Weight: 24.4 pounds!!! She's in the 10th percentile for her real age!!
Height: 33 inches and growing! She's now in the 10th percentile for her real age!!
General Health: *sigh* It's been the summer of "the cold" or "the sinus infection" or "the stuffy nose" or "the ear infection" since late July. She's honestly only had a clear nose for a week or so since then, and then promptly she went back to mouth breathing and snoring. Poor sweet girl!! She's on her fourth antibiotic in a row, this one is supposed to knock out "super bacteria" that may not have been killed off by the others. Here's hoping! Knock on wood but this is our third day of that antibiotic and she seems to be breathing a little better. ..but don't tell the bacteria they're losing or they may remount a counter attack!!!!!
General Health: *sigh* It's been the summer of "the cold" or "the sinus infection" or "the stuffy nose" or "the ear infection" since late July. She's honestly only had a clear nose for a week or so since then, and then promptly she went back to mouth breathing and snoring. Poor sweet girl!! She's on her fourth antibiotic in a row, this one is supposed to knock out "super bacteria" that may not have been killed off by the others. Here's hoping! Knock on wood but this is our third day of that antibiotic and she seems to be breathing a little better. ..but don't tell the bacteria they're losing or they may remount a counter attack!!!!!
PT/OT: Addie has done incredibly well with her shoe inserts. Unfortunately, we were put back in braces about a month ago. Even more unfortunate, she's been sick most of that time, so I honestly haven't pushed her to wear them. I'm on overwhelmed mommy, and I have to pick my battles. ..So, hopefully this week (or next!) we will start bracing in earnest (again). Good news is that her ankles have straightened out some, in my "expert" opinion, as she has gotten stronger and with wearing the inserts. She can still walk in the braces but not as well.. .the hardest part with that is that she jumps 2.5 sizes in shoes to accommodate the braces. I think she would be fine otherwise. Addie prefers walking to crawling now, but she's still building up her confidence, so she prefers to have a hand or finger to hold along the way. If she needs to get somewhere fast or totally on her own, often she still drops to a crawl, but more and more, she'll start walking across the room. My heart melts and my mommy pride soars as she occasionally loses her balance, drops down to her hands, only to regain her balance, straighten and keep on trucking. She's a fighter, this sweet girl of mine! I love when I am in the kitchen and hear her clomping footsteps slowly but steadily making their way around the corner (she can even turn!!) to where I am doing dishes / cooking / trying desperately to eat my lunch. ..I just smile as I hear each carefully chosen step coming my way.
As mentioned, the three of us have been sick most of the last two months, and her PT/OT had a vacation in there, so we went over a month at one point without PT/OT. I have to admit, it was kind of nice!! Granted, we weren't sleeping, breathing or feeling well at the time, so it was a high price to pay. .. (but still a pretty nice break!).
Speech: Addie is trying more and more words these days! She'll sometimes randomly repeat a word she's heard and will at least try to say a word or name with a little prompting. Her sign vocabulary is also growing. Slowly but surely, she is trying to communicate more. She has always understood so much but now is trying to "talk" back! She'll even try babbling and chattering on her own out of the blue. This also means we have some frustration when she's pointing vehemently and saying "bucabah" for the fifth time, and I still have no clue if she's pointing at Violet, her farm animals, or the Kleenex box or none of the above. I'm thankful even in those moments because she's at least trying to tell me what she wants. Just to hear her sweet voice occasionally during a hectic weekday is such a blessing! We did have to have her right hearing aid turned up recently, and we aren't sure if that's been due to this never ending cold / sinus infection / allergy arch we've been on or if it's her new normal or if it will continue to get worse. We retest her hearing later this week, so maybe we'll be healthy and know more then. If it is worse, we'll probably head back to the ENT for some genetic testing, CT scans, MRI's, etc. to try to determine the cause and learn more about our options if it turns out to be progressive hearing loss.
This does lead me to really brag on our girl, though. ..she has learned to walk without seeing well at all and with one eye covered 90% of the day, and she is learning to communicate with only one reasonably good ear that actually hasn't been as good as we thought in recent months. We may still be very much delayed, but the fact that she's reaching milestones at all is a testament to her character, brilliance, and determination.
She's making progress in the eating department! The rest of the world may not be impressed, but if we are out at an appointment, out at the soccer field, or traveling, she will munch on (and swallow!) a few Cheerios! I think the most has been 15 - 20 with a few of those being spit out along the way, but still, it's nice to know if we get stuck at a longer than expected doctor's appointment, as invariably happens, I know she won't totally starve (10 - 20 Cheerios only get you so far, but it's a start!). She still prefers foods that are solid, that she can hold and bite or crunch on in her mouth, and that are generally considered choking hazards. ..she likes to keep us on our toes, what can I say! :)
Eyes: We're patching about 8 hours / day now. The 8 hours have proven to be effective in correcting her vision, so I don't aim for the 9 or 10 we used to shoot for each day. Her vision is actually right where it should be for her age, so the patching has worked to correct that problem!!
