10 months old already? And walking?!

Allie started taking a couple shuffles a few days ago, but last night she really started walking!

At 10 months old, her sign language repertoire includes: eat, drink, more, all done, bed, ball, hi, and bye bye.  She’s also developing signs for help, dog, and cracker.  She kisses and high-fives upon request and also give “hugs” when you ask, “can I have an awww?”  She ate some macaroni and cheese the other night, but is still hot and cold on “real” food.  She prefers her baby food!  This week I also started weaning her off the bottle.  She drinks milk out of a sippy cup in the afternoon.  So far it’s not going so well, but I’m not giving in!  If she can drink juice in a cup, then she can drink milk out of a cup too.

First Day of Fall!

Fall is my favorite season.  I love the cool weather, pumpkins, mums, cider doughnuts, sweatshirts, fall leaves… everything!  Kevin and I took Allie apple picking yesterday at Bowmans Orchard.  She seemed to love being the in fresh air and when Kevin gave her an apple she chomped right into it!  She loved the Jonamac apple so much she didn’t want to let it go.  We were almost the only ones in the orchard.  It was the perfect opportunity to take pictures.  Unfortunately, we forgot the memory card for the camera. Oops!  I guess we’ll have to go back.

On a side note… enjoy this picture that Kevin created the other day.  Thank god there is really only of her! haha!

Learning sign language

Allison is learning new things everyday.  These videos show her learning signs for “more” and “drink”.  She is also learning signs for “eat”, “all done”, and “help”.

 

Eye update

Allie went back to Dr. Simon last week.  While he still observed her eye deviating, he said it was to a lesser degree than when she was evaluated in July.  Her vision was not measured, so it is unknown if that has improved.  We were instructed to continue putting homatropine drops in her left eye twice a week.  We are due back in his office at the end of December.

How Big is Allison!? Sooooo Big!

Each day that goes by, Allie surprises us with a new talent it seems. Whether it is clapping hands, playing peek-a-boo, dancing, singing, standing… each accomplishment is enhanced so much watching them through this father’s eyes. Just today I came home from work and did our usual hello’s including hugs, dancing, squealing and so on. While holding her I asked “Can Daddy have a kiss?”, at which she leaned in and gave me the biggest kiss her little mouth could give. It’s moments like that which clean the messy slate any day in the office can create. Just what the doctor ordered :)

So I’ve been slacking a bit in regards to posting photos and videos of our little one. We have been taking them, lots and lots of them, just not taking the time to post any… so here we go! Click HERE to view the photos posted from August 2010, and check out the video below.

Photo gallery from August 2010

Click on the photo to view the album.

Nine months old!

So much has happened since the last post (which shouldn’t really surprise anyone seeing that I haven’t blogged in almost a month)!  Allie is now 9 months old and is a professional crawler, climber, and cruiser.  She loves to be up on her feet and after a few clumsy face-plants, she has discovered the art of sitting from standing.  She even got her first pair of real shoes last Tuesday.  Her receptive language skills are improving every day.  When asked, “how big is Allison?” she’ll put her arms above her head.  When asked, “Can I have an awwww?” she’ll lay her head on your shoulder.  When you sing, “row, row, row your boat gently down the stream, and if you see a crocodile, don’t forget to scream” she’ll let out a scream.  She waves bye, bye and I’m 90% convinced she knows the sign for drink (it’s actually the sign for milk, but I use it for drink).  She plays peek-a-boo and loves to get attention!  She’ll clear her throat or do a little chuckle until you look at her and then she’ll give you a big smile.  She weighs 24 pounds 10 ounces (99th percentile) and is 30 and 3/4 inches long (100th percentile).  She eats many more foods, like cheese and bread, and loves cheerios!

Now I’ve just got to get the house techie to post some videos and photos!  Including photos from our recent vacation to Cape Cod.  Check back soon!

It’s that time again!

Allie has been enjoying her summer!  She loves being outside, she enjoys being in the water (even if it’s just her kiddie pool or the bathtub) and she started crawling this month, so that’s been keeping all of us busy!  Click the photo below for pictures from July.

Oops! Forgot the Photos for June!

I was thinking about how it’s almost time to post the pictures from the month of July and then I realized that I never posted the pictures from June! Click the photo below to see all the pictures.

Now we’re movin’!

It’s official!  We have a crawler.  One day shy of turning 8 months old, Allie got up on all fours and crawled all by herself.  Daddy took the video to prove it.

 

On a side note… here’s a video of Allie acting like a crazy animal!

Those big baby blues…

The past few months, Kevin and I noticed that Allison’s right eye tends to drift off to the side when she’s eating or “spacing out”. It only would happen for a second and then realign, but it was something I wanted to mention to her pediatrician. At her 6 month appointment, I mentioned to her doctor that she appeared to have a lazy eye, but that it only occurred every now and again. He looked at her eyes and had her follow a light and said he didn’t see any cause for concern and that I should wait until she was 18 months to get it formally evaluated. He said that what I was seeing may be pseudostrabismus where the eye only appears to be out of alignment. I hesitantly took his word for it and left the office. Over the following week, we kept noticing her eye drift more and more, so I took it upon myself to find an ophthalmologist who specialized in pediatric strabismus (abnormal alignment of one or both eyes). I found Dr. Simon in Slingerlands, and made an appointment. We had to wait a month to get in, but it was worth it. He was wonderful with Allie and appears to be one of the most knowledgeable doctors in his field. After her 2 hour evaluation, she was diagnosed with amblyopia. Amblyopia is when the eye appears healthy, but visual information is not transmitted or recognized properly through the visual and neural systems. More commonly, “lazy eye”. Allie’s right eye is not seeing as well her left eye, and therefore, her brain ignores the information received by her right eye in order to avoid blurred or double vision. When she isn’t using her right eye it drifts outward. We were advised by Dr. Simon to administer homatropine drops to her left eye (her “good” eye) in order to blur her vision and force her to utilize her weaker eye. We are hopeful that her vision will improve in her right eye and her eyes will remain in alignment. We go back to Dr. Simon in a few weeks to check for progress.

Here is a picture of her that we took a month ago while she was eating – when her lazy eye is most evident. You can see her right eye is drifting a bit.

This picture was taken last week after we applied homatropine drops. You can see her left pupil is dilated much more than her right one.

Today was another “eye drop day” and she is tolerating them very well. We have noticed her left eye drifting a bit now and then which is a good sign. It means she’s using her right eye like she’s supposed to. Hopefully we’ll get a good report when we see Dr. Simon in August!