Biopsy, Germany, & Therapy

1. Friday I received my biopsy results.  Finally!!!  This is after hounding the office to call the pathology lab.  As much as I loathe being annoying, it is a character trait that I have been unable to break.  In this case, being persistent in a kind manner reaps results.  Good news!  It is a periapical scar/granuloma.  In plain English--a noncancerous mass in the jaw that does NOT require further treatment.  Apparently, this type of lesion is rare.  What is even more interesting is that these tend to occur after a root canal.  That is interesting because I never had any trauma or dental work to that tooth or the surrounding teeth.  So why did this happen?  I do not know.  Nonetheless, I am greatly relieved even if I am still rather confused and greatly curious.

2. Baby Drews is home!!!!  All week Andrew was spending time in "The Motherland"--in Minden, Germany.  The business trip was a success!  He arrived home in a timely fashion.  He did not miss his connecting flight.  He did not hit rush hour traffic.  All of that being said, he has been working all weekend so far.  Boo!  There are two things that I would like to point out.

A. I sent Andrew off with a camera.  He was worked so hard that he only got pictures of:

B. He did not bring home a Minden mug or shot glass.  What are we to do?  We only have 117 shot glasses in our collection so far.  How is it supposed to keep expanding if we do not add to the collection?


Now for the fun part :-)

On Thursday, good ole Jan stopped by for developmental therapy.  Our little Ellie Bear is a Super Star.  Of course, we already know that, but Jan even agrees with me.  She thinks that Ellie is going to be an "early crawler".  Yes, I realize that she is practically 9 months old.  Nine months!  Where has the time gone?  However, Ellie is compared to those in developmental therapy so 9 months is early compared to the other babies with delay.

So here is the exciting part. . . I plop Ellie down on the floor with her toys and Jan & me start to discuss what has happened in the past two weeks.  No lie when I say that Ellie chooses that moment to scooch to her toys.  Seriously, she was not doing that in the 5 minutes before Jan arrived.  Show off!  She scooched all the way across the floor.  Super Ellie!!!

Gross Motor: Scooching.  We are not trying to get her to sustain the "bathing beauty pose" to strengthen her oblique muscles.  We really need to focus on the right-side since she is mostly doing things on the left.  We are to continue encouraging the all 4s position.  Jan has informed me that it is "inevitable" and "not preferred" that Ellie will rock back and forth while on all 4s and land in a sit.  She told me not to get upset.  When she does this, she will prefer to sit rather than stay in all 4s and will thus lose shoulder strength.  Therefore Jan showed me ways to keep Ellie in an all 4's position.  Thank you Jess for the Bumbo tray--it is now a HUGE tool in helping Ellie.  Ellie can sit independently now :-)  Not for long periods nor can she get into the position herself but we are making progress.

Fine Motor: We seem to be skipping this section and I am not sure why.  I am working on finger feeding.

Speech: Andrew was shocked to come home and not see the scooching but rather the various sounds that Ellie can now make.  Ba ba ba, da da da and other syllables.  She is finally signing "eat" the "correct" way and if I am not fast enough with the food, she uses both hands to sign "eat".