Physical Therapy

On Friday Ellie had her 8-month adjusted age follow up physical therapist. It was so much fun to see her interacting in a new environment with lots of new toys. In the testing that they do, a score of anywhere from 85 to 115 is considered normal. Ellie's fine motor skills are great - 110. As are her gross motor and verbal skills - both 100.

The only area where the PT noticed Ellie isn't quite proficient is her sitting. She's gone from always over extending and arching back when in a sitting position to curling forward when she sits. She also tends to bow out her knees and curl her toes and generally use extra muscles that aren't necessary when sitting. The PT said this might be related to her past memories of refluxing badly when she sat or might be related to her remembering times when she actually did arch back and bonk her head on the carpet or maybe it's neither of those things and just some random thing she does. Regardless of the cause, the PT is going to have us work with Ellie a few times every day on her sitting so that she can get comfortable and learn to have some more focused time when she sits.

I'm actually excited about the exercises. One involves sitting with her in between my knees on the floor and dangling toys above and slightly in front or to the side of her head for her to reach for. She can grab and then play with the toy, but once she starts to lean forward with it, we pick up the toy and start again from the dangling in the air portion. The other exercise involves having her sit up to a small bench or stool to play so that she can't arch forward.

The PT also observed that Ellie has a fairly serious personality. Although she has fun (and was especially pleased with herself when she would figure out how to play with a new toy), she also took each task very seriously and concentrated on what she was doing.

And since Ellie is just too darn cute, here are some recent photos of her.

 

 Last weekend Ellie and I drove to my grandma and grandpa's house for my grandma's 75th birthday party.  I only took a couple of photos, but once my little brother (hint, hint - Kenny) emails me all the great pictures he took, I'll post those as well because he got some wonderful shots.

  

Sleeping in her stroller during a walk after going to her first concert - Mr. Ben (a local music teacher) playing for kids at Posies Cafe in North Portland.  She had a great time enjoying music with her NICU buddy, Roman, and I had a great time chatting with Roman's mommy, Lua!

  

Helping mommy sort a pile of extra hangers.

  

Enjoying some time by the sliding glass door in the family room.  She's infatuated with playing near the door, with the door, with the heating vent near the door and especially with Coco's water dish nearby.  Gross!  The other day when Kit was watching her, he said she crawled (still army crawling) over to the door and simply laid down on this little rug with her body in the sun to keep warm and looked out the window.