Cleft team appointment at UCSF

Lily had a follow up this morning at UCSF. I am pooped and am seriously looking forward to a group nap :-). The sooner the better. I wanted to update though.

All in all not much new news. The speech path is very optimistic that Lily does not have an insufficiency and wants her to continue speech therapy. In fact, she wants us to up it to twice a week.

The plastic surgeons defer to the speech path, and we don't need Togo back for 6 months.

There were families lined up in the hallway waiting to see the Cranio facial team! The Lord gave me a grateful heart when after chatting a bit with two families in the waiting room, I found out that one family was from Los Banos (2 hours away) and one from Bakersfield (3 hours away). So...one hour drive from Sunnyvale is not so bad :-).

Also, there was a boy maybe 8 or 9 waiting who I think had a repaired bilateral complete cleft lip (like Lily). He looked so handsome :-). And seemed so well adjusted and happy. It was encouraging.

First pic is of Lil in the waiting room with the shape sorter lid as a "helmet". Second one is aarbear and Lil once we got home. He made a pile of pillows for her and said, "lily is in medical bay."

As always, thank you for praying!

Silkworm Science

This is our second time studying the silkworm lifecycle.  The kids think the silkworms are very cool.  I think they are cool, and a little bit disgusting at the same time.  Dave does not like them at. all.  He nicknames the silkworms things like, "End Times," and "Naked," "Wretched," and "Blind."  Hee hee.

What do you think?  Cool?  Gross?  Apocalyptic?

Our stockpile of mulberry leaves, the only thing these guys eat.

I promise that Aaron's green smoothie does not contain blenderized mulberry leaves!

Here is a fantastic site about the rearing of the domesticated silkworm aka bombyx mori.  Silkworms have been bred for silk production for thousands of years.  These guys are now very resistant to disease, tolerate a lot of handling, and spin lots and lots of silk when they enter their cocoon (pupa) phase.

Even Lily thinks they are cool.  She can even very clearly say, "Wormie!"

So the kids have been keeping science journals about them.  They have been measuring them. . .

Comparing them to other objects. . .

Making observations. . .
Here you see one of them in the first stage of spinning his cocoon.  Pretty neat, huh?

Some of them even had to accompany us on our road trip to Southern California that we took over Memorial Day weekend.  I needed to keep feeding them mulberry leaves, so we stuck them in a shoe box and put them on our car console for the trip.  Dave was not happy.  Here he is saying (while I am trying to get a photo), "Don't open that box!"

All of them in their cocoons!  After they had finished spinning them, we took them out of the enclosure and put them on this tray lined with paper towel so we could observe them better.

And look who I found this morning when I got up to check on them!  Our first moth has emerged from her cocoon :-).  As gross as they may be, they are very fascinating and an amazing display of God's creativity!  Who would imagine that something wrinkled and floppy would become this winged, fuzzy, six legged creature?

A sketch from Nathan's journal dated 5-16-2012.   Here is what he wrote (with original spelling and mechanics):
"We'v Been studying silk worms in school.  Silkworms are a certain catterpilar that only eat mulBerry leafs, spin silk, and make cacoons of silk.  my biggesdt is about 1 in. .75, my smallest on the other hand is about 1/2", the biggst is named Mushroom, the mediumest is named black out, and my Last and smallest is named silkie."

Aaron just climbed out of bed and I showed him our new moth.  Can't wait to see what the other kids think.
More to come about these guys. . . stay tuned. . .

Aaron is 5!

On Saturday (June 2nd), my littlest boy turned 5! Wow! For those of you who know Aaron - he can be very shy. The shyest of all of my kids, at least for now. I think it was only last year that many people at church even knew he could talk :-). When he is comfy, though, he is a regular chatterbox and smiley-face. Thank the Lord for good friends up here in the Bay Area, who in the absence of extended family, made the birthday boy's special day a treat! I made the Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Cake Ever for the occasion. The kids all liked it - but I thought it was soooooo sweet. Too sweet for me. I think you can halve the sugar and it would still be fine.

