Well well well, where do I start. How about with how much I love our youngest daughter. She is amazing in so many ways. Her smile lights up my days. There is nothing quite like her gummy grin to chase away any frowny faces in the room. She is insanely ticklish. Even when I'm just changing her onesie and gently grabbing her upper arm to pull through the sleeve she giggles and squirms. She started waving her arm up and down when she wanted "more' of any activity. We have been signing "more" with her and now she attempts to bring her hands together to sign the word. It is awesome to see her communicate. She signs more for singing, silly faces, funny noises, daddy's whistling and food of any kind. Speaking of food, she has really taken to eating her solid food. We have added several new foods to her diet this past month- she has tried sweet potato, pears, prunes, banana, avocado, peas, and oats. Her favorite foods right now are prunes and applesauce. The peas made her gag (that's my girl!).
As far as her eyesight we have a mixed review. The patching helped strengthen her right eye which was positive The problem of her eyes crossing still persists however. We have a follow up appointment right before we leave for Hawaii and we can discuss if surgery in her future might be the next step. Please keep your fingers crossed that her brain starts to tell her eyes to straighten up before the end of March!
On to yet another challenge facing our sweetie. I have mentioned my concern about Elin's mobility (or lack there of) in past blog posts. I try not to compare Elin to Anya but it was becoming apparent to me that Elin's gross motor development was not coming along as she aged. Thankfully we have such a great support network with her Early Intervention program that we were able to quickly set up an evaluation with an agency called Kindering. Elin had a gross motor evaluation by a physical therapist this week and sure enough she qualifies for services. We are hoping to start her PT before we leave for Hawaii. Basically we need to work on her neck strength and have her spend more time on her tummy whether she likes it or not. We are hoping that all this assistance we are receiving so early in her life will help keep her on track to regular development. It is tough though- I'm not going to lie. Officially she is supposed to spend 2 hours a day on her tummy. She usually lasts about 5 minutes before getting really upset so you can imagine how difficult this is going to be.
As for her hearing issue, she is progressing normally with language. Her vowel sounds are coming along wonderfully and we are hoping to hear more consonant sounds soon. We spend a lot of time saying da da da and ma ma ma and ba ba ba. I attended the yearly auction and fundraiser for Elin's hearing program Listen and Talk last month. It was awesome and I felt so welcomed by the community of parents, grandparents and teachers of all these special little people. Next year I will be soliciting donations and attendance from family and friends so be ready!
So in a nutshell I spend most of my days carting Anya around and laying on the floor working with Elin in all sorts of capacities. All of our playtime has a focus and goal- it takes a bit of the fun out of it but it also forces me to slow down and spend time on the really important stuff- time with my kids!
As for her hearing issue, she is progressing normally with language. Her vowel sounds are coming along wonderfully and we are hoping to hear more consonant sounds soon. We spend a lot of time saying da da da and ma ma ma and ba ba ba. I attended the yearly auction and fundraiser for Elin's hearing program Listen and Talk last month. It was awesome and I felt so welcomed by the community of parents, grandparents and teachers of all these special little people. Next year I will be soliciting donations and attendance from family and friends so be ready!
