Archive for December, 2006
I’m sure everyone has heard the news reports of the blizzard that hit the Denver metro area starting yesterady. I’ve included some photos of the aftermath of that storm. It snowed pretty consistently from Wednesday morning until Thursday noon. The streets are still pretty much a mess in our neighborhood. The plow probably won’t hit us because we live on a cul de sac. I started shoveling on Wednesday during the storm. I probably shoveled almost a foot of snow at that time. By the time I was finished with the drive, the front steps were completely covered, as was the part of the drive I shoveled first. And boy, am I thankful I shoveled some on Wednesday because we had another foot plus some to shovel today. And thats not including the areas with snow drifts. We are extremely thankful to our neighbor, Andy, who helped me shovel today. Neal’s not allowed to do any physical activity for three weeks after his eye surgery. We don’t want him to go blind! So it was all me on shovel-duty. I imagine I’m going to be pretty sore tomorrow. I think I’ll take some ibuprofen tonight.
December 21st, 2006
On Thursday Anna had her 9-month check-up. She’s 29 inches long (still in the 95 percentile) and 18 1/2 lbs. The doctor is a bit concerned about her weight. Up until this appointment Anna was following a perfect growth curve. She’s fallen off her curve pretty significantly and the doctor wants to keep an eye on her to make sure her weight corrects itself. She’s been sick off and on for some time now, so this may be the reason for her smallish increase in weight. It could also be that she is using more calories due to all her exercise and increased mobility. The doctor wants her to come back in about a month for a weigh-in. For the time being we’ll see if we can’t increase her caloric intake.
Other than her weight Anna is developing on track in all ways (except, of course, those areas that involve the use of the left side of her body). She’s babbling like a brook lately and has started to wave. We also suspect that we are seeing Anna’s first sign – food! She doesn’t make the sign too consistently yet, but we definitely feel she is making it deliberately. It is quite a trip to think that she’s communicating with us! Anna has cut her 3rd tooth. We suspected she was teething, but I was focused on her top gums (typically babies cut the top 4 after the bottom 2). It was a total surprise to me when I noticed the top of a tooth on her bottom gum!
Anna’s therapy is going well, too. She’s started to pull up to a kneeling position and often to standing (with a little help from Mom or Dad). This evening she suceeded in pulling up to standing from a sitting position all on her own! Now if she could just get from lying to sitting, there’d be no stopping her. She’s pretty much obsessed with pulling up and standing now. Much to her chagrin, we’re very much still working on the crawling-thing, as it is a keystone skill for her. You don’t usually think of crawling as more than a means to get around, but it is MUCH MUCH more. The hands and knees position facilitates sitting up, kneeling, pulling up, etc. etc. We are working on strengthening her left arm so that it can support her weight when she’s in the hands and knees position. For those that haven’t seen Anna lately and wonder whether she’s mobile at all, she IS getting around by commando-crawling. She uses her arms (and legs) to drag her body around. And she’s fast! We’re in the process of installing baby gates to keep her from taking a nasty spill down the stairs. Talk about some strength…try pulling your body around with just your arms (and a little help from your legs).
December 15th, 2006
Neal’s eye surgery happened today and I’m pleased to report that everything went well! The laser surgeon described the process as “spot welding” around the holes in his retina so that they do not lead to a retinal tear. Neal’s feeling pretty good, all things considered. His eyes will probably be dialated throughout the day tomorrow (which anyone who’s ever been dialated before can attest – is a total pain because you can’t do jack! No reading, no watching TV…just staring at the wall while wearing dark glasses). He also has a terrifically sore throat due to the tube they inserted in his throat while he was out. Other than that, his eyes are supposed to be back to near normal tomorrow – maybe a little scratchy-feeling. Laser surgery is pretty darn amazing.
December 15th, 2006
I just found out I’m going to have to have laser eye surgery on Friday.
It’s a surprise to me as well. Honestly, I feel fine and don’t notice any problems at all with my vision (the voices in my head are another matter…). But I went to the eye doctor right before I left my old job just to use up the vision benefits before they went away, and the doctors found what they call “lattice degeneration”, some holes in my retina (eek!), and some significant “traction” (huh?), all of which lead up to imminent “retinal detachment”.
Here’s a Wikipedia article on the subject, for the curious.
So I’m in for some preventative lasering on Friday.
It’s a quick procedure, and I’ll get to be unconscious through most of it (Good news: I really enjoy being unconscious!). Recovery time is super fast (I could go to work the next day, which I won’t do because it’s Saturday), and the prognosis is generally good.
Funny thing: We’d never have known there were problems had I not quit my job a couple of weeks ago! So, um, thanks to Foraker Design?
December 14th, 2006
Five years ago today I married my best friend. On the best day of my life.
Thank you, my wife, my partner, my guide, my strength, my joy, my dearest love for making each day since then even better.
Let there be five and fifty and five hundred more years to come!
December 8th, 2006
Where did November go? We’ve had a lot going on lately – family visiting, changing jobs, therapy appointments. I often feel as if I’m running just to stand still.
Hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday. We spent Thanksgiving in Fort Collins with Neal’s family this year. His brother and sister-in-law flew in from Southern California and his cousin from Germany, Sandra, joined us, too. She’s currently doing a study abroad program at a school in Aspen. This was Sandra’s first Thanksgiving celebration. The verdict? She likes pumpkin pie, but she likes pecan pie better. 
