The Sattler Scoop: December 2012

Well December happened, and I have been a bit of a blogging failure as I am finally getting around to my first post of the month. It has certainly been busy around here, and it has been a while since I have really done a true developmental update, so I'll give it my best shot to remember all the major highlights. We just returned from spending a great Christmas with Brian's family in Houston. Casey wasn't quite into the gift opening yet this year, but she was more than willing to play with the wrapping paper and investigate her new toys once they were opened. She also got to meet her Great Grandma Casey for the first time, which was really special.  For Christmas last year, our biggest wish was to have her home with us, and 11 days before Christmas, that wish came true. Adjusting to taking care of our preemie at home made for a very different kind of Christmas celebration, so this year we were very excited to spend the holiday with family.   It is hard to believe Casey's one-year Homecomiversary (Look it up, it's totally a word) has already come and gone. We have been blessed in so many ways in just one year, and we are amazed every day by the progress Casey has made from her early beginning.

Speaking of which, we had Casey's yearly evaluation with ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) last week. All of our therapists were in agreement that she has made great strides, but based on the tests and questionnaire they administered that day, she does still qualify for services for another year since she does still show delays in several areas. Services can be provided until she is 3, but she will have to re-qualify every year, and we also evaluate services every six months to make any necessary changes. For now, she will continue to have Physical Therapy twice a month. We have seen so much growth since we started PT (initially she didn't qualify), and our biggest goal in this area is for Casey to walk independently. She is a master crawler, and walks well when pushing her walking toys, but hasn't yet been brave enough to take that first step by herself. Our physical therapist feels confident that she will get there soon, but we opted to continue her services until Casey reaches this big milestone.  Casey is also the proud new owner of some pretty adorable new baby shoes, which we hope will give her more support in her walking quest. The other areas she continues to qualify for are Speech and Specialized Skills Therapy, and the goals these therapists will be working on together are predominately verbalization and self-care (age appropriate play, dressing, and feeding herself). While we are hearing lots more vocalization and attempts at repeating words, Casey is still not consistently saying many words. Cognitively we know that she has a very large vocabulary and that she recognizes new words very quickly, so at the recommendation of our therapists, we have been working on baby sign language to help her from getting too frustrated when she is trying to communicate words that she is unable to say yet. Our Early Intervention Specialist is also be working with her on playing independently for longer periods of time, as currently her attention span is only a couple of minutes (or less) before she demands our attention, and they would like to see her playing independently for more like 5-10 minutes. This made me laugh, because this girl is always busy and constantly on the move, but this tired Mommy could use a break every now and then, so I'm hopeful that we will start to see some progress in this area. Our Speech Therapist is also working with us to help her transition from a bottle to a sippy or straw cup (still a very slow work in progress, but I am planning to really focus on this one while I am at home this next week). She is also making great progress in trying and accepting more table foods, which has been a huge goal. In fact, I can't remember the last time that I actually ate an entire meal without little fingers grabbing at my plate. Thankfully, we can safely cross weight gain off the list of goals, as she was just shy of 20 pounds at her November check-up, and is officially on the charts for her ACTUAL age for weight, height, and head circumference.  She is only in about the 7th percentile or less for all areas, but we'll take it!

Some of my favorite developments since I have done a true update are that Casey gives hugs and kisses on command (more freely to dolls and inanimate objects, but she does reserve a few a day to mommy and daddy and others, too). This girl also loves music, and has been known to bust out some pretty adorable dance moves to show her appreciation for certain tunes. She gets a bit obsessive about certain musical toys, and even managed to wear out a brand new set of batteries on a Christmas Jingling Snowmen during our trip to Houston. To say we were all a bit tired of "Jingle Bells" would probably be an understatement. We have also been working on identifying body parts, and so far she consistently has belly, nose, and mouth (although she prefers to point out my nose and mouth rather than her own). When you ask her what we say when the baby goes "Night, Night," she will lift her finger to your mouth and wait for you to say, "Shh!" Too cute!  A recent Casey funny: I mentioned to Brian the other day that Casey was looking so big in her jeans and tennis shoes, and when she heard the key words, she lifted her hands high above her head and gave a huge grin, indicating her acknowledgement of the words "So big." For those that don't know this is a typical response to the question, "How big is Casey?" It was definitely a good reminder that she is absorbing and listening even when we don't realize it. We are also seeing a lot more evidence of just how strong-willed our girl is. She has developed a rather painful obsession with pulling my hair, and she sure can give it a good yank. The word "No" has definitely become a challenge word to Casey, and she only really thinks she has to obey when Daddy gets really firm with her, and even then she will often try to continue what she was doing as she looks back to see if Daddy is watching. We have also discovered that it is virtually impossible to keep socks on this girl's feet for longer than a couple of minutes. I can't even begin to count the number of cold mornings that I have dropped her off at my mom's all dressed in her winter coat and covered in a blanket, but with her bare feet poking out of her car seat. Just in the past few days, she has also developed a not so enjoyable tendency to throw an all out fit at bedtime and nap time, which is a bit heartbreaking. I have no doubt it was this stubborn streak that we can attribute to helping her survive early on, but we are seriously working on these and hoping some will be quickly passing phases.

So if you managed to make it through this long post, enjoy the pictures of Casey's visit with Santa and our Christmas celebration as your reward:

We are so thankful that we were able to squeeze in a meeting with Santa again thanks to my co-worker's personal connection that allowed us to visit him in their home.

Initially, Casey wasn't too concerned...

And then she got a closer look at just who was holding her.

Nope, not too thrilled anymore!

Begging to be rescued

So we changed her into her Christmas dress and tried again.

With much the same results!

How sweet is Santa, wiping her tears!

Of course she was okay once we distracted her with singing Rudolph.

And even had a kiss for him, too!

Pretty Christmas Dress!

We attempted a few more shots...

but someone was less than cooperative

Since she was already all dressed up, we attempted a few pics in front of a Christmas tree. Pretty sure more than a few people driving by probably thought we were strange for taking her picture by the tree in front of the police station (but there was absolutely no one there, and we are still in isolation, so whatever works).