As fall starts, we are getting into a rhythm, somewhat.
My littlest girl surprises me with how much she is changing every day.
Suzi has started smiling when she sees a familiar face or is just in an overall good mood, which is often. She loves her brother and sister and is always busy watching them. She has started batting at hanging toys on the playmat and oohing and ahhing. The only thing that she seems to dislike is being strapped in her carseat, which can make for some long car rides, but we are trying to remedy this quickly.
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| Oh my! She is really getting fun! |
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| And has a brother who adores her. |
Eli is doing well in preschool. He started the year only knowing 2 kids in his class, but now comes home most nights talking about other kids who we don't know. His teacher is also really nice to send me pictures during the day so we can look at them later and he can tell me who his friends are and what they were doing.
Our second and most eventful child (79 medical claims for this child so far this year) also had a big week getting a cast on her arm.
"No, it is not broken, its therapy." If I said that once I said it a hundred times this week.
That's the short answer.
The complete answer is we put Hannah's dominate arm in a cast to make her use her left hand. Since she was born we have known that her left side is weaker, but it is very obvious in her hand. Because of this weakness she can completely disregard this hand and only use her right for most things. Putting a cast on her right makes her use the left and also does a lot for her brain. The first day she was not happy at all.
Yes, this is real life.
Thankfully Keith took off a few days to help me with the kiddos while Hannah adjusted to having her hand taken away.
By day 2 she had started to eat by herself and was even reaching out for things with her left. This just goes to show how powerful the brain is.
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| She's becoming a little mama. |
She can even pick up a baby doll and rock her to sleep. Of course, this baby gets dropped a lot, but we are so proud of how much Hannah is learning.
The bubble wrap is for our protection. Hannah's arm is very heavy and is very strong so we must wrap it so she doesn't hurt herself or others.
It doesn't always help.
So, she will have the cast on for 4 weeks and then off until after her CI surgery. We will repeat this process a few times to give her more practice using her left. We are hopeful this will help her start using her hand more. Of course, we do not expect her to ever use her left hand more than her right, but we do want her to recognize that hand and use it to assist her right. Like climbing a ladder or holding a plate.
Just taking life one step at a time.
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."
Hebrews 12:11
