Saturday, January 1, 2011

Another New Year

Happy 2011 to all. Andrea did not stay up until Midnight, although she decided to get up at 2:30 a.m for a snack. She's not the best sleeper in the world! We keep telling ourselves that this, too, is a phase. We hope she outgrows it before we're up all night wondering where the boys are. I miss sleep!

We had the most recent developmental clinic on Monday, December 20. Once again, all went pretty well. She's on target for her gross and fine motor development, having caught up to where she should be. She's walking and running, and was able to build puzzles and color on paper...all the things she should be doing. The only area where there is still a deficit is in expressive language. Andrea is about two months behind her corrected age in terms of her verbal expression. On the flip side, what she understands is beyond her corrected age, and pretty close to her actual age. We've been trying to encourage her to talk, but she's as stubborn as always, and most of the time won't bother. She has words for some things, but mostly resorts to pointing and whining. (Which gets old very fast!)

What a difference a year makes...last New Year's Eve we put Andrea to bed connected to the oxygen concentrator and PulseOx. This year, that was all gone, and seemed like a distant memory. Sometimes, we look back at Andrea's life and can't believe we've made it this far.

This picture was taken on New Year's Day...Andrea is resplendent in her blue velvet Christmas dress and Mary Janes. However, not wanting to miss any of the fun with her mostly male cousins, she's joining in at the air hockey table. She kept walking off with the paddles and puck, much to the annoyance of the big kids!




The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

Oprah Winfrey