4-16-09

Well, per usual Lily is doing well, though not sleeping (which is also per usual). Last night she FINALLY went down around midnight, only to wake at 3am as if she had a full night's sleep. She wouldn't go back down until 7am, which meant I had to call and cancel her therapies...again. She slept until 1:45pm and it through off the whole day. I'm wondering what tonight will bring, she went down around 10:20pm.

Daddy is still recovering from shoulder surgery he had last week, and will be in recovery for awhile. He will be home with us for at least another couple of weeks. I think Lily is really enjoying having him around, though she has a hard time understanding why he can't pick her up or dance with her.

Been awhile since I've updated, I will highlight a few cool things:
Daddy was talking to mommy "in code" by spelling out the word apple, which afterwards Lily promptly said the word outloud.
Lily is sounding out words she sees, STOP on the stop sign, DOG, and everything else she sees.
When Lily asked me for her BABA (bottle) she followed it by a dramatic B-A-B-A (several times) as if I needed further clarification as to what she was asking for.
Her speech is starting to become more clear on some words as her sound for "e" is emerging.
She now knows more colors (red, green, white, yellow, blue) we're working on others. I can ask her "what color is this?" and she'll tell me, but her speech is soft and slurred when she isn't confident, but mommy still knows what she wants to say.
Lily has become quite the snuggler, and I couldn't be more happy about that!

Lily's attention span is great now. I am so shocked when she will actually just sit on the couch and watch tv! Her new favorite is the show "Word World" that plays on PBS.

We went through a yeast "die off" period last week. Her antifungal medication really helped with several things. She doesn't seem to have any of her stimming behaviors anymore, though she comes up with new variations every now and then. I think it's mostly her just being two though. Lily's eye contact seems to be right on now (unless she's busy with something).

I plan on having her reevaluated soon. I think she's come so far but it's hard for me to tell on some things because of the speech apraxia, and I know I'm biased since I'm the mom anyway. I don't want to underestimate what she needs. I have to plan for her preschool and pick the right one for her. She'll start when she turns 3. She's come so far in the past 6 months, there's no telling where she'll be when she's 3, but I have a meeting next month for her transition meeting to discuss preschools and such. I need to check out which schools are available, what they offer and where she would fit best (same as all parents, really). I feel like this will really be a hard decision and if I have her reevaluated it might help me to assess her strengths and weaknesses and make the best choice for her. I never knew being a mom would be this intense!

pics and clip 4/4/09

Lily is doing great. We're working on some things to help her to sleep at night. No seizures since 3/23! We get her blood work results on monday. Not sure what to expect with that. Yesterday Lily picked up my keys and actually said "keys". She is such a bright and shining star. I love to watch her continued improvement everyday! She now points to all letters of the alphabet and can make almost all their sounds. Yesterday we went to Barnes and Noble and she pointed to each letter and sounded out every letter of "thank you" that was on the trash bin. She LOVES her letters!