Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas


This year was even more fun than last! Callie was more into the spirit this year, telling everyone about "ho, ho, ho", Jingle Bells and the Christmas tree.

This year, Callie really understood the opening of presents and tried to open one every night leading up to Christmas! Her favorites this year were the big boxes and bows!!

Daddy spoiled her with a Barbie Power Wheels that she loves to drive around the living room terrorizing the dogs!!

We made the trip up to New York this year to spend the Holiday with family! It was so nice to take her back to Mommy's church and show her off to so many of those that prayed for her so hard last year!


Christmas morning at Mom and Pa's was so much fun! As you can see from the pictures, Callie was literally on top of the presents reaching for bows!


We all had a great day watching the twinkle in Callie's eye as she discovered new things around her!!
We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Coming out of her shell!

Callie has had a great week coming out of her surgery! From the picture above, you can see the redness in her eye, but it isn't nearly as bad as we expected. It is moving pretty well, although the surgeon said it would take 3-4 weeks to really see how well the surgery worked. So far, we are incredibly pleased!

If you have sound, you can tell from the video above that Callie is becoming quite the talker. She is using words all of the time and starting to combine up to three words at a time. Every day she says something new. One of her favorite things right now is "Jingle Bells"!
Callie still loves bathtime! She got a new toy from her Great Grandma and Grandpa Spillane that she loves, loves, loves!!
Callie is still not big on TV, which we don't mind at all. But, if they are singing or dancing, she is completely captivated. She likes Barney's Christmas songs and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse songs the most!!
She also loves to dance and spin. Anytime music is playing, she breaks out into a dance! Sometimes, she doesn't need music at all!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Home From Surgery

Our brave little girl did great in surgery today! They took her right in at 8:30 and she was out at about 9:15. She was a little unhappy coming out of anesthesia, so they gave her some good pain medicine and she fell back asleep. When she woke up from her nap, she was back to herself asking for apple juice and her baby doll! We are back at home getting some rest and Callie should be back to school on Thursday. We will know more about the results in a few weeks, but already seems to be moving the "lazy" eye more. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers. We are truly blessed!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Surgery Tomorrow

I just wanted to update everyone and let you know that Callie's surgery is scheduled at 8:30 tomorrow morning. So assuming that she doesn't come down with something before then, Callie will finally have her eye muscle surgery. If you could please keep Callie, her doctors and nurses in your prayers, we would greatly appreciate it!




In fun news, Callie got to see Santa on Sunday. She couldn't stop staring at him...too cute!!


Sunday, November 14, 2010

Fall Days


Callie has had a busy month so far! She had her first kiss (above) with baby Finn! This weekend we had a mini reunion with Daddy's high school friends and their families. Things have certainly changed since the last time we were together! Callie fell in love with baby Finn and wanted to hug and kiss him ALL day!

Colin taught Callie to play "ring around the rosie", which entertained them over and over again!

It was great catching up with everyone and finally getting all of the babies together!

Callie has also had a busy month at home. She has definitely made the transition to toddler! She is using more and more words everyday and she is into everything! You can't take your eyes off of her for a second!
Callie also made her first attempt at using the potty this week. We were walking by the bathroom and she pointed and said "pee pee". Unfortunately, by the time I was able to grab her potty and get her pants down, she has just peed in her diaper. But we take this as a good sign and now have the potties out and ready to go whenever she is ready!

Today was a beautiful fall day and Callie enjoyed playing in the leaves!
Callie had several follow-up doctors appointments this month. First, she had her Developmental Pediatrician appointment at Johns Hopkins. Overall, they were very pleased with Callie's progress. Across the board, she is meeting all of her milestones for 18 months (adjusted age) and many of the milestones for her chronological age (21 months). Callie also had her first speech evaluation through Infants and Toddlers. They placed her meeting all 21 month communication milestones and working towards her 24 month ones! It is great that she is ahead in communication and they have decided that she doesn't need speech therapy at this time.
Later that same day, she had an appointment with Neurosurgery. Dr. Jallo was extremely pleased with our girl! He just kept praising her saying things like "I can't believe this is the same preemie I operated on", "you really can't tell she was a preemie", and "amazing!" These are words Mommy and Daddy never get tired of hearing. Because of the shunt, we still need to keep a close eye on her, but he couldn't have been any happier with her progress and we will see him again in 6 months.
Callie also had follow-up with her Opthamologist regarding her lazy eye. He still believes the best course of action is surgery, so we are going ahead with the scheduled surgery on December 7th. The challenge will be keeping her healthy. She has had back to back ear infections this month and continues to bring home new germs from school. They will not operate if she is under the weather, so we just have to hope she is healthy and strong the day of surgery. We will update everyone regarding surgery as it gets closer.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!!

