Curious Georgia Paige MacDougall

Georgia had her follow up appointment with the pediatric orthopedist and her hips are now considered normal and we do not have to see him any longer.

YEAH!

Georgia,

We got Mario Carts for the WII a while back.  You liked watching more race.  You would keep saying, “more race, more race”.  Eventually my hands would totally cramp up but you never stopped saying “more race”.  I can’t wait for you to have the dexterity to race yourself.  You seem to love it so much.

We did manage to have some racing practice this last weekend.  We’ve got a video with a special surprise at the end.  Oh yeah, and as you’ll hear in this video, you call everyone “Honey” these days.

Georgia More Race Video

-Dad

Tonight as you were going to bed to asked for Mom and I to both come with you.  I put you in the crib, you lay down and asked us to sing Jesus Loves Me.  After we were done you said, “Dear Jesus”?  Which means you wanted us to pray.  I prayed and then nudged Mom to pray, as she was about to start you said, “Dear Jesus, helping Mommy, Daddy, Georgia. Amen.”  That was the first time we heard you pray.  

That was a nice end to an evening where you were whacking the Christmas tree with the back scratcher.

Hi Georgia,

You are just about to start forming some sentences. I’m kicking myself for not writing down when you started forming words but it’s been a little while now. Your first word, probably around Christmas time was “book”, pronounced “buh”, often in rapid succession “buh, buh, buh”. You love books. Following close behind was Mama and Daddy. You may have started calling our cat earlier then that, calling out kitty as “tee tee”. You really like making animal sounds. Your first animal sound was a dog, “woof-woof”. I was reading you a book and barking like that when you copied me a couple times. It took a while until you started saying woof-woof on your own. Your first animals sounds on your own were cow and sheep. Instead of moo for cow, you’d say “booooooo” and tend to go on for a few seconds. And then you started calling our cat Tigger with a meow as “meeeye”. Just last night you stopped saying “meeeye” and just said meow. I love how you do a horse sound, Mom and I say “neigh” and kind of draw it out. You try so hard to copy us, get all excited and go “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” at the top of your lungs. Now that it’s spring, you love going outside. You’ll stand by the door and politely ask, “siesie?”.

You do say more things now, those were some of the first. We’re about to get to the point where your vocabulary will be too big to keep track of. Mom and I hear what sound like sentences, you talk to Tigger, some toys and things outside. You have some pretty complete conversations but we don’t quite understand you yet. I’d love to know what you’re talking about.

And I love it that all your conversations are so fun for you.

Love,

Dad

Hi Georgia,

It’s been a really long time since I’ve written you last. There’s a bunch of snow on the ground and it’s pretty cold. Mom and I can see that you’re warm most of the time just like me. Mom’s usually cold and I’m usually warm. Looks like you’re taking my side! That’s a good thing for winter but the summer can get too hot quick.

I was in the bathroom downstairs this morning with the door open so I could still see you in the living room. You came in, shut the door behind you and then walked over to me in the dark to give me a hug. It’s as if you were telling me everything would be ok in the dark. This isn’t new. You don’t mind the dark. In fact sometimes you’ll start laughing in the dark. I think that’s great.

As I’m typing this now you’re watching Curious George. That seems to be our show. And well hey, I guess that’s your website too! Your favorite thing to watch is a dvd series called Baby Faith or Brainy Baby. Those are the two that you just keep staring at for the whole thing and then you’ll clap and laugh at certain times. Clapping and laughing usually happens when you see a cat, dog or other baby you like.

Another funny thing I noticed today is when you get a snack you like, after a few bites you start walking around and you do this little Stevie Wonder thing with you’re body and head like your doing a dance move. It’s hilarious. Mommy has a funny thing she does when she’s about to get a snack she really likes, she rubs her hands together really quick … it’s just a little woosha woosha woosha. For the longest time she didn’t even know she’d be doing it. Then I started laughing and she started noticing.