That being said, her eyes still cross, so her ophthalmologist is recommending surgery ASAP. We're working on a second opinion in the next few weeks before we commit to that road, but after talking to some other moms who have been through the surgery, it sounds like that's probably where we're headed. If that's the case, we will probably have the surgery sometime around Thanksgiving (Happy Holidays to us.). Please pray for wisdom, the best doctor, and the right decisions to be made for Addie's long term benefit.
Hearing Aids: Most of these notes are under speech above, but she loves wearing her right aid now that it's turned up, which means it must actually be helping her more now. I'm thrilled it helps her more now, but I am also more than a little heart broken that it also confirms that her hearing seems noticeably worse in that ear.
This month Addie loves: Watching videos of herself on our phones! She could care less about cartoons, but then I guess she prefers to be the star of the show.. ha! She loves to laugh, really! Once she gets the giggles, she flat out belly laughs for ages, and it is absolutely the happiest sound I have ever heard. She also loves stickers, and they are all over our house now. Their highest concentration is on "Addie's windows" and on the screens in those windows (She wants you to open the window so she can stick them on the screen. ..thinking outside of the box (err, window)), but I leave the house more often than I care to admit with a sticker on some part of my clothing or shoe. As if we didn't have enough sticky patches laying around the house. ..haha! She loves to color - for very brief windows of time - and she prefers to color with markers rather than Crayons. There was this one unfortunate incident where gold Sharpie wound up on the face of my iPad. ..thank you, Magic Eraser!! She loves my parents' dog Scooter and asks for him constantly on FaceTime ('Dooter. ..'Dooter. .) and greeting her daddy at the door when he gets home every day. She's pretty obsessed with the stairs but at least respects them enough not to try to climb on her own.. most of the time anyway! We do keep a gate up just in case she has an independent moment. She still loves to lead anyone who will let her around the house while holding onto a hand or finger, and she loves to run into our room and look at herself in the full length mirror. She always comes crashing to a sudden halt and smiles at herself as if to say "Whew. ..you're still there! And you look terribly cute, by the way.. ." She is also obsessed with lamps, and from the moment she wakes up is asking for us to turn the lamp on in the living room by pointing at it and saying "Ohh-n" or gesturing up with her hand. I kid you not, this sweet child melts my heart dozens of times a day. ..
This Month Addie DOESN'T love:
Her parents talking on the phone... We're having to become pretty talented with our distraction techniques and even better at wrapping up a conversation in a hurry. Texting is our preferred mode of communication for a reason. :)
Not being carried.. . *sigh*
As mentioned, the three of us have been sick most of the last two months, and her PT/OT had a vacation in there, so we went over a month at one point without PT/OT. I have to admit, it was kind of nice!! Granted, we weren't sleeping, breathing or feeling well at the time, so it was a high price to pay. .. (but still a pretty nice break!).
Speech: Addie is trying more and more words these days! She'll sometimes randomly repeat a word she's heard and will at least try to say a word or name with a little prompting. Her sign vocabulary is also growing. Slowly but surely, she is trying to communicate more. She has always understood so much but now is trying to "talk" back! She'll even try babbling and chattering on her own out of the blue. This also means we have some frustration when she's pointing vehemently and saying "bucabah" for the fifth time, and I still have no clue if she's pointing at Violet, her farm animals, or the Kleenex box or none of the above. I'm thankful even in those moments because she's at least trying to tell me what she wants. Just to hear her sweet voice occasionally during a hectic weekday is such a blessing! We did have to have her right hearing aid turned up recently, and we aren't sure if that's been due to this never ending cold / sinus infection / allergy arch we've been on or if it's her new normal or if it will continue to get worse. We retest her hearing later this week, so maybe we'll be healthy and know more then. If it is worse, we'll probably head back to the ENT for some genetic testing, CT scans, MRI's, etc. to try to determine the cause and learn more about our options if it turns out to be progressive hearing loss.
This does lead me to really brag on our girl, though. ..she has learned to walk without seeing well at all and with one eye covered 90% of the day, and she is learning to communicate with only one reasonably good ear that actually hasn't been as good as we thought in recent months. We may still be very much delayed, but the fact that she's reaching milestones at all is a testament to her character, brilliance, and determination.
