Vacation or Therapy?

I always worry when Hailey has a break in therapy or a change in our schedule.  I don't know why, but I'm always worried she will regress or not progress in areas.  Vacation was fun for all of us, but by just having fun and being with family Hailey had LOADS of therapy!

Last year we had issues with Hailey having sensory issues at Disney.  She didn't like the shows when the rooms would get dark.  She didn't like loud music.  This year, she watched the shows, danced and threw her hands in the air and she giggled.

Hailey LOVES music.  No matter where she is, if she hears music, she has to move.  Disney was no different (there is a LOT of music).   Here are two examples, one in a stroller and one on the loose.  The night one (it was about 10 p.m.), she couldn't decide if she wanted to dance or run, so she did both :-)

Hailey did a LOT of walking at Disney...on different surfaces:  grass, sand, in the water, up inclines, down inclines and up stairs.  She followed big cousins, she followed little cousins.  She is almost running.  She has the fastest walk of any little kids I've ever seen (especially if she thinks she has something she's not supposed to have or if she thinks you are chasing her).  The "run" is accompanied with the funniest giggle you have ever heard!


I was amazed at how verbal Hailey was at Disney.  She imitated sounds and tried to say more words than ever.  I don't know if it was all the extra people, the excitement of being somewhere else.  Who knows and I don't care...it was awesome!!!  She has continued that at home and has been increasing both verbal and signed vocabulary.  Her communication followed suit.  She started requesting more items and did much better at getting her point across...both positively and negatively.  I think all of us got a few doses of her "no, no, no".  She found out quickly that signing "cookie please" to her aunt would lead her straight to a cookie display where she requested the same from the cashier.  She also learned how to be sneaky.  When the cookie was given to Hailey before dinner, she quickly shoved all of it into her mouth as mom approached.  Such a character!!!

Cookie?  What cookie?

Hailey wanted to spend a lot of time with Aunt Staci that week....I wonder how many cookies she ate :-)

She also signed with strangers.  One morning she started signing cookie to the woman sitting beside her on the bus to a park.  The woman asked Hailey why she was asking for a cookie so early in the morning.  My sister-in-law was surprised that the woman knew what Hailey was signing.  The woman chatted with Hailey and asked her aunt questions.  As we were getting off of the bus, she told me that she was a special education teacher for children ages 3-6.  She was impressed with Hailey's social, verbal and signing skills.  As I said yesterday, she added signs too.  She came up with new signs for 8 family members and kept using all her old signs.

Vacation turned out to be a huge boost of speech therapy mixed in with bursts of physical therapy.  I do think, however, we were all tired by the end of the week with "What's that" and "Who's that"?  She insisted on high-fiving and waving to as many as she could.  There are a lot of strangers at Disney and apparently, our social butterfly thought she needed to meet them all!

Can't wait to see how she reacts when we go back!!!

Hailey Update & Missing her Brothers

There is a reason God gave me three children.  Having Hailey here by herself for the last week has been exhausting.  Not to mention she misses her brothers and has been a "tad" cranky.  It is easier to run errands with only one, but I do miss my boys!  All in all, Hailey has been good with the boys out of town (They've divided their time between their two sets of grandparents.  Getting lots of time outside, and plenty of time with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.) 

I don't think I realized how much Hailey has changed and how much she is growing up until now.  Life with three can be busy :-)  One day, I dropped Hailey off at the child care at the gym.  I was talking with one of the employees and was watching Hailey.  She picked up a doll and walked straight to the baby swing, put the baby in it and started swinging her.  She found another baby and put her in the rocking chair and started rocking it.  She tried putting a baby in the exersaucer.  All of this fascinated me because we don't have any baby gear in the house anymore (as Hailey outgrows it, it's out of here!).  She was quite motherly with the dolls. 

Babysitting is definitely not in her near future!

Taking her baby shopping!

She always waves "good-bye" before she tears through the house with her shopping cart!

Hailey has also made progress with gross motor.  She isn't running just yet, but her walk is quite fast (try chasing after her!) and she moves her arms faster than some people run!  It is such a funny sight.  She has gotten good at changes in elevations (uneven sidewalks), up and down slopes and boy, can that little girl climb!  She has started somersaulting but she scares me since we haven't had the neck xray for atlantoaxial instability (AAI) which affects the top two bones of the neck.  I try to keep her from doing them.  Playing outside and trying to keep up with the big kids seems to be paying off.  She even did great walking in her flip flops (shhhh....no one tell her PT Abby!)

She was obsessed with these shoes this weekend. 

She looks like a girl on a mission.

