Tough week...

Not feeling super chipper so I'll just jump in to why it was a tough week.  We had a couple of doctor appointments for both the kids to pinpoint some developmental issues that we've noticed.  For C, it has been issues with his speech.  As I mentioned in our Christmas Letter, we had him evaluated last fall to see if he was suffering from any developmental delays.  The conclusion was that he needed speech therapy.  We recently took him to a new dentist who noticed that his new upper and lower teeth were not meeting correctly in the front, which leaves a big gap when his mouth is closed.  He recommended we see an orthodontist to possibly get started on remedying that.  We went to the orthodontist this past Tuesday and found that C has an "over-active" tongue that tends to protrude through the opening while speaking (ie, tongue thrust).  This is leading to a lisp and an inability to pronounce certain letter sounds properly.  It's almost like his tongue gets in the way of his speaking sometimes, if that makes any sense.  Since most kids have their speech patterns pretty much down by 7 years of age, we are under the gun to help C work on this.  The direction going forward is to get him some speech therapy this summer and in 6 months go back to the orthodontist to see how his teeth are coming in.  If there is still a large gap, C may need some sort of tongue suppressor to help keep his tongue in place and allow the teeth to develop properly.  We'll see.  For now I have exercises that he can do to help train his tongue to go to the roof of his mouth.  He loves this training as it uses Lifesavers candies. :)

For E, her developmental issues have to do with her lower extremities.  For some time now I've noticed that her toes point inward when she walks and she is a bit bow-legged.  This was not a major concern until I noticed that she runs rather stiffly and lacks the flexibility that her peers have at this age (21 months).  We took her to see an orthopedist at the Children's Hospital yesterday.  Sure enough, she is a bit bow-legged, but the doctor seemed to think that she would grow out of it.  She is pigeon-toed as well.  This might be a hereditary thing since Tom's side of the family has also had their fair share of feet that point inward.  Hopefully as she grows this will also become lesser of an issue.  The part that scares me the most has to do with her stiffness in walking and running.  After some observation, the doctor tested her for Babinski's Reflex, which she does have.  She could still grow out of it, but the doctor was not optimistic.  The thing that scares me the most is that it is a neurological disorder and not something that can be treated.  This caught be off-guard, mostly because nerve damage is just not something that ever crossed my mind.  And then, of course, my mind gravitates toward thinking I did something wrong either while she was developing or during her delivery via emergency c-section.  It's hard because everyone dreams of their kids being "normal" and not getting the deck stacked against them right out of the gate.  It's hard to know that E will always have an awkwardness to her stride and probably struggle in sports while other kids progress and get better.  That's not to say she won't find success, it's just that it might be painful for her to pursue anything athletic (except for swimming which, with her projected height, she might be totally awesome at!).  On the flip side, if she has half the intelligence of her Dad or Auntie Erin, she may snub her nose at sports altogether and be some kind of brainiac (Heaven help me).

All said and done, it is what it is.  Nobody is perfect, everyone has a flaw one way or another.  God has graced me with some amazing kids, and they truly are gifts.  In that way, they are perfect.

Have an awesome Easter, and take time to remember the sacrifice of Jesus and God's Amazing Grace to ALL of us.