She's making progress in the eating department! The rest of the world may not be impressed, but if we are out at an appointment, out at the soccer field, or traveling, she will munch on (and swallow!) a few Cheerios! I think the most has been 15 - 20 with a few of those being spit out along the way, but still, it's nice to know if we get stuck at a longer than expected doctor's appointment, as invariably happens, I know she won't totally starve (10 - 20 Cheerios only get you so far, but it's a start!). She still prefers foods that are solid, that she can hold and bite or crunch on in her mouth, and that are generally considered choking hazards. ..she likes to keep us on our toes, what can I say! :)
Eyes: We're patching about 8 hours / day now. The 8 hours have proven to be effective in correcting her vision, so I don't aim for the 9 or 10 we used to shoot for each day. Her vision is actually right where it should be for her age, so the patching has worked to correct that problem!!
That being said, her eyes still cross, so her ophthalmologist is recommending surgery ASAP. We're working on a second opinion in the next few weeks before we commit to that road, but after talking to some other moms who have been through the surgery, it sounds like that's probably where we're headed. If that's the case, we will probably have the surgery sometime around Thanksgiving (Happy Holidays to us.). Please pray for wisdom, the best doctor, and the right decisions to be made for Addie's long term benefit.
Hearing Aids: Most of these notes are under speech above, but she loves wearing her right aid now that it's turned up, which means it must actually be helping her more now. I'm thrilled it helps her more now, but I am also more than a little heart broken that it also confirms that her hearing seems noticeably worse in that ear.
This month Addie loves: Watching videos of herself on our phones! She could care less about cartoons, but then I guess she prefers to be the star of the show.. ha! She loves to laugh, really! Once she gets the giggles, she flat out belly laughs for ages, and it is absolutely the happiest sound I have ever heard. She also loves stickers, and they are all over our house now. Their highest concentration is on "Addie's windows" and on the screens in those windows (She wants you to open the window so she can stick them on the screen. ..thinking outside of the box (err, window)), but I leave the house more often than I care to admit with a sticker on some part of my clothing or shoe. As if we didn't have enough sticky patches laying around the house. ..haha! She loves to color - for very brief windows of time - and she prefers to color with markers rather than Crayons. There was this one unfortunate incident where gold Sharpie wound up on the face of my iPad. ..thank you, Magic Eraser!! She loves my parents' dog Scooter and asks for him constantly on FaceTime ('Dooter. ..'Dooter. .) and greeting her daddy at the door when he gets home every day. She's pretty obsessed with the stairs but at least respects them enough not to try to climb on her own.. most of the time anyway! We do keep a gate up just in case she has an independent moment. She still loves to lead anyone who will let her around the house while holding onto a hand or finger, and she loves to run into our room and look at herself in the full length mirror. She always comes crashing to a sudden halt and smiles at herself as if to say "Whew. ..you're still there! And you look terribly cute, by the way.. ." She is also obsessed with lamps, and from the moment she wakes up is asking for us to turn the lamp on in the living room by pointing at it and saying "Ohh-n" or gesturing up with her hand. I kid you not, this sweet child melts my heart dozens of times a day. ..
This Month Addie DOESN'T love:
Her parents talking on the phone... We're having to become pretty talented with our distraction techniques and even better at wrapping up a conversation in a hurry. Texting is our preferred mode of communication for a reason. :)
Not being carried.. . *sigh*
- We're going into our first RSV season without Synagis. ..scary, indeed!
- For wisdom (for us and for the doctor) as we meet with an ophthalmologist at Vanderbilt for a second opinion on Addie's eyes and as we make a decision regarding possible surgery to help her eyes stop drifting. Also for safe travels to and from Nashville.
- That her hearing loss hasn't progressed as far as it seems to have in her right ear and for us as we learn more about how to help her learn new words, signs, and sounds. Here are some pictures (in no particular order. ..I can't get them to unjumble tonight):
Loving her "twin" in the mirror..
Helping her mommy dust.. .she comes by the cleaning OCD honest, folks.
Nightly FaceTime chat with the grandparents.
Football season is here - helping her daddy cheer on the Gators!
Baby beach bum. ..PRECIOUS!
This is my current favorite picture of her. ..LOVE IT.
Coloring love.
Love that she loves her sunglasses!
She is SUCH a bed hog to be so tiny. ..
Someone was NOT pleased to be eating while in transit.. or with her personal paparazzi for that matter. ..
Also obsessed with stethoscopes. ..
Sadly she's been sick long enough to be good at wiping her nose.. .Blowing her nose, not so much. Work in progress.
Granted, our entire house is a happier place when the Gators win, but hermommy is still a Volunteer first. I'm hoping Smokey puts us over the edge as her favorite. .
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