preemie power

Dear Scarlette | @ 18 Months

May 21, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

Dear Scarlette,
I still have to finish your letter from last month, that’s how busy you’ve been keeping me. You’ve learned to say “go” and that is what you do all day long. I’m pretty sure most kids say “go” as in “let’s go somewhere” but you say “go go go go go!” and take off running, looking over your shoulder to see if one of us has acquiesced to chase you. Sometimes you run smack into a wall. Often times, actually. You probably get that from your mama.

Eighteen months has us venturing out more. You especially love going to the play gym. The second I turn you loose you take off running, shrieking in delight. And that doesn’t stop until I put you in the car to take you home. We had a play date there and your Aunt N confessed to me that she thought I was exaggerating your play gym intensity until she saw you in action. You’re like a tiny little Tasmanian Devil in that place.

You also love to go to the library. Which basically involves mommy walking behind you replacing all of the board books that you pull off the shelves. It reminds me of my senior year of high school, when I worked at the library after school shelving books. I like to let you choose the books we check out. So far your MO is to carefully walk down the row pulling out random books. If you don’t like the cover, you’re all “I took it and THREW IT ON THE GROUND! I’M NOT A PART OF YOUR SYSTEM!” and I quickly pick it up and re-shelve it before we are no longer welcome at the library. If you like the cover, you sit on the floor and “read” it out loud to yourself. If you happen to pull out a book with Elmo on the cover, you raise it above your head and run to me squealing with joy.

Puzzles are a hit right now too so after you’ve done your damage in the baby book section we pick out a few puzzles and sit on the circle rug with them. You’re actually fairly quiet during puzzle time while you purse your little lips and furrow your brow in concentration.

You love to accompany me on shopping trips because you think riding in the front of the buggy is the MOST FUN THING EVER. It’s hard to get you in to the seat because you start bouncing up and down in my arms and clapping as soon as you see the buggies. You chatter your entire way through the store while mommy searches frantically for whatever thing she’s lost on this shopping trip. We’ve yet to make it through one entire shopping trip successfully because of your mommy’s inability to not lose important things like her car keys or her wallet. But you know what I always like to say “If at first you don’t succeed dust yourself off and try again, you can dust it off and try again.” Oh wait, that wasn’t me. That was Aaliyah.

You are starting to talk more, even if your daddy and I are the only ones who can understand you well. You say “Mama, Dada, Go, Ball and Jesus” and if you fall down you say “Go Boom!” You also say “Go Boom!” when you launch toys off the back porch. Or pacifiers out of your crib. Or when mommy slips and falls on the floor she just mopped.

When we tell you that you’re a good girl you’ll smile, clap your hands and say “Goo Gur”" and then I’m all “OH MY GOSH YOU ARE THE CUTEST BABY EVER!” Your speech/feeding therapist tells me that signs count as words so you also ~~say~~ sign “Eat, More, Doggie, Bubble, Hurt, Milk, All Done, Bye and Jesus”

Your favorite book right now is called “Brush Mona Lisa’s Hair” which your great-grandmother sent to you. Your cousin McKeehan passed his ball pit on to you and when you are not flinging yourself into it with great glee, we will find you curled up in it happily reading “Brush Mona Lisa’s Hair.” It looks incredibly uncomfortable to me but you love dragging books and toys into the ball pit to play with. Whenever you want to play in the ball pit you’ll point at it and say “ball ball ball ball ball!” because I don’t think you’ve mastered the concept of “plural” yet.

Oh Scarlette, I could write a thousand letters about all of the new things you are doing and how sweet you are and how much I love you. But I actually really do want to finish my Project Life page for this week so I’ll end this one now while you’re still sleeping and you can read all about your first finger painting experience there.

Love,
Mommy

(Scarlette’s shirt was a gift from my friend Amy of Amy Tangerine – isn’t it the cutest thing ever?)

Dear Scarlette | @ 17 Months (Part One)

April 18, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

Dear Scarlette,
When you were in the NICU, I sang to you a lot. In the month before I was allowed to hold you, I would open one of the little porthole doors on your isolette so that you could wrap one of your tiny hands around my finger and I would sing to you until my voice was raw. Your mommy is a big Taylor Swift fan and right before you were born your daddy bought me her newest album. This song was on it and I would sing it to you, except I would change the words from “oh, darlin’ don’t you ever grow up, just stay this little” to “oh, Scarlette won’t you please grow up, don’t stay this little”

Don’t tell anyone, but your daddy still sings it that way when he indulges me in selecting the music on car trips.

The funny thing is, you’re growing up so fast but I guess you’re also staying pretty little. Like, that skirt you’re wearing? It’s a size 0-3 months. It was so big when I put it on you this time last year. You were five months old, just home from the hospital, and I was so excited to put you in real clothes. Now at 17 months, it fits just right and you walk around the house holding the bottom of it out to show me how it twirls.

