Mr. Eddie's Father

Take the train to the plane

2011-12-14T05:13:00.000-08:00

Like most boys, Eddie is fascinated by trains, planes, trucks, construction equipment,
cars, boats, etc. - in short, he is a gear head. Gear heads like the Batmobile more than
Batman. Gear heads are usually big into Star Wars.

A great thing for us to do on a Saturday is to take the Long Island Railroad into the
Jamaica hub and transfer to the AirTrain - a monorail that goes around Kennedy
airport. It costs about $9.00 for an off-peak round trip, and $5.00 for the AirTrain.
It lets him see the airplanes at all the terminals and if we don't exit the monorail,
it returns back to the train station.

As exciting as a trip to Disneyland for under $20.00

Surgery today and it's Eddie's 4th birthday

2011-08-31T19:21:00.001-07:00

August 31st - three days after Hurricane Irene hit New York
with less than hurricane force - some people were still without
power, but Eddie's surgery was a go!

Eddie was not allowed to have any food after midnight -
he goes to bed at 9:30, and we weren't going to keep him
up for a midnight buffet - and he could only have 8 ounces
of clear liquid like water or apple juice up to 9:30 am on
the day of the surgery. We were so busy getting out the
door that no one ate or drank anything.

Annie and Eddie were dropped off at Long Island Jewish's
Cohen Children's hospital at 10 am for a 12:30 surgery time.
Then I dropped Gwen off at my sister Joan's house in Floral Park,
about 15 minutes away, since the hospital rules forbid siblings in
the waiting room.

Eddie played with a wooden train set, rode around on some kid
cars, and didn't seem too upset about not eating breakfast.
When he did ask me around 11 for some food, I told him it would
make him sick, so he had to wait until after surgery.

Due to delays in the operating room, he didn't go in until 2pm,
but was unconscious in 15 minutes.

Dr. Gallagher stitched a piece of skin into the roof of his mouth
completely covering the gap in the palate. The procedure took
about 3 hours and by 6pm, we were taken into the recovery
room where Eddie was still asleep.

I left to get Gwen and get home to the dog - who had been
home alone for 10 hours without a walk. Annie had packed a
bag to stay overnight in the room with Eddie.

Eddie woke up around 7:30, washed his mouth out with some
water, drank some apple juice, and went back to sleep.

What this surgery will really do

2011-08-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Eddie visited the plastic surgeon - Dr. Pam Gallagher - before his next surgery
on August 31st (so far) so the doctor could examine him.

Apparently this surgery will be to remove the plastic prothesis covering the
roof of his mouth (except for a small hole where the plastic piece does not
cover. Basically Eddie's mouth has a V opening and the prothesis is oval,
so it covers most of the opening but leaves a small hole where tiny bits of
food and drink get into his nose. It's really fun to watch Eddie eat blue
ice cream!

Replacing the prothesis will be a flap of skin that will cover the entire
opening like a tarp or dropcloth. This should allow Eddie to create
pressure in his mouth so he can form the B and P sounds. And while
the doctor has the hood up, she wants to re-do his right nostril to make
it more symetrical to the left one - now that's what every 4 year old wants
on his birthday - morphine and symetrical nostrils.

Date of surgery changed

2011-07-16T17:07:00.001-07:00

Annie's Mothers Day card from Gwen. She wrote it at school and did not show it
to us until the day itself. I think we are doing okay as parents if the 8 year old
can express her feelings like this - but let's see what the teenage years bring.

Father's Day was spent visiting our friends in Virginia - the Jacksons. The girls
all went to the American Girl Doll store while the boys (Chris, Eddie, and I)
took the Metro (subway) to Reagan National airport so Eddie could watch the
planes take off and land. I think Eddie was more impressed by the train ride
and the lights that blink on the platform when the train is approaching.

The date of Eddie's surgery has been moved from August 24th to August 31st -
his 4th birthday. The surgery is to fill in the gap in the roof of his mouth with
a material that will have some elasticity, allowing him to grow for several more
years without a gap in his palate. This should help him in speaking more
complex sounds like "fr" "sch" and many other words.

Part of me will miss "ool us" but he's better off saying "school bus".

