Ella had her 15 month appointment with the pediatrician a week ago today. Surprisingly, she hadn’t gained much weight and her head size departed from the charts long ago. Oh well, that’s not surprising. She doesn’t look undernourished and she’s been eating whole bowls of food at every meal so I’m not concerned (and Dr. Becker wasn’t either) about that. She had 3 immunizations, including a vaccine for chicken pox. Since she is allergic to eggs and one of the vaccines is egg based, I had to stay at the pediatrician’s office for an hour so they could observe her reaction. Everything went fine. Of course she screamed bloody murder when immediately after the first shot, two nurses came at her simultaneously with a syringe on each side right into the thigh. But she soon forgot that and was playing happily, covering the examination table with cookie crumbs. Today we went to see an acupuncturist about stimulating her left side. Apparently, acupuncture is successful treatment for hemiparesis, especially for stroke victims. Ella has a congenital problem so it is different, but may be worth a try. The doctor seemed hopeful but was unsure himself how much acupuncture could influence the weakness.