Gracie made my day today!
Besides the fact that she cried bitter tears while Josh and I were presenting about Africa to two kindergarten classes at her school (and thus in her presence but not snuggling her!), she otherwise had a fantastic day.
Her outpatient physical therapist has recently gotten parallel bars installed at her office. Last week was Gracie's first week on the bars and she did awesome but cried because it's so hard for her. She didn't attempt any walking with the bars. TODAY, however, she went right over to the bars, did a bunch of stand-up sit-downs on her own (chair positioned behind her while she's coached to keep two hands on the bars on each side of her). She was very proud of herself, as were we! She then, over the course of 40 minutes walked the length of the bars slowly but surely! WOW! It really brings out the weakness in her right leg as she struggled to bring that leg forward without the use of a whole body tilt to swing the leg around rather than have to flex at the hip. Her poor right hand doesn't get the concept of holding on to the bar either. But she did it! How exciting!
Then, in speech therapy (our next stop on Monday afternoons and usually a bad-attitude-session) she listened to the directions and was right on even though little sis and mom were sitting in today (I often keep Ana outside so that we don't distract her).
Finally, (the highlight for ME) at dinner time, she picked up Ana's empty sippy cup and sucked on it so I got her a full fresh sippy cup (with chocolate and protein milk, no less, to be extra appealing) and SHE DRANK IT ON HER OWN! Now, it would help to understand that Gracie has not fed herself a drink in at least a year. She came to a point where she refused the sippy cup and refused to hold another cup, so we have had to feed her drinks whereas she was previously giving herself drink with a sippy cup so she was taking care of ONE aspect of her daily care herself. I have sorely missed her doing one thing on her own, so this was amazing! I still held her while she drank her cup but it would be wonderful if I could sit her by herself and give her a cup and she could drink without 20 minutes of my dedicated time every few hours!!
Small victories are big victories around here!
Besides the fact that she cried bitter tears while Josh and I were presenting about Africa to two kindergarten classes at her school (and thus in her presence but not snuggling her!), she otherwise had a fantastic day.
Her outpatient physical therapist has recently gotten parallel bars installed at her office. Last week was Gracie's first week on the bars and she did awesome but cried because it's so hard for her. She didn't attempt any walking with the bars. TODAY, however, she went right over to the bars, did a bunch of stand-up sit-downs on her own (chair positioned behind her while she's coached to keep two hands on the bars on each side of her). She was very proud of herself, as were we! She then, over the course of 40 minutes walked the length of the bars slowly but surely! WOW! It really brings out the weakness in her right leg as she struggled to bring that leg forward without the use of a whole body tilt to swing the leg around rather than have to flex at the hip. Her poor right hand doesn't get the concept of holding on to the bar either. But she did it! How exciting!
Then, in speech therapy (our next stop on Monday afternoons and usually a bad-attitude-session) she listened to the directions and was right on even though little sis and mom were sitting in today (I often keep Ana outside so that we don't distract her).
Finally, (the highlight for ME) at dinner time, she picked up Ana's empty sippy cup and sucked on it so I got her a full fresh sippy cup (with chocolate and protein milk, no less, to be extra appealing) and SHE DRANK IT ON HER OWN! Now, it would help to understand that Gracie has not fed herself a drink in at least a year. She came to a point where she refused the sippy cup and refused to hold another cup, so we have had to feed her drinks whereas she was previously giving herself drink with a sippy cup so she was taking care of ONE aspect of her daily care herself. I have sorely missed her doing one thing on her own, so this was amazing! I still held her while she drank her cup but it would be wonderful if I could sit her by herself and give her a cup and she could drink without 20 minutes of my dedicated time every few hours!!
Small victories are big victories around here!
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