Winter into Spring 2011

2011-07-05T12:18:00.001-07:00

It has been a few months since I last posted an entry to this blog - partly because winter
is a busy season for the toy business - the major trade show - Toy Fair - is held right
around Valentine's Day in New York City. This means that right after Christmas, we
are in a countdown to Toy Fair - getting prototypes done to show there.

The other reason I have not posted much is that this blog was intended to be not about
the family, but about Eddie's medical issues. Before we adopted Eddie, I searched the
internet for detailed accounts of cleft lip and cleft palate before and afters and could
only find a few pictures. I wanted to know as much as possible about what to expect -
what could he eat, what surgeries he would undergo, etc.

There has been a lot of progress with his speech over the winter and spring months.
The speech school he attends each morning 5 days a week is doing a great job - but
Eddie is not talking to them like he talks to us at home. Below is a link to a YouTube
video I uploaded of Eddie on my shoulders answering some questions. I did it to show
the teachers that he was indeed speaking in complete sentences.

http://www.youtube.com/user/megodoctor

This August - about a week before his 4th birthday - Eddie will be have surgery done
on the actual palate bone, fusing it together. This should improve his speech and
close up the roof of his mouth. I will post more information and details as we get
closer.

Monty - the glowing eye reindeer

2011-04-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

We made the dog wear a pair of reindeer antlers. He hated them and pulled them off

right away.

Christmas was great - Eddie got his monorail and is running through a set of AA batteries

a day.

Eddie and Annie in our local newspaper - Newsday

2010-12-11T19:23:00.000-08:00

We were invited to a dinner at the Long Island Jewish/North Shore cleft
center and a press conference broke out. The next day I found this spread
in the main section of our local newspaper Newsday.

Considering all the cleft center has done for Eddie, we are only too happy
to do public relation photo ops for them.

Eddie meets Santa and get new ear tubes

2010-12-11T18:19:00.000-08:00

Took Gwen and Eddie to visit Santa Claus at the Walt Whitman mall in
Huntington on the same day that Eddie got new tubes put into his ears.
He got the first set last March - they are there to drain the fluid from his ear.

Here is a link to a WebMD article about what ear tubes do:
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/ear-infection/tubes-for-ear-infections

In order to keep Eddie from moving his head while the tubes are inserted,
they put him to sleep. As a result, he could not eat or drink anything after
bedtime the night before, so when he came out of it around 10am, he was
pretty hungry.

These tubes should last about six months. One of the first tubes fell out
sometime in October or November. Eddie has been complaining about
ear pain for the next few weeks.

Eddie showed no fear of Santa, but he wouldn't smile either, so I ducked
in between shots to tickle him a little and the photographer got this shot
just as I stepped back. Gwen, of course, needs no prompting to smile.

Eddie starts a new school

2010-11-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

On September 1st, Eddie started a half day speech program at Just Kids in
Lindenhurst. The county early intervention program ended on his 3rd birthday
and the school district early invention program assigned him to a half day
speech intensive pre-school.

The first two weeks were tough on Annie and I since he had to be at Just Kids
by 8:30 then picked up at 11am and taken to his daycare Teacher's Pets in
Plainview. Then the bus service kicked in and Eddie is the happiest boy in
the world getting on the school bus each morning.

Previously his speech therapy was done at daycare. Now he gets 2 1/2 hours
a day of therapy in a classroom setting with a mixed group of other kids his age.
Already we can see an huge improvement in his word formation and talking.

We got a dog!

2010-11-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post was that we got a dog on July 7th.

He is part German Sheperd, part Terrier - we got him from North Shore Animal
League. His name is Monty and he was 10 months old when we got him. He had
just been released for adoption that day following his neutring so he was very
docile. It turned out that he also had a parasite which we didn't know about.

It has been like having a third child. He is finally settling in after four months,
three visits to the vet, six weeks of training, and a wireless collar.

He thought Eddie was another puppy and would tackle him whenever I was out
of the room. Thanks to the wireless collar, Monty now thinks the boy is electicified!
Gwen will yell "No Monty" and I zap him from another room.

Only Annie or I handle the remote and we keep it set to the lowest setting.
Like garlic - for best results, you should use it sparingly.

Summer 2010

2010-11-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted any updates during the summer, but it was what summer
should be - going to the pool and taking a trip to Disney World in Florida.

Since Eddie and Gwen have birthdays in August - Gwen is the beginning of the
month and Eddie is the end - we decided to spent a few days at Disney in
Orlando and visit Annie's uncle Ziggy in Tampa.