Well this is common knowledge to everyone by now but you’re favorite thing is books. You love to carry a book around and flip through the pages. Not just flip through the pages, you really study everything on the page. Lately you’ve been going up to the couch with a book, you’ll put the book on the couch then pound your hands on the couch while looking at one of us to tell us that you want to get up there to read. You do a pretty good job at sitting on the couch. Sometimes though we’ll catch you trying to stand and walk around on the couch. If you’d lose your balance and go towards the table, you’d really start hurting. So we can’t leave you on the couch for long. Or at least we make sure to sit next to you.

The last thing we tried to do lately is take some pictures of you for a Christmas card. We bought a fancy camera and I decided to try and set up some lights upstairs for taking pictures. I need to read a book on how to set up lights for photography properly, and then a book on how to really use this camera properly. We’ve got some pictures that are good, but they could be better. You certainly couldn’t have done better though, you looked like you were really having fun playing with a little Christmas tree Nani made for you and some Christmas lights.

I’ve leave you today with one of my favorite pictures from the day.

I love you Georgia,

-Dad

I wanted to give you all an update from Georgia’s follow up appointment with the pediatric orthopedist this morning.  Overall the appointment went well and no immediate concerns noted.  Due to Georgia’s new development of separation anxiety she either cried or held onto me like cling wrap throughout the visit!

The doctor took a couple x-rays and then took a measurement to determine if the bone is developing as it should be.  A normal angle for a child Georgia’s age is 20% or lower.  Georgia’s is between 24%-26% (the measurement cannot be exact due to movement in the x-ray).  One hip is a little better than the other and the socket is started to curve.  This doesn’t overly concern the doctor and he doesn’t recommend that any form of intervention be done at this point.  Abnormal is 30% or above and at that time he would put Georgia in a brace.  According to him, there is no good research to suggest a brace is effective for where Georgia is at. He kept referring to her as borderline and states most kids in this range improve.

So she does have hip dysphasia which he referred to as a silent disease thus we will not be able to notice this in Georgia’s development or walking in any way.  Basically it means her hip isn’t growing as quickly as it should be.  If it does not continue to grow as it should then the hip socket will not become rounded (they are a flat angle at birth) and problems wouldn’t become evident until adulthood (probably arthritis).  The doctor is hopeful that her growth is slightly behind but will continue to improve.  He wants her to come back at 2 years for another x-ray to compare and determine how the bone is growing.  Worse case is if the bone doesn’t grow as it should by age 3 or 4, then the doctor will take her into surgery and round out the hip socket so she wouldn’t have any future problems.

Thanks for those of you who were praying for Georgia and just keep in her in prayers at times throughout the next year that her hip is continuing to grow.

Hi Little Buddy,

Today is Friday and I get to take care of you. Mom is at work helping people at the hospital, so it’s just the two of us today. Right now you’re on the floor playing with a block and your electric piano. You were really funny earlier today when you were sitting up looking through your toys and I was sitting behind you. You would turn your head all the way around to look at me and then you let out this big laugh. Right after you laughed and I smiled, you would immediately turn your head back like you were hiding. Then you’d do it again. We looked and laughed at each other for a few minutes. You were so cute.

Georgia I’ve really been seeing you get a unique personality these past couple of weeks. It’s more obvious that you’re making some of your own decisions now.

You’ve been crawling more the past couple of weeks too. Today I wasn’t watching you for a minute and before I know it, you’re across the room with your hand in the cat food dish. Fortunatly it’s dry cat food and you really just slammed the dish like a hammer so the food went flying everywhere. That would be gross if I had caught you eating Tigger’s food.

Speaking of Tigger, you really love that cat. I think you’re more excited to see Tigger than anyone else, including Mom or I. Since I’ve been writing this you’ve already tried to chase Tigger twice and I’ve had to pull you back to your toys. Now you’re tearing through a book of coupons. I guess we’d better play together now, you look a little bored.

Before I stop though, let’s take a picture.

I love you Georgia,

-Daddy