Elle's Cleft Appointment

We left the house at 4am on Friday for the long drive.... We met with the Cleft Team from 8:30a-12noon. During that time, Elle had her hearing tested, had a speech evaluation, the Otolaryngologist examined her as well as an Orthodontist, a Pediatrician, two dental students, a nurse, and a plastic surgeon. She did well, so now we wait to go again until next year.
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She scolded one of the speech therapists for calling her "Sweetie". Elle informed her that her name was not "Sweetie, it was Elle". She kept saying "Thank you, Doctor" when they would get done checking her. She played with two other little girls in the waiting room for a long time. One was adopted from Korea and the other from China. They had a great fun in a playhouse set up in the lobby. They would giggle and laugh, especially when some of the boys would come tell them they were going to huff and puff and blow their house down!

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It was so amazing for us to watch Elle be so independent and confident as she worked with each of the professionals. Last year when we went, we'd barely been home for three weeks and she was so frightened by everything. This year, she would wave and give us thumbs up through the window of the hearing lab as she played the games and listened to the beeps.... It was truly remarkable to realize how much she has blossomed and grown!

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The pictures above are from this morning. Elle got one of those mirrors on the dental tool, so she had to show Alex how it worked. Needless to say, she stuck it in there a little too far :-). There is also a video posted below of the same exciting fun she had showing Alex what happened on Friday while he was at school.

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