Post in pictures

Truly lovely

I received an e-mail late last night sharing this video. My friend who sent it to me described it best - breathtaking. If you have a few minutes, please please watch it. It is about marriage. And, as a believer, I am so thankful for "the great cloud of witnesses" that we know surround us as written in the book of Hebrews. Ian and Larissa are truly witnesses of Christ's amazing love. This young couple certainly challenge me to press on in marriage and to choose to love every day. I hope it encourages and blesses you, too! Please click HERE to read about and watch a short video about This Momentary Marriage - the Story of Ian and Larissa.

Mommy Moments

First off, an update on Matt. I have had many people ask me how he is doing. He is doing great! I think he is almost 100% recovered! Praise the Lord! He attended church on Sunday for the first time in 3 weeks, and even had friends over afterwards to play. He went back to Chinese school this morning (much to his displeasure), and went to piano lessons as well in the afternoon. He is, however, taking a hiatus from martial arts for the month of May. Contact sports is a no-no when recovering from mono. The reason is that your spleen gets enlarged during the infection and can rupture if you get hit there. Otherwise, his appetite is back, and he seems to be recovering very nicely. Thank you for your concern and prayers! I have been reading Little House On The Prairie to the kids, and they have been really into it. They love the fact that the Ingalls have a brindle bulldog named Jack. They also love to hear about the food the family eats. We decided to have a Little House breakfast the other morning - bacon, and then cornmeal pancakes cooked in the bacon fat. Yum. We had syrup instead of molasses though.

Here is a snapshot of singspiration before Sunday school this past Sunday.

And here are the two littles this morning. Yes, they sleep with me and they often kick each other (and me) at night. But I found them snuggling like two puppies this morning.

And lastly (I hope Nathan will forgive me for telling this story), a little misadventure this afternoon. We were at piano lessons. Matthew was having his lesson, so Nathan, Aaron, Lily and I were out in the backyard of our piano teacher's home. There is a jungle gym structure there that is made of wood, with a big plastic slide and a swing. Anyway, Nathan went down the slide, and then he was quiet for a while. He comes up and says, "I think I have a splinter. In my butt." There is a wooden plank that butts (no pun intended) up against the top of the plastic slide. He had slid his bottom across there and got hurt. I was trying not to laugh, but I had him come over with me to a corner of the yard and pull his shorts down so I could have a look. Yup. More than one splinter in fact - maybe a handful :-(. Everytime I tried to pull one out, though, Nathan would giggle and start moving so much that I couldn't get them. I was half getting impatient and half laughing and telling him to be still. Then all of a sudden, Matthew pokes his head out of the sliding door and says, "Nene, it's your turn for piano." I told Matthew to tell the piano teacher Nathan had a splinter and I was trying to get it out. The boys' piano lessons are group lessons - meaning there are other kids in their lesson with them. So I can hear from the sounds coming from the windows that his lesson has started. Someone is playing piano. I am getting panicked that someone else will come out and call us and see Nathan's butt and me hunched over it. Meanwhile, he is still getting giggly whenever I come close to picking out his splinters. Too ticklish, I guess. I finally tell him we will have to wait until we get home and have Daddy do it. Nathan reluctantly agrees and pulls his shorts up. He says to me very seriously, "This is dreadful." Poor lamb. He made it through piano lessons, though, without once wincing when he had to sit down. I had to think about sad thoughts in order to not bust out laughing every time he looked at me. That boy just cracks me up. Dreadful indeed! Dave had the misfortune honor of picking all those splinters out. I wish in a way that I had a photo to go with this story, but I don't think that I could post it even if I did :-). One thing for sure, Nathan certainly gave Dave and I trials of patience when he was a toddler and a preschooler. But now - goodness, I think we laugh more in one day that we used to laugh in weeks because of this boy. We love him to pieces. I will end with two pictures of Nathan since this has kind of turned into a post about him. The first is from years ago - and this photo was taken at Sunday school and put on a Mother's Day card they made for all the mamas. I think he was 3.

Man, look at those dimples! And that face! And the bandaid on that squishy arm! Next photo is from about a year ago at Uncle Kevin's wedding where he was the ring boy. So handsome!

Our Father's Love

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him ~ Psalm 103:13, NLT