Merry Christmas!

Elizabeth and her cousin Madison on Christmas day.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth had a great birthday. She got lots of presents (an easel for drawing pictures and a big wheel bike) and her cake was shaped like Dora's backpack. When she was asked how hold she was, Elizabeth held up 5 finger and said "twooo". Her vocabulary keeps expanding, she's recently added some opposites, "over" and "under". She's starting to use two words together such as "open door".
December has been a rough month for Elizabeth. She was in the hospital twice. First, she was admitted for pneumonia and RSV which is common for preemies. It is evident that her lungs are still very fragile. As result she will be receiving monthly RSV immunization.
During her first visit, she contracted gastroenteritis and needed to go back to McMaster for dehydration.
Since, Elizabeth has been eating very well to make up for her lengthy illness. She even ate broccoli...

This Halloween Elizabeth was an elephant.
It may not be obvious from this photo, but she had a great time.

Once again, time has flown by and Elizabeth is 19 months (corrected). It is hard to believe that she will soon have her 2nd birthday. Elizabeth continues to surprise her parents with what she learns. Some of the new additions to her vocabulary are 'thunder', 'tractor', 'chicken', and 'brum' every time she sees a car driving by.
Elizabeth started crawling a couple of months ago and has perfected her new skill and wanders through the house including on the stairs.
Elizabeth's schedule is still quite busy. She is now seen by a multi-disciplinary team in the area and has just began to see an occupational therapist and a speech pathologist who help her with her eating and sensory difficulties. She will also be seeing a physiotherapist that will help her walk.
Her audio-verbal therapy is going well too and just today, Elizabeth had her visit at Sick-kids hospital to get her ears checked. According to the test results her hearing loss has improved since her last test :-), and her audiologist was amazed with her progress.
Just recently, Elizabeth went to the pumpkin farm and saw some farm animals. When she got to the chickens, she said 'chicken, ummmm' (chicken fingers are her faivourite food).

hanging out.

What a busy summer! Elizabeth continues to be an active girl; she's always on the move. She is now 19 mnths (actual) and 15 mnths (corrected). She has lost her baby fat :-( and turned into a tall skinny toddler weighing 18 lbs (with her big brown eyes maybe she will be runway material).
Elizabeth wows her parents every day with new talents; she's now figured out how to sit up independently and pulls herself up to stand and is very proud of herself. She continues to get around on her belly as she isn't able to stay on all fours for prolonged period of time. She does love to walk around while holding on to someone's hands and can stand up (she usually says 'up!' as she is doing it) to play at her activity table or in her crib when she doesn't want to go to sleep. Elizabeth is doing great at speech and associates many words with objects. She likes to babble and says a few words like 'ball', 'bye, bye', 'dada', 'grandma', 'diaper'.
Foodwise, she is doing great as well and is willing to experiment with textures. For dinner today she had hamburger, pork with corn and pureed pears.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

Remember the basket? See the photo from last Easter.

riding around

Elizabeth came home one year ago!

Time has flown by! Elizabeth has been home for a full year and her parents have enjoyed every minute of it. She is full of nrg and cannot wait to get moving and into trouble. She has recently began to pull herself along the floor and loves to follow her mother around the house. She continues to do well at speech and has just began to wave bye-bye. An occupational therapist has been visiting Elizabeth to help with her eating. She loves cheese and cherios and her mother has been sneaking in pureed meats into her foods to help her grow. Elizabeth still throws up frequently when different textures are given to her, but is getting braver and wants to sample from her parents plate. Reflux is still a problem with her an she has been having tummy aches. She has still gained some weight and is now close to 18 pounds. Next week she will have her hearing checked at Sick Kids and will visit the growth and development clinic at Mac.
Elizabeth visited the eye doctor today, and her vision is great.

Elizabeth is now just over 10 1/2 months corrected (14 months actual) and still keeping her parent busy. Thanks to homemade baby food she is now over 17 lbs. Elizabeth's early arrival is becoming more apparent as she is having difficulty meeting some developmental milestones. She has not began to crawl, but she has discovered that she can rotate counter-clockwise on when on her belly. She is getting frustrated that she is not able to get to things that she would like to, so hopefully she will start to get around soon.
She seems to have developed an oral aversion, so she has trouble with textures and throws up if new foods are introduced. Elizabeth is very particular about food and will not eat squishy, slimy, cold, or wet foods; cherios are a staple in her diet, although she has recently developed an appreciation for cheesestrings.
Lizzy has been waiting months for an OT to come and help with eating, but they are in high demand.
Elizabeth is doing well in her speech therapy and seems to have a blast every time she goes. She is learning to vocalize when she wants more and says 'ah' when she sees a toy plane. Her last hearing test showed that she has lost some of her hearing in her left ear, but at the present it is minimal and will not need intervention. She appears to hear most things and loves to dance to her music.
Next month will be a busy month for her, as she turns 1 corrected and will be visiting all of her specialists.

Enjoying Valentine's dinner with her mom and dad...

Happy New Year! Elizabeth's first ride on her toboggan.