End of this season

Ana's "drunk on breastmilk" look... she's the funniest most expressive infant I've ever seen!

Well, our stay in Louisville is ending... it's been a very strange season of life hanging out in a hotel with my two girls, driving Josh and his friends to school in the morning and picking them up at night, trying to occupy the girls while trying to get things done (haha!), dealing with Gracie's jealousy, stretching Gracie, working on her different skills (focusing, colors, fine motor, sucking, etc.)... No doctoring!

Gracie has demonstrated that she knows the colors red, yellow, and green! We've been working on colors and she seldom has enough focus to do any more than grab the closest block and hand it to me rather than listening to what I'm asking for. But when she's focused, she gets those three colors right and picks the right pictures each time when we read her books with her special pictures. When she's not focused, you would think she has no clue about anything!

Comments

Gina said…

That is a wonderful photo! I love that milk-drunk look :) She's a cutie.

We're so proud of Gracie for learning her colors!

Have a safe and sane trip home!

10:31 PM

Sintari said…

Yay, Gracie!
That's really terrific. I love picturing you three girls hanging out together all day. SO, SO happy for you all!
- Amy

8:53 PM

Check out this progress!

A year ago, my friend Rachel http://josiecomehome.blogspot.com/ emailed a photo of her beautiful son standing on his own... I've since dreamed of having a photo to post of Gracie doing the same thing. It was always one of those wild-don't-think-it'll-ever-happen kind of dreams, a romantic, fairy tale type of dream. But this week, Gracie made another leap in development and muscle tone. It started when I leaned her up against the wall and planted her feet a shoulder-width apart. For the first time, she didn't lunge for the safety of my arms or hands, but rather, she allowed herself to stand steadily on her own two feet and she kept her center of gravity centered over her feet instead of wildly in front of her or to one side or the other. She even quickly figured out that she couldn't lurch around in excitement while standing on her own two feet with no support but a wall behind her back, but rather had to express her excitement over this new development with a gentl

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d

Amazing girls!

Gracie and Ana have taken to walking around the church together - Ana pushes Gracie's gait trainer as Gracie walks along. Between the two of them, they make a pretty efficient team (except for the steering part!). They love it and could do it for hours! Gracie has made amazing strides (no pun intended) in standing up - we'll get some video up soon of her standing, supporting herself ONLY with her right hand (her otherwise useless hand) - it's amazing! We didn't dream that we'd see her looking this strong and steady. Plus, now she's smiling and her little heart isn't pounding out of her chest with stress at the thought of standing up without human contact - God is SO good! Gracie went to music camp this summer at the Y which was somewhat fun for her, but definitely good to have her around other kids.

Rattins living Coram Deo

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