I’m going to have to write this months letter in two parts because you are doing so many new things that I could pen a novel about how amazing you are. And sassy. And funny.

Lately your favorite thing to do is to show us what a dinosaur does. You’ll put your hands above your head and roar at us. I took you to the grocery store the other day and the lady at the deli told me that these years “just soar by”. And apparently you think anything that sounds like “dinosaur” merits a performance, so you treated her to one. Then she called over her co-workers and you put on a show for all of them. They tried to give you a cookie but since you can’t quite manage those yet, you got a slice of cheese instead. Then you signed “more” to them and they were done for.

The honest to goodness truth is that I love when people make a fuss over you. I do. I think you are just the most special girl and I love sharing that with other people. Obviously, I was meant to be a mommy blogger.

You can say “hi, mama, dada, and go” regularly but you are mimicking us often. I swore I was never going to call you “princess” but I totally do. I go in to get you in the mornings and you are so sweet and happy and charming and it just comes out before I can stop it. I’ve decided I am okay with that because this morning I said “Hi Princess!” and you said “Hi, inces!” and then I died of cuteness overload. I mean, COME ON. That is so cute.

Right now your favorite thing in the world is to be chased, specifically by your daddy. You shriek and giggle and sometimes fall down because you’re laughing so hard that you can’t remember how to run at the same time. I normally cook dinner to the sound of your little feet pitter pattering across the floor, if not running from your daddy then you’re chasing Lucy Dog into a corner while furiously signing “doggie” at her. Somehow you got the idea that you are the boss of her and surprisingly, she completely indulges you.

You love music (right now you “ask” me to play Free Fallin’ over and over again by pointing to it) and then you’ll stand in the middle of the floor and dance to it. First of all, you have great taste in music. Second of all, I hope you get your rhythm from your daddy because mommy was asked to leave three different dance classes due to her lack of it. Seriously Scarlette, I failed at jazz hands. And clogging. Clogging isn’t even real dancing. Sorry Shawnie.

Aunt Stephanie let you borrow one of your cousin’s toys that sticks to the fridge and plays music. You love to push the button to make it play and then run to the center of the kitchen and start dancing to it. You’re killin’ me, smalls.

I hear you waking up from your nap so I’ll have to finish this another day.

Remember, I’d give all I have, honey.
Love, Mommy

8 Comments Filed Under: Dear Scarlette, The Daily Scarlette Tagged With: preemie power

NICU Graduation: One Year Anniversary!

April 12, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

April 12, 2011 we brought our Scarlette home from the NICU after five and a half long months. She is seventeen months old and today marks the day that she has lived with us for one entire year.

On the trip home from the hospital I precariously balanced all of her feeding tube equipment while keeping an anxious eye on her apnea monitor. We didn’t sleep at all that night, not only because we had to change out her feeds every three hours but because we just kept pulling her in to the bed with us and marveling that she was home.

Just one year later and there’s no medical equipment around to hold her back as she runs around the house laughing and clapping at her own antics. No taking her to a million specialists every week to have her blood pressure checked or her heart monitored. No carefully dispensing tiny measures of medicine every day.

Much has changed in the three hundred and sixty five days since we brought her home and every single thing for the better.

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him
- 1 Samuel 1:27.

Amen.

In two weeks time we will be walking in the March For Babies in celebration of Scarlette’s one year NICU graduation. We’re so thankful to everyone who has joined Team Scarlette as a walker or long-distance supporter thus far!

30 Comments Filed Under: Scarlette Year One, The Daily Scarlette Tagged With: preemie power

Dear Scarlette | @ Sixteen Months

March 9, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

Dear Scarlette,
It’s official. You’ve turned me into THAT mom, the one who effuses about her baby any chance she gets and pulls out photos the second she sits down to dinner with friends. I can’t help myself, people are like “Hi, how are you doing today?” and I’m all “LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY BABY, SHE IS A GENIUS AND ALSO LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS, I’LL HAVE THE NACHOS WITH EXTRA CHEESE HOLD THE JALAPENOS, THANKS.”

Your great-grandmother called me this week and I spent an hour telling her about all the things you can do, never mind the fact that I just sent her a video of said accomplishments. Like about how I’ve read Llama Llama Red Pajamas (thanks Aunt Nikki!) to you so many times that you’ve memorized it and you turn the pages at exactly the right time. Genius. Or how you can show us your head and your nose and your belly. Or how you can do some of the motions to “I’m A Little Teapot” and I am slayed by the cuteness.

You graduated from physical therapy this week and we are so proud of you. All that time spent in a hospital bed + being born so early meant that your muscle tone was very, very weak. When we first started physical therapy, we spent the entire hour just trying to get you to open and close your hands. And this week you walked across the room and looked over your shoulder at Miss L like “Walking? I got this.”

She told us it was such a joy to see you doing so well because she doesn’t get to see that very often, working with micro-preemie babies. We watch you do a jaunty little stroll across the room and are continually reminded just how blessed we are.

