Final stages of recovery from Cleft Palate repair

John was sure happy to be able to have "soft food" after his two weeks of only liquids. 

"Um...yum!", he thinks.  "It tastes even better on my face than in the bowl!  What a discovery!"

"I'm not sure if this balloon ribbon counts as 'soft food' but I'm going to try it"

"Maybe if I hide in this box they won't try to put those pesky arm constraints on me again tonight." 

"WOW!  I never thought this day would come...good bye arm constraints; hasta la vista, baby!"

"Maybe if I look like a BIG boy, the Dr. will take me more seriously".

"Dr. Allen looks better without his scrubs on...I actually think I could like this guy" 

John likes his new mouth and nasal passage. The first couple of weeks he walked around blowing air out of his nose like a person would blow in a Kleenex just to practice.  We heard him snore for the first time.  And he now sticks his tongue out just for fun...we had never seen him do this before so we guess he usually had his tongue in the big hole in the top of his mouth.

Although the surgery was successful, 10-15 % of kids who get a cleft repair end up with a small hole in the roof of their mouth that is not closed properly.  John fell into this percentage.  We are not sure what this means...the hole will only be a problem if it interferes with his speech.  So we will wait and see.  Meanwhile, we are teaching him to blow bubbles, suck out of a straw and learn his vowel sounds.

Thank you for your prayers.  John narrowly escaped getting a wicked version of the stomach flu while three of his adult caregivers went DOWN!  In addition, his dietitian confirmed that he did not loose weight during the surgery and recovery period (this is a big deal since he will be three in Nov. and currently weighs 19 lbs).

Please pray for weight gain and the acquire language skills quickly.  Thanks so much!