The Devereaux Clan: Stella 15 Months

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Stella 15 Months

Stella is already 15 months old as of September 1. I really enjoy the changing of the seasons to go along with her growth. Yesterday was an amazing 60 degrees in the morning and we pulled out our first long sleeve/pants outfit of the season. While I know I'm a bit ahead of myself, seeing as how we'll probably go back to 90 degree weather until at least mid-November, it was fun to wear a cardigan and dress Stella in one of her big girl outfits. Up until now she's been in a 12-18 month and yesterday she wore an 18 month outfit. Grant it, the sleeves with the cute tri-ruffles near the cuff were almost cutting off the circulation to her fat little hands, she still looked cute. This outfit will last all winter, so maybe her arms and wrists will slim down so it's more comfortable. She's got plenty of room to grow into the length.

Here she is playing at Gym Rompers, a new weekly class she's enrolled in for the fall semester. That's her friend, Owen, who just turned 12 months. He's a tiny little fella...Stella's not that huge:) He was a preemie.

I really thing this weekly exercise (along with play dates with other babies her age) has helped develop her gross motor skills. After we stopped physical therapy and started doing the exercises at home, she began crawling like a champ, pulling up on furniture, squatting to get an object off the floor, getting down from standing, and cruising around furniture in a standing position...all things she should have been doing, but hadn't. Since she turned 15 months and still has not taken one or two unassisted steps, our pediatrician recommended Early Steps, which is an early intervention/pediatric physical therapy program funded by the state. We have an interview here at the house today at 9:30 to see if we qualify, so here's hoping that if we need it, they will provide it.

Stella is doing great and luckily didn't get a repeat episode with the stomach bug that's been going around, which I got Friday morning...the day we were supposed to go to Ole Miss for the first game of the season. Oops. Unfortunately we missed a fun weekend in the Grove, which would have been Stella's first visit, but after feeling better we made a quick trip to Natchez for Labor Day and got to see Mae Mae and the rest of the family at the lake house, though with Tropical Storm Lee we didn't enjoy any water activities at the lake except for trudging to and from the car in the rain. I did get to visit with one of my old friends, Stephanie, and her husband, Andy, and their sweet little man John Preston, 2 months old.