New Photo Album

I've just added a new album to the Pictures list. It may have some pics that you've already seen, but hey, they're still cute! They're some from Christmas, and the rest from earlier this year. I've noticed that it's not as easy to get good pictures of Anna anymore, since she's always on the move. Plus, the second she sees the camera, she starts scooting right at me, hands outstretched, trying to steal it for herself. Anyway, hope you enjoy them. I'm going to post an album with pictures of Ryan soon, too, so keep a lookout for that. Monica, Chad and the baby will be here to visit at the end of April, and I can't wait to get pictures of the two cousins together!

Anna's Hats

In search of artistic expression, Anna has become a hat-a-holic. The other night, she spent the last hour before bed giggling madly while scooting around the house modeling every hat she could find. We call this one the Spring Elf.











Here, we have Anna feeling the Mardi Gras spirit, flaunting her beads and wearing a little knit rolled brim hat, courtesy of Lisa.






And finally, the French Baby. Sporting a light wool blend cap, (crocheted exclusively for her use by me), Anna begins to stash her beads, sensing correctly that bed time is fast approaching. What a sense of style!

"Don't worry, I'm just fine!"

 

Neurologist

Well, since Anna's 15 month check-up, we've been going to a variety of doctors and physical therapists to see what might be wrong with our little girl. As most of you know, she has a pronounced gross motor delay, meaning she doesn't stand, bear weight on her legs, pull up or walk.

It's been a harrowing experience listening to all these serious medical personages telling us, with serious expressions, that there may some kind of long-term problem with Anna's development. It all culminated yesterday, finally, when we took her to see a pediatric neurologist.

I cannot even TELL you how much I was dreading this appointment, but it turns out, it was the best one! Dr. Grabert let me hold Anna the whole time, and just observed her to check her reflexes and motor skills. Then he said that his diagnosis was something called cerebral hypotonia, or dissociation of maturation.

What does that mean, you're wondering!? It means that she has a severe gross motor delay but no other major delays. It means she has low muscle tone, especially on her lower extremities and is very flexible. It means that when you hold her up, she "sits on air" with her legs out in front of her. It means she's not walking yet and doesn't bear weight on her legs or pull up to stand. It means that in all liklihood, she's going to be JUST FINE.

The condition is known to be totally benign, and while she'll probably always be a little behind her peers in her gross motor development, she'll eventually start walking, he said probably in the next few months. Her walking may look funny at first, too, very stiff-legged, but eventually she'll establish a normal pattern. He did say that his diagnosis of this has been wrong two or three times and that if she's not walking by 20 months, we need to bring her back in for further tests. But he was really confident that this was the problem and that we'd never have to see him again.

WHAT A RELIEF!!! He even said that while physical therapy, which she started earlier this month, will help her achieve milestones more quickly, it's not something that is totally necessary. We're going to keep it up, though, becuase now we've just found this therapist who Anna really likes.

It's funny, but another one of the characteristics of the syndrome is the babies being easily frustrated, just starting the cry like mad all at once in the middle of nothing... and that is SO Anna, she does that about four times a day! It is really hugely gratifying to know that, while there is definitely something unique going on with my girl, it's not something BAD, she'll have a normal life, with no long-term negative impact. That was my biggest fear. So now, all we have to do is wait and watch as Anna figures out walking. The average age for walking with this diagnosis is 18 months, and she's 16 and a half now. Plenty of time to get things moving, baby girl.

Books

Anna has discovered my books. Only now, they are HER books. You can see that she goes through everything she can reach, inspecting and disgarding, but she did finally stop and look at one book- The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. At least she's got good taste! Now, to go, once again, and put the books back on the shelf. I mean, really, how's she supposed to take them off if I don't put them back?

Chocolate Covered Strawberry

At the mall last week I bought Anna a treat from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company, since she had been very good all day. It was a HUGE mess, and she had strawberry and chocolate smears ALL over her, but that didn't stop her from really, really enjoying it!  

Anna's Favorites of All-Time... this week

Cat Door? Nope... it's MY door! Kurt, in true handyman fashion, installed this little cat flap in the laundry room door this weekend. The goal was to keep Anna from organizing the cat food, piece by piece, and re-distributing the water in the water dish. The result? Anna's newest favorite thing EVER.

Other all-time favorites of the week:

* Hiding things in my shoes. In the past five days alone, I have found- a hairbrush, several pacifiers, two spoons, one small ball of yarn, socks (hers, not mine), and a crumpled wad of silver foil.

*Using new words. So far we have, "Mama, Cat, Dada, Up, Cup, Cat, Pop, Milk, Stick, Book, Cat, Hi (with wave), Bye (with wave), Cat, and Yes". Oh, and also, "Cat".

*Organizing. She will literally spend HOURS organizing, though not in the sense that she is making things less of a mess. More, she is simply making one that conforms to her high standards of mess. She'll sit and take out all the toys within reach, lay them all in a broad circle on the ground around her. Then she'll move them back into the toy basket. And them back out again. For variety, she'll only take out books for one round, then only stuffed animals. my goal is to get her to end her organizing on the part where she puts them all back in the basket, but I think she's on to me, so that hasn't been very effective.

*Chasing Cats. I mentioned she likes cats, right? Well, before, she used to simply laugh and look at them and maybe grab as they walked by. With Dora, HER cat, she would pet and sometimes lay down on her. But now that she's so speedy with her little scooting method, she has started to truly TERRORIZE the cats. Which brings us full circle back the cat door. Anna will sit next to the door, like in the picture, flip it open, lean in, and then YELL at the poor cats, who are just trying to get a moment's peace. She actually had them penned up in there for an hour yesterday, too afraid to come out the door since that would mean having to pass the Scary Loud Baby with Teeth. I think Finn is developing a twitch.