We came away from Disney with an important new word for Eddie - monorail.
He was absolutely captivated by the sleek trains. He pointed to the track and
said "aaa". I told him it was the monorail track just as a train rode by. After
it passed, he said perfectly clear - mono rail.

The problem with Disney is that if you stay for than a few days, the magic starts
to flake off. After five days of walking around theme parks, we were actually
glad to go home. Even spending a few days with Uncle Ziggy in the middle
of the trip didn't help our aching feet.

Hershey Park and MegoMeet

2010-06-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

June 11-13 was MegoMeet 2010 - an annual slumber party held
in Wheeling WV for around eighty middle-aged men who all
share a deep love for all things MEGO.

Usually I make the 8+ hour drive with other devotees and spare
Annie and Gwen the weekend of boredom. Last year I realized
that Hershey PA was about halfway between home and the Meet.

I was very busy the first week in June getting Mattel figures for
2011 submitted for approval while I was away. Unfortunately,
the Sunday before we left, my dad was hospitalized dehydrated
and disorientated.

I'll spare the gory details - I spent Sunday with him in the
hospital while they figured out what was really wrong. The nice
about being 1 of 7 children is that I was able to go on my trip,
yet read nightly e-mail updates on his condition. Dad is doing
fine, in fact, he was home from the hospital shortly after I got
back from the trip.

We were able to spend a few hours at Hershey Park when we
arrived on Tuesday - which was nice - Eddie loved all the rides,
especially the merry-go-round and the kiddie train. He and
Gwen are really bonding together. The next day it rained
most of the day. We tried to brave the park but spent most
of the day at Chocolate World. We went on the tour on making
chocolate about four times - once the kids realized that they
got mini Hershey bars at the end, it was their favorite ride.

Thursday we drove to a place called Dutch Wonderland, it is
more geared for younger children, the weather was perfect,
and the bond between Gwen and Eddie got more cement.

Mego Meet was fun for me since it's was the first time I
could talk about working with Mattel on DC Superheroes.
Annie and the kids met up with other families and they
enjoyed themselves. After a ten hour drive hour, I
promised them that I would fly down next year - alone.

Partied out

2010-05-14T09:24:00.001-07:00

We had a party on May 1st for Gwen's first communion with
about 70 people at a nearby Chinese restaurant - Morgo's -
that we like. Eddie wore a seersucker vest and slacks with
a white shirt and clip-on tie.

Two days earlier he had the prothesis installed in the roof
of his mouth and anchored in place to his teeth. This is
supposed to help him form certain sounds and catch up
his vocal skills. The downside is that he is back to excessive
drooling. It will take a week or so, but that will subside.

On May 9th - mother's day - Eddie was baptized into the
Catholic Church. We wanted to wait until after the surgeries
and for nice weather. For this day, he wore a white "kung fu"
shirt and pants and we had a small gathering of 25 people
back at the house.

I think we are all looking forward to a quiet weekend.

2010-04-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful late April Saturday. Gwen was at Adventureland with her friend Jaclyn,
and Eddie and mommy had just come home from mall shopping. The day was so nice, and
he had spent half the day in the car or stroller, that I thought he might like to sit on the
porch with me and watch the cars go by. Usually he won't sit still when there's a tricycle
in sight, but today he fell back to sleep in my arms watching the trees sway slightly.

Eddie has had a little cold or the start of spring allergies this week. Daycare thought it was
an ear infection (which made us nervous considering he had tubes put in his ears several
weeks ago - mainly to prevent ear infections) but the doctor cleared him.

Eddie has been a little spacey this week, but considering this is his first spring in the U.S.,
I wonder if it was a reaction to the spores of new species of plants and flowers invading his
sinuses.

He was supposed to get a prothesis this week for the gap still left in the roof of his mouth,
but we re-scheduled it to next week, in order to give him time to get over the cold/allergies.

Next weekend is Gwen's first communion, so we are combining that party with Eddie's
christening party - the actual baptizing will be the Sunday after - but given that that day
is Mother's Day, and why have two parties a week apart - so Eddie will be puzzled at all
the people he barely knows grabbing him.

Gwen will be the belle of the ball in this mini-wedding for a 7 year old bride sans groom.

Sleep while you can Eddie! It's going to be a crazy time next week!

