December Memories

Karsie's amazing Christmas pics from Aunty Becky... Thank You!!!

Hanging out with friends... in a box.

Teaching Uncle Todd a thing or two about the piano.

Family night-time zoo trip.

Our daughter, who knows no stranger, was INSTANTLY in tears when she met Santa.

Christmas Eve... Karsie was checking to see if Santa was still around.

Opening Christmas presents... not sure where they will all go... but Karsie was thrilled. Her favorites are the play-tunnel-ball set and the rocking-Winnie-the-Pooh.

Aunty Mandy is back from New Zealand... she and Karsie had a wonderful time playing together!

Karsie's first balloon... and she LOVED it.

We hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful December!

December Happenings

December has been an adventure for us!

We started out the month getting Karsie's new 45 cal/oz food and trying to figure out a switch-over schedule for that. We have to get to 19oz of Boost 1.5 (new stuff) and get rid of the 24oz of Pediasure (old stuff)... giving her body time to adjust and us time to monitor how she is handling the change.

We had a trip to Disneyland... and we were lucky enough to be there for one of the Christmas Candlelight Services. If you ever get a chance to see that, it is AMAZING! It was like a Christmas Eve Church service, but at Disneyland! The lights were dimmed over Main Street and a couple hundred choir members walked out holding candles. It was narrated by Tom Skerritt. At one point, all of Central Plaza and Main Street was filled with thousands of voices singing "Silent Night." And the whole thing ended with the "Hallelujah Chorus." It was really spectacular.

This last Tuesday, Karsie got two shots (final HiB and Pneumococcal) and a check-up. Dr. Suen was pleased with her progress, and her g-tube button looked great compared to the last visit. Karsie has never had a reaciton to her shots, but this time she had a doozy! She had a 3-day fever! I called and checked in with the doctor's office when it was 102.6, and they said it was normal... but if the fever went over 104* or if she had other symptoms to call back. She never had other symptoms, and the fever stayed around 100* with tylenol/motrin. She was pretty mellow the whole time. We didn't have a lot of fussing or crying... just tired and hot!

Since then, her cough that had mostly gone away after Thanksgiving, has come back. We have been giving her more frequent breathing treatments and running the humidifier non-stop. Hopefully that will go away soon too!

Somewhere in the month, we have fit in some shopping, Christmas decorating, pictures, work, and time to see some friends! We are all looking forward to some time off for the holiday and lots of time with family and friends!

Development

Karsie has been a little bloomer lately. She's still a bit delayed in a few areas, but most areas she has caught up. In fact, the doctors told us that her speech is a tad bit advanced when you account for her gestational age and everything. So, we will take her development one segment at a time.

Gross Motor: Not a problem. She runs...everywhere...always. She squats; she dances; she drags heavy things around. It's amazing actually to think she didn't really move for five months and she's almost all caught up.

Fine Motor Skills: We're not really sure what the stages are for her age and situation, but she seems fairly normal. She points and picks stuff up. She even used a fork today for the first time. She stabbed the food, got it on the fork, and then picked it off with her fingers to put into her mouth. Seemed like an extra step to us, but whatever, she had fun. She's stacking blocks. She can do two and then attempts for a third. But her absolute favorite is to wait for Daddy to stack an awesome castle and then knock it down. She also can sign. She says "more" (which to her really means food), she says "please" and "thank you" and "all done." We think she said "poop" the other day, but we'll have to wait a couple more times to see if that's really what she's saying.

Speech: She's doing great according to the doc. She can say about 15-20 words, but she seems to be picking up her word development pretty quickly lately. She is also copying much more now. She used to copy the syllables that we would say, but now she's trying the sounds too. She can say her ABC's up to J by copying us. She has trouble with a few words, but she's getting it.

Eating: This is the area that's actually doing the best lately. Today was her best eating day since her drought. By far. She sat in her high chair and pounded lasagna. She really didn't pay attention to us. She focused on her food. Also, since she's learned the sign for "food" (which really she signs "more") she's more interested in food. Any time we have food, she wants some. Many times she just holds on to it, but many times she eats it. It's a huge improvement.

We're very happy and proud of our little Bug.

Next up...Thanksgiving.