Letters to my Grandchild

You have a wonderful vocabulary for a 14 month old:   Here are some of the words you can say: Hello Bye-bye Mamma Dadda Nana (banana) Up Yellow Purple Boo (blue)      Ball Bubble Bum Moo Bow-wow Num-num Out Hat Pappa (paper) And here are some of the things you respond to: "How old are you?"  You point one finger in the air. "How much does Mommy love you?"  You throw out both arms. "How much does Daddy love you?"  You throw both arms up in the air. "Do you want more?"  You touch fingers of both hand (more sign) and say 'more'. "Do you want to eat?"  You touch your mouth (eat sign). "Clap hands" You clap your hands. "Give me a love"  You come closer and hug, "Where's my kiss?"  You give na open mouth kiss. "What does the dog say?"  Woof-woof-woof "What does the cow say?"  Mmmmmoooo "What does the Hadeda say?"  "Aaa...

      Em - you are such a cutie pie!  You love to play and interact with people.  You shout with glee everytime you see a child; you shout 'hey-yo!' when you see people at the mall or in stores; when a phone rings you shout 'hey-yo", and you are so astute that when someone talking on the phone starts closing off by saying, 'ok then, thank you...' you shout 'bye-bye' even before they say goodbye. You are a bright, clever, fun-loving cutie! 

You love water!  On Sunday at Patty's we sat outside on her lawn and I filled an old cat litter box with water for you to play with. You had such fun with the hosepipe and the water!!  Love you baby Em!

You copy everything we say - even when we try to emphasize a sound,at the beginning of a word you copy that!  I've been teaching you to say 'More' - showing you the sign for more and saying the word.  You started out by doing the sign but now you just say the word, "mmmmmmmmmmm..muh"  It sounds so funny! We took you to the animal farm at Asagay and you tried to copy the sounds the animals make.  'Gog, gog, gog, gog..." for the ducks  "puh, puh, puh" for the chickens and when you tried to make the pig sounds you just blew a rasberry!! You are afraid of animals.  I don't know why that is but you blink, pull back and clench your hand, and stick your tongue out when an animal comes near.  Even little dogs get the rasberry treatment although you did touch this little puppy when we held it up to you.  You weren't having anything to do with the pony! You actually shouted at the little black pigs when they started snuffling around o...

Hello Em, You came out of hospital today after being in 3 days for your Pamidronate treatment.  Mom and Dad took you in on Friday morning and Dr Roos put the port into a vein in your head straight away this time. Last time you went in for treatment, they did the infusion for 6 hours every three days.  This was going to be done every three months.  But, your Dad is really on the ball!  He got hold of the Protocol from Shriners Hospital in Montreal where a Dr. Glorieux pioneered the use of bisphosphonates to treat children with biophosphonates.  The protocol is to give small children (like you) smaller doses more frequently so Mark gave this to Dr Roos and now you will go in every two months and have the treatment for three hours not six hours every three days.  You screamed the place down when he put the port in - which is exactly what I would do if someone tried to push a tube into a vein in my head.  But, once the port was safely in you settled down...

Wed: 28th October 2009 Hello little Em, Your Mom and Dad took you to Entabeni Hospital where Dr Stead removed the spica cast this morning.  Tammy said it was done very quickly but you screamed when you felt the saw near you anyway - I don't blame you, I would have screamed too! Tammy brought you here and it was lovely to hold you close again without the Scotchcast.  I was a bit concerned because twice whilst you were sitting in the pram, you flinched and cried when moving your leg.  Perhaps your joints were stiff and it was sore to move the knee or hip.  I suggested to Tam that she massage your joints with baby oil just to get them pliable again.  A couple of days ago you started leopard crawling in the cast.  You turned over onto your tummy, pushed down with your elbows and pushed off with your right foot - moving forwards at quite a pace.  Your Mom said that she had even caught you trying to pulll yourself up onto your little armchair in the ...