Eddie sleeping mommy's bed

2010-04-05T05:50:00.001-07:00

Spring has sprung!!

2010-04-05T05:23:00.000-07:00

Easter at our house has become more about toys and less about candy. Annie and I remember

all those Easters as kids eating too much chocolate and jelly beans too early in the morning.

The downside of toys over candy is that it becomes a second Christmas - just 3 months later.

I can't prove this, but I suspect that the Easter Bunny is Santa Claus in the off-season.

On the medical front, Eddie is doing great. He is babbling more but we are not really

getting too many definite words besides, "addy" "amama" "yeah" and "no". We say

"orange" and he says "aaaa". We say "red" and he says "aaaa".

I know the language will come - I'm not worried about it. My parents tell me that I

didn't speak until age 3 - and I didn't have any cleft issues - just a house of six other

kids, most at least three years old than me.

Much better in February!

2010-03-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

It has now been seven weeks since his surgery and Eddie is doing great. He just had tubes
put in his ears a few days ago to keep fluid from building up. With his new lip, he is learning
to drink with a straw, blow his nose, and say "mama" - something he was not able to do before
the surgery.

Next he will get a prosthesis to cover the hole still left in the roof of his mouth. It will be done
by a dental surgeon - anchoring the prosthesis to his teeth - without any hospital time.
This is supposed to help him with certain consonants and keep food out of his sinuses.

In a few years, he will have the hard palate - the actual bone repaired.

Back in daycare

2010-02-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

It has been three weeks now since Eddie's surgery to repair his cleft lip and cleft palate and he is
doing great. I know it seems strange to post a picture of him sitting on the toilet, but it's a sure
way to have him sit still while I take his picture.

He went back to daycare on Feb. 1st and both he and I are much happier. He is better served being in a class of kids his age. It is a safe environment devoted to play, and Daddy is able to get
some work done. Spending the day with Daddy means trips to the post office, FedEx, and fast food for lunch. And in between trips, watching Daddy at the computer trying to answer e-mails.

My sisters helped us a few times, but Eddie was out of daycare for six weeks, and there is only so much time they could spare. My mother had seven children and could never understand why
everyone didn't want to stay home raising the kids. My reason is simple: I don't really like children that much. Kids want your attention all the time, and that conflicts with my need to
focus on what I want to do.

Now that my daughter Gwen is 7, it's much easier when she is off from school. She watches TV
for a few hours while I fill orders, then we can do something together in the afternoon. Once Eddie is a little older, I'll make the same deal with him.

Fast recovery

2010-02-03T17:43:00.001-08:00

It has been just over two weeks now since Eddie's surgery and he is back to day care.
He spent two days in the hospital on morphine, then was released once he showed that
he could handle the pain. We gave him tylenol with codeine for a few days after that,
then switched him to regular infants tylenol. By Monday the 25th of January,he was
off all painkillers and had pulled the sterile band-aids off his brand new upper lip.

We were worried that he would revert to an all-liquid diet after surgery, but three
days after the surgery, he was eating regular food again. By the end of the week,
he was chewing on bagels.

His speech therapist Andrea is now working on his consonants like ma - as in
MAMA. Maybe next he can say Dada.

Surgery and all is well

2010-01-20T05:19:00.000-08:00

Eddie had his surgery on Tuesday morning at 11:30.

All went well and he is recovering just fine. He is cranky but not in much pain.

The morphine is helping him sleep a lot.

This is a picture of him in the hospital room. He is being kept overnight.

The syringe in the pictureis full of apple juice. It is easier to shoot it into his mouth

than to try using a cup.

Happy New Year with two sick kids

2010-01-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning with the kids. That is Eddie opening a Potty Training Elmo.

Santa gave the family a Wii so there would be no fighting over "who's" Wii it is.

The Tuesday after Christmas Eddie got a fever virus - no other symptoms and

no loss of energy so Daddy has gotten very little work done for the past week.

New date for surgery

2009-12-12T21:13:00.000-08:00

Eddie's surgery was supposed to be November 2nd, but he had a sore throat and a runny nose
so our peditrician nixed it.

It's just as well since both Annie and I have been busy with work - I am designing new DC Superheroes for Mattel, and she had a trip to Boston to spread the gospel of National Grid
to new employees.

