New developments

In the last two weeks, I've made some significant advances in my development including:

1) Able to purposefully grasp an object and transfer it between hands
2) Able to put my toes/feet in my mouth (baby yoga)
3) Almost able to sit up unassisted in tripod
4) Able to roll from my back to my side (working on going all the way to my stomach and back again)
5) Able to lie flat in my playpen at night
6) Starting to scoot in attempt to crawl
7) Able to put my spoon in my mouth (without food) by the third attempt
8) Starting to eat oatmeal
9) Able to look for a person when they are out of sight
10) Able to pull to standing from sitting, engaging my abs, by holding onto Daddy's fingers
11) Starting to turn in a circle in my exersaucer
12) Getting my first tooth.

Watch out, here I come!

My physical therapist, Elva

Here are some pictures of me with Elva, the senior physical therapist at Dell Children's Medical Center who I work with twice a week. Since I was born with really tight, shortened muscles on the right side of my neck, for awhile I didn't even know I had a left side. Elva has been working with me not only on stretching, range of motion, and balance, but also on things that people might not realize - such as sensory integration, vision, learning what it means to be straight, and making sure I don't fall behind in developmental milestones. I must be getting better because I'm learning how to roll, sit up, and try to scoot in a circle (a precursor to crawling).

Today she started me on a TOT collar. It's a training orthosis for torticollis. Basically, it's an annoying plastic tube thing that I have to wear for ten minutes a day (gradually working up to an hour). Every time I try to tilt my head to the right it rubs my cheek and "provides me with a noxious stimuli" to remind me to hold my head up straight. Obviously, I'm not a big fan of it, but at least it's not as heavy as the DOC band was.

Recent trips

I have done a lot of traveling in the last two months. At the end of September, I went to Dallas for the annual Greek festival with Granny and Grampa. It was nice to learn about Granny's culture (as she grew up Greek/Romanian Orthodox). I really enjoyed the music and all the bright colors.

Later, in mid-October, Daddy and Mommy took me to Balmorhea State park with Uncle Larry, Aunt Heidi, Lauren, and our friends, the Loutons. There is a natural spring there, where you can go scuba diving. I'm too little to know how to swim, but Daddy and Mommy had the chance to do some diving. We also went to the McDonald Observatory to see the stars. I had a great view from my stroller, but fell asleep before the "show" was over. We also did a little hiking in the Davis mountains. I tried out my Baby Bjorn carrier for the first time. That was cool. I liked being higher up looking out at the world.

At the beginning of November, I went to Dallas again. This time, we were there to support Aunt Heidi in the 3 Day Breast Cancer walk. Last year, I walked inside Mommy's tummy, but this year I just helped cheer for Aunt Heidi and play with cousin Lauren. I was so proud of Aunt Heidi. She walked without the rest of our team and raised over $3,000. :-) While Aunt Heidi was out walking, I also got to go with most of my cousins to the zoo on the DART train. It was the first time I'd ever been on the train or to the zoo. Like cousin Erica said I'm lucky because I got to go before any of them ever did - when I was only zero! I had fun watching my crazy cousins play and seeing all the animals. I liked the otters and gorillas the best. That night, after the zoo, I got to go somewhere else new. It's called Chuck E. Cheese and it's full of kids, bright lights, and interesting sounds. Mommy says I'll like it even more when I'm older. I know my cousins did. It was a nice place to celebrate my cousin Sara and cousin Lauren's birthdays.

In a few weeks, I'm going on another trip - back to Louisiana to see some of Daddy's family for Thanksgiving. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Love,

Erin

Happy Halloween from Sweet Pea

Halloween is Kurt's favorite time of year. So, of course we had to take Erin out trick or treating. She was dressed as a sweat pea, because that's what we call her.

Her cousin Lauren went with her, and was very good about sharing and asking for candy for "Baby Erin". Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to teach Lauren to say "trick or treat smell my feet", since she kept saying "bye smelly feet".