Therapy Updates

Alyssa continues to learn more sign language since she still talks very little. We have Speech Therapy visit our home about once a month to continue trying to get her to speak. She is very good with her expressive language and you can usually figure out what she wants. But, we really need her to start talking. She is babbling more and is saying mama/mommy quite a bit now. We are working on Dada/Daddy on a consistent basis as well. The works that she consistently says are Hi, Bye, Bus, Baby, Beans (Her absolute favorite food.)

We also have Physical Therapy work with Alyssa. I knew she was behind, but working with the team and looking at other kids, I am starting to notice how delayed she is in her motor skills and coordination. A lot of it stems from her surgeries. She does not have a lot of core strength. It is interesting to find out that her lack of core strength can effect her speech. Because she is concentrating on keeping up right and tenses her jaw and can't relax for speech. We are working on Alyssa crawling on couch cushions at different angels overlapping each other and at different distances between them. This uneven and unstable terrain causes her to use her stomach muscles and help strengthen them. Who knew?? We are also trying to get her to climb a small 1-3" step without using her hands. She really does not like doing this. She is always trying to grab onto something to steady herself. But she can do it, but needs to build her confidence and we will work to higher steps.

She eats a very healthy diet. She doesn't really care for sweets. (Good thing since they don't agree with her, although she LOVES ICE CREAM!!!) She prefers fruits, vegetables and cheese. She told me she wanted to eat the other day. I asked her what she wanted for a snack and she tells me "beans". How many kids tell you they want green beans. We were in the grocery store and I stopped by the bakery and got her a cookie, she took two bites handed it to me and wanted the salami I just bought. She proceeded to eat 4 pieces in the store and did not eat the cookie. I love how healthy she eats, now if we could learn from her. . . .

We will continue to work with her and catch her up. She is really smart. The people we work with are always saying it (so its not us being "one of those" parents :0) ) and say she does a lot of things that 3 and 4 years old do. She is still a happy baby. Always smiling and very loving. She is a lot of fun and we enjoy her so much. She is such a blessing and we are so thankful she is in our lives.

We went out to dinner the other night and here is a picture of her eating cheesecake with NJ. One of her favorite places to go is Target's Shoe Department. She loves trying on all the different shoes. It is so cute.