Aug '12 update

Therapy is still progressing. Ellie had a goal to initiate 10 activities herself. Bring us games to play without us telling her to, initiating she is hungry though signing ect, she has almost matered this goal! We have also almost met our first speech therapy goal of her signing back 10 signs! To us it seems like it is taking forever but therapy is so happy with her progress! We go to the ortho doctor later this week and are hoping for our braces within the next couple of weeks. With those she might have a walker as well, so we hope to get some professional decor advice from Julie for our new gear!

I had a phone call this last week about Ellie's hearing. She does have confirmed mild hearing loss in the L ear that we were told she might need a hearing aid for. We are now told with the R ear being normal that the mild loss is not enough that she would greatly benefit from a hearing aid so we wait and retest in Sept!

Aug 29th Ellie goes for an MRI of her brain to look for the brain damage to know what we are up against! Great to know but scary as they have to put her under general anesthesia for this,,, not a fan of this! Please remember us on this day and pray for knowledgable attentive staff to keep her safe during her anesthesia!

And I have to include Alex as well. He starts preschool 5 days a week Sept 4th, he is super excited and loves his school! He is so helpful with Ellie and a great big brother!

Signs!

Ellie is doing great with signs. We forget to do it to her so we all struggle with this but we are all learning. Ellie can hear and will follow commands but she can not verbally communicate back so this is why it is so important for us all to use sign when talking with her.

I do not have a prefered link yet and eventually will post the picture of each sign as Ellie learns them but for now here is a list of signs Ellie does:

please, more, milk, eat/food, drink, goodnite, baby, dog, thank you, book, stop, no, up, play, site, music, mom, and dad, wash, and diaper. We also do help but this is modified for her as the other is too hard... for help you just take your hands and pat just under your collarbone a couple times. right hand pat right side Left on left.

Accepting Independance

    One obsticle that clearly bothers mom more than Ellie is going places and her wanting down but unable to walk. Will people step on her, what will she get into, will she scratch up her legs, ruin her clothes and shoes from dragging them, and if she gets herself somewhere I do not see her go can she tell someone when she needs help!
   Ellie screams and cries when she sees other kids and brother Alex down running around and playing while she is in her buggy. She does not care that they are running and standing while she crawls, she just wants to go anyway. She also must have no pain receptors, she will crawl on dried out grass, cement, and wood decks that leave splinters, grass sratches, and scrape her legs,,, oh yeah and wholes in the toes of her shoes! Of course I am reluctant to let her down to crawl unless it is indoors but that is not fair either.
    As always Ellie does fine. We had a picnic this weekend, outside.... the worst place for her to be down,,,, and she did so well. It was the first time I just let her go outside without restrictions. I was so proud of her! Great job Ellie.

Thanks Chris and Karissa