End of Summer

I am sorry we have been so bad at updating lately, but life has been busy! Our beautiful little girl is as active as ever!!


We try to be outside as much as we can, but the weather this month has been challenging with all of the rain! It is fun to watch Callie in our neighborhood. The big girls that used to come and want to look at her when she was a baby, now come and play with her. Callie loves to do somersaults with them! She really looks up to them, it is so cute to watch!!
Callie has made a few trips to Ocean City this summer...she absolutely loves the beach!! She loves to roll around in the sand and run right into the ocean! She has no fear, which scares us a little!!

We have also made fun trips to the zoo and Inner Harbor, all of which Callie loves to do!!

Callie had her first Grocery shopping experience with her own cart this summer! She now refuses to sit in Mommy's cart and demands to push her own! It is adorable, but can make a quick trip to the store extremely long!!

Callie had her first official haircut this summer! She was such a big girl sitting in the chair! The only thing she didn't like is having her arms restricted by the drape.

Callie's eating habits are still a struggle for us, but she is definitely eating more and has come off of the failure to thrive diagnosis, which means no more weigh in's with her Pediatrician! The picture above was taken after her first haircut when Mommy took her to Buffalo Wild Wings. Callie had one of her favorite meals, chicken wings!! And yes, that is her trying to drink the blue cheese!!

Callie moved up to the Giraffe room at school with the bigger kids. So far, she seems to be doing well! The kids are great with her, but she is still a lot smaller. She is a little quieter than her friends, but the teachers are working with her to give her time to answer and participate with the other kids. She is just building her confidence. It is so amazing for me to walk in to her classroom in the afternoon and see her sitting in a circle with the other kids...it seams like such a simple thing, but to see her keeping up with kids her age just warms my heart!

Infants and Toddlers started up again for the school year and Callie has a new teacher. We are really going to miss Ms Sue...she has been such a blessing for Callie and our family. I know the new teacher will be just as helpful!

As part of this school year, Callie is also starting out with some speech therapy/evaluations. She qualifies for six sessions, and they will be working on her strictly at school. Callie talks up a storm at home, but tends to be much quieter at school. A big part of what they are working with her on is communicating effectively in that type of setting. Again, this just plays into her shyness at school and hope as her confidence builds, this will also improve!

She Continues to Amaze Us!!

Over the past couple of weeks, Callie has had most of her major follow-up appointments. Most of them tend to be on the 6 month rotation!! In all of them, Callie impressed the doctors, nurses and as always, us, in how far she has come!!

Callie had her second Dentist appointment and the they were happy with her teeth! Callie wasn't thrilled with the appointment, but all in all it was a success!

Callie also had her follow-up with her Opthamologist. We informed him of a little drifting that we are seeing when Callie is tired or not focusing. He was also able to see this, but said since she was able to focus and move them together, we would just watch them over the next 6 months.
Neurosurgery was very happy with Callie's progress. These are still one of Mommy's favorite follow-ups because they are always so amazed at how far she has come! It is so great to see a once somber man lighten up when talking about our daughter! They said they don't want to see her again for 9 months and will do a MRI at that point since they haven't done any scans in over two years.

Callie's final appointment during the last month was with the Developmental Pediatrician. The fellow at the appointment could not believe that Callie had had the brain bleeds that she had at birth. He actually looked in her chart, because he had never seen a baby with that severe of a bleed do so well. This is the same baby they once told us would never walk or function "normally"-well....look at her now!!! Across the board, Callie tested at least at her adjusted age while scattering well above her actual age in other categories. The other exciting news was that Callie has made it back on the growth charts for her actual age at the 1%!!

On the weekends, we continue to spend most of our time in the pool, either lessons or the kiddie pool in our backyard. Callie continues to love spending as much time in the pool as she can! At her lessons, the instructor uses Callie for all of the demonstrations since she is so comfortable now in the water!! And every morning, Callie continues to ask us to go to the pool and if we say no, then we at least have to show her a video of herself playing in it!! We think she may be a swimmer some day!

Last week, Callie had her NICU Grad Party at Johns Hopkins. It was so nice to catch up with all of the wonderful Doctors and Nurses that took such great care of Callie during her months there. We know part of why she is doing so well is all of the love and attention they gave her! Below is a picture of Callie and her Primary Nurse Mary, we love you!!

Callie continues to develop her personality every day!! Below is a picture of her stealing Mommy's spot in bed! She thought she was hysterical!! Her vocabulary continues to grow every day and she is talking in complete sentences. Her new thing is to commentate everything that she does...it is too cute!!

