I’m happy to report that today, maybe more than any day since Ella’s surgery, she is so joyful. I guess we’re really over all the colds and all the discomfort and now Ella’s really enjoying life again. She’s been so excited, especially at mealtimes, that she can hardly eat and sometimes rocks so hard with arms flailing that she almost tips the chair over! This is the Ella that we know and love. I think there has also been alot of progress. She’s been walking much better and easier. It is never a struggle now to keep her up. This morning for the first time, she sat herself up from a complete, flat lying position. Up to now, I don’t think she has had enough strength in her stomach muscles. She likes to do what we call “tackle” (a game perfected by her big brother). We call out “t-a-c-k-l-e” and she falls backward. She just started doing that a few days ago by herself — she thinks it is the funniest thing and laughs out loud. Then she turns over to her side and struggles to get up by pushing up on her arms or pulling something to help. This is especially hard for her b/c of her hemiparesis. She just doesn’t have much body control on the whole left side. But apparently she is learning to manage even so. Other new things, are more control on turning in the gait trainer (although that is one clunky piece of equipment that you wonder how ever got invented), more vocalizing with some vague words like “more”, “bakbuk” (“bottle”) and “again” (“od pa’am”).
Ella has been doing some crawling with Beth and Collen (PT), although it is very slow and clumsy for her. She does great at tummy time now and can watch a whole video propped on her elbows. I found a solution to some of the facial massage problem — basically that Ella wouldn’t tolerate it, and that is to massage her while she’s lying in bed. For some reason, she is okay with it then. This Tuesday we have an appt. at the Communication Enhancement Ctr. at Children’s Hospital. Supposedly the clinic is very helpful. I was skeptical a few months back but now I’m optimistic about it helping Ella. I think she is ready for some “enhanced” communication.