13 (and a half) months old

Whew, I am late in posting this.

Frankly, I wasn't sure if I should post about this or not, but I'm going to anyway.

Phoebe is going to be tested for a delay in communication.

Easter weekend, Chris and I both came to the realization that something was a little "off" with Phoebe. She had learned how to clap and wave, but had stopped doing both. She didn't point, she didn't have a single recognizable word for anything or anyone. She didn't have a single baby sign or gesture letting us know what wanted. These all were getting us pretty alarmed.

It was even more apparent when I looked back at my blog and read all the things Charlotte was doing at the same age. Charlotte didn't have more than a couple words at the same time, but she knew signs, she pointed, she made it clear she understood a lot of what we were saying. In addition, we had our friends over for Easter. Their daughter is a month older than Phoebe, and we were blown away with how interactive she was. She communicates by pointing and by pretty clearly saying a few words (ball, Dada, Mama, etc.).

Even before they had come over, I had already emailed Phoebe's doctor with our concerns. He called me first thing the next morning, saying that she should be tested for hearing loss and that we should fill out a questionnaire related to certain milestones 12 month old babies should be meeting. Phoebe's hearing is totally normal, as we suspected. And it was clear, going through the questionnaire, that she's really behind on communication skills, although she's probably far ahead with fine motor skills.

So we're going to a 90 minute evaluation by one of the few developmental pediatricians in Northern California. It's not until the week we get back from Greece, but I'm glad that they're taking this seriously.

That being said, Phoebe has made amazing progress in the past three weeks since we started inquiring into all of this. She is much more interactive with us. She laughs. She can make the sound of an elephant trumpetting and she can do it without us prompting her first. She has started waving again. She says "uh oh" now when she drops things. She says hi. She says Dada when Chris comes in the room. She doesn't really point, but she does stretch out her hand open-fisted when she wants something. She understands a lot, like hat, shoes, socks, and probably many more words that we don't know about.

She has started walking. She definitely wasn't behind on gross or fine motor skills, but it's still great to see her progressing in that area because Dr. M said that if she regresses in gross motor skills, it's definitely something of serious concern. So anyway, Phoebe will toddle about 5 to 10 steps and then fall down and continue crawling. She's just started figuring out how to stand up without holding on to anything, so we know full-on walking isn't far behind.

We wonder if Phoebe didn't get a lot of interaction when she was a D's daycare. We certainly suspect that that might be the case with the amount of TV that was purportedly watched. Her new daycare lady, Miss S, is much better. She tells me everyday (and even texts me) when Phoebe does something new. Phoebe kicks her legs excitedly when we drop her off in the morning and Miss S seems just as excited to see Phoebe. The other kids there love her and call her "Pee Wee" It's pretty cute.

We're still definitely going forward with the evaluation at the end of May, even though it's clear that Phoebe is progressing rapidly. My opinion is that the evaluation certainly can't hurt and probably will help. And I'm so happy that we're working on this now instead of, say, waiting until her next well baby visit at 18 months.

Phoebe, cute and as perfect as can be.