All of the relatives enjoyed spending time with Anna and it seemed Anna enjoyed spending time with them! I’ve uploaded some pictures of our festivities.
While Colin and Roby were here we had an early Christmas. Anna enjoyed opening everyone’s presents (actually, that’s a lie…she enjoyed eating the paper. The opening of the presents was simply a means to an end). Thank you Colin and Roby for the gifts! The reader you gave Neal has already been put to good use. Did you know that dolphins nap with one eye open?
Anna’s recovering from another one of her month-long colds. At the one month mark I took her to the doctor. From her symptoms the doctor thought she probably had a sinus infection. She’s in the middle of a 10-day course of antibiotics right now. God bless the person who created flavored medications. I can’t imagine these antibiotics taste very good on their own, but with flavoring Anna actually likes them. When I say she likes them, I mean she gets all excited when I bring out the medicine-filled dropper. I suppose it could be worse, she could hate them and kick, scream and spit when I gave them to her, but there’s just something wrong about a baby getting super-excited about taking medication. She does the same thing with the Tylenol. Yippeee…give me my drugs!
I forgot to mention that Anna has gone to her first swim lesson (loosely defined). We thought it would be a good idea to introduce her to the water earlier rather than later, and also thought that the water might have a therapeutic benefit. Anna’s therapists agreed. In water she gets instant feedback when she moves her arms or legs. She seemed to like it, but the water in the pool was very chilly. Thank goodness the lesson only lasted about 30 minutes; otherwise we might have had an Anna-cicle on our hands. We bought a little nyoprene swimsuit that should keep her trunk a bit warmer. We haven’t had a chance to try it out yet because Anna’s been sick. I hope that we’re all healthy this Saturday for her next lesson. We’ll see if the wetsuit makes a difference.
I’m going to post a movie soon of Anna babbling. The week before Thanksgiving Anna went from single syllable vocalizations to babbling like a brook. It is such a joy to listen to her “ba ba ba ba ga ba da da”. She’ll talk to anyone who will listen, and even those who don’t. It was the most bizarre thing, she literally started babbling overnight. On Wednesday she wasn’t saying much of anything, and on Thursday she wouldn’t stop talking. She’s also figured out how to make noises by moving her fingers over her lips. She’ll even mimic you if you do it first. She’s got “dada” down pat; we’re stil working on “mama”. And we *think* we may be seeing the beginnings of Anna’s first sign: food! It’s honestly hard to tell whether she’s just being orally fixated at the moment or actually trying to communicate.
This last Friday our daycare arranged for Santa to visit during the morning. Friday isn’t one of our normal daycare days, but I wanted Anna to have a picture with Santa. We dressed up in a new dress that Granny Debbie bought and stopped by the daycare center. It was so fun to watch all the kids of different ages sit on Santa’s lap. Several from Anna’s room were completely freaked out by the man in the red suit. When it was Anna’s turn the photographer told me to keep Anna facing away from Santa while I placed her on his lap. Tricks of the trade, I guess. Anna was fine with Santa. She stared at his beard (she has a thing for men with facial hair and hats) and seemed quite content. She wouldn’t smile despite my efforts at tickling her and generally making a fool of myself. All was well until…Santa spoke. She started crying and the photo-shoot was over.
In other news, Anna’s therapy is going well. Despite a two-week interruption of our routine, her therapists still see she’s making progress. This is a good thing because I was feeling tremendously guilty for not being as diligent as I could have been about making sure we did all our exercises. I guess this is something that I’m going to have to get used to. There will be weeks when Anna’s therapy schedule is thrown off by holidays, illness, whatever. Being a goal-oriented person, I am finding it difficult to remember that this is a long process, and that nothing is going to change overnight – no matter how many exercises I do with her. Anna has made such incredible progress in the short time since we’ve been working with her. Neal reminds me constantly to think about where we were just a few months ago. He also acknowledges how hard this is for everyone. We’re having to teach Anna many of the skills her peers just learn on their own. That said though, Anna is very bright and picks up on things rather quickly. This evening she amazed us both by following the steps she learned on Thursday to pull herself up to standing (with help, of course). Those are the moments when I am so incredibly proud of her.
Anna is still commando-crawling, and getting pretty good at it, I might add. She seems to resist going up onto all fours. Her arm is getting stronger and stronger, though. She’s also using her arm/hand much more these days. She’s bringing it to midline to play with toys (as a helper hand). Anna’s occupational therapist has recommended that we get a Joe Cool strap for her thumb. This strap should help pull her thumb out so that it isn’t tucked in as much. Kathy thinks that this might encourage her to play even more with her left hand. As I mentioned previously, Anna is working on the steps to pull herself to standing. She has been attempting the brute force method for the past week or so – trying to pull up using just her arm strength. Her physical therapist thought it would be best to teach her the proper steps before she develops some bad habits. Pulling up is a big challenge because she isn’t really transitioning well from being on her tummy to sitting. It would all be a lot easier on Anna if she were able to get up on all fours, but we’re working on it nonetheless. We’re also working on helping Anna recognize that her left hand can do things independently of her right (i.e. that she can have objects in both hands and can chew on either one of them). This one is going to take a lot of patience on both our parts.
December 3rd, 2006
