Smacker

Matt has learned a new trick. Leonard claims credit for teaching Matt how to do this. The best way to describe it is that he is doing on inverted kiss, and making the smacking noise with his lips. It's so sweet and cute. I don't think he could do it before because of the tether on his tongue. But now that that's gone, he has no problems! I've noticed a few changes now that his cleft palate is completely repaired.

• Like I said in a previous post, he has snot come out of his nose now whenever he cries. It's crazy now that he has boogers and he never used to.
• He has no problems chugging a 6-8 oz bottle at a time. Before he could only drink 4 oz at a time. I don't think we'll need to be concentrating his formula anymore. We did that to help him gain and maintain weight. If we wouldn't have, I could very well have a 10 lb 9 month old on my hands right now.
• He plays with his tongue in his mouth. He loves to roll his food around in his mouth, and most times forgets to swallow it he's having so much fun playing with it.
• He keeps his mouth closed more often. His little mouth used to always hang wide open so he could have an easier time breathing. Now he has no problems.

The only bad thing about his repair is that whenever he cries really hard, he quits breathing. It's because he puts his tongue into the back of his mouth and it closes off his airway. Before he could do that and have no problems because there was a gaping hole for plenty of air to come in and out of. I have on one occasion had to physically put my finger into his mouth and move his tongue out of the way.

These two pictures were taken the other day. I especially love the bottom one. He's such a ham.