10 Months Old - Sitting Pretty

Ten months old - I can hardly believe it!  Gianna is sitting up SO well now, and has a new word ("up!").  I actually was hoping for "mama", but I'll take "up"!  She's still doing her physical therapy every week and is getting ready to start speech therapy also.  The speech therapy isn't really for her speech at this point, but for her swallowing.  She does great with drinking and totally smooth baby foods, but gags on anything lumpy or the little baby puffs.  She's really adjusted well to her glasses, although when she gets tired of them she takes them off and chews on them (lots of scratches on them already...yikes).  At 10 months old, the two best words to describe Gianna are "Daddy's Girl!".  She lights up and smiles like crazy when Matt comes in the room.....but if he walks out of her sight - watch out!!  We've been told that a little separation anxiety is a normal part of development at her age, so she is definitely hitting that milestone right on time!  She's a true people-person, and always wants someone close enough for her to see and interact with.  Playing Patty Cake or Peek-a-Boo are guaranteed to make her smile.  Here's a little video of G showing off her new sitting and playing skills. 

We got to have Gianna's first professional photographs taken tonight (yes, something other than pictures taken on my phone!).   She was chosen as a "hero" in the Littlest Hero's Project, and an absolutely amazing photographer spent the evening with our family.  But I'll write more about that later.....  Tonight I'm just so thankful to have spent the past 10 months with little G!

GiGi: 9th Months

GiGi at 9 months old: trying hard to sit up!

I'm late posting this, but Gianna recently turned 9 months old and is doing beautifully!  She's working HARD in physical therapy each week, she can sit up very well in her high chair, she's adjusting to her new glasses, and had a great appointment with her neurosurgeon.  He thinks she's doing so well that he only wants to see her every 4 months now instead of every 2-3 months.  Here's a picture of G waiting on her appointment with him this week. 

G reminds me of a little owl with her new glasses.



Eye Candy - Part 2

This one goes in the category of, "why didn't I think of inventing that?!"  Gianna's Aunt Cara found these stickers made just to go over kids' eye patches!  The concept is to help make patching more "fun" and to encourage people to make eye contact and interact with kids who have eye patches rather than looking away.  What a cool idea - here's the company website: http://eye-doodle.com/ As you might guess, they are made by a mom whose daughter had to begin wearing an eye patch as an infant. 

Dominic and Angelo are enjoying picking out Gianna's patch-of-the-day.  Anyone who has met Angelo knows that his two very favorite things in the world are #1. his Pooh Bear and #2. his baby sister, (who he calls "GiGi Bear").  Check out the sticker he put over one of Pooh's eyes today so that he could look like GiGi.  So sweet!