First and Fourth Birthday Party (and Emily's Walking)

Emily started taking steps last week. I mainly held her a couple of feet away from me then let go and she'd sort of walk/stagger/fall into my arms. This is a picture of Emily with her grandma - she let go all on her own then took about 4 steps into grandma's arms. This was during her and Ana's birthday party on May 21st.


A delighted Emily falls into the arms of a very proud grandma.


Here's Ana opening up a present. She had a great time at her and Emily's party and didn't seem to mind sharing the spotlight with her baby sister.


A rare shot of me (blogmistress) holding Emily. Em was very over tired and over stimulated at this point in the day, so I held her while she ate her dinner.

Mealtime Fun

Here are a few pictures just for fun. I can't get over Emily's perky little nose.


Emily picked up a bagel that Ana discarded (the bite marks are Ana's). She then proceeded to lick, gnaw and slime the thing until I finally put her at the table and fed her.


Ana had to get into the picture, but Emily didn't mind. Neither did he poppy seeds.


Eating a bagel that's as big as your head is serious business.

A visit with friends

We spent this past Sunday visiting with the Troutmans - Tanyia (mom), Jacqueline (grandmom), Sydney (baby bunny) and Kennedy (big sister). Sydney is six weeks younger than Emily (yes, there's a big size difference) and she was also born with bilateral cleft lip and palate. Sydney wore the NAM prior to her lip repair - she was is being treated in Virginia by Dr. Craig Dufresne (surgeon) and Dr. Maull (orthodontist). But enough cleft stuff - pictures are so much more fun.


Here are the big sisters, bonding. Kennedy is a year older than Ana so of course Ana loved following her around imitating her (just like she does with her older cousin, Chloe).


Ana insisted on spraying suncreen on Kennedy. It took Kennedy five minutes to rub it all in.


A picture of the girls at the end of the visit. I couldn't get a good shot of both of them with their eyes open.

The Troutmans drove for hours for this visit and it was so exciting to see them. We met through Cleftadvocate.org (Tanyia found Emily's picture). I can't wait to get together again. Ana's already asking if Kennedy is coming to her birthday party next weekend. I wish we weren't seperated by five long hours of driving.

Progress

Ana and Emily in a cardboard box. It was the only way I could get a picture of the two of them.

It has been way too long since my last post, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Emily's palate surgery was three weeks from yesterday and she is doing great. Aside from getting another cold, which messed with her sleep, she's all healed and making some progress.

She's not walking on her own yet, but she has taken some more steps and she's cruising around the house by holding onto anything and everything. The most astounding progress is with her eating habits. She has eating two full jars of babyfood (carrots and squash) in the last couple of days. She's never had more than a bite or two of strained baby food in one sitting. I now think this was due to the food coming through her nose and also because it was hard for her to move the food back to her throat without a palate.


Another cute picture in the box. They play together a lot now and there are some fights too. It's interesting to see a one-year-old get angry at her sister.

So we'll be starting with speech therapy again next week. We had to postpone the post-op visit which was scheduled for today because Emily has pink eye. Poor Emily. She's always catching something from her sister or her cousins. Once NYU gives us the okay, we'll begin working with her speech therapist to help her start talking and also drink from a cup (although I tried the cup thing today and poor Em got very frustrated).

I'll be updating the blog less often now, probably once a week or so. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and prayers during this past surgery. It has meant so much to us!