Abby was born on June 22, 2004 at St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was 6 pounds 5 ounces and 18 inches long. She had the characteristic features of rts at birth, lots of black hair, broad thumbs and first toes, downslant of eyes, small head, etc. She spent her first two weeks of life in hospital due to respiratory distress syndrome and some very minor feeding issues. She was hospitalized twice since then, once for a urinary tract infection, and second for a pda ligation.

Abby is quite healthy. She has vesicouritic reflux and takes medication for that. She will probably outgrow this by age 5 or 6. She also has calcinephrosis and currently on a dieretic for this. It is monitered through repeat ultrasound. She had tubes placed in both ears in November, 2005 due to ear infections. We haven't had any feeding issues with Abby. Food textures have not been an issue and she eats mostly everything we eat.

Developmentally Abby is doing excellent. She shows a good understanding of many skills that is typical for her age group. She does have a limited interest in activities that involve constructing. She is good to respond to verbal instuctions and has a limited vocabulary of up, mama, baba and is starting to use two words together (mama up). We also use sign language with her. Abby's gross motor skills, although delayed, continue to follow normal developmental patterns. She does well with fine motor activities despite her broad thumbs. She usually uses the side of her thumb for grasping. Her social skills are extremely strong and continues to rate above average for her age group. She loves hugs and kisses, shows a wide variety of emotions (fear, anger, guilt and joy), defends her belongings etc. She just brightens our day with her constant smiling and lauging.

Abby has three older siblings, Gracie (7), Liam(6), and Emma(4). They love to play with Abby and I give them a lot of credit for teaching Abby a lot of what she knows. She starting crawling a few months ago (18 months) and she is busy!!! She loves the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen. She is also cruising around furniture. She also enjoys watching tv. Her favourite shows are, Dora the Explorer, Teletubbies, Boobah and most recently, Blues Clues.

Abby has been a blessing to us since the day she was born. I often doubted my abilities as a mother when I first had her, but I soon realised that she is no different that any other child. She has acutally been the easiest of all of our children. She is never fussy and is always happy. She has a smile for everyone and makes everyone smile. She has become quite popular in our community!! Trips to the grocery store are long with people continuously stopping to say hello and to see Abby smile. She is our special liitle girl. I feel like we are the luckiest people alive to have such a joy in our lives.

 If anyone feels like contacting us, my email is kimvanzutphen@yahoo.ca Kim, Leonard, Gracie, Liam, Emma and Abby VanZutphen