Therapy Update

Several of you have asked what type of therapy Aidyn receives so I figured I would try to explain it here by telling you what we are working on this week. She currently has weekly visits with a physical therapist and speech pathologist. And both have suggested that she get occupational therapy too, so they will decide soon if they want to handle the OT or whether an OT needs to come to the house weekly too.

For physical therapy this week we are working on bending Aidyn's knees. (Remember while we were in China we were amazed that she couldn't bend at the waist, same thing with the knees). She has always been able to stand--very strong leg muscles for standing position. Doctors say this is likely bc she was placed in a walker too much in China. But the muscles she should use to get from standing to sitting were nonexistent. To go from standing to sitting she either falls over or does the splits. So her therapist has shown us how to bend her knees and we practice
this every day.

Also this week we are working with Aidyn's hands, fingers, and wrists. We apply pressure to them by holding her elbow in one of our hands and working her hand with our other hand. As you probably have noticed she keeps her hands fisted most of the time. She doesn't like new textures. When she encounters an object she is curious, so she touches it and lets go quickly and shrinks her hands back toward her chest into tight fists. Doctors say this is likely bc she wasn't given toys to play with as a baby. So we are working to provide her with new sensory experiences for her hands. We place her hands in a tub of rice and let her make a mess with the grains. We go to the park and play with gumballs, pine cones, leaves and sticks.

For speech this week we are working on getting her to close her lips. We have three exercises that we do three times a day. (similar to what we did when spence was born). When we feed her we have always had to rake the spoon across the top of her mouth to get the food off. Her therapist gave us a special spoon that we use at each feeding and we have to encourage her to get the food. Of course as tricksy as she is, she learned after two seconds that she could turn her head once the spoon is placed in her mouth and then the sides of her mouth rake the food off for her. It's pretty funny.

She is doing really well now. We haven't had a meltdown since December 7th. She seems very happy and is crying less and smiling more. Seems the change in behavior coincided with when she learned to sit up by herself so I think she is really enjoying her new independence. Yesterday I went to get her after naptime and she was standing in her crib so I had to raise the rails so she won't fall out. Our baby girl will soon be a toddler.

Marsha

Eleven Months Old

Hooray, Aidyn can sit up by herself. We have been working on this for weeks and she can now get onto her knees and then roll over to a sitting position or roll from her back into a sitting position. Jeremy has worked long and hard to teach her how to sit up. Aidyn's physical therapist has been impressed with his efforts. She says most parents don't show this much natural intuition on how to teach babies to move. We hope she will be crawling by Christmas. Aidyn now weighs 13.8 pounds and she is cutting her fifth and sixth teeth.

Get me outta the Gator Section before they Chomp me to bits!

Splits

She does this all the time.

forward progress

forward progress
Video sent by jandmduncan

Aidyn starting moving forward while we were in Arkansas. She can now "crawl" a few feet. She only uses her arms to pull herself forward. And she is quite proud of herself as you can see in the video.

Ryan Ashton calls the Hogs

Ryan Ashton calls the Hogs
Video sent by jandmduncan

Aidyn's first trip to Arkansas--Go Hogs!!

Arkansas trip November 4-14, 2006
We stopped by Cook Springs and introduced Aidyn to Sam and Zelan. Then on to Arkansas--Searcy and Fort Smith. Aidyn met her Uncle Mike, Aunt Mary, and cousins, Kate and Nash. She also met her cousin Eli, Uncle Shayne and Aunt Michelle. Both kids felt bad while we were in Fort Smith. Both had fevers so we took them to doctors for meds. Even though there were more tears and whining than we would prefer, both kids had fun with their cousins.

Aidyn's first Alabama trip

October 13-15, 2006. Aidyn's first trip to Alabama. We stayed at Gannie's house in Prattville. And relatives came to meet her. So Aidyn got to meet her cousin Jack, Aunt Mary Alice, and Uncle Phillip from Nashville. Poppa and Ganny came over from Montgomery. And Great Aunt Wonderful and JT came from Birmingham. We had a nice weekend. And because Spencer had such a fun time at Gannie's house (other than Gannie teaching Spencer to say War Eagle) we plan to stay through the weekend after Thanksgiving too.

Trick or Treat?

First two pics are from our playgroup party. You see, here again Bob is wearing his goggles as he works. We took along a few books to read, including our Halloween favorite, The HalloWiener. Last photos are from our neighborhood party. We carved our pumpkin just be fore we walked down to the clubhouse. We have lived here for five years but this was the first time we attended the Halloween party. The kids played traditional fall carnival games while the adults enjoyed the chili contest. Spencer's favorite part was the hayride. We rode with several of our neighbors, including our new friends that moved here in September. All the families left the clubhouse to trek through the neighborhood for Trick-or-Treating. Aidyn rode in the stroller, while Spencer went on foot. He loved all of the festivities (except for one very scary house that scared us too). It was the best night and will be hard to top in future years. The weather was perfect and the neighbors went all out to make this a fabulous evening.

Halloween

Stole the first three from Shelly's website, http://thecareyclan.blogspot.com/ bc haven't had time to charge my camera and the natives are restless to see Halloween pics. First three are from Sunday small group party. Last one is from our church's fall festival. Thanks to Owen's mom for sending us the sweet picture of the Bobs.

Latest happenings

Spencer got to dress up for school today. He was excited to wear his construction "costume" and kept his hammer with him all morning. After three hours of preschool I went to his classroom to pick him up--he was on the floor reading a book and his teachers were smiling and giggling. They said Spencer refused to take off his helmet or work goggles. They apologized in case he had red marks on his face from wearing the goggles for three hours. We have parties to attend for the next four days so Spencer will have plenty more chances to wear his costume. Here is a photo his teachers took from today. Spencer is the youngest in class. A few of the eight are three already. And here is his school photo that we got back this week; picture was taken last week. Lastly, Aidyn's citizenship certificate came in the mail yesterday from Homeland Security. That photo was taken in China and submitted with our Consulate paperwork.

Woo Hoo!

Narration by Spencer as he saw me writing this post: "Oh, there's two Aidyn's, wearing a Arkansas shirt." He hadn't seen her wearing this outfit yet.

Aidyn is doing well adjusting to Georgia. She has been home a month yesterday and has been with us six weeks tomorrow. Today she met with a physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech pathologist. They recommended that Aidyn have weekly physical therapy and maybe some speech therapy. So we are hopeful that with therapy she will be on target by spring of 2007.

These pictures were taken this morning as I was getting her down for a nap. I picked her up, put her in a sleeper blanket, and she was asleep before I even walked her to the crib. So you can see that even when she is tired she can flash that pretty smile.

GACS Frog Hollow Festival October 7th

Today was a good day. Arkansas beat Auburn. We took the kids to Frog Hollow where we got to see Paxton and Lorelai. Spencer had a blast at the carnival. His favorite part was jumping on the castle. Then we met our travelmates, Mary Joyce, Dusty and Chet, for lunch at Cracker Barrel.

Harvest Moon Festival--October 6th

We had a fun day at the park with our FCC friends. Spencer couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to roam the playground like usual as this was our first outing with just mom, spencer and aidyn. We ate the cookies, crackers, and candy we brought home from China as well as some moon cakes. That night we continued the celebration by eating chinese food with Sean and Bridget. Spencer likes the terracota soldiers at home better than the ones at the restaurant since the onces at home are only a centimeter tall. He was not sure about this soldier's intentions, so Spence wouldn't get too close.