Home One Year

It's been a busy year! At the end of May, we celebrated Garrett being home with us for one year already- how quickly the time flies by!

He is doing great- so healthy and happy! In the spring, he got a special orthodontic device (just like a little retainer) to plug the hole left in the roof of his mouth and help with airflow and speech. It is hoped that eventually, the hole will be able to close on its own, but if not, when he has his next big surgery after braces it can be surgically closed. He has seen the speech therapist since the beginning of the year and is working on articulation of consonants, and lately is stringing more words together in sentences. It is still difficult to understand him when he is talking about something out of context- it took me about 10 minutes to get that he was trying to tell me about a banana slug in the garden one day! His comprehension of English was so fast- within 6 months, he understood basically everything any other American 3 year old would understand! My big hope for him right now is that within the next year, before starting kindergarten, his speech will be much easier for others outside the family to understand.

Alma continues to be a fantastic big sister to Garrett, for which I am so grateful.  They fit together like 2 peas in a pod.  Of course they have their sibling moments, but 99% of the time they have a great time together.  This was one of my most unexpected joys- how easy it has been to go from one child to two in the grand scheme of things (after the first few months of adjusting of course).  I expected Alma to have a difficult time sharing my attention, since she had been an only child for so long, but this has not been an issue, much to my surprise.  Even when he's being a pesty little brother, she has a good time with him!

He just celebrated his fourth birthday, and what a great time he had swimming with his little pals! So thankful to have him in our lives.