ribbon Cutter

Harbor, my employer, just expanded our Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric Center which is my department ;)  We now have a new building which looks great and is much closer to home for me.  We are part of the Autism Collaborative her in Northwest Ohio and I'm excited to see us expand further and service a well needed population.  Brandon was asked to be part of local commercial advertising our services and later as our Open House came near he was asked to be the Honorary ribbon cutter at the ceremony.  Super cool and he was so excited.  Those were some BIG scissors, with a little help from mommy he handled it like a champ!

Back with the ENT

Brandon's private speech therapist had voiced some concerns that Brandon may having a hearing problem. While he does say "HUH?", and "You talking to me?" often, we generally thought it was just because he needed things repeated at times to process the information better. He had passed all of his hearing screenings, but due to the concerns reported we had the school bring in an audiologist to test Brandon's hearing. Based on that audiologist's evaluation they recommended we follow up with the ENT again as they noted some possible conductive hearing loss. I rescheduled with Brandon's ENT whom we hadn't seen in 2 years. Apparently I was supposed to be following the ENT every four months until his tubes fell out, but due to all of his various appointments and the fact that we were seeing his pediatrician so often, I figured we would just go back as needed. I didn't feel that paying a copay to be told "Yep, he still has one tube in place" was necessary when his pediatrician was monitoring this at all of Brandon's visits. Anyways, we are back now and they did a hearing test in a booth as seen in the picture above. As it turns out, they found Brandon to have a 35 decibel hearing loss in one ear and 30 decibel loss in the other ear. This is likely due to fluid and/or wax in his ear canals preventing his ear drum from vibrating properly. Treatment recommended...new set of ear tubes. Now we are just waiting for this minor surgery to be scheduled in the next couple weeks. We may find that Brandon's speech greatly improves after this as they said he is most likely hearing things as if he were in a tunnel.

Dental Procedure...

Well, Brandon has been seeing his Pediatric Dentist since he was a couple weeks old. We typically go every 3 months for fluoride treatments and every 6 months for cleanings. We have to monitor his teeth very closely as they are not all coming in as they should. A couple of his teeth are in between part of his remaining cleft palate...most of his palate was repaired at 13 months, but the rest cannot be corrected until he receives his bone graph later. Kids with clefts need extra dental attention. As this past visit turned out, there was a "defect" noted in one of Brandon's canine teeth which could develop into a cavity if not corrected, so Brandon received his first filling and did FABULOUS!! I'm so proud of him.

Brandon Turns 4

Lego and Angry Bird Cake Pops (as requested by the birthday boy)
Sylvania Playland birthday fun.

Just hanging around...

Waiting for one of his birthday surprises.

His new big boy bike from Grandma and Pop Pop...he was in love. I'm predicting he will be riding it without training wheels by the end of the summer. :)

Looking back...

As my little guy's 4th birthday is soon approaching I have been looking back at older pictures of him to reminisce. Time has flown by so fast. I am so proud of this little boy. He is my hero! I love every thing about him. Looking back at some of his older pictures I have even missed his older smile at times, but the one thing that remains the same is that wonderful personality that shows through those beautiful eyes. I look forward to watching him grow as our journey continues...