January 22nd?

Seriously.....January 22nd already?  I have to say, so far I am NOT impressed with 2012. 

Anyway....

Alex has not been to school since the first week of December!  Between being sick, being in the hospital, winter break and now intensive physical therapy she's become quite the little delinquent :)

January 2nd she started her intensive therapy program at Richmond Hope Therapy.  She's gone 5 days a week for 3 hours a day for the past three weeks - Friday was her last day.  Considering all of the time she had been laying in bed between her hospitalization and illness, I am SO thrilled at how well she is doing - she truly never ceases to amaze me.  When the thought of getting up in the morning to hit the treadmill makes me want to hit the snooze button, I think of ALL the hard works she's been doing and how sore she must be and I'm ashamed of myself!

She started her day with heat therapy and massage - and you know what?!? She HATES it!  I would LOVE to start my day like that and she cries and fusses through the whole thing.  Crazy girl!

Then it's time for Shannon to stretch her and she LOVES it....she seriously is wired backwards :)

Geez she is getting SO tall!

Look at that nice sitting!  I've waited over 10 years to see her sit up all alone nice and straight...how crazy is that?!?

AND - she stood independently...ok, so it was only for 2 seconds, but hey, you have to start somewhere!!

Don't get me wrong, there are times she is flat out refusing....and I mean that girl can be stubborn!

But Shannon doesn't let her win and in the end she does what she's supposed to!

Even when she tries to bribe Tabitha with hugs to get her out of standing.

A lot of time was spent getting her to stand and walk.  She's worked SO hard these past three weeks and she's been really tired.  We purchased the cage they use a few years back and we have a great plan for her home therapy program.

She walked in two different types of walker - the first one was her pacer...she has a blue ball that she really likes and they were using that for motivation....it was really neat to see her keep reaching for the ball.  She didn't really do much walking in this clip though!

She did much better walking in her Kid Walk - this time it was bubbles that were her motivator...

Hopefully one day we will be trading the wheel chair for her Kid Walk as her main mode of transportation!