Cleft Buddies!!!

Embree and baby Gavin.

(Both pictures were so cute I couldn't decide which one to post, so I did both!)

I have wanted Embree to have a "cleft buddy" for so long!! I have two mom's who I'm 'friends' with online, someday I hope to met them (Anna and Erika) whenever we make it to Utah for a visit. I truly love checking out their blogs but I've been dying to be friends with someone in person! Back in November someone from Embree's cleft team called me and asked if I would be willing to talk to a couple of parents who were expecting a cleft affected baby. I was thrilled and couldn't wait to meet them. (I've been asked before but it just has never worked out.) So when one of the lady's, Angel, actually called me back and wanted to meet at our local indoor play gym I was so excited. We played a few time this winter before the baby came, then we planned on meeting Gavin at cleft clinic two weeks ago but I was in the hospital during clinic so I didn't get to see any of them. Today we met up at the play gym and boy was Embree excited to see Angel and Gavin (she has an almost two year old Nolan, too). The moment they came in Angel asked me if I wanted to hold him. I got to feed him his bottle too! He's just so sweet and layed back! It really brought so many memories back! Embree was super excited to hold him and asked a bunch of questions. Why hasn't his boo, boo lip been fixed? Will Dr. McGill do it too? Can I see him after they fix it?? She was so accepting of his perfect little face and she got a kick out of him trying to eat his fingers up! They are a great family, we're so lucky to know them! I was able to give her a bunch of Medela bottle parts that work with the Haberman, it's so good to feel useful! (I sound like Thomas the tank Engine!!) She wanted me to hold him upside down and check out his cleft palate. She couldn't tell if his soft palate was affected too, she forgot what they told her. I'm was so happy to finally get to meet baby Gavin!

Embree's cleft clinic appointment went really well. Sean forgot the camera so we won't have any picture's of her at her four year clinic which is a bummer---but life was crazy that week so it's totally understandable. She has to have a tooth in her cleft pulled and she needs a little silver cap on one of her molars (it has a defect in it) next month but other than that she's great. Her speech has improved by leaps and bounds since January once we got her nasal congestion all cleared up. She is just such a special girl!