Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A lot happens in the summer . . .

Hi,

Sorry it has been such a long time since a posting. As you all know, summer time is a busy time. Tahlia has been up to a lot of things recently. She took her first airplane flight -- just a little one up to Boston for a trip to the Cape. She did well on this hour and a half flight. It seemed like the perfect amount of time for her. The trip to the Cape was a lot of fun. She ran around a whole bunch and enjoyed seeing Grampa -- who she calls Bapa. He is ok with it, so we'll keep it. She really likes the sound of it so often times when she says bye to anybody now, she says "Bye Bapa." Pretty funny.

The next trip was a little longer. We went to Portland, OR. We haven't been there in over two years, and many people were excited to finally meet Tahlia. She did fairly well on the flights -- we had a lay over in Denver to take a break. The time in Portland was a lot of fun. While there, she was able to play with her friends Ainsley and Ellison. Tahlia never met either of them, but Ainsley was a little girl when Tahlia "left" Portland. While playing with these two cuties, she learned the fun of a play stroller. She also was able to play with her friend Sophia. Sophia's mom taught Tahlia that cuidado means "be careful." Tahlia also played with Andrew -- where she had a bunch of fun swinging on his swing. She also met a whole bunch of friends at a park where she went down a ten foot tube slide all by herself. She met many other people, and by the end of the trip was freely giving out hugs to people who she had only met fifteen minutes before. In the past, even after several days, she still was too shy to give out hugs or kisses. We had a minor bout with what we think was a fit of allergies.

On returning, she promptly came down with a cold that gave her a fever and runny nose. She still has a runny nose, but has started eating like she is trying to make up for missed food. She also has started enjoying drinking from a cup, that we discovered she could do while in Portland. Now she carefully picks up her "big girl cup" and drinks from it an carefully sets it down. Sometimes though, because she is an imp :) she pours it on her tray. She is a very messy eater, and although we know that we need to start to curtail this type of behavior, we also know that her therapists suggest she play with her food so that she can gain different types of sensory input. We are just lucky that we think she is so cute.

She enjoys building with blocks and drawing different things. She likes to sit with her back up against walls and tell Mommy or Daddy to sit near her. She will try to repeat any word that you say to her. She has a couple of words that she uses freely that we don't have any idea what they mean. "Did-ji-ba" is one of her favorites. We just tell her yes when she says it. Hopefully she isn't telling us that we are going to buy her a new dog or something :). She recently has learned to put puzzles together. She can also sit on the big girl swing and swing all by herself -- although Mommy isn't a huge fan of this. The weather has been cooperating with Daddy and we have had several days where Daddy can play with Tahlia outside for most of the day. This is good for two reasons. One being that Mommy can get work done. The other is that Mommy caught Tahlia's cold and has spent a lot of time resting. Mommy just has a cold now, but should be better soon. She has been doing pretty well on various therapy things. She is bending her left leg more and not hyper-extending it as much. One day, while in therapy, she walked across a wobbly bridge on a playground all by herself. She has made it through several tubes at playgrounds too. She is able to traverse uneven ground ok -- falling much less now, and she is gaining speed. She often falls -- which Mommy and Daddy are very used to. But, because of this, Tahlia has learned to say "up - daisy" -- we always say "Upseedaisy." Her latest therapy is to put dime sized "coins" into a little slot with her left hand. It is difficult, but she can do four or five before becoming frustrated. Yesterday she walked from the car into the house all by herself -- this means that she needed to get up three stairs and over the main threshold. There was a little crying, but she did it without any help!

I'll try to post again and start in on a weekly post. Hope this fills some gaps. Mommy has been working a lot on the family computer and because of this, we haven't been able to post any pictures for the last month, but we will try to do that soon.

Lots of love. Keep sending those thoughts and prayers to Tahlia -- she is doing wonderfully because of them.

Muggsie, Lauren, and Tahlia.