Desmonds Talking

Just a quick video of Desmond. He's really chatting and saying a lot of words now. We have a book of 100 first words that we read to him at night. We've stopped reading it and just let him say them all as we point around. It's all animals and he says just about all of them now, or tries to. "Violet" is one of the newer words he's learned and is saying it all the time. I love it and loving this age right now.

We'll try and update on our Florida trip, but just not feeling like Blogging lately.  In short, it was great, no one got sick and we had amazing weather every day. Next year, the rumour is we'll try for 2 weeks! :)

Violet's Dance "Recital"

Last week Violet had her last dance class (more like a movement class) for the session where they allow parents and relatives come to watch what they've learned and perform a little recital of sorts. It's pretty cute. She was very excited to have us there, but especially Granny.  She kept turning to us and waiving and saying "hi granny!" and then putting her finger to her mouth in a hush kind of motion (as we were telling her to pay attention to the teacher and doing that to her).
This is the second time that she's done this class and generally really likes it. We're not sure that we're going to do that again, or put her in ballet. We don't want to do ballet, but she insists that she's going to grow up to be a ballerina and keeps asking....

Don't you love the kid in the jeans, button down long sleeved shirt and sweater vest? Yah. Every week.  Poor guy is going to be "one of those" kids in gym class when he's older... lol

1st Haircut!

We finally got Des out to get his first haircut. We know, we know, it was LONG overdue.... But there's no sense talking about it, lets get to the pics!

He's so cute!

Desmond the Chatty kid

He's got a lot to say these days and lets himself be heard... never mind that it's all (mostly) gibberish. I've been meaning to record him over the last few weeks because it's quite funny. He'll have whole conversations with you in baby gibberish. It's actually quite amazing that he understands you when you speak to him in full sentences now. It amazed me with Violet too. It'll never get old seeing your baby grow and understand more and more while trying to communicate more and more. This was recorded in front of the computer this afternoon while showing him pictures of us on Facebook. I think it's the first time I *think* he said "Violet". It may have been a strong coincidence, but there was a picture of her on the screen at the time and it was right after he said his own name after seeing a picture of himself (Marn told me after that she's heard him try and say his name before, but I haven't). Again; could be coincidence, or he could be a genius.  :)

 

 Never mind the toothless Dad in the background. I'm trying to hide it, but it's a little difficult! I'm not wearing my denture yet as it still hurts pushing into my gums and need to get that adjusted.

Some words he's saying now are; up, down, dad, dada, mama, more, Violet(?), Desmond(?), "right there" or "over there", that. He's actually trying to say just about anything that we're saying right now. There's a LOT of mimicking going on right now and it's just too darn cute.  For example, at dinner tonight. Violet wanted her dinner cut up and Des saw that I cut some up.  So off he screamed about wanting his cut too (it was already), so I pretended to cut it and he was fine.  Then Violet did some silly face or something, and as soon as she got the reaction from us, off he went and tried to do the same thing. He's constantly doing stuff like that now. It's a very fun age, but also very challenging - he screams when he doesn't get his way and especially doesn't like the word "no".  lol we try not to laugh when he flops down crying after saying no to something. Thankfully, it's very short lived and you can distract him pretty easily.

