Thanks to all of you for praying for Baby Ella and checking in to see how her evaluation went…it means more than you know.

So, here’s the scoop:

The therapists (one occupational, one speech) came over and spent about two hours observing Ella. I fed her lunch and she roamed a bit afterwards – they asked a crazy amount of questions and did a lot of scribbling in their notebooks. They were lovely – really made me feel at ease (especially after I greeted them by saying, “Ok, so I’m really nervous” while talking a mile a minute).

Ella is testing out at 9 months for some of her gross motor skills. She is not pulling up to standing or “cruising” yet, although since they were here she’s done a ton of pulling up to “high knees” (where her little behind is up off the floor) and seems to be slowly progressing in that area on her own. For her self-help, or “adaptive” skills, she is testing out at 7 months, but only because of her lack of self-feeding skills. After observing her during lunchtime, the OT seemed to think this particular issue might just be an issue of will – she likes to be fed, pure and simple. Is she just being stubborn, perhaps? I was relieved to find out that she doesn’t appear to have any texture issues and it’s a really good sign that she eats a variety of foods. I decided today to put her through a little feeding bootcamp and put plenty of food on her tray but did not feed it to her. So far, two meals down and we have a very cranky baby. Not sure if we’ll have success but I thought it was worth a try.

I was also really pleased to find that her social/emotional/speech skills are at a 12-14 month level. I told Vann – this proves she’s my child. Ha.

After the two hours were up, the therapists determined she officially “qualifies” for services. Starting next week, she’ll have weekly sessions. The good news is that given we’ve addressed this so early, she should hopefully be caught up in no time.

We do have an appointment scheduled with a developmental pediatrician. Apparently, these people are booked up 6 months in advance – when I first called they didn’t have anything until April. Yesterday, the office called to say they’d had a cancellation – January 17th. I took the appointment, hoping with all my heart that in a month’s time we won’t need it. I don’t know why, but the words “developmental pediatrician” feel like a weight sitting on my chest.

So I think that catches us up to speed.

Thanksgiving has come and went – for the first time hosting (ever), I’d say it went off without a hitch. I loved having a house full of family; Charlie and her cousins running amok and quality time spent with my brothers and sister-in-law’s. This is what we came here for.

And now the weather has finally turned and we light our fireplace every night. Our whole neighborhood was out on Sunday, putting out Christmas lights and wreaths – and last night we took our time driving home from a playdate, looking into all of the beautiful homes and admiring all of the sparkling trees inside.