On the Move

If you were able to make it to Little Sis' birthday party this past weekend, then you heard me say that she was super close to crawling.  Ryan and I had both been hoping that it would be before her first birthday and she came through with that.  When we put her down on the floor first thing in the morning, just like we always do, she just decided that she wanted a toy that was a few feet away. She crawled maybe two feet on several different occasions that morning, but then we got going for the day and had to run errands. 

We went to church that evening so before the service started her and I practiced on the floor of the sanctuary and she crawled three feet or so a few times.  At Homegroup after church she crawled four feet, but then this morning she just decided she was a pro and started crawling all over the place.  Now it seems like no big deal for her to crawl five or even ten feet to get a toy she wants. 

As you can see she is still quite a bit uncoordinated and the movements are a little jerky, but hopefully the more she does it the more her brain will make patterns of movement and then we can "fine tune" the movements in the coming weeks.  Let me try and say this another way.... Little Sis gets occupational therapy to address the sensory differences that she has.  As it relates to crawling, Little Sis has been nervous and/or afraid to crawl plus her nervous system has been struggling to relay the information to both the upper and lower extremities and to the right and left side of her body all one right after the other.  For weeks now the Occupational therapist has been doing activities and using different strategies to help Little Sis learn that the sensation of crawling is safe (that it doesn't hurt to look up or bear weight on your arms and legs) and to help her coordinate her arms and legs.  Now that she has finally got the sensory sensations figured out it's time for the Physical Therapist to really come and work with her.  The Physical Therapist is not much different that a Physical trainer in that she wants to help Little Sis do the "exercise" correctly and to help her build up her stamina and muscle strength. 

It's still unclear what the long term projection is for Little Sis' progress in gross motor skills, but from here on out the skills should start to get easier to teach her.  Walking for example involves moving the arms and legs in opposite directions and alternating right and left, but it also requires a lot of core strength.  Both of these requirements have to be met inorder to crawl too though so since Little Sis is showing us that she has these skills it should be easier to teach her to generalize these movements to new skills.  As for now we are elated that sweet little sis is finally moving!  She seems happier too.  She has had the desire to move for months now, but just couldn't get it all put together.  Now she is so happy when she crawls accross the room and gets brothers toy!!!!! 

One Year Old

Well Little Sis is offically one years old! We had a great party for her this past weekend (keep your eyes open for a blog about that soon).  She has an appointment later this week for her wellcheck so I will let you know then what all the results were and just how much she has grown in the last year.  But for now, here is a sweet picture we took this morning!

Thanks again for all your prayers and support this last year.  We couldn't have done it without ALL of you! 

Sleeping baby

Science Museum

Last weekend we stayed with Oma T and went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and Natural History. The big exhibit they were having that weekend was the Groosology exhibit. We got to learn about all the wonderful things the human body can do....ie......fart, burp, sneeze, stink, and sweat. They had fart machines, burp machines and our all time favorite the smellometer. It is by far the best museum in the area and we always have such a good time going. 

 Pockets smelling arm pits. He didn't like it much obviously.

 Look at those two buggers. Ha Ha

William and Oma T taking in all the wonderful smells. He is smelling this time I believe the dirty feet smell. We had the opportunity to smell "anus" but we stayed away from that one. 

Hands up!

Lil Sis decided to go all gangsta one afternoon. 

Lil Sis with her hands in the air like she just don't care! 

This post is from Ryan

Best Friends

The weekend of April 27th, we had another appointment at Cranial Tech, and Pockets got to come along. Our waiting room had this cool little car that Lil Sis could sit in and Pockets pushed her all around the room. They both had a great time. Just a little sneak peak at years to come of them being best friends and loving one another.

Say Cheese!

All Wrapped Up

Well today was the big day. We were able to get Lil Sis' helmet wrapped...check it out. This is of her and Toby, the owner of Elite Sign and Design in Lubbock. They do it free of charge for all babies who have the helmets. Now she looks even cuter than before, and I think she knows it. Such a little mess!!!