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!

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!!

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.

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!!

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!

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!!)

Callie's First Florida Trip

Last weekend we had a great, family weekend in Florida! We were anxious about the flight and how Callie would handle it, but like everything else, she was a champ! She loved the window shade and the headsets! She also provided some entertainment as she had to say hi to everyone on our way back from the bathroom...everyone loved her!

In Florida, Callie got to swim in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time!

And spend quality time with Oma (Lee's mom)!

She also got to play for endless hours in Oma's pool!

We had a family BBQ on Sunday and Great Grandma and Grandpa, Great Uncle Bob, Great Uncle John and Aunt Janet and Cousin Jenny came to spend time with Callie!

Callie loved the chocolate fountain! Especially the strawberries and cookies dipped in chocolate!

Callie made friends with a tiny lizard on the Lanai! She just picked him right up by the tail-we were shocked! We were a little afraid she might try to put it in her mouth, but instead she just examined him! We did rescue him before too much damage was caused!!

Thanks everyone for a great visit!