Month: February 2007

Hair, Hair, and More Hair!

Hair1 Hair2Hair3

Lyra’s hair is getting sooooo long! She has a TON of hair. She’s got a second set of bangs growing under her bangs. That new hair is almost to her eyebrows.

The thought of cutting it makes me sad. She’s my last baby and I’m in no hurry for her to grow up. I’m not ready for her first haircut. :(( I love her hair.

I can’t put it in twisties anymore. The other day she pulled one out and was chewing on it like a piece of bubble gum. She’s not real fond of headbands or clips either.  As in the first photo above, without something putting her hair up, she looks like Stella from Over the Hedge.

Hair4 Hair5

Milestones

Milestones-
Focuses on faces- 4 months
Laughs out loud- 3 months
Rolls front to back- 3 months Rolls
back to front- 6 months
Sits unsupported- 7 months
Says “Da Da”- 7 months
Says “Ma Ma”- 8 months
Crawls- army crawl- 1/7/07
First teeth- 1/7/07- two lower central incisors came in together (this was a big day)
Claps hands- Feb 4th, 2007
Pulls up to standing position- Feb 11th
Goes from sitting to crawling and back to sitting without help- Feb 13th
Crawls-on hands and knees- 10 months
Cruises-side to side only, along sofa or coffee table- 10 1/2 months
Stands alone- 3/25/07 (maybe 3 seconds-tops)
Waves Bye-Bye- 10 months (waves to herself)
Finds hidden objects/toys- 10-11 months
Discovers her voice-9-11 months (“sings” along with music and screams for fun)
Takes first steps w/o hanging on to anything— 5/1/07- 1 or 2 steps, 5/7/07- 4 steps

Seeing the spoon.

How does a baby know to open her mouth for a spoonful of food? They see the spoon coming.
In Lyra’s case, at 4 months, she couldn’t see the spoon coming. This made feeding her more difficult. We tried different sound cues to get her to open up. One that was more successful was tapping the spoon on the bowl just before bringing it to her mouth. It didn’t consistently work though and eventually gave up on the sound cue. Maybe not the best decision on our part as parents. We decided to wait a bit longer for solid foods. Now Lyra can see the spoon coming and opens her mouth. She sometimes tries to grab the spoon. A lot of babies do this, but in Lyra’s case I think it also has to do with her visual ability, specifically her depth perception. She isn’t sure how far away the spoon is and wants to guide it to her mouth using her hand.

The strabismus surgery she is having in a couple of weeks could improve her depth perception. We’ll see if it helps with feeding.


Creative Commons License

This
work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

What Can Lyra See?

What Can Lyra See?
A lot…but just not as clearly as everyone else. Her vision now is about 20/200, which is legally blind, but this doesn’t mean she lives in a world of darkness. My vision without my glasses or contacts is 20/200. Very early on, we knew she could see something…we just weren’t sure what. She would look at toys, books, or objects that had very high contrast. We have a dark navy blue border along the top edge of the white walls in our bedroom. We would take Lyra in there, and she would look up at it and laugh hysterically. Of course so would we, it was so cute. This was as early as one or two months.
As her vision progressed, we could judge how well she could see based on how far away she could track or follow a lighted or unlighted object. Her field of vision is expanding more and more every day, but more slowly than a baby without a visual impairment.
Lyra’s vision is also affected by the nystagmus and strabismus. They affect her ability to focus on detail as well as her depth perception.
Because of the photophobia, it is also harder for Lyra to see things in rooms with very bright light or outside on a sunny day. Its like coming out of a movie theater into the bright sun. The glare can be almost painful. She see better in dim light. The bright light is very irritating on her eyes. Just the other day, we spent several hours at a mall. The mall had typical bright florescent lighting. Lyra would not leave her hat on no matter how many times I put it back on her head. By the time we left the mall, her eyes were red and watering.


Creative Commons License

This
work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Toys Toys Toys

Lyra loves these toys and has used many of them in her weekly vision therapy. I hope to add some pictures eventually.

Glow Worm
Fisher Price Tap n’ Twirl Top
Little Tikes Tap-a-Tune Piano
Light up pumpkin wand (Halloween prop)
Happy Apple
bright blue and pink egg shakers
Fisher Price Touch and Tickle Round balls
Fisher Price Miracles & Milestones Musical Panda
Fisher Price Star Stacker- music and lights
wax paper


Ocean Wonders aquarium crib toy
Books:
Baby Faces by Margaret Miller

Black on White by Tana Hoban
White on Black by Tana Hoban

Feely Bugs by David A. Carter

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The Cheerios Play Book by Lee Wade

Fairy Numbers by Caroline Repchuk

If you are considering buying any of these toys or books, try iGive Shopping. They have many of the same online stores you would typically find these items, but when you shop through iGive, a percentage of your purchase is donated to NOAH or another charitable organization of your choice. Visit iGive for more info.


Creative Commons License

This
work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Early Intervention

Early Intervention Services-4 months-present
Vision Specialist and Occupational Therapist come once a week for an hour, one on Tuesday, the other on Thursday.
Work on vision skills- tracking, following, depth perception
Work on motor skills, reaching, grasping, holding head up, rolling over
Work on using vision and motor skills together- opening mouth when spoon is coming.
Prebraille (kids with albinism might use braille, might read print, or both for a while)

Tests/Assessments used
-HELP (Hawaii Early Learning Profile)
-OREGON Skills Inventory
-Parent/team report

IFSP Outcomes for Vision (9/19/06)
-Fixate on a variety of toys and faces
-Localize sounds and voices
-Follow in all directions
-Track in all directions
-Gaze shift between two toys and faces
-Monitor light sensitivity
-Scanning her environment
Time frame for goals-6 months

IFSP Outcomes for Motor skills (9/19/06)
– Lyra will use her vision to purposefully grasp a toy
-Lyra will play with a toy using both hands at midline, medium size toy, bottle, object to mouth
-Lyra will hold an item in each hand and bring them together at midline, i.e. banging 2 toys together
-maintain grasp on item in each hand
-Lyra will remove 3 hand size objects from a container
-Lyra will put 3 hand size objects into a container (voluntary release)
-Lyra will maintain position on all 4’s for 1 min.
-Lyra will crawl forward on all 4’s five feet
-Lyra will sit up with minimal support
Time frame for goals-6 months

en_USEnglish
en_USEnglish