Eddie is trying hard to speak in more than vowels - he can distinctly say his name and
he is readily understandable saying "happy", "daddy", "yeah", and "no".

The new date for the cleft palate and lip surgery is January 18th - MLK day. The
ENT doctor will also put tubes in his ears to drain fluid.

We took he and Gwen to see Santa last weekend. Eddie sat there stunned, but he
loved the kid-sized train ride next to Santa. We just bought the Christmas tree today
and will decorate it on Sunday.

Countdown to surgery

2009-10-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to the plastic surgeon with Eddie to go over the details of the surgery.

She tells us to keep him home from daycare for 10 days before the surgery to avoid him

catching a cold or worse. If he gets sick, we will have to reschedule the surgery.

We don't send him to daycare because we are bored with him - we have to go to work!

Taking 10 days off, after 2 weeks in China during the summer, just isn't an option for

either of us.

And what about Gwen? Is she supposed to miss 10 days of school just in case some

kid in her second grade class is sick, or has a sick sibling? I guess we better avoid

friends, family, and retail stores too. We'll be the family in the plastic bubble!

We need not have worried about it. The day after the meeting, Eddie was

coughing, sneezing, and dripping green goo from his one nostril.

So we bring him to our peditrician to confirm that he is not able to have surgery.

She confirms and calls the surgeon to reschedule. The surgeon says Eddie can still

have the surgery since it's ONLY A COLD!

Glad we found that out BEFORE one of us lost 10 days of work!

Gwen and Eddie and a blanket

2009-10-02T06:55:00.001-07:00

Eddie and Gwen are starting to like each other - well, Eddie always was fascinated by

Gwen, but now she has warmed up to him. It must be hard to have to share mom and

dad's attention when you have been the center of it for six years.

Surgery date is set

2009-10-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

The date has been set for Eddie's surgery - Nov. 2nd - the day after Election Day!
It turns out that he never had a hernia, so that's one less procedure that day.

He is now 24 1/2 lbs. and has completely given up the bottle and is learning
to eat chicken nuggets, french fries, and rolls. I want to keep him on baby
food since every meal has a lot of vegetables mixed in.

His sister Gwen is now 7 years old and it is hard to get her to eat more than
a little brocolli, corn or carrots. I may have to put her BACK on baby food
for veggies!

2009-08-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Me and the kids watching TV on a summer night - well, Eddie doesn't really watch TV.

We are still meeting with doctors so Eddie's surgery will probably be early October.
They want him to put on some weight before the surgery since he will be on the mend
for a while and will have to take all food in liquid form.

Photos

2009-08-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

Onto baby food!

2009-08-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

Eddie is eating baby food now and he is HUNGRY! He has gone
from having two 8 oz. bottles of milk formula and rice cereal to
three to four 8 oz. bottles and three jars of assorted baby food,
and applesauce and yogurt.

His height and head circumfence is on target, but his weight is
low for his age. Considering that we have to put the food into
the sides of his mouth instead of straight onto the tongue, it's
not surprising that he is under weight.

Like they say on Clifford's Puppy Days - "love makes little
things grow" and we determined to keep building up his
muscles and his appetite until he is all caught up.

He is getting more affectionate every day. Now he pulls
my fingers into his mouth to bite them (sometimes pretty
hard!) so he is overcoming his oral adversion. He still is
not comfortable chewing and swallowing solid food - even
tiny bits of fruit in the yogurt - unless we can get it right
to the back of the mouth.

Early Intervention for Eddie

2009-07-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

The only type of intervention that a parent wants to hear about - early intervention
for speech and fine motor skills!

Our son Eddie was evaluated this morning and since he has cleft lip AND cleft palate,
he automatically qualifies for early intervention sessions by the county.

He is now in daycare full-time because Daddy has to work on new DC Superhero
MEGOS for Mattel and Eddie is not able to help....yet! He also shows no interest
in action figures or superheroes - he is a car guy. If it has wheels, he loves it.

My dad asked me once "when did you start thinking of your adopted child as your
own?" I told him "The same time you started thinking of me as your child - the
moment they put that baby in your arms and tell you he/she is your responsibility.
That's when they go from a cute kid to being your child, and you swear a silent oath
that this child will be safe and happy."

My father-in-law married a woman with six children after the husband - his best
friend died young. He raised those children as his own. I met my wife - his biological
daughter at age 17 and spent a lot of time at her house. Until someone told me the
history there - I would have sworn they were all biological of his.