Extraction #2

Well I had my other front tooth removed yesterday afternoon.  Not fun. The first one was still "fresh" in my memory even though it is 2.5 years ago (!), so was anticipating the whole procedure. It's just... really, really disturbing with him digging in there and me "hearing" and "feeling" it all... gives you the willies. It's especially "not fun" when he hits a spot that's not completely frozen and numb, or when you see him physically shaking because he's pushing around in there so hard. I had to ask him about 3 times through the whole thing to add some more freezing. It took him a lot longer to get this one completely out because of where it broke - Way up high above the gum line.  He said that the tooth root was fractured in half but there was a little piece that was attached to the bone in there.  Remembering the original injury, this makes sense. That was the tooth that never dropped down like the other one and was always much higher; because it was fused to the bone.  It took him nearly an hour to get everything out, cleaned and closed up. I was in the chair for about 1.5 hours in total. He did mention a few times that he was annoyed at it and it was hard to get out completely
He said that the reason for the fracture was "an infection through no fault of your own" that came in from the top of the dead root and essentially ate away at the bone material around the root.  He said the only thing holding the tooth in place was the material from the original root canal (from 25+ years ago?!), and that this was a major concern for placing an implant.  There's not enough bone material in there for it and that it's likely that we'll need to take donor bone from my lower jaw to place in there.  If you remember, he said that the last time, but didn't need it in the end. I'm hopeful for the same outcome, but honestly, the way he was talking it doesn't sound likely. He put in the fake bone marrow, just like the last time, in hopes that it takes and grows enough bone in there, but if this get infected again while healing, he'll have to open it up and clean it out again and there will be no other option than to do the bone graft from the lower jaw.  And that will suck!

I'm feeling not too bad. Last night I had some pain as the freezing wore off, but I'm alternating between Tylenol 3 for pain and Advil for swelling which has helped. He also has me on some more antibiotic 3 times a day to help keep infection away as well as an antibacterial mouth wash twice a day.  I tried to put the new denture in last night, but it's too tight because of the swelling and didn't want to mess with the stitches, and had a heck of a time getting it back out... so I'll probably wait 2 or 3 days before trying it again. I think it'll need some "fine tuning" because it seemed like my lower teeth were hitting it, but it's tough to say because it wasn't "in" as much as it should have been.
Anyway, this is going to be another LONG road to the end. Possibly and most likely over a year until it's done, longer if I have to have the bone graft...

Tooth Implant - Take 2

Well, my other front tooth broke (initially ~Jan 5)... I went to the dentist on the 6th who didn't think that it was. Thought I jarred it. I knew better, but went along with it.  Last week when in Calgary for work I bit into a sandwich (nothing hard in it) and felt it "bend" or snap again.  No doubt about it this time, although it was still "attached" to something -- it hadn't fallen out (and still hasn't), but it's wiggling like crazy - it feels like I'm 7 years old and losing baby teeth. During the week it was swelling and got infected somehow, so I went back this Monday and got some drugs and an appointment with the same dental specialty group that did the other tooth.  They got it for the next day - sweet!  The Dentist there looked at it right away and said, yeah, you have an infection and I don't think we should pull that, or put the post in today.  We should wait for that to clear.  Oh, and it looks like you'll need a bone transplant that we'll take from your lower jaw.  I couldn't believe that he just told me that... this tooth was supposed to be the easier one! I don't want to have to go through that whole rigmarole again!! Especially the bone transplant that I was able to avoid on the first tooth. It doesn't sound pleasant at all, and likely will take even longer to heal.  Just not any news that I wanted to hear at all.... I told him that I was hoping to avoid the marrow transplant and that they thought the other one would need it as well but were able to just put the synthetic marrow in.  But I also said that I understand that we want what's best for the success of the implant.  He said that he'll consult with the other dentist who did the first and it'll be a decision on the time they take the tooth out and have a better look inside. I think I've been handed over to the first guy to "get consistent care".
He also said that it looked like the infection has been there for a while which kind of annoyed me. I said that it started last week and he said, no longer than that. It's likely why your tooth broke... What???? You would think that I would have noticed something like that before say a week or 2 ago. I just don't get how he can say that. Looking at my gums around that tooth, it's not like they're inflamed and bleeding. I didn't feel anything bugging me in there... (until after it broke). I just don't get it.  Perhaps I didn't feel it because it's essentially a dead tooth?  I don't know...

So anyway, I'm booked temporarily next Tuesday after the run of meds to have another look. They have to confirm that appointment still.  If it happens, the tooth will come out and possibly the implant will go in.  I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm fully expecting that they'll pull the tooth, put marrow in and close it up.  wait... open and look.... perhaps put the implant in with more marrow... wait... then crown.  Much like the first time. I hope there's no bone transplant, but it sure sounded like this is going to be a 12+ month process again. Soo looking forward to that!!!   :(
Here's what I have to look forward to all over again!