Callie has had a fun month of Halloween "firsts". Callie participated in her first Monmouth Meadows (our neighborhood) Halloween parade. Callie and her friend Ashley rode in the wagon while the big girls pulled them up the hill. It was so cute!!
Callie even won 2nd place in the costume contest!!
Callie also had her first Halloween party at school! She wore her pretty Halloween dress to celebrate the occasion!!
Mommy and Daddy made special Halloween cupcakes to share with Callie's friends!
For Halloween, Callie dressed up as a flower.

The costume worked out well because it has lots of padding to cushion Callie's fall when she ran, yes I said ran, from house to house!!

Callie practiced saying "Trick or Treat" all day, but once out doing the real thing, she only said "more" and "open", maybe next year she will be more polite!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Pumpkin Patch!!


It was a beautiful weekend in Maryland and we decided to make our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Grandpa was in for the second year in a row to join in the fun!! Aunt Britty also was in for the adventure!




Callie had a little more fun this year walking around and picking out a pumpkin almost as big as she is!!

For fun, we wanted to show a picture from this year at the same place as last year to remind us how far she has come in a year! It was definitely a fun change to have to chase after her this year!!


1, 2, 3 swing! One of Callie's favorite games!

Callie enjoyed picking the pretty orange flowers!
We also got out Callie's wagon this weekend! She (and Mommy!!) really enjoyed taking a ride in it! Last week was a rough one, Callie's first real cold followed immediately by her first ear infection. Mommy was away at a conference for three days, so Daddy had to stay home and take care of Callie. We are so lucky to have such a great Daddy!! We were a little worried because she really didn't eat much at all last week and lost 1/2 a pound-when you are already underweight, that is a lot! But luckily, she is back to herself this weekend and ate more than we have ever seen her eat today! So, it seems that she is starting to make up for it! We just hope this isn't a sign of what this winter is going to be like having a baby in daycare!

























Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Our Active Girl


Callie has had a great first month at daycare. It is so great to see her with her new friends and participating in new activities. Our fridge is already starting to fill up with her artwork. Her early intervention teacher and Physical Therapist have been going to school to work with her. At one evaluation, they commented that if they didn't know Callie was a preemie, they wouldn't be able to pick her out of her room. It is so great to hear and see that she is doing everything developmentally with her friends. Additionally, they decided to reduce her PT to one time per month. I am glad they are going to continue to work with her, but at this point, they feel she is doing everything she should be doing in regards to gross motor skills.

Callie's new favorite activity is climbing into things. From the pictures you can see that she had fun climbing into her baby doll's stroller. She climbs into everything, from boxes to her dresser drawers! It is very cute!
We were just informed that Callie was approved for Synagis shots again this winter. It is the vaccination for RSV, which can be particularly harmful to preemie lungs. We were able to keep her healthy last season, but we are concerned with all of the germs that she is being exposed to at school, so any extra protection is welcomed. She is still on the small size for weight, but since she is still meeting her developmental milestones, they haven't become too concerned. We do continue to supplement with Pedisure to make sure she is getting enough calories and nutrients. Callie also saw her eye doctor recently. He increased her "patch" time to two hours per day, but believes surgery is inevitable. As of now, it is scheduled for December. As much as we dread another surgery, we really want this corrected before it starts affecting her vision.
Callie also continues to love music. She loves to dance to music and even loves to do the Hokey Pokey. She also is enjoying playing the piano more. It is wonderful to see her get so excited!!



We are also starting to manage Callie's growing attitude. She is quick to throw a little tantrum and we are working to have her calm down and "use her words." She also likes to throw things as you will see from this video of her with our DVD's (we did tell her that this isn't okay, but needed to get it on video first!!)