Happy Birthday Emily,  You had a wonderful party at our house.  Mom bought a Winnie the Pooh table cloth for the diningroom table and made all sorts of snacks - quiche, sandwiches, sausage rolls, cheese rolls, pizza squares: I ordered cup-cakes and cheese cakes and Granny Laura brought a gorgeous No1 birthday cake with Winnie the Pooh characters on it. We had two birthday banners and pink and white balloons.   You gave lots of kisses - got lots of hugs - and enjoyed being the centre of attraction.  About 25 people came and you got quite shy when we sang happy birthday to you.  You got lots of presents and with Mom sitting on the floor in the TV room you had fun ripping off the wrapping paper and opening the boxes and presents.  You didn't let the spica cast bother you and even spent some time rolling on the carpet, playing with some of your presents.  Altogether, it was a wonderful day and you were the perfect little birthday girl! 

16th October 2009 Hello my darling, It was your birthday on Friday.  Because we were having a party for you here on Sunday we thought we might not even get to see you on your birthday, but Mark and Tammy took pity on us and brought you around for a visit. At first they weren't sure how they would transport you in the car because you can't sit in the car seat.  I bought you a plastic dog bed!  I found a sheet of foam and covered it with an old duvet cover (made smaller to fit) and Tammy took the harness off your high chair and threaded it through the slits in the bottom of the plastic dog bed.  Voila!  You have a perfect, transportable bed complete with harness that fits on the back seat! We bought you a baby doll that cries, breathes, laughs and burps after drinking from a bottle.  It really is a bit weird - very life like - and you were quite taken with it.  We also bought you a few books to add to your collection.  I hope that you w...

Hello my darling, Yesterday you fractured your left femur.  It was such a shock because you were in the pool with Jackie your swimming teacher when it happened.  Tammy got you to Dr Bekker's rooms and he suggested she take you straight to Entabeni Hospital for X-rays.  The pictures showed an oblique fracture, starting about mid shaft. "Oblique fracture implies a fracture line that is oblique to the long axis of the bone. These fractures generally result from bending, with superimposed axial compression. As a result of the obliquity of the fracture line, this fracture tends to override or rotate unless traction is maintained throughout the period of healing." Mark and Tammy think that the fracture might have started earlier, in the morning at home.  Tam said that you spilled your milk on the tiled floor and when you tried to turn over into a crawling position your hand slipped and you fell forward and banged your head.  This is when you could have put st...

Hello little Em Time is flying by. You are 11 months old now and wiegh about 11kg. You have got 4 teeth - three at the bottom and one at the top - that have come right through - and two more coming through. You are rolling all over the floor and move backwards at a fair pace - but you haven't quite worked out how to move forwards yet! You sit and play but Mom and Dad don't allow you to sit alone in case you decide to fall forward and try to crawl. You are going to an OT (Occupational Therapist) in Pinetown who treats little Abby as well and she is teaching you how to roll over sideways so that you get into a crawling position. At your first session with the OT she let you go sideways with weight on your hand and something clicked. You screamed, Mark, Tammy and the OT thought you'd cracked a bone in your arm. Mark said that he nearly puked, he got such a fright! You didn't break anything though, it was just your lax joints which can click out of place. It ha...

Hello little Em, Last weekend was a milestone for you, and for your family. Your cast came off on Friday and on Saturday you went into Parklands Hospital to start the first of your years of Pamidronate therapy. What this means is that the doctor inserted a feed line (small plastic tube) into a vein in your foot so that they could put in a drip to administer the Pamidronate over a period of 6 hours. Pamidronate is a biophosphonate - like the one I take for osteoprosis - that should strengthen your bones and help them not to break. It was quite truamatic because they couldn't find a vein large enough in your right foot so they had to try again in the left foot. Tammy said that Dr Roos was sweating after doing this procedure - especially with the right foot as that is the leg which has just come out of plaster.  Tammy stayed in the hospital with you and we visited you each day. On Monday they had to remove the feed from your foot because they couldn't f...