I think the biggest surprise this week has been her speech and understanding of things.  Most of the time when we ask her a yes-no question, she has appropriately answered the question and added a head nod or shake.  She called one of the neighborhood children by name without being prompted.  She said it crystal clear (I had witnesses!!).  I needed to do dishes last night and I asked her if she wanted me to find a show on TV for her, she answered "Doc".  I asked "Doc McStuffins?"  "yesssssss" was her reply.  She's only watched it a few times so I was surprised that she said the name!  She has been adding a little diva to her personality, too.  However, since she has always been motivated with jewelry (to reach and crawl), some would say she has always had it in her.  She's just started covering her face with her hands when she gets in trouble.  She also started rolling her eyes at me if she doesn't like my answer.  She picks up her diaper and throws it in the trash.  I can ask her to bring me something and she will (unless it involves bedtime or medicine).  She does like to argue and negotiate. 

Maybe if I smile really big, she won't notice I'm emptying the wipes.

I'll cover my face now, she won't see me that way.

Dancing at the Mexican restaurant

She was so happy to FaceTime the boys!

We are never short on smiles in this house.

Even telling me "no" comes with a lot of drama!

This time with just Hailey has been nice because I don't think I realized how far she has come in different areas.  I've gotten more sleep without a certain 6 year old sneaking in our room every other night.  I'm definitely looking forward to the boys coming home tomorrow.  Hailey needs her motivators (and playmates) back and  mom is ready for the chaos, chatter and extra hugs...(I can do without the extra messes though!)

Wrestling/Tackling

Apparently the thing to do on a cold, rainy Monday is wrestling and tackling your older brother.  I think she's finished her gross motor work for the day.

Working on eyes, nose & mouth

Love this one!

Baby Steps

In the past, gross motor has been a strength of Hailey's.  I generally give some credit to having two older brothers.  You know, big brothers are the coolest and all little sisters want to get into their stuff.  I think it is a rule of siblings :-)

Recently, we have hit a plateau in gross motor but in turn we have had a burst with language (both spoken and signing).  It has made mom quite happy to have a little burst of language...when one lags, a lot of fear enters into your mind.  I'll talk more about that in another post.  I don't want to overshadow the current topic!

We have 3 walking toys at home.  Hailey has shown ZERO interest in any of them.  She even fights using them during therapy.  I had given up even pushing them for a little while and we've been focusing more on other areas.

You can imagine my surprise this weekend when my daughter crawled over to a lion walking toy at Grandma's and walked across the floor.  She proceeded to walk back and forth about 15 times that first day.  Her form needs a lot of work.  We are a super long way off from walking independently, but for now I'm going to rejoice in the fact that she wants to do it!

Big brothers make good standing supports.

Hailey finds this funny...Ian doesn't seem as impressed.

And...a little video of some walking...

What Peanut Has Been Up To?

I realize I spend a great deal of time talking about how I feel about certain things and give a brief  review of what we have been doing but I realized it has been awhile since I've given a full report on how Hailey is.

I think I should start by sharing with you what our therapist told us last week.  As she was filling out paperwork at the end of our session, she looks at me and says, "Just to let you know, Hailey is close to on target with cognition.  You are going to start to see typical toddler behaviors.  In watching Hailey, I have noticed that some of them might be challenging because she is very stubborn and persistent."  On a side note...As I have written these two small paragraphs,  Hailey has attacked the keyboard 4 times and has been removed from the room twice.  Yes...she is persistent.  When you tell her "no", her face lights up and both dimples shine through and lets out a huge cackle!  Yes, a big part of me celebrates that she is going through the same annoying, frustrating habits that her brothers both had.  Then there is that small percentage that when praying for Hailey to do typical behaviors hoped she would skip a few of these :-)

Her newest hobby...emptying the movies & video games

Hmmm...we could watch Signing Times

Or play xbox....

What?  I didn't do it?

Obviously, playing with the laptop, cameras, remote controls, phones...are high on her list of items to chew, attack, steal, etc.  It is quite comical to watch her make a mad dash to the couch.  Once she gets there, she pulls herself up to scope out what is "on that level" and then decides which surface to head to next.  If she spots something she shouldn't have....she likes her brother's homework too!...she drops to the floor and crawls to the next surface to snatch it.

In gross motor, she is crawling...or in the therapy world, creeping.  Sometimes she does traditional 4 point with hands and knees.  That is when she is going at a leisurely pace.  When she is in a hurry and wants to move fast, she have the heel of one foot on the floor instead of a knee.  Sometimes she gets to moving so fast that she face plants.  Little Miss does know how to pull up to stand on almost any surface (stationary or moving).  Sometimes she will actually move her feet too but I am quite certain that we are a long way from walking.  I thought that would make me anxious or freak out because she isn't "on target".  I've read enough that I want Hailey to have the left-right patterning of crawling.  I'm positive that I want her fine motor skills strengthened by the weight of her body on her hands as she crawls.  My oldest did not crawl long and his fine motor skills have definitely been a struggle (especially in school with writing and drawing).  I'm okay with her crawling for awhile.  Don't get me wrong...we are still working on the skills that lead to walking, I'm just not obsessing over it right now.

Standing up to give big brother a kiss

Crawling with one leg up

Yoga...stretching?

Crawling with the other leg up...at least she isn't favoring one side :-)

Let's see...fine motor skills.  When she is eating at her highchair, she does everything she can to grab it by the handful and shove as much as possible in her mouth at one time (without choking, of course).  However, while playing on the floor, she can perfectly display the pincher grasp when discovering small items that the boys have dropped or outside when she is deciding to eat mulch, ants...or the most recent...a button.  Yes, the girl ate a button.  I'm not sure if it is unfortunate or fortunate, but we did not know she swallowed it until we found it deposited in her diaper.  Thank goodness it went through okay.  She also has mastered in record time...almost 2 seconds...to remove her barrette from her hair.  I've learned the hard way...the barrettes and bows do not go into the hair until we have arrived at our destination.  Otherwise, I spend 5 minutes searching through the van to find it.  I bought a snack cup to work on fine motor skills.  Well, that worked for maybe 3 minutes.  She was tired of digging in for the puffs so she decided to start throwing the cup.  She quickly realized that if she threw it hard enough of the kitchen floor that some puffs would escape.  Hmmm...I think we might need to work on that.

Onto speech...Hailey babbles, she cackles, she giggles and she jabbers.  Do I think she "talks" as much as the boys did?   No.  Do I think it is because of Down syndrome or is it because she is #3 and there is so much noise and volume that she can't get a word in edgewise?  I'm not sure.  We may never know.  We do hear a lot of "mamama" and "dadada".  We here a few "br" and other sounds.  She does say "ni-ni-ni" as we are putting her to sleep.  Some of her sounds do sound intentional.  Unfortunately, she is not being cooperative with a straw cup but we have found a cup that is working on drinking out of an open cup and that seems to be going well (Avent 360).  Signing seems to be going well.  She will sign "more"...she uses it generally for more food or just for "eat".  She also will sign for milk.  She will blow kisses and wave (sometimes on command...others not so much).   She is quite the cheerleader...for herself :-)  Clapping for herself seems to be a hobby of hers!

The tail end of her blowing kisses.

When I say that Hailey is a good eater, that is not an exaggeration.  All of my kids have been good eaters at the start.  The girl eats everything.  I wish I ate as good as her or the boys did.  She made a little bit of a face this week with the brussel sprouts but I changed the way I made them and I wasn't sold on it either.   No one ever feeds her fast enough nor can they feed her enough.  There are days that she would eat until her tummy hurt but we always stop her before then.  Look at her "fight" with her older brother for a ring pop...no...she has never had one but boy did she want this one!

Mom...he won't give me any.

I think she is satisfied!

Socially, my little peanut is starting to strange when she is away from mom.  Since I am a stay-at-home mom, she does spend the majority of her time with me.  With two older boys in school and activities, and us not living near family...we have a lot of different people in our lives.  So it isn't that she doesn't "see" enough people...she just isn't away from mom enough.  We are working on this issue.  She does seem to be a little more leery of others.  Church seems to be a time that she loves to explore people (and practice her vocal chords).   Thankfully, we have been sitting by some patient people who at least like children. 

Sensory-wise...we don't seem to have many issues with textures...clothing...except for grass.  She will crawl bare kneed over concrete before crawling over grass.  She'll sit in grass and pull it out with her hands but she will not crawl over it.  We've been working to overcome this one too.

Cognitively...who knows.  I know she is somewhat behind the boys in some stuff.  We work on "in" and "out".  We add new signs.  I know she recognizes more than she demonstrates.  She loves playing with her kitchen and knows exactly which things to push and pull to make it light up and sing...."put some water in the sink...."  Oh that song drives me batty sometimes.  She has learned that if she pushes that bottom lip out far enough making her pouty face that her dad will pick her up.   She recognizes voices and looks for images when talking on the phone...I think technology has her spoiled...she prefers talking on the iPad so she can see who she is speaking with.  We continue to read books and point at different objects and people.  We sing songs and work on the hand motions.  

Her social calendar is a little less active than I would like.  I need to get her around other little ones.  She thinks all children in life are the size and age of her brothers.  She attends lots of functions though...soccer is the main one at the moment.  The end of school is coming and I'm certain she will love having the boys around all the time....not sure they will love the invasion of their little sister!

Snoozing during round 1 of soccer that day

Trying to get her finger to point at the boys

Watching her brothers play in the backyard

 So that in a nutshell...is what peanut (ha!) has been up to.  We have a therapy at the end of this week and then a session at Children's the beginning of next week.  Her big brother is making his first communion on Saturday so everything will be all a buzz over the weekend.  We don't have another doctor appointment until the end of the month.  I am anxious to double check on her growth.  Last time she was about 17 1/2 lbs.  She wears 12-18 month tops to cover her long torso but can wear 6-12 month shorts and pants.

The girl knows how make us smile and loves us.  She plants slobbery, wet, wonderful kisses as often as we want them.  However, now with her new teeth (only one on top and one on bottom) it sometimes stings just a bit....another thing we need to work on!  I'm sure there are things I've forgotten and I will remember as soon as I hit "publish"!