Rejoicing

Twink has been getting Speech therapy for almost 8 months now. For the last three months she has been receiving it twice a week. I think it also helps that she is going to a "pre-school" two morning out of the week. She can some times repeat a word but never recalls a word on her own. Well The Count and I were sitting our bed and Twink walks up to the edge and starts whining. Nothing new, right? This is what the following minute sounded like.

M-"What?"
T-"WHAAAA"
M-"What do you want?"
T-"UP!"
M-"UP-YEAH"
mommy and daddy clapping hands and cheering wildly!

So now it seems Twink has mastered up and how to use it! :) We are so stinking proud. She works so hard most days. She cheers for herself after trying to say a new word. It's really quite cute.

As you all know Twink had her Botox injections last Monday. She did really great with them. It was interesting to see how many people they had in the room to hold down this little person. I must say they have been the most prepared group I've been to in ALL of my visits with different doctors. Twink had two injections in her bicep and one in her thumb (the fatty part). I think she was more upset that we were holding her down then the actual injections. I'm told they feel like an immunization. I was able to give her a topical numbing cream to help with the initial poke which seemed to help. I was told I would see some improvement in 3-5 days and max. improvement 7-14 days. We actually saw some improvement the next day. It wasn't in her hand or arm though, it was her mood! LOL She seems much more happy and loving since the injections. I'm sure it has nothing to do with it but it just seems funny.

We have started to see some big improvements in her arm. She does not keep it tucked in close to her and bent most of the day. She is now straightening and reaching for things. Her hand is slowly starting to open as well but I'm thinking we'll see the most improvement in the 14 day range. She tucks that thumb pretty tight. This coming Friday she will have a cast applied to her stronger arm (the left arm) in order teach her to use her weaker arm. She is going to be HIGHLY frustrated.

We have had her preschool eval. and learned that they would like her to receive speech therapy 4-5 times a week, physical therapy 3-4 times a week and I'm not sure about occupational therapy because they come on Tuesday. She is severely delayed in most areas (no big surprise) but she is making progress. :) She was scored on the two year scales but will be three in in two months. If they scored her with the three year old she would be grossly delayed. I'm not worried because I see the progress she is making and I truly believe she is going to make huge "Twink" gains. She does qualify for pre-school but I don't think they will have an opening until September. That means all of Twink's therapies will be done here at home except for the two she can receive at the school she goes to now. It's OK, there will be an end in site.


We are getting ready to do our 12 month post placement report and in doing so took some pictures this past weekend. Here is one of the three of us. We were actually able to get one of all of us that we are going to use for our Christmas cards but as usually our little squirm worm was trying to get down. At least we have one to send this year. Last year we were heading to China and then I thought (LOL) I'd do them when I returned from China. HA if only I knew how stinking tired we would have been. So I will be sending cards out! :)