Foto Friday 2, vol. 11 - Catch up (part 1 - Gracie)

Things have been crazy... crazier than normal! And, when the goin' gets nuts, the blog gets neglected! (Especially when some of the "nuts" included a somewhat crashed computer! Thanks to some tech support and my data backed up on a "Click Free," all is well. Don't have a "Click Free?" I highly recommend you go and get yourself one... or something like it!) Anyway, the Flock and their blog are back... and with so much to catch up on, I don't know where to start! (Thus, this is "part 1!")

The week before Gracie's birthday John started his 18 days of vacation. At the same time, Preston got sick again. This time, sicker than all the "icks" he's had this year combined. Our poor little dude was put on antibiotics, didn't want to budge from the couch for three straight days and then was not himself for another week after that. The morning of Gracie's birthday, I knew I was getting Preston's ick. Ugh. Thankfully, Gracie felt great for her birthday and for six days after. Sadly, because Preston and I were too sick to really celebrate, most of her birthday plans got scrapped that weekend. Our backup plan was to celebrate when Nana and Papa visited the following weekend. Unfortunately, I was sicker than the week before and, even more unfortunate, Gracie got sick the day Nana & Papa arrived in town and ended up missing three days of school due to yet another raging, bilateral ear infection. What the what?! I just finished 17 straight days of antibiotics and Gracie just finished ten! John's vacation didn't exactly turn out the way he (or I) planned! Oh, well. What can you do, right?! Dare I even type this next sentence...? But for annoying seasonal allergies, everyone seems to be healthy again. Hopefully that wasn't a jinx!

Now... for the FUN stuff!!!



Gracie's got wheels!
She loves (and I mean loves) her new ride! I love it, too, but to be quite frank, I am also terrified of it! This is a whole new ballgame and it comes with a giant learning curve. I am discombobulated because there is no place to hang her suction or set my purse or stash any of her other "stuff." So, while trying to manage her and keep her from rolling all over the place, I am still trying to get my own bearings! We got it on Thursday, so it's not like I've (we've) had time to adjust yet, but there truly is a lot to get used to.

For instance, every tiny incline or decline is an opportunity for her to go flying forward or backward. Every tiny bump in the sidewalk is an opportunity for her to get stuck. Then when she pushes really hard, she sends herself flying over it out of control. Where the grass and sidewalk meet is tricky because of the edge, etc, etc, etc. She and I spent an hour and fifteen minutes Thursday afternoon navigating the driveway and up & down the sidewalk. I let her lose control a bit to teach her how it feels and what to do. My guess is, this will be how we spend our weekend (and many more weekends).. Her IEP is next week and there will be discussion about Orientation and Mobility for sure! Regardless of the learning, work, fear, etc., it is awesome to see her have freedom!


(Because we have five different fabric types on her custom seating, our only color option was black. The frame manufacturer did not offer any colors we were willing to live with for several years, so we went with black. Besides "wheelchair boot camp," we will be working hard to customize and "girlie up" her new ride!)



New Glasses
Little miss has new glasses... and she's actually wearing them quite a bit! Well, at least for close activities like school work/table work, watching her DVD player, watching TV and "reading." She appears to be getting a benefit from this pair (as opposed to her old ones), because she's far too visually social to wear them just because they are cute!



School Party
It's certainly not hard to tell how much fun she had!

Gracie's class and the class next door making their own party hats

Opening her gifts - - a beautiful princess blanket made by her aid, Betty Lou; a super cute little Disney zipper bag; a darling Disney Princess t-shirt - - all of them perfect for our little princess! It's incredibly heartwarming to know how truly loved she is at school!


Yummmmmmmy! Lots of tastes... don't worry... she didn't actually "eat" the cupcake!



Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake
It's tradition. While pregnant with Gracie, I had Baskin Robbins Mint Chip Ice Cream often. Very often. The last two weeks of my pregnancy (I was thirteen days late when induced and she was born the next day!), I ate multiple bowls... daily. I couldn't stop myself! So, every year, we have ourselves a Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake.

Again... she is tasting frosting and ice cream, not actually "eating" it! Though she was sure making a valiant effort!
(Oh... and FYI... pulling deeply-set candles out of a very frozen ice cream cake is a very good OT exercise!)





Therapy Party
Gracie's Friday E-stim (VitalStim) therapist, Ally, gave her a belated therapy birthday party complete with a hat, party blowers, banner, birthday treats and presents! Gracie had so much fun and loves Ally a lot, as do I. She is so much more than a feeding therapist... she's an advocate, a cheerleader, a supporter, an out-of-the-box-problem-solver, a researcher and friend to both of us. I am amazed at the work she, and Gracie's other wonderful therapist, Hema, do each day. Amazed.
(More on this therapy and other medical updates coming in another post soon.)