A long overdue update.

Since I am sooooo behind at updating I will just do a review in pictures.

June

gymnastics show

July

Life is so rough! ;-)


at the zoo

our cutie

August

Emma's first manicure. (She chose the colors.)

At the beach with friends.

another day at the zoo

Snoqualmie Falls

Four Month Anniversary

I can't believe that Emma has been home for four months! We celebrated in Florida with Jake. Emma and Baba had so much fun together in the sun and sand.

Just some of Emma's great milestones:

Emma has completed physical therapy. She had physical therapy for a whopping six weeks. She will have a check up in three months to make sure she is continuing to progress.

Emma has grown a little over three inches and has gained four pounds since she has been home. We have had to buy a completely new wardrobe since she has outgrown everything. Luckily I don't buy her expensive clothes. But, I think she is about to have another growth spurt. All she has wanted to do the last few days is eat and sleep which is exactly what happened before her last growth spurt.

Emma started speech therapy two weeks ago. She is doing great and we have very high expectations since she did so well in physical therapy.

Since Emma turns three on May 20th, I met with the school district last week to see if we should write an Individual Education Plan for her. The Speech/Language Pathologist was impressed with her progress and concluded that she is a English Language Learner and does not have a speech delay. The school district Physical Therapist said that since Emma's private Physical Therapist says that Emma doesn't need therapy anymore she obviously doesn't qualify for the school district. We were given the option of having Emma be a "model" in the classroom. The school has a couple model students in each Early Childhood Special Education classroom to model for the children with special needs. This is a way that Emma can participate in preschool in a much more cost effective way and we can keep an eye on her proress. Now Emma just needs to be completely potty trained and her language needs to be closer to age appropriate. We have four months, so I am not too worried.

We feel so blessed to have Emma in our life. How could you not love this girl?

Easter

We had a busy Easter.

Emma had her first egg hunt on Saturday. Then at church on Sunday Emma had her second egg hunt. Then grandma, grandpa, Sara, Mark, and Great Aunt Charlie came down to our house for brunch and Emma had her third egg hunt to herself. By about 5 o'clock Emma was so tired she was delirious. She was just aimlessly running around, silently. She is almost never silent!

Doesn't she look so big!?!?

One of Emma's Favorite Things

Emma loves pudding. About once a week we make a batch of pudding and she knows exactly how to make it. If she was strong enough to hold the measuring cup and the milk carton she probably wouldn't need me at all.

3 Month Anniversary

I know I haven't posted since our two month anniversary, but better late than never!

Emma is doing great! Every week she has more and more words and she is growing like a weed. She is currently experiencing growing pains, she is sleeping a lot and her temporary prosthetic doesn't fit anymore.

Last week she had an appointment to get her permanent prosthetic, but it was way too big around, her swelling is almost completely gone, so they made a new mold of her leg and she has another appointment tomorrow. Let's hope this one fits better. We don't want her to have two prosthetics that don't fit! She is so ready to run plus Emma started physical therapy and it would be great if they could work with her in her permanent prosthetic.

Emma's vocabulary is growing as fast as she is. The body parts that she knows are; hair, head, eyes, nose, teeth, ears, cheek, neck, tummy, belly button, leg, knee, foot, arm and back. She is starting to say three word phrases more regularly, and is great at saying please (peas) and thank you (tea tea).

Emma loves to cook! We make pudding every week, we have baked banana bread muffins, she helps me cook dinner a couple nights a week and today we made strawberry smelling playdough (one of her favorite things to play with).

Emma also loves books. She likes to look at them herself, wants me to read them to her, she has even started retelling the stories that we have read. Every night we read Goodnight Moon, Go Away Big Green Monster, Peek a Who?, Goose on the Loose, Jamberry and Clap Your Hands.

Here is our big girl...

Two Month Anniversary

I can't believe we have been a family for two months. What a whirlwind! We have thrown so much at Emma and she always comes out of it smiling her mega watt smile and laughing.

Emma's surgery was February 3rd, she has had a cast with a rubber heal for the last two weeks, she now has a temporary foot and will get her real prosthetic in about three weeks. After each change she adapts and figures out how to walk again.

I know all parents think their child is smart, but Emma really is. I promise. She completes four puzzles at once, can show you how to buckle her carseat and kitchen booster seat, she can put on and take off her shoes and socks, brushes her own teeth (of course I go back and help when she is done), washes her own hands, is potty training, reads books to herself (turns the pages appropriately, identifies objects in the illustrations and says "all done" on the last page) and cleans up and puts things away in the correct location when asked to clean up.

Yesterday Emma had her speech evaluation and the speech therapist said that she is speaking at a 20 month old level. She has gone from 0 to 20 months in 2 months! The therapist also said that there is a three month wait before she can start therapy and that Emma could be at age level by that time.

Emma's favorite thing in the whole wide world is her teddy bear. It is ALWAYS with her. Teddy Bear is how she processes and practices new concepts. Emma wipes Teddy Bear's nose when he has boogers, puts Teddy Bear on the potty and wipes him when he is all done, sometimes Teddy Bear has potty accidents and Emma say "oh no" and wipes his bottom with a wipe, Teddy Bear wore one sock when Emma had her rubber heal and wore only one sock, after Emma gets upset and needs some snuggle time to calm down she will re-enact the scenario with Teddy Bear, she has even given Teddy Bear a "lecture" about going poo in the potty after I had "talked" to her about using the potty after a few accidents. I am VERY aware of what I say to her.

Jake and I feel very, very blessed to have Emma as our daughter. We could not have asked for a better, smarter, cuter little girl and have learned a lot from her.

Emma and I went to the park last Friday and Emma really enjoyed climbing and sliding.

A Big Update

On February 3rd Emma had her surgery.

The hospital was great about helping Emma not get upset. They had a playroom in the general waiting room and another playroom in the surgical area. They provided a Mandarin translator, showed her pictures of the room she would have her surgery and let her decorate her face mask. They also put smelly Lip Smacker chapstick inside her mask and had her practice smelling it before she went into the operating room.

I took her into the operating room at about 7:30 am and stayed with her until she fell asleep. Emma did not cry at all. I was able to see Emma in recovery just as she was waking up at about noon.

We found out that medication wears off on Emma quicker than average, so the first twelve hours were hard on Emma and me. Once they figured out her med schedule, though, she was back to her old self. Unfortunately that was at about midnight. I feel bad for the family sharing the room with us. Emma would start getting loud then would shush herself. She is so funny.

The requirements for her to leave the next day were that she could keep food down, that she was off morpine and that she would take her oral meds. She ate dinner that same night, so that wasn't an issue, she stopped taking morphine first thing the next morning and started taking her meds with no problems, so we were ready to go.

We took it easy the next couple of days.

On Sunday Jake's mom came into town and stayed until Tuesday. It was great to have her out and get to meet Emma.

On Monday Emma had a check up and got a new cast with a rubber heal so she could walk and she did. By Wednesday she walking all by herself! Unfortunately her cast fell off on Saturday and her new cast has a much more angled knee bend so she can't walk by herself anymore. How frusterating for her. But, she gets her prosthetic foot on the 23rd and she should be up and running again.