1st Day of Kindergarten & the Lancaster County Super Fair

No tears this morning... for mom OR Elli! For those of you who know me, know this is a HUGE accomplishment!! I figured I would have bawled my eyes out... because I usually do when it comes to things like this. BUT Elli was so EXCITED and BRAVE! It just put me at ease! I could tell she was a little nervous once we pulled up to the school and while we were standing there waiting, but I'm sure that subsided once she was in her class room. When I pick her up, we're going for ice cream! It's just so hard to believe I have a kindergartener!

1st Day of Kindergarten

1st Day of Kindergarten!

Kindergarten Round-up! Elli's very own locker!

Elli & Grandpa going on the ferris wheel.

Briggs LOVED all the rides! It was so cute! He was smiling and waving everytime he went around. It was great!!!

Briggs, my nephew Shawn and Elli. Love this picture!

Surgery #4 - Removal of Cholesteatoma

Briggs had surgery #4 this past Monday (Aug. 3rd). It was a VERY minor procedure and was similar to an ear tubes procedure (even though we've never been through that, we were told it was very comparable). Long story... in the first attempt to place Briggs left ci over a year ago, our surgeon was 95% done with the surgery and found a bunch of fluid (keep in mind Briggs had never had an ear infection) when drilling into his mastoid. He was surprised and consulted with a surgeon in Florida while Briggs was laying on the operating table and they decided to not continue with placing the ci in case that fluid happened to be infection (devastating at the time - the thought of putting him through another surgery, but SO glad it worked out the way it did in the end because when Briggs had the left ci placed 3 weeks later he had a very small cerebral spinal leak and had that fluid been infection (it was never cultured) and that cerebral spinal and infection met we would have been in BIG trouble). So during that surgery the doctor placed a tube to drain off that fluid. 3 weeks later he went back in to surgery, removed the tube, finished the ci placement and placed a fat pad in the hole where the tube was. Skin grew over that fat pad resulting in a cholesteatoma. His surgeon watched it for about 6 months and it never moved off the ear drum so he went it to remove it. Piece of cake! A few hours later it was if nothing had ever happened.

Pre- surgery in my cute hospital pj's
In the play room at Boys Town Hospital

Post-surgery

That afternoon at home

Briggs trying out the soundfield FM we're borrowing from our school system

Future Audiologist!!

At Briggs last mapping appt. he showed hearing at 15 decibels across all frequencies ranging from 250 to 6000. There is one area, the "m" and "oo" sounds on only the left side that he occasionally gets mixed during ling checks and according to our center these two sounds are so close in frequency that they are often confused. They made a slight adjustment to his map on the left side and we'll continue to monitor these sounds.

Briggs is talking sentences. For example, "mommy can I have more green beans, please?", "If I go potty, I get to watch a movie"

It's just SO exciting to see his progress in just a year and a couple months! Truly amazing!

Our other big exciting news... Briggs is potty trained!! I haven't said anything because I didn't want to jinx myself... :)