School Pictures

Aren't they cute?

Our trip to the zoo...we have a special friend that gave us the inside scoop at the sea lion show!
See the next post for more summer pictures:

Summer Greetings!

We've had lots of fun this summer (probably why mom hasn't posted more). We ran a race....

We went swimming at the Lake of the Ozarks...
We went fishing...well, some of us just liked the worms...

Yes, that's a fish lying there, poor fish! Andy was determined to throw it back in "all by myself"!
Katie's Big Catch....She isn't afraid to hold a fish!

Katie and Andy are growing like weeds.... Andy has officially hit his terrible 2's. He is perfecting the art of tantrums and screaming "I SAID NO!" (with attitude of course). Katie and Andy are working to identify (and squash if it's up to Andy) every bug and worm they can get their hands on. both Katie starts preschool in the fall and is trying to be a mommy and speech therapist to Andy in her spare time...she walks around saying "Andy say b...b....b.....balloon." Of course Andy looks at her and says BE QUIET! Andy is making excellent progress with speech. At times we wish he wouldn't talk so much, which means speech is working! He still has trouble with the P sounds but the B is improving slowly. We started potty training too...lets hope mommy can keep her sanity....

That's all from the Hatch family.... Thanks for checking in!

Morning All!
Just wanted to post our results from our ENT/speech visit at the hospital:
Andy's tube fell out on the left. The ENT says there is a permanent hole there now, as it has not healed in over a month. Typically this is bad, but for cleft kids, it's good. It means he doesn't have to have another tube inserted, he has a natural tube. Cool, huh? We have to take more serious water precautions though.
He had a hearing test and was an angel. He was so good, they got almost all ranges tested with the headphones. He has normal hearing!
We went to see the cleft speech so she could see his progress. She started him on "nose plugging" to say his "B" sound. He puts his little fingers on the sides of his nose and plugs it up and then says "B"!!!!!
He was "on" for 5 hours, and is the most mellow kid I ever met. The doctors and therapists were GREAT, but I am still impressed how Andy tolerated everything they did. The ENT staff pinned him down while the doctor looked in his ears with a microscope and dug ear wax out....not a peep from Andy. He just sat there with wide eyes staring at mommy.
No pictures today, I'll post a video of Andy and his "B" sound as soon as I get it!

MY RACE DAY!

I signed up for the GO! St Louis 1/2 marathon and have been training all winter!

I finished in 2:14:44. My goal was 2:10, so I am pretty happy with the outcome. The course was difficult...had lots of long slow hills. Boy am I SORE!
That's all here, kids are good, I am going out of town for a conference this weekend, and Grandma Cassimore is coming in to help Daddy over the weekend. I'll post some kid pics soon, I promise : )

HAPPY EASTER!!!

You may ask why I have a picture of a chair....That's SNOW!

Katie and Andy enjoying Easter FUN!
Andy doing some serious egg hunting...
Winner!!!
Katie loved every minute of it!

I don't have any dressed up pictures, we looked pretty crazy this morning as we weren't planning on snow. The bunny was good to all though.....

Ok, I'm a bad friend. I havent posted in a REALLY long time.
Kid update....
Andy started speech and is talking up a storm. We don't exactly know what he is saying all the time but he sure is trying. He got croup a week ago, that was no fun. We go back to Children's hospital in a month to reassess speech at the cleft team speech and do another hearing assessment.
Katie got a big girl bike with training wheels a few weeks ago, and she has really taken off. Mom's heart skips a beat every time she wobbles on it. I can teach other kids motor skills...but I'm scared to teach my own. Yes, she has a helmet, but I cant help the mommy anxiety. Andy graduated to Katie's old bike and he is of the mindset that whatever Katie can do he can too. He doesnt use the pedals but he pushes right along and don't even THINK of trying to help him.
We are really excited the weather is getting better, there have been a few days above 50 degrees, thank goodness! Kids playing outside=happy mom

My job has had it's ups and downs, but right now it seems to be getting better. There were definately a few rough points (because people didn't understand what EDUCATIONAL services were) but I'm starting to have people see my way. And I have learned a lot from the other therapist too.
Not too much exciting other than that. Really enjoying the casual time with my family...It's so nice to be able to just pop over to my moms for an hour. And the kids have gotten so attached to their grandparents!

Hi all...
Life has been crazy here. Last week Katie got double ear infections and andy got pneumonia. Fun fun. Andy got a little scary as he didnt respond to the first antibiotic. He's better now but I think he has a nasty ear infection. I dont know how as he was on every antibiotic known to man. So I think we will take our third trip back to the dr in a week.
Hopefuly we can time it with our speech eval today. We were trying to get into early intervention to provide Andy's speech therapy. Turns out becuase of our income we would owe 200 a month PLUS they would bill our insurance. Apparently the 200/month goes to running of the EI program. I think if I go through my insurance alone to a speech clinic I owe 10% of UHC's contracted rate (which is ridiculously low) after meeting my deductible. I say I think because I never trust the insurance company....I know if they find a way to not pay they will and I could be stuck with a lot more than 200.
The good thing is that it seems there are great therapists in both places they seem well versed in tx of cleft.
So andy gets his hospital speech eval today, a developmental therapist eval tomorrow and an IFSP on friday. This week is just an Andy week.
Will update after the appts....
Karen