Sophia Update ~ January 26, 2012

I apologize for the length of time it has taken me to update the blog... what can I say? Life happens! :)

Sophia continues to do well in all of her physical and occupational therapies. She also continues to work on feeding with one of her outside therapists (and daily with her therapists otherwise known as Mommy, Daddy and Isabelle). It is still a daunting and exhausting task (that coming from me... I can only imagine how she must feel!), but to date, she has not lost any weight that we know of. She recently had a weight check and is up 1 pound from her 1 year check-up so we were happy about that! She has continued with her medication for reflux and has also started a nutritional/caloric supplement that she gets throughout each day. She has transitioned, if you can call it that as she certainly doesn't drink much of it, to a toddler formula that was prescribed by her GI doctor. She still is not doing well on her fluid intake, but not for lack of trying! It is all simply overwhelming some days. She will see her GI doctor in another month and we are a bit nervous about what will come of that.

She has made some great strides since turning 1! She is definitely more vocal and knows exactly what she wants! We have certainly seen a stubborn streak emerge along with some strong attitude which we think will serve her well in life. :) We aren't sure which of us she gets that from, but thinking that she definitely has some role models for such behaviors!

Just before Christmas, she was seen by her physiatrist, Dr. Ramsey, for a check-up. Overall, he feels that she continues to do well and has high hopes for her abilities in the future. There have been some more concerns about hip dysplasia (this was first brought to our attention when she was around 5 months old-- she had an x-ray at the time that did not support the diagnosis then). Dr. Ramsey is our "go to" guy on this issue before she would be referred to an orthopedic surgeon. At this time, he is not overly concerned (it could be a number of different things going on) and so we will be continuing to watch and rely on the advice of her therapists in regard to this issue. Really hoping she does not have to deal with one more thing! I am attaching a recent article that was written about Dr. Ramsey in the DSM Register for those of you who are interested. We think very highly of him and certainly consider him a source of inspiration!
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120104/LIFE/301040082/Doctor-helps-physically-impaired-kids

As I mentioned, Sophia was cast for braces on her feet (SMOs) back in December. She has had them for several weeks now and is doing well with them. She has special shoes that she wears while using her braces and I think she looks like such a big girl in them! She also got a walker in January... a mini-pacer and we are also trying some other equipment to assist in weight bearing for her legs. The problem we are continually running into with equipment is that our Miss Sophia is so petite that most things don't yet fit her properly. She is mostly using the walker for standing at this time. It will be some time before she can actually move around independently with the walker. We are at the beginning stages of it all and right now, just standing for short periods of time is VERY hard work for her. She does seem to love it though! You can tell that she is so proud of herself. It makes my heart melt! She also has started using a "creepy crawler" or a therapy scooter board to work on her trunk muscles and weight bearing through her arms. Ideally, this will give her a sense of mobility as well. I promise to get some photos posted soon of Soph using all of her new "stuff".

Finally, Sophia will begin receiving speech and language learning services through Early Access to aid her in the area of communication. I am so very proud of her in all that she has already done... she has recently learned two more signs! This therapy will begin in the next month. I am holding strong to my Faith that she will continue to amaze us all in these endeavors as well.

Thank you for all of your continued prayers on Sophia's behalf. We certainly feel them working!!
Love to all!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Good ol' Jellybean, our elf, was quite mischievious this year! He pulled all sorts of stunts leading up to Christmas, but this was one of Isabelle's favorites. He was playing in the sugar and candy sprinkles.

Christmas Eve... even after a very long, fun filled day and night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, her excitement kept her awake the whole car ride home so that she could be sure to set Santa's cookies out for him. I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!

The girls anxiously dig into their stockings on Christmas morning!

Sophie loved sitting with Daddy while opening her gifts on Christmas morning. She definitely had the gift opening figured out by the end of December!
Isabelle opening her scooter from Santa :) She has thoroughly enjoyed tooling around our house on her new ride, so once spring arrives she should be an expert at zooming around the neighborhood!

Isabelle loves helping in the kitchen... especially when it means baking and decorating cookies for Santa!

Isabelle proudly shows of her Gingerbread House! :) This year we started a new tradition, celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. Each day, the girls picked a paper ornament that I had created off the tree. Written on the back of each ornament was a special activity for our family to do together to celebrate the season. Isabelle loved this and was very excited each day to choose the ornament and do our special activity. She also enjoyed helping with the Advent calendar.

My beautiful girls... "Smitten with Daddy!"

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We certainly did! In my opinion, this is ABSOLUTELY the most wonderful time of the year. I am so thankful for our family and friends and for my loving husband and most cherished gift of all... my two beautiful little girls. We wish you many blessings in the New Year. May you know God's love, for it is great!

An Enchanted Birthday

The girls celebrated their birthdays with a woodland fairy birthday party. A sign welcomed all to our very own enchanted forest! Isabelle was definitely an avid planner in this year's festivities... I'm thinking next year she'll boot me out altogether. Above is Sophie, charming everyone in her beautiful fairy costume!
The woodland fairy party would not have been complete without some magic toadstools! A huge thanks to Aunt Kimmy who helped create the real tree cookies for our display :)

We had "craft time" and all of the children had fun creating flower fairies. Isabelle is proudly sharing the start to her creation in this photo.

The two most beautiful fairies in all the land with their Mama!

Gift time! The girls were spoiled once again with too many gifts to count. We are so thankful for everyone's generosity, but most importantly for the time we could spend celebrating with our family.

4 candles!!!!

Isabelle offering to be a helpful big sister... assisting in opening Sophia's gifts whether she needed the help or not!

Sophie's new pillow pet that she LOVES!

Always excitement from this girl!

Again, thanks to all for helping us celebrate with our two beautiful babies!!