Vivs got an A+ !!!

Vivs and I had a mother-daughter date today. A big day yielding happy results! She was a champ sitting through an hour-long ultrasound of her abdomen with major hunger pangs (she had to fast for 6 hours). She scored major points with the tech by being a happy camper despite her discomfort. Of course for these kinds of appointments the techs can't say much, but from what I could weasel out of her things look great. The last large hemangioma on her liver was 9x9 mm's three months ago. It's now involuted to 5x7 mms which is remarkable. Just 8 months ago she had hundreds of lesions on her liver, so we have much to be grateful for. So, we're awaiting lab results and our GI and Derm appointments are coming up so we can figure out what we're going to do with a few of the annoying superficial hemangiomas.

After the long ultrasound we literally ran three blocks in the Children's Hospital complex so we wouldn't be late to her long-awaited developmental appointment. She was supposed to go in at 6 months but fell through the red tape cracks with the hospital records. NICE. Good thing I'm somewhat on the ball (yeah, 5 months late, but we got there, didn't we?!)

I'm overjoyed to report that Vivie's cognitive, speech & language, and fine motor skills are right on track. In fact, because she's 11 1/2 months old (can hardly believe it!!!), she should really be performing at the 8 month range due to being 14 weeks early. It is expected that she should catch up at about two years old, but our Vivs is kind of showing off. She is at the 8 month old range with her language, but her fine motor skills and cognitive abilities are more in line with about a 9 1/2 to 10-month-old baby. Go Vivs! She doesn't need any developmental therapies right now.

The only thing we're watching is that she does this funky thing with her tongue....one of the useless genes she got from me. She can twist and twirl her tongue inside her mouth, and in fact does it ALL DAY LONG...it makes her look like maybe there's something neurological wrong with her. It will probably make her a GREAT kisser in like 20 years when we allow her to date!!! Anyway, the therapist thought that her lingual frenulum (that little flapper thing that attaches her tongue to the bottem of her mouth) is uneven so that it pulls to one side, making it tough to keep her tongue symmetrical. It should only be a problem if it affects her ability to eat and move food around her mouth without food slipping out the sides---beautiful thought. They will continue to follow her every six months.

Like I always say...if these things are the worst micro-preemie consequences, bring it on! I'll have to catch her doing her tongue thing and post it---it really is quite amusing. She could be on a late night talk show doing stupid human tricks! I love my Vivs!

Oh...and the ending of our date--another Craigslist buy--couldn't resist. It was posted as a Pottery Barn chair last night (I actually think it's from Restoration Hardware though). It was downtown near the hospital..and now adorns my family room perfectly to replace that awful ugly over-sized recliner. Yeah...it might look like your Grandma's old purse fabric, but I LOVE IT! It was a bargain once again---I'll take it, thank you very much. And I'll take an A+ in developmental progress! Happy Days! Curt looks quite exhausted in that photo! See...proof of what six kids does to us!