Allow me to share this morning’s conversation with Emily..

Emily: (eats a pretzel)…MMMMMM
Me: is that good?
Emily: nods
Me: do you want to eat at the table?
Emily: (nods but then runs out of the room) bye!
Me: uh, bye!
Emily: (enters room) hi!
Me: hi!
Emily: (eats another pretzel) MMMMMMMMMM!

Call me crazy, but I could do this with her all day long.

Emily’s favorite game is hiding behind the curtain and jumping out with frenzied glee whenever I say “where’s Emily?” I caught her in the act in the above picture. She is making a lot of progress with communication, but still seems reluctant to actually speak. She is making up her own signs and really seems to understand us. She says “thanks” whenever we give her something and loves to say “achoo!” when anyone sneezes (even if she sneezes). She’s started pointing to things and saying something that sounds vaguely like, “what’s that” which is something the speech therapist wanted her to start doing. Then when we tell her she says “oh.” Too cute. Her favorite animal is a duck and she screams “QUACK QUACK!” when she sees anything shaped like a bird. She turned eighteen months old on the 15th – her sleep is great (finally!) although she’s not a lover of naps. She adores her sister, Ana, but won’t hesitate to yell at her if she tries to take a toy away or (heaven forbid) climb in my lap.

Ana, for the most part, enjoys her little sister. They have fun playing together (mostly they play a form of tag which involves running around the house and screaming/giggling until someone falls over). She watches out for Emily. I once left the gate open by the stairs and Ana said, “Mommy, Emily’s on the stairs!” and then, two seconds later, “Emily, no no no!”

It’s been a year since Emily had her first surgery – to repair her lip, nose and gums. She had this six hour procedure on October 4th, 2004. It’s hard to believe she has come so far since then – we all have.

Here’s a shot of Emily from yesterday morning – sitting on the couch, eating pretzels (her favorite snack) and watching t.v.

She has made so much progress developmentally since her first and second surgeries. She started everything a bit later than Ana. She crawled at 10 months, walked at 14 months and she seems to add new words each day to her ever-increasing repertoire of babble. Someone asked me the other day if she was normal cognitively and that gave me pause. I guess when people hear “birth defect” or “cleft” they automatically think there are cognitive issues along with the physical ones. I explained that Emily’s cleft is “isolated” and that she is normal in every other way. We think she may be a bit speech delayed due to a year’s worth of fluid in her ears and her surgeries. Although she does not speak much, she understands a lot. If we talk about something she recognizes she’ll either point to it or, in some cases, sign. She understands seemingly complex instructions – “go get your cup from the other room” and she loves to flip through books and point to objects. She’s very mechanically adept – she can draw circles and shapes, she tries to dress herself and she loves to figure out how things “work.” She picked up the remote yesterday and turned on the t.v. and the DVD player! I’m sure it was an accident, but Jim was so impressed he commented that he hopes she only ever uses her power for good.

Here’s big sister Ana watching t.v. (the same show as Emily who is on the couch behind her). Ana and Emily play together all the time, which is surprising since Ana’s 4 and Emily’s 1. Ana will run around the house while Emily chases her (laughing and screaming) until Ana hides. Emily will look for Ana and when she finds her the two of them scream and laugh and start the chasing game all over again.