First Tooth Making an Appearance

Guess who has cracked her first tooth. Yep thats right on Sept 17th at about 7:45 pm daddy noticed Addy's first tooth popping through her bottom gum. It has been long awaited and we felt she has been teething for awhile. Finally Mr. Tooth made his appearance. Addy has handled it, of course with ease and did not make much of a fuss. Other than the drool and her pink cheeks we may never have guessed. It is so cute now to see her little toothy smile and it looks like there will be more on the way soon.
Addy has also discovered that she can do a few other things that will elicit great responses from mommy and daddy. First we shake our head "no no" and mommy and daddy go all crazy and laugh and start shaking their head back at me. Yes we do this and we do laugh , because even though we are sure she does not know what it means she seems to do it at just the opportune moment. Not even with just us, with her doctors and therapists too. Secondly she has learned to clap her hands together, which makes mommy and daddy mimic and do the same and scream "yeah". It is so amazing how we revert back to children as we watch our own children grow and discover things before our very eyes. It really is quite cute to watch her clap. She still is lacking full use of her left side and though she can get her hand part way over to the middle to clap, once the left meets the right hand it stays sedentary and the right one does all the work. Just adorable and she is so proud of herself, her little smile just melts your heart.

So with the appearance of her first tooth we have introduced some more chewable food to Addy, which she seems to love. She still gives us a little gag and shudder now and then but she is managing to get things down well. Her favourite treat are the Baby Mum cookies. You can just tell she feels like such a big girl eating these now, its funny after days of sitting and staring at us eat, she now looks at us like "hey are you gonna give me one of my big girl cookies or what?" We have also introduced a sippy cup with water, but she has not quite got the concept that she has to draw the water out, but that is okay she has fun with a new toy at the table.
Addy also had her followup appointments with her pediatrician and the NICU Developmental Followup clinic. Both the doctors and therapists seemed pleased with Addison's progression, weight and development. The physiotherapists advised that they did see some asymmetry still going on with Addy's body, meaning she was utilizing the right side of her body more than her left, but they advised that it was definitley harder to find this time than it had been at her last appointment. They advised us to just keep doing what we were doing and perhaps the appearance of this will be even less visible at our next visit. Lets cross our fingers.

We have continued to have some great fall weather and we have been taking full advantage of it. The weekend of September 18th, I had a great Reunion weekend with a my "Vintage" girlfriends from my highschool days up at our cottage. It was so much fun and we reminisced about the good ole days and talked till the wee hours of the morning about our lives now. (Okay we may have danced a bit too) Addy was again the queen of the day and got to meet all the girls who have been supporting us and reading about her daily. They were all so happy to meet her and it was so wonderful to share some time with people and celebrate Addy's being!! This feels right and this is what having a new little baby should feel like, all the proud moments you get to share with others and have them revel in your little baby's cuteness. Not that we didnt have that during her first months of life, I guess it was just celebrated differently. Thanks girls it really was a great time and thank you for including Addy too. Cannot wait to do it again next year!!!

This past weekend the three of us took a nice Sunday drive up to Sparta and Winter Wheat, just outside of St. Thomas. The fall colors were beautiful and we got some great fall shots outside. This is our favourite time of year and fitting that Addy came into the world during the fall season. Here are some great shots of Addison outside at Winter Wheat. This is such a great place to visit. The neat little outbuildings and art over the property really gives this place so much character. Addy loved it and I am sure it will be a place we return to visit with her again and again.

ENT Followup News

Well great news, Addison went for a followup appointment with an ENT specialist in London regarding some concerns we had with her vocal chords and choking while eating. The verdict; she did have some damage to her left vocal nerve, causing some paralysis to her vocal chord. This however has since corrected itself and her vocal chords appear to be working just fine. She did so well and hardly fussed even when they put a scope through her nostril and down her throat. I think mommy had a harder time with the whole procdure than Addy, though it was very neat to watch and see her chords under a fine microscope. The strength and pain tolerance of this little girl amazes me more every day.

Another good tidbit of news received, we finally found a local home daycare that Addy will be attending once I return to work. We still hope that I will not be returning in Octoer as planned, but we do now feel better that we have a good spot for Addy to go when I do have to return. Man I really dont want that day to arrive.

We have had some great fall weather, with some hot sunshine so Addy and I took advantage of it and went Fall Raspberry picking at Parks Blueberry Farm. The place was empty and the berries were plentiful. In a matter of just an hour we got all these scrumptious berries picked and a few that we ate while picking too. I swear I am blessed with such a good little girl, she is so patient and laid back and lets me get so much done while she just hangs back. This past weekend Addy had a great visit with her grandma, aunt, uncle and cousins while Greg and I took a long overdue trip away with some friends to Niagara on the Lake. Yep thats right we actually stayed overnight away without Addy. She did absolutely great and was such a good girl while they stayed with her, I however had a very hard time. I cried as we pulled away and then asked Greg if I could call home every hour. As we toured the wineries I think I saw about 10 different families with little ones touring around and got so depressed that I didnt have Addy with us. It was a hard one but we had a great time thanks to our great friends and thanks to our family for being there for Addy.

NICU Visit and Mommy's Birthday

Even though summer seems to be coming to a close before our very eyes, we still seem to busy and have lots to keep us busy. Addison continues to bloom before our very eyes as she continues to work so hard at each and every doctor's appointment or therapy visit she has each week. She really has responded well to her Kinesio taping at her therapy appointments, and we notice immediate improvements, moments after the therapists have worked with her. Thank goodness for the people that work there and for the services they offer our little ones, I cannot imagine where we would be in Addison's development without all of their help and guidance. Addy is able to pull herself up now if she is falling backwards from her sitting position, and we continue to work hard on the rolling over and sitting alone unassisted. Her little Bumbo chair is a great assistance for her to learn positioning and muscle memory for this position so we often sit her in it for story time. She is continuing to progress well with her eating of the "solid" foods, and is getting used to all of my homemade food. We sometimes get a few strange looks from her when we introduce a new taste, but so far we have been faring pretty well. To the right is a picture of Addison's new chair that we purchased to assist her with muscle memory for sitting posture. This blow up chair can also be used to help Addison do more work on her tummy, without having to lay flat so she can manipulate more up on her arms to learn a semi-crawling position.

An appointment this week in London gave us the opportunity to stop into the NICU on the evening shift and pay a visit to some of the NICU staff we don't get the chance to see on our regular day visits when we stop in. As luck would have it our Primary Nurse; Lisa was working and our core team Nurse; Kathy. It was so wonderful to see both of them, as we had not had the opportunity since we left the unit in late January. These ladies became family to us, over our stay and it is so weird to not see and talk to them much since we left. They were both surprised at how much Addison had changed and grown, but she really would not be doing so well if they had not been such a big part of her care.

This month marked the big 40 for me and my girlfriend Maryse. To celebrate her big day we did a Sushi dinner at Se YO Sushi in Sarnia, very good meal, prior to her taking off for a wonderful tour of Paris, France. So jealous. In the meantime Greg and Addy had their own plans up their sleeve for a surprise party to me, and they actually got me on it!! I normally figure out all the surprises, but they got me good!!! It was a wonderful way to bring in such a momentous birthday with my hubby, daughter, family and friends. We actually made a weekend of it, as some of the gang from Ottawa and family made it down from out of town. Now that is a party when it can go 3 days long. Now that is coming into 40 with style. Happy Birthday Mo! Mo!!!!