School continues to go well! The picture below was taken when they did Old Time photos at school! The summer is filled with fun activities at Goddard, like Spash Days and Moon Bounces. Callie falls in between two groups of kids at her school. At the beginning of summer, they gave us the option to move her up with the older kids or keep her down with the younger kids. Callie had been doing really well developmentaly with the older kids, but was extremely shy with them. With the younger kids, Callie really becomes a leader and lets her personality shine. We decided, with her teachers, that they best thing for Callie for the summer is to let her develop her social skills with the younger kids and move up at the end of summer.

Fun Fun Fun

We wanted to post a lot of pictures on this entry because we were so slow in updating! Make sure to see the post below with the video of Callie going underwater at swimming lessons. For some reason, we can't do pictures and video in the same post!

So, below we were mentioning how much Callie loves swimming lessons. Well the pick above is from week one when things were much different! We are so proud of how far she has come.

We have been spending a LOT of time outside, which has been great! Callie loves to do anything involving water, even helping Mommy water her flowers!!

Callie got a new Princess sprinkler which she loves to run through, especially if one of us will hold her hand!

We made our first trip to the beach over Memorial Day weekend. Callie LOVED spending time with her Poppop!

And playing in the sand!!

Callie has reached a point where she has little fear! This is her swinging on the monkey bars at our playground. She is quite the climber!!

She also loves to slide! She would slide for hours if we would let her. Her new tactic is to try to slide head first, but we try to make her slide on her bottom, which she will tell us over and over-"callie slide on her bottom, 1-2-3 go!!"

Callie has recently discovered video's and technology. We definitely want to limit her exposure to this, but she loves her Mickey Mouse and Callie home videos, so we usually will give in a few times a day for her to enjoy!!

We had a special visit from Grams this weekend! Callie loved taking her on a walk!!

Callie is having a lot of 6 month follow up appointments, so we will update next week with more information!!

Callie Under Water

We know that we are WAY behind on updates, but this month has been crazier than normal!! We thought for a change, we would include a video of our girl! Above is a video from her at swimming lessons this week going underwater! She has been in swimming lessons for the last 6 weeks and absolutely loves it. Every time we drive past where the pool is, she asks if we can go to the pool! She is pulling herself out of the pool and LOVES to jump in!

Busy Spring

We are sorry we haven't updated in awhile, but it has been a busy Spring for us so far! Above is Callie's Spring School picture...she refused to crack a smile, but it is still adorable! At school, Callie just moved up to the next age group. At first we were concerned because she is such a peanut, but she seems to be adjusting well. Her teacher says that she is keeping up with all of the other kids in her activities, it is just in size that she lags behind.

For Easter, we made the trip up to Canton to see Family and enjoy the long weekend!

Callie and her cousin Jack had an Easter egg hunt on Easter morning that Callie really enjoyed! Jack was a great big cousin and helped to show her where some of the eggs were.

Callie spent many hours in Canton playing with Jack and chasing the cats! Callie is used to dogs at the house, but the cats were something new to her and she was obsessed!

Callie also got to spend some time with Alex. She loves to copy and do everything he does!

We celebrated Mother's Day at the Baltimore Zoo with Grammi and Aunt Britty. It was the first time Callie was really interested in the animals at the Zoo.

Callie got to feed the Giraffe's-she wasn't afraid at all!!

In Callie feeding news, we seem to finally be turning a corner. She is still extremely picky, but the volume of food that she is eating is drastically increasing. We think watching the other kids at school might be helping. She loves to feed herself and is getting really good at it!

Callie really loved the farm section of the Zoo. She again showed that she had no fear by sticking her head inside the animal pens.

March for Babies 2011

Thank you to everyone that supported Team Callie May in the 2011 March for Babies. This year we were able to raise even more money than last year!

Our team more than doubled in size this year! We all got to proudly wear our "24 week miracle" t-shirts for our Callie May!!

Mommy got to tell Callie's story in front of over 900 walkers. Unfortunately, it was very windy and cold that morning, so Callie had to be bundled up and snuggling close (Mommy didn't mind!!)

Even Callie's teachers from the Goddard School came and supported the walk. We were also able to catch up with Nicu friends, but since it was so cold, the girls weren't able to play. And we even saw one of Callie's favorite nurses from St. Joe's.

It finally warmed up in the afternoon so that we could celebrate our Team back at home. The March of Dimes is very near and dear to our heart. Several Mom's approached me after my talk saying that they had similar experiences, but for some of them, the outcomes were more grim. Every dollar we raise helps to fund research so that babies can be born healthy. This is such a great cause and can't tell you how much we appreciate your support.