Lately you’ve been testing your boundaries a bit and we’ve had to tell you “No Ma’am” quite often. For awhile it made you cry but now you stick out your bottom lip, toddle over to us and wrap your arms around our necks. You’ll hug me and say “Mama” and oh my gosh that sort of sweetness is killing me smalls! “Stay strong!” your daddy and I encourage each other, because really, you’re such a sweet girl even when you’re being a bit naughty.

Right now you love writing on your chalkboard wall, playing with your baby doll, and dancing around to your daddy playing Free Fallin’ on the guitar. You also love seeing pictures of yourself and you often bring me my cell phone so that I’ll take your picture. After I snap it, you’ll turn the phone around so you can see yourself. Normally I show them to you but this week you freaked me out when you took your little pointer finger and started scrolling through the photos on the screen yourself. Listen, if you can do that I think you can sit your bottom on a potty, that’s what I’m saying.

I love you punkin’ pie,
Mommy

16 Comments Filed Under: Dear Scarlette, Scarlette At Home, Scarlette Year One, The Daily Scarlette Tagged With: preemie power

Dear Scarlette | 15 Months

February 8, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

Dear Scarlette,
I’d like to start off this letter with a few disclaimers. First, I realize you’re going to look back on these photos and roll your eyes at your ill fitting clothes. I am aware that your pants look a bit like Hammer Pants, which is a reference that will most likely go completely over your head. The problem, Scarlette, is that you are tee-niny and at a weird stage where none of your clothes fit properly.

Second of all, I can’t get a decent picture of you because you find yourself highly amusing and spend the entire time I have my camera out cheering for yourself. That’s okay though, because we’re cheering for you too. You’re doing so many big girl things! You can do all of the motions to the Baby Bumblebee song and sometimes you’ll crawl over too me and start showing me your “bumblebee hands” so that I’ll sing it to you. You also learned how to give us high-fives and when we’re not high-fiving you, you’re content to sit and high-five yourself. You’re a very confident little thing.

You took your first steps to daddy last week and now you’re toddling around the house a couple of steps at a time. Lucy Dog is keeping a wary eye on you because chasing her seems to be your motivation for moving about on two feet.

You’re starting to really test your limits with us. Before when we told you “no” you would stop and stare at us. Now you smirk at us and slowly continue to do whatever naughty thing we’ve told you not to do. But it hurts your feelings if we really get on to you. If you get a firm “No Ma’am” from one of us, your lower lip trembles and you start this pitiful cry and then become completely inconsolable. It probably works in mommy’s favor that we aren’t allowed in public during this phase.

You also tell us no often. You don’t say the word yet, although I mentioned to Daddy the other night that currently “mama” seems to be synonymous with “no.” When you don’t want me to do something, like put your PJ’s on or feed you peas, you’ll put your hand out at me, furrow your brow and say “MAma MAma MAma!”

This past week I had a doctor’s appointment and ended up having to take you with me. I was pretty worried about that because you’re not used to having to sit in your carseat. And also because you’ve taken to hurling objects across the room at high speeds. I really didn’t want you chucking your toys at the nurse practitioner. I linked your Elmo phone to your seat, packed a few bottles and hoped for the best. You did remarkably well and when the doctor walked in, you grabbed his pants legs and growled at him. Growled, like a puppy. He was completely charmed. Actually, it was the first time my team had seen you since they delivered you and so they were all charmed and a bit teary eyed. So was your mommy, as those doctors worked so hard to keep you safe and give me these moments.

Books are some of your favorite things right now. You know how to get them off of your bookshelf and you will spread them all out in the floor and look at them for ~~hours~~ minutes. Toys don’t hold your attention so much right now, you are much more interested in making messes. Yesterday I turned my back and in that short amount of time you managed to find a pacifier, pop it in your mouth and proceed to remove all of the wipes out of the wipe container. You’d already unfolded all of the laundry and scattered it about your bedroom. Then I had another cup of coffee and it was only ten in the morning. You’re the best bit of a hand full.

Bathtime is also your favorite but you’re afraid of the water running. You clutch my legs and say “mama mama mama” over and over. Then I sit you in the tub and you splish splash, rub-a-dub like a champ. You prefer to have your Abby Cadabby bath book in the tub and you will flip the pages saying “AAH! AAH! AAH!” The only problem with bathtime is that lately, you’ve managed to confuse “bathtub” with “potty” and kiddo, that is getting old. As soon as you figure this walking thing out, mommy is plopping your tushie on the toilet.

You’ve taken to randomly screaming at inanimate objects. This video? This is the soundtrack of my day. A couple of weeks ago you drove your cozy coupe down the hallway, positioned yourself under our wedding portrait and proceeded to yell at our images for five minutes. I have no idea what is going on in your little head but I think you are the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

We love you punkin pie,
Mommy