Temple Trip

Oct 14-20, 2013

She's getting better at supporting herself sitting up. At OT, we spend the first half hour practicing sitting and other gross motor skills and then the last half hour working on feeding.

She is starting to really like chewing on spoons and doesn't mind trying to eat food.

She always wants to chew on our clickers. 

Waiting at the opