So Much Fun!

Kinsey has been so much fun this week. I've literally found myself (and Jamie too when he's home) just laughing at the funny things that Kinsey does these days. She truly amazes me and I love watching her play with her toys and learn new things! The other night she was stuffing the soft animals from her barn and her baby doll into the ball popper toy.


The little dog stuffed down the neck of the ball popper


The farm animals going down the ball popper slide

She was also trying really hard to put her baby doll into the stroller, but had the stroller upside down and was jamming her into the backside of the stroller. She eventually figured it out and put her in the front, although the baby was sitting in the stroller upside down. It was hysterical! And the other day I found her stuffing the baby into her school bus and pushing the bus around to send her off to school.

 

She continues to enjoy scooting across the floor to get into trouble. She especially likes to do it to get to the fabric when we're in my craft room. This week she "rearranged" the fabric on the bottom shelf of my storage unit more than once. What's really funny is that her play generally involves moving the fabric around and organizing it in some way, so when I'm ready to clean up and I start putting it back into the piles they belong in, she really likes watching me do it. So cute!


Buried up to her neck in fabric!


Getting into trouble!

Kinsey has a new musical toy that she really likes too. I took her to a local store the other day that I really love because they have different toys than the standard ones you see in Toys R Us and stuff. Plus you can "try" all of their toys. I picked up this noisy thing that you have to hold onto with two hands and move your hands up and down to make it clack and I showed it to her for a second. Then I gave it to her and she immediately knew how to do it herself. So of course, I bought it for her. http://youtu.be/mKkgA0Uxij8

In general, it seems like she's learning new things faster these days. She knows how to put the toy coins into her piggy bank, which involves turning them the right way and sliding them into a narrow slit in the top of the bank, just like a real piggy bank. And tonight she popped the center piece out of her wooden elephant toy and I showed her once how to put it back and then she did it on her own twice. Again, that means she had to grab it and turn it the right way to insert it into the hole. So impressive!

Tonight during dinner, I looked over and Kinsey was doing a barrel roll motion with her arms while sitting in her highchair. I've never seen her do that before, but I do it all the time while singing Patty Cake. She kept doing it - even long enough for me to get the video camera - and if you did it, she would start it again. Here are a couple of videos: http://youtu.be/km-eGOy-4WI and http://youtu.be/VWx_OoaCFUA

And since I know you're all wondering, we haven't been able to get Kinsey to take any steps on her own again since last Thursday :( I've tried everything I can think of to entice her to do it, but she just doesn't seem confident enough to take the steps. You can tell that she seriously wants to, but she won't go without a hand.

We've been working really hard on her arm strength lately too and seem to finally be making some progress. Of course, she's been better about using her arms when she walks with her push toys because there was a point when she wouldn't hold on and push them so that's good. But they still need to get a lot stronger and we still need to get her to use them to break her fall. Anyway, we've been using the Wii Fit board for standing exercises (which I think I mentioned before) and now we're using it with the Step riser for kneeling and pushing up with her arms. She seems to like this much better than doing it while on her stomach. Here's a video of her pushing up on her forearms, which is great, but she can also do it pushing up from her wrists - very impressive considering she can't straighten her fingers out all the way to get the balance from her hands! http://youtu.be/OxMTVaWz4is

On another note, I'd like to share a weight update. It feels like Kinsey has been at the same weight forever because she's still in the 19 lb range, but in reality she has been gaining weight. It's just that she was down to around 17 lbs after her ankle surgery. So in the last 6 months she has gained 2 lbs, but that still puts her at 19 lbs 9 oz these days, which is still about the same as she weighed a year ago. But she has steadily gained weight, so let's hope it continues and we can get past the elusive 20 lbs mark soon! She is currently 32" tall and her head is 18.5" (which I'm pretty sure is an increase, but I can't remember for sure.)

I also have wonderful news to share - we applied for financial assistance for Kinsey's medical bills from a local non profit called The Baby Foundation recently and yesterday we found out that we were approved! They gave us the maximum allowed for a single month, which covers about 75% of our currently outstanding bills (mostly from the allergic reaction and subsequent ambulance ride and hospital stay in December). Kinsey's pediatrician is involved in the organization and told us about it. They provide financial assistance to families in Northern CO only who have medically complex, under insured children. I thought for sure there was no way they were going to help us, but her doctor kept encouraging us to apply so I did. We are SO thankful and it takes a big weight off our shoulders! If anyone is able to help or looking for an organization to support, please consider The Baby Foundation - www.thebabyfoundation.org. I have offered to volunteer to give back in some way.

First Steps!

Kinsey hit a major milestone this week - yesterday (Valentine's Day) she took her few steps completely on her own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kinsey's hearing therapist was here and we were doing some hearing exercises while she was standing and before we knew it, Kinsey started walking. The steps were tentative, but she took about 10 total steps until she reached something she could hold onto. I tried to get it on video, but that didn't work out. Next time. :)

Kinsey also has another new way to get around - scooting on her butt! She's been scooting some (mostly in circles around her play area) for a long time now, but just recently she's figured out how to really get somewhere. Also yesterday she was playing in my craft room while I got some work done (Sweet Pea Boutique has been really busy lately!). She got bored of her toys and spotted something interesting in my supplies so she decided to scoot over to them. I kept pulling her back away from them, but she kept going right back! http://youtu.be/amBkXDfiSUE

Here she is playing in the fabric that she eventually got into:
Kinsey is also getting good at playing with more of the toys that she's had for a while (1st birthday toys) that she didn't previously play with. She's started to understand how her little cars work - when you pull it back, then let go it takes off on its own. http://youtu.be/GFWoxUDmpMk She's also really enjoying her musical instruments. Here she is playing her drum: http://youtu.be/GpMqvq055V8 and she also has some new maracas and she really enjoys shaking them.

We had Kinsey's bi-annual review with the Early Invention program this week. Kinsey seemed rather confused as to why all her therapists were here at the house, but not playing with her (we were all sitting around the table having a meeting while Kinsey played on the floor). All of her therapists feel like Kinsey is doing well and has made a lot of progress in the last 6 months (we agree!). We've increased her speech therapy sessions to weekly and are moving the focus on that time to coincide more with what we're working on with her hearing therapist, which means she will have speech/hearing therapy twice a week now. She has been getting hearing therapy weekly, but speech every other week and we were using that time to focus on feeding. We're still going to do some feeding things, but we've decided she has progressed with that enough for now and we'll less concerned about what or how she eats than how much she eats. She eats soft foods very well, so we're going to continue giving her mostly those foods and continue trying to give her things she has to chew and move around in her mouth more. I think she will progress with that more when she's ready.

Anyway, Kinsey's hearing and speech therapists really feel like we can get her to communicate purposefully with 5-10 "words" in the next 6 months. Those might be signs or "Kinsey words" more so than actual words, but I'll take it! I will be ecstatic if she reaches this goal! Her therapists have warned me that kids tend to get quieter when they are learning how to be more mobile so that could be a challenge, but Kinsey has definitely been noisier than ever lately so we'll see. So, I'm hoping that we'll be able to make more progress if we have therapy for it more often. I've been doing well with my resolutions to focus on these things more and having her wear her hearing aid (and glasses) more, and I do the hearing exercises with her some, but I still don't feel like I do them enough.

Finally, here are the Valentine's pictures taken by my new friend Nicole. She did a great job with these. I can't wait till our next session!

Fun with Baby Dolls

I can't think of much to report this week and apparently I didn't take many pictures or videos either. Makes me wonder what we did all week?

Anyway, Kinsey continues to do well with standing and walking. She's getting better and better at walking while holding only 1 hand and she's even starting to take steps without holding onto anything, but only with some type of support - like your hands on her hips or something. I have seen her take 1 step without holding onto anything at all though. You can tell she wants too, but just isn't sure enough of it yet. We also got her a ball popper push toy which is much less support than her other push toys. She's taken a few steps with it, but tonight she fell while using it. She even got a bloody nose when she fell on her face :( Hopefully that won't deter her from trying it again.

Kinsey loves to play with her baby doll so much that we decided to get her some more "accessories" to go with it. Her therapists are encouraging "pretend play" so this is a good way to do it. So I bought her another baby with a stroller (the one she has came with a car seat). Here she is playing with the stroller (she pulls the baby out right away, then plays with just the stroller): http://youtu.be/bdv6ule5m60
She also gets really talkative when she plays with the babies and it's so cute to watch and listen to: http://youtu.be/Y1DN33LSSeo

I've started a new craft hobby - knitting using a loom. I'd like to learn how to really knit, but this is fun for now. So far I made a hat that was too small for Kinsey, a hat that didn't turn out too well (yarn was too skinny) and one hat that she can actually wear. I tried to get a good picture of her wearing it, but that didn't work too well:




That's it for this week. Valentine's pictures coming next week :)

Walking, Playing, Drinking, Etc.

Kinsey is continuing to do a great job standing on her own and walking with less assistance. This week her physical therapist took all the supports off her walker so now all she has is the handles to hold onto (most recently we had the chest prompt just behind her back for support and she still had the saddle to sit in if needed). She's doing great without those 2 things! Sometimes she forgets that she can't sit down in it anymore and she ends up sitting on the floor, but she seems to be getting better about that already. The back on the walker is actually the perfect height for her to rest her booty on a little without sitting down all the way, so that's kind of nice.



I brought out some "old" toys this week that Kinsey didn't really understand how to play with before and she loves them now! Here she is playing with the ball popper that Aunt Cheri bought for her 1st birthday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilakCTEklpg She understood right away that she had to push down the lever to make it work and she was putting the balls back in the track and watching them go around and down into the blower. And here she is playing with the Octopus toy we bought her for Christmas 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvxsWvCHSuI She has to put the balls in the top then try to find them under one of the shoes. This one's more complicated, but she's starting to get it! These are great hand-eye coordination, fine motor and general cognitive skills!

Kinsey also found a new toy this week - the door of the entertainment center (and the equipment inside). She spent a good 30 minutes opening and closing the door, trying to put her toys inside and turning the volume up (WAY UP) on the TV! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfloMsKDBBg She also decided to make a hat out of her storage bin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsOLioU4vhY

Kinsey definitely has her own sleeping schedule. Some days she goes to bed and gets up at a reasonable hour and other days not so much. Thursday night she was up playing until about 11 pm. At one point I went it in the check on her and found her sitting up in her crib with all her stuffed animals tossed overboard! What a stinker!



Kinsey's really enjoying bath time in the big girl tub. I've started giving her bubble baths - she seems a little confused by the bubbles and doesn't understand why she can't grab them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhiJEua2_Kk We've also been playing with her foam bath letters and I've been trying to show her how they can stick to the side of the tub (like her magnets on the fridge). She's starting to get it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F5YNge8JcE

This week we also started trying some new drinking cups. She's been enjoying water a lot lately and she's pretty good at drinking from an open cup without dribbling too much of it down the front of her (with you holding the glass of course). But now she's drinking from two new cups that have lids but allow the liquid to free-flow. One is a Gator cup I bought before she was born - it has a spout like her old sippy cups, but no valve so the water just comes out. We tried this one a few months ago, but she would get way too much at a time. Now she knows how to control the flow. And since she can't bite it, she actually holds it with her hands! The other cup has a suction top all the way around that allows the water to come out of the area that she puts her lips on. She likes this one too and she holds onto the handles.





Today we had a photo shoot with a new friend of ours who's a photographer. (Actually we tried the shoot a few weeks ago outside and it was really windy and Kinsey hated it. Today we did it inside and it was great!) I can't wait to get all the pictures, but here's a sneak peek for now:



On a final note, I want to ask you all to keep a fellow Trisomy family in your prayers. A little girl named Olivia who had just turned 5 in December passed away this week. Her mom was apparently one of the original people on the Trisomy Mommies Facebook group and Olivia was a beacon of hope for many of the other moms. I can't imagine the pain Olivia's family is feeling right now. I didn't know Olivia or her mom, but this puts a sadness in my heart for a variety of obvious reasons.