We went to the park yesterday to soak in some late January sunshine before the rain returns. It was a family affair with John and myself, a rarity. Stella surprised both of us by walking all over the place. She’d walk, fall, knee walk to an object, pull herself up and throw herself out on her feet again. It was a sight. And she is, of course, looking at us and smiling the entire time. Look at me, I can do this now.  She also learned how to slide down the toddler slide all by herself. I called her the “butterball express” as she swooshed down a giggles and shuffled (on her knees) back to the stairs to go down again. She was an amazing collection of energy and gross motor skills.

In the hustle and rush of our daily lives, I need to remember to back off and give the girls time to explore. To try things out and to also remember that for them each day is so new. One day Stella wouldn’t walk. Now she’s stepping out. It’s amazing.

We had an appointment Hanger Prosthetics. We had a lot of questions and were rather apprehensive about the doing this as the kids pediatrician really wasn’t very knowledgeable about the subject.

One of the first things that Julia, our assigned Orthotist, did was to get a large pair of calipers and measure the asymmetry of Stella’s head. Two measurements were taken in an X orientation from from each temple to the oposing back-side of the head. The result was 13 mm difference, which was well above the threshold of “medical relevence” (8 mm, IIRC). It wasn’t the worst she’d seen which was in the high teens.

The “good” news was that the severity was sufficient that insurance would pick up the bill. And, the bill was not cheep — list price for the whole procedure was about $2500! Regardless, we had committed to it and would have paid out of pocket if it came down to it. We made the commitment and proceeded to the next step: scanning her head.

The scanning process uses an laser scanner to map the precise shape and size of Stella’s head in order to build the custom helmet.

First, they put on a “sock” over her head. This served 2 purposes: kept the hair from showing up in the scan, and it allowed the positional reference transmitter/sensor to be affixed to her head without sticking in her hair.

iPhone, map

Then they affixed the sensor gizmo which lets the scanner know where it is scanning relative to Stella’s head movement.

iPhone, map

Then they darkened the room and scanned her head from top to bottom using about 10 swipes to get all the way around.

iPhone, map

Below is a screen shot of what the scan looks like after they applied a smoothing algorithm to remove the small bumps. I missed the shot, but, prior to the smoothing, the raw scanner output was a very precise rendering of Stella’s face with her little dimples and details of the hook and loop layers used to hold the sensor gizmo to her head.

iPhone, map

The blue lines scan are reference lines for where the top of her forehead is and an outline of where the ear holes need to be cut out.

And that was it. Quick and easy, well, other than trying to get a baby to hold her head still!

About 2 weeks later, the new helmet was ready.

Peek-a-boo

NIKON D70, ISO 640, ƒ/2.8, 1/30sec, 50mm focal L.

And she’ll wait for you to ask, “where’d Stella go?”

Where’d Stella Go?

NIKON D70, ISO 640, ƒ/2.8, 1/30sec, 50mm focal L.

And, the predictable response she gets after opening her hands starts of a fit of giggling that makes it easy to keep the game going for as long as she wants to play.

There she is!

NIKON D70, ISO 640, ƒ/2.8, 1/30sec, 50mm focal L.

And, for the record, it wasn’t that I didn’t try to get equivalent shots of both Elise and Maia (because I really *did* try), but, they were just so busy doing their own things that they wouldn’t stand still and be adorable when I had the lens trained on them.

Yeah, I’m cute

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/400sec, 56mm focal L., map

All smiles — Stella seams to have taken lessons from Elise.

NIKON D70, ISO 320, ƒ/6.3, 1/400sec, 48mm focal L., map

Stella says “Hello!”

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/250sec, 27mm focal L., map

Happy pumpkin

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/125sec, 62mm focal L., map

This is probably my favorite picture. Perhaps it’s my own projection of her actual sentiment, but, I can’t help but think she’d sure like to play with that big orange ball. If only it weren’t so darned immovable…

Little help please? It’s too heavy to move by myself.

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/160sec, 40mm focal L., map

It was a beautiful day for it. Sunshine, cool breeze, temperate weather. The time was right…after lunch so it was very quiet. The girls had a fantastic time. Elise and Stella both loved the swings. Elsie has been loving them, but this is a new development for Stella. Stella spent the entire time laughing her perfect baby laugh, laughing to the point where she gave herself the hiccups…which only made her laugh  louder.

