Elsie Lately

Things Elsie says:

"peas" and "tank you"- anytime she wants or is given something, not sure how but she's super polite

"boom"- for a fist bump haha. She has to have a hug, kiss, high five, and a boom before nap and bedtime, and she tries to do it several times if it keeps me from leaving.

"No! I not!"- so sassy

She still calls Gemma "baby" but does it in the cutest high pitched little mama voice

"da-yee"- for daddy

One time she came up to me outside yelling "Mom! Dog ship" I'm sure you can figure that out  haha oops. But she always had to point out when the dog has pooped by telling "Poop!"

We recently went to the beach and when she says beach it sounds an awful lot like another certain B word

"nolk" milk

"coy"-car (most of her Rs are said as Ys)

She still sleeps with "Momo" (Elmo) but  also likes to take "Nana" (Anna from Frozen) and "Tata" (Elsa) to sleep with her

Which brings me to how she says her name...she doesn't really often, but when I get her to say it, it sounds like "Ta-tee"

That's all I can think of for now. This will be fun to read through someday. 

Gemma's 5 Month Update

Baby girl is growing so fast!

Thus month she's really started getting around. She figured out how to roll from back to front awhile ago but this month she really mastered going from front to back as well. Within the past week she's been  rolling all over the place.  She also tries to get on her hands and knees already and sticks her butt up in the air. I'm betting she'll be crawling next month. When she tries going forward now she scoots backwards.

She got hold of a piece of watermelon on vacation and loved it! She was so sad when I took it away. So I started giving her some solid foods. I know it's not really recommended until 6 months but, just like Elsie was, this girl is ready. She's tried banana, pear, apple, and squash. Loves it all! She doesn't have much of the tongue thrust reflex left either so she isn't really spitting it back out. She's still breastfeeding too, no bottles or anything. I'll be starting a sippy cup in a month or two.

She absolutely loves watching Elsie and is always smiling at her. It's so cute!

We just moved up to size 3 diapers and she's wearing 3-6 month clothes primarily.

Hmm what else...

Oh she also started liking  being in the jumper. I don't leave her in for long but she likes playing with all the toys in it.

Working on sitting up alone. She can for about 30 seconds at a time. She'd much rather be moving than sitting.

Also, still no teeth but lots and lots of drool.

And still cosleeping although she does sometimes nap in her crib if we are home.

It's so much fun watching her grow. Time needs to slow down!

Gemma's Feet

This post has been a long time coming. This will be a lengthy post.

Gemma saw a new orthopedic doctor shortly after we got to Virginia. At this point she was still in boots and bar that the German doctor had her wear after casting. First we saw the physicians assistant and she said that her feet were really flexible and looked great. I showed her pictures of her feet before and throughout the casting process. She doubted that we needed to even wear the boots and bar during the day anymore maybe just at night.

Then she brought the doctor in and he was even further impressed with her flexibility even to the point of doubting that she ever had true clubfoot. He thinks she might have just had a positional thing from running out of room in the womb. He said he knew it was almost heretical (is that a word?) in the clubfoot community to not wear the boot and bar but that he really thought we should just leave them off for a month and see what happened. Since he never got to see Gemma before she went through casting, he couldn't tell for sure what her feet were like but he also knew that the clubfoot treatment is very long (like 4 or 5 years of nighttime wear) and it was either continue with treatment as is for that long or see what happens. I left it up to him to decide. Since when she was born two pediatricians said it wasn't clubfoot, I had always been skeptical.

SO we decided to leave the boots off and come back in about five weeks to see.

Today was the day!

The P.A. said her feet look great! If it had been clubfoot they would have almost immediately started turning inwards and she would have lost a lot of flexibility. She is still very flexible and her feet haven't turned in. Such good news! She said we don't even need to go back to follow up, we have their information in case we ever have anything come up but they are confident that it was just a positional issue that was corrected faster with casting but that she probably didn't even need casting to correct it. But obviously the casting didn't hurt her at all since the German doctor did a good job.

So that's that! Our prayers were answered and Gemma's feet are perfect!