Birthday Countdown....4 More Days

4 more days until the BIG ONE !

Not too many new things have happened in the past week. No new doctor visits. No new therapies.

Kalista dropped in on a Gymboree music class this pass Wednesday and had a blast with all the music instruments and songs. The big drum was her favorite and she was not shy beating it loudly. We admit that she gets a lot of practice at home..all she needs is a wooden spoon and away she goes. So this week's theme was Salsa. We learned "Where is Thumbkin?" in Spanish and we frolicked around the room to some salsa mix.

She even met some new friends while playing in the band and luckily, missed a near disaster. Since we have been working so diligently on the feeding thing, we have been role reversing and having Kalista feed us and put things in our mouths when we open it. Well, she took it upon her self to try to feed one little boy in the class a drumstick since he opened his mouth while sitting next to her. Oh Kalista! Luckily, we caught that before an eye was poked out.

We are wrapping again!!! Our compression wrapping took a little bit of a hiatus for the pass two days. Kalista developed a severe case of dry skin on her belly and it became red, inflamed and crusty, so we opted to wait on the wrap until it calmed down. It looked so much better today so we decided to try the bandage wrap that Dr. Gosman gave us when we saw her for our surgery consult. It feels more cloth-like and self adheres with velcro (such a plus over those gnarly metal hooks). We have added a "Compression Wrapping" page on the blog so we can see if any progress is made in the next few months.

I'm Eight Months Old!!!

Yup...you got that right! Kalista is officially 8 months old today.

Here's our latest adventures:

1. We saw our nutritionist on Tuesday. She says that Kalista is on the growth curve and that we are doing well with weight gain and height. Kalista is now 15 lbs, 15 oz now and 26 inches. We are adding one ounce to her total feedings to account for her age bracket. That makes it 810 mL (27 ounces) a day. Other than that...no other nutrition concerns.


2. We are coming up soon in saying goodbye to our "Lil Steps for Feeders" group and heading into individual occupational therapy since Kalista has progressed so well. We need to emphasize more of the feedings issues and less on the fine motor skills. Today, Kalista got to play with large marshmallows (sticky!), Slim Jim beef jerky, and we almost got gummy worms...but we ran out of time in our OT session. For homework, it looks like we are to encourage Kalista's food exploration one step further and let her touch the food, talk to the food, play with the food and smell the food that we may be eating. Our mantra for the week will be: "Kiss the food Kalista, the food loves to kiss you".

Mmm...pickle lover like mama?

3. Our Gymboree class is fueling Kalista's motivation to get moving. She is starting to think that it is pretty cool to be able to crawl and get around. She stares at all the other little ones in her class as they interact with each other while crawling from one side of the room to the other. This week, she has learned how to pivot herself in a circle while sitting on her bottom. We found out this morning when she was trying to escape from our occupational therapist. Crawling is still a challenge, but she is slowly getting there. She loves to plunge forward into your arms from sitting and has taken a few face plants in the last day or two. Poor baby!!!


4. Balls. What can we say....she loves them as much as our dogs do.

Come and play with me!

5. Our days of continuous sleep are over as we know it. Kalista is going through some crazy stage that makes her wake up at midnight and won't go back to bed until 1:30 am. She cries and tosses and turns like she can't find a comfy position to sleep in. Ugh!

Hey...I'm a baby. What do you expect?

6. Lastly, Kalista has a new expression.

The STINK face!

So....that sums up all the new things that have been going on. Stay tuned for more exciting news!

We Made It Through Another Round

Kalista waiting to see Dr. Berent

Hidee Ho everyone! Yes...it was a long and grumpy day for the little one. We had a trip to the pediatrician this morning for her well delayed 6 month set of shots. She always takes them like a champ, but this time around, it made her feel a bit more under the weather than we thought. We are chalking it up to the flu shot, since that is the only thing different than her 4 month set.

Kalista weighed in at 15 lbs, 6oz and is now 25 inches in height. Her head circumference is in the 50th percentile, but her height/weight are in the 10-25th percentile. It must be her big brain that makes her top heavy!

"Toga a la blanket " is the new pediatric office style

We had our trial class at Gymboree yesterday and Kalista had a great time after the first ten minutes into it. She went in with her fists clenched and weary of all the other babies around her but eventually warmed up. Funny how every baby communicates differently. Clenched fists have always been her way of telling us that she is uncomfortable and apprehensive. It's way better than a crying fit. So after a good 45 minutes of singing and playing, Kalista crashed into a three hour nap. Gotta love the free parent time to catch up with things!

If you watch the show "Modern Family", our visit to Gymboree totally reminded us of the episode where Mitchell and Cam brought Lily to that playgroup. If you don't watch this show...you really should. Watch it on Zulu, because it is hilarious!!!