I thought I would have to teach my daughter about the world; turns out I have to teach the world about her. They see a girl who doesn't speak,
I see a miracle who doesn't need words.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Totally Rocked a Speech Session!

There aren't very many speech sessions that I can say Alex is 100% engaged and she completely rocks it out BUT - today was definitely one of them!!!  We haven't been to speech for 5 weeks due to the casting, so I don't know if she was more engaged because she had so much time off or what, but I'll just say that it was pretty awesome for me!
 
For the last couple of days Alex has been REALLY interested anytime someone is drinking anything.  She's always loved to grab my coffee mug and get a taste, but lately she's been grabbing glasses, water bottles, juice boxes, whatever.  When we got to therapy, I asked her therapist if we could try some straw exercises with her - sucking from a straw has always been a huge challenge and we haven't been able to master it.  Today we started our session with the honey bear and a straw and she was totally getting the water up through the straw and on MULTIPLE attempts she swallowed what she brought up.  A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!
 

 
She was very happy with the exercise!

Whitney kept giving her two pictures of an activity to choose from and she reached out and very purposefully picked out each picture.  When the activity was over Whitney would hold up the sign language picture for more and another activity and it was so cool to watch her switch it up between a new activity or more!  
 

At one point Alex picked that she wanted to play with a puzzle. Whitney got a puzzle that has about 8 animals on it, and once you put the animal back in the correct spot the animal makes the corresponding sound. So she would hold up a rooster in her left hand and dog in her right hand and would then ask Alex "which one is the rooster Alex? Can you get the rooster?" and guess what Alex did on every single one of the animal choices but one? She picked the appropriate animal!

One of Alex's FAVORITE toys is a See N Say.  At Children's they have the totally old school version (I think I remember that version when I was younger!) but I had also brought her 'modern' one - it was so funny to watch her keep picking the older model.  She did a really great job of reaching out and trying to activate it herself too.


Whitney left the room to go grab an I-pad and I was telling her how I was SO proud of her and we had some quick photo op moments...

  
 
Definitely was feeling the love from her!



Once Whitney was back with the I-pad it was CLEAR that was not what Alex wanted to do.  Thinking back now, she wasn't given the choice to play with the I-pad over something else, she came back in and just picked an app for Alex to play with...maybe she didn't appreciate the assumption! 
 

When it was pretty clear she didn't want the I-pad Whitney gave her two more choices and this time Alex picked that she wanted to play with bubbles.  She had the best time with that - every time they popped she cracked up.


She even reached out to pop the bubble herself!!

Definitely one proud Momma today!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Round 3!

Yesterday was round 3 - and the last round of casting!  Yippee!!  Both legs are now at a -12!  It's been a slow process since we had to bi-valve the casts, but it's progress - and her legs looked so nice and straight!
 
She's an old pro at this now.


She wasn't phased one bit.

She was actually cracking us all up with how chill she was with her arms behind her head just chilling out and watching what they were doing.  This is the biggest stretch so far so we'll see how she does with them today.
 

 
When we were leaving Children's Hospital yesterday I opened the door to the van to start loading her up and when I turned back around the sight of her just had me giggling.  She was definitely a sight!
 

Monday, August 12, 2013

OBX 2013

We are back from our annual Outer Banks vacation with our friends the Morris Family!  We had a beautiful house and with everything we have had going on lately, we were VERY READY to de-stress, relax and enjoy ourselves. 
 
 
Unfortunately, we had pretty major turn of events at the beginning of the week that left us all reeling and definitely on edge.  The situation could have ended a lot worse than it did, so we are very thankful for that, but sad nonetheless.  We decided to regroup and not let someone else ruin our vacation and vowed to have a good time.  And that's just what we did.
 

We had lots of fun pool time....
 
 
 
 
 


 

And even though it was vacation, Alex still had to wear her casts, but she had some good company :)


And while she was in the pool we tried to make a game of it and do a few leg stretches and some standing.



Then there was the hot tub - my girl loves her some hot tub time!!
 
 
 

One of the afternoons it was raining like crazy so we all headed to the hot tub - she was fascinated by the rain coming down!
 
 
Then there was the fun in the sun at the beach. 
 
 
 She LOVES watching the water come up on her feet and go back out. 
 
And she really enjoyed not being in her wheel chair and sitting in a big girl chair!
 
 
Zach's confidence in the ocean is so much greater than it has been in prior years - makes me a nervous wreck, but he and the boys all had fun riding waves and hanging with their dads.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On Saturday when we got there it was Jeff's 14th  birthday - no better place than the beach to celebrate your birthday if you ask me!
 

This was Rudy's very first beach vacation and I think he had a pretty darn good time!! 
 
 
He LOVED sitting outside on the third floor patio and watching the world go by.
 
 
He also had a little pool time too! :)
 
 
 
 
One of the days the boys wanted to go fishing so they paid to go out on the pier and caught some blue fish.
 
 
 
 
And Alex enjoyed the breeze as we took turns walking her up and down the pier.  She didn't enjoy it for too long though - she was over it rather quickly!
 
 
The boys also all went crabbing one afternoon while the girls hung back at the pool.
 
 
 
 
 
Leslie and I got to go enjoy a really cool wine and cheese bar one night while the kids went to Sweet Frog - we definitely got the better end of the deal that night!
 
We are SO blessed to have such great friends that we can truly count on and who still want to be around us with all that goes on!  Leslie was a HUGE support for me this week and I am very grateful for our friendship!
 
The BEST thing that happened on our trip was Aaron getting a phone call at the end of the week saying that he was PROMOTED!  I'm now married to SERGEANT Hayes.  I am SO proud of him.  He works really hard and it was so awesome to see him so happy - he deserved it and we are so excited for his new journey.  I ran out and we celebrated with a little cake!
 
 
Considering all that had gone on the beginning of  the week we wound up enjoying our time together as a family.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
Scott and Leslie even mentioned our next vacation next year - I think they are gluttons for punishment!!