After swings we went to the small child play area with a large sandy area that is partially shaded. There is a small climbing structure with a “Maia sized house” and slide. Maia loves the play structure and Stella and Elise enjoyed the sand, both giving a shovel a try. They then scooped sand and, wonder of wonders, put it into their small buckets and not into their mouths. Yay!

Then it was teeter-totter time. This teeter-totter is really a cantilever type beam with a spring in the middle, so it bounces as opposed to moving the kids up and down in the air. Better for little ones. Elise loves to pull herself up by the seats and make the whole thing bounce and once she realized she could sit on the seat and bounce big time I had a hard time convincing her to do anything else. At one point she even tried to throw her little leg over the saddle herself, but the seat is still a bit high for her.

Stella also enjoyed the bouncy teeter-totter, but not as much as she enjoyed the sand area and flirting with the other moms and grandmas. Stella was holding court with her bucket and shovel. She’d do peek-a-boo and then smile and look away and then laugh as the other women coo’d at her. She was just too cute, and we almost lost her to the grandma who just wanted to take her home.

There were tears all around when we had to head out. I’m thinking that’s a good thing, in a way, because all the girls had such a good time playing.

But after thinking about Stella and her general physical milestone attainment, John and I thought it best to wait it out. Stella is on her own schedule. She loves to be held, picked up, and is not very motivated to try new things unless she initiates it. We find she does hit gross motor milestones about a month to six weeks after Elise does. And when she hits them she masters them fairly quickly.

So the other morning when Stella was just yelling her head off and we went to her room to investigate we shouldn’t have been surprised to see her standing in her crib complaining she couldn’t get down. That’s so Stella.

And yesterday she pulled right up on our friends ottoman and just beamed with pride. And this morning she finally took to the kitchen step stool I keep out just so the girls can play on it, grabbing hold and lifting herself on to her feet with no fuss. Until she tried to get down and just, you know, let go. The dismount learning will be quicker than the pull-up learning was, I imagine.

Welcome to the vertical world Stella dear. We are so glad to see you.

This morning as I pulled a happy Stella from her crib she looked at me, went “muah” and hit me with a big lip-smacking-wet-baby-mouth kiss. Swoon. I love that happy girl.

You’re mommy made you a most delicious pumpkin spice cupcake for you to do with as you pleased after dinner. And, while you were very happy smashing it up at first, you quickly realized that the sticky gooey frosting did not, in fact, come off of your hands; at all. To which, you sat there and made the milk sign repeatedly with that frosting covered hand. Not that you were thirsty, no; I’d imagine that sticky sensation was something entirely new to experiment with and you had the most quizzical look on your face while doing so.

And then, it was fun no longer. It made a lovely moose in your hair as you tried desperately to get some of the frosting off and wailed insistently with displeasure in that way that only you, dear Stella, know how to communicate to others your unhappiness.

Props to ya kiddo — your mess required serious detergent to clean up all that butter cream.  You have a future as a grease monkey helping your dear ole Da in the garage.

Happy birthday, Stella!

Complete pictures can be found *here*.

You are about to reach the first and arguably the biggest milestone of your life thus far. Tomorrow you turn one.

I was thinking of when you were born and the nurse held you up and I saw that red red hair of yours and I knew, right at that moment, that you were my Stella. My little star girl.

You were such a tiny peanut and now you are a Viking child, rolly-polie  and oh so curious. You just fit in my arm last year and now you hold on to my hip and ride arms slung around my shoulders for comfort. You are a snuggle girl and a child of amusement. You don’t laugh often but when you do, I know it’s a good joke.

You are a blessing and you light up my day like a star-baby should. I love how you smile when you see me in the morning and how you search me out in the house. It can be trying when you only need me, but oh. Your kisses and hugs make up for that small inconvenience.

Stella. May you always find joy in the absurd. And continue to love a good funny bit of writing and a silly smile. I hope you always make your opinion known and find a way to just be yourself.

I love you with all my heart, little star.

love,

your mommy