Thumbs Out!

Here you see Stella ... USING HER THUMBS! Oh, glory day. She's got both soft and hard splints now to try to teach her to bring them out. I know she wants to use them -- her aspirations reach far beyond her capabilities with a thumb-less grasp.

AND ... (hold your breath, people) ... Stella has TEETH! Two, in fact. All the better to chew with, my dear. Remarkably, she likes my cooking. (Francis never has. Even as an infant he would turn his nose up at my home-purees and howl until a store-bought jar was produced). This kid eats. She is eating 4-12 oz of purees a day, plus tidbits off my plate. (She likes feeling like a big, big girl and can grab the fork herself). Right now (for what it's worth, since the doctors don't use the new WHO charts) her height right now is in the 50 percentile and her weight is in the 25 percentile. But she is SOLID. My little chuck roast. My little black hole. And ya wonder why I sling her?!

It's been a hard week -- fighting with the social worker (from Family Support for Children with Disabilities). Or rather, trying to track down the social worker (think,"Where's Waldo", but with social workers). She appeared for a home visit on June 7, 2006, never to be heard from again, despite repeated emails and phone calls (I think on my last message I actually cried out right in frustration). Finally I have contacted Ms. Young's supervisor -- apparently our case has been transferred to another work in September without anyone actually notifying us. Oh, great. (Um, has anyone there noticed that it is now November?) Meanwhile, I am going back to work full-time in January, and looking for services for Stella. PACE kids has a great program and will spend 10 hours a week (!) with Stella, but they need the approval of FSCD. Apparently, FSCD can't get their ... policies (substitute word here) ... in order to say yeah or nay. Or, phone me back.

Being Stella's advocate takes up so much of my time, it's really mind boggling. But, she's my princess -- my teethy, thumby girl.