How Old is Hallie?

Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers

How Old is Lea?

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Micropreemie Play Date


This is one of those much overdue blog entries...I meant to get to it last week, but then last week became this week...and well, you get the picture.

Anyway, about three weeks ago, Hallie had her first real play date with a former ICN-mate named Maya. Her mom, Rachel was nice enough to bring Maya to our house for the visit since Hallie was still on oxygen at that point. It was really great to see them. Rachel and her whole family were an important part of our support network while in the hospital. Our families share a similar philosophy on caring for our children. They helped to make us feel like we weren't the only crazy ones for staying at the hospital all day and night no matter how much the doctors and nurses told us to go home.

But the girls have come a long way since then and it was amazing to see them interacting with each other. At first they were more interested in grabbing each other's toys (even though they have the same ones) and then Maya slowly started to notice Hallie by grabbing at her feet.


Then Hallie responded by trying to grab Maya's nose.

It was not malicious though. It was more like, "Hey, you've got a nose!". In fact we were all remarking on things they have in common. Like, they have the same hairdo:



(Notice Maya also likes grabbing the nasal cannula tubing. It apparently can be marketed as a fine motor skill building toy!)

And they BOTH have big eyes and long eyelashes.

Hallie really enjoys tummy time but Maya enjoys sitting and she eats a lot better than Hallie. (Alas I have no pictures of this, but suffice it to say that Maya downed four ounces of milk, a veggie, a fruit, and a dessert in the amount of time it took Hallie to swallow about 10 cc of her formula. It's embarassing. As is the fact that Rachel and Maya had to endure at least fifteen choruses of the "ABC Song," which is what we use to get Hallie to eat. Sharon says that this should be the subject of a separate post. Perhaps she is right, but what are the chances that I am going to get to that, really?)

The girls share the same occupational therapist and she is always commenting that Hallie and Maya should draw inspiration from one another. We plan on having more play dates in the future. So maybe they will catch on to what the other is doing. So far they seem to be really curious about each other. It is just so adorable!

It really makes us feel good to see Hallie with another baby close to the same age. We often think about Olivia and the things the girls would be doing together. It is too sad to think about how much we are all missing.

Anyway, that is a topic for another day. So let's move on to one last cute picture. I like this one beacuse it really looks like they are working on something BIG (like perhaps they're own blog entry)!

Well, that's all for now---I hear the call of the wild, so it's time for another bottle (and yes, it IS getting easier to feed Hallie--more on this later! Just don't tell Hallie...we don't want her to notice.)

8 comments:

Laura said...

cute, cute, cute.
I had to laugh loud, long and hard over the ABC song because I had to sing Barney songs to my little man while suffering the trials an tribulations of getting him to drink from a bottle back in the day...it continued to keep him from retching and throwing up.
Gaaaaahhhh!!!!!
I hate the purple dinosaur and thought he was far behind me but noooo!
Guess what is banned in this house now. LOL
Both babies are adorable.

Miracles said...

Hallie is beautiful! You are both so very blessed. I'm sure Hallie is doing well because her sister Olivia is with her everyday cheering her on.

Anonymous said...

I know how you feel about seeing Hallie play with a baby close to her in age, I often think of Logan when Coop has a playdate with his friends.

And the ABC song to get Hallie to eat? We sing Yummy yummy yummy ( a very original and stupid song that gets Cooper to eat just about everything).

Hallie has come so far, no doubt because of the love she gets from you both each day.

Wishing many more happy days!

Sarah said...

Still on oxygen AT THE TIME? Are you guys holding out big news on us? Huh? Huh? :^D

abby said...

Hi Sarah,

Read back a bit...Hallie is basically off of oxygen these days. We just did a pulse ox overnight study (if you count overnight as the four or five hours that the probe remained on her foot before she removed it...she has a lot of experience taking off her socks, which came in handy last night). Hopefully she'll be off of oxygen permanently soon (it'll be nice to have candles in the house again and actually light them).

Sarah said...

Ah, yes, I do remember that. I got the impression that you were finally completely O2 free. Soon! Soon you will know the freedom of moving around with the baby and not dragging cords and hoses after you!

Jamie and Jill said...

We wish we lived closer so we could have playdates too.........looks like soooooo much fun!

Jamie and Jill said...
This comment has been removed by the author.