Heck, he was a lot more attentive to these grown children - the youngest was 17 -
than most parents I've met. He would run out in the dead of a winter night to
get one of them cigarettes! Well, maybe that was overdoing it.

He showed me that genetic material does not create a bond - love does. He decided
to love those children with all his heart and even his daughter's weird boyfriend.
That taught me more about parenting than anyone save my own parents.

What a difference a week makes!

2009-07-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

It has been about a week now since we returned from China and Eddie
is definitely adjusting to his new home.

The smiles are much more frequent and he is already mastering the
stairs. He laughs louder and more often and the head banging is much
less often.

Now when he drops face down on the floor and cries, we give him a
minute, call his name, and he gives up the tantrum and comes back
with a big smile and a hug.

Today we took him to meet his only living grandparent - Paul's dad.
He met some of the family there - about 20% - this kid has no idea
how many relatives he has yet to meet. Between both families, he
has 21 aunts and uncles, 23 first cousins, and 5 second cousins!

Just keeping the names straight in this family is hard.

Referral pictures

2009-07-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

Getting over jet lag

2009-07-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

We went to bed around midnight on July 9th, but we are still on China time.

Gwen or Eddie wake up around 3am and are hungry. Then they can't get back
to sleep for a while until they nod off around daybreak. Then the next day,
they both fall asleep around 4pm.

Mommy and I stay awake all day and get only a few hours of sleep each night,
so we are getting cranky.

It is now Tuesday and the jet lag is leveling off. Eddie has been on an antibiotic
before we left China (the air conditioning didn't agree with him) and now he is
sleeping 3-4 hours during the day and all night too.

Gwen has started summer camp and is swimming twice a day so she is passing
out on the couch by 8pm. Slowly we are getting back to our regular routine.

Eddie laughed for the first time tonight. He usually has a neutral expression but
the eyes are always watching us. When he wants attention, he bangs his head on
the floor and cries loudly. We are catching his head now before it hits the floor
and are trying to discourage this behavior.

Our time in China and coming home

2009-07-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

Got home Thursday night at 9pm. We left Tokyo July 9th at 7pm and
arrived at JFK July 9th at 7pm. If this is "beaming up", it needs a lot of work!

We are all jet lagged, wired, and cranky. Gwen and Eddie slept most
of the trip off and on, although Eddie cried from Guangzhou to Tokyo while
the other passengers gave us dirty looks. No one offered any help, so I have
no sympathy for them.

I was able to meet with a toy consultant while in China to discuss future
EMCE Toys and Dr. Mego production. He is an American who moved to
China 12 years ago and loves it there.

He took me on a factory tour about 1 1/2 hours from Guangzhou. It was
my first time seeing toys made in a real factory and I really wanted to jump
in and work the machines.

We went to Danny's Italian-American restaurant in Guangzhou. While adopting
Gwen in 2003, Danny had a bagel and pizza deli serving American food. Now
six years later, Danny - a NJ native who used to work in textiles - has dropped
the bagels and sandwiches for real New York Italian food. It was sooooo good
after two weeks of hotel food, McDonalds, and authentic chinese food.

Ga Gum Eddie

2009-07-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

We got Ga Gum (his Chinese name pronounced phonetically) Monday June 29th

around 3pm. He is in the room with us now playing with melting ice cubes.

He is in good health, just small for his age.

We figure he is about 4-6 months behind in height and weight. The orphanage

has him on two large bottles a day of dried milk formula and rice cereal - just like

Gwen - but she was on 4 bottles a day at 8 months. He is cuter in person,

usually serious but every so often we get a toothy grin. Gwen has been a great

help and is warming up to him quickly.

We can't wait to get home.

Meet the new boy

2009-07-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

We survived both 22 hours of travel and the plane being boarded by quarantine
officials dressed all in white hazard suits from head to toe with masks, etc.,
as they took everyone's temperature.

Gwen was not scared one bit, she took it all in stride! It is 11:32 AM on Friday
in China right now, it should be 11:32 PM on Thursday in the U.S.. We met another
family from our agency who arrived a day earlier than us - they have two teenaged
daughters and a 7-year-old boy who traveled with them, so that is great for Gwen.
Their daughter, also cleft lip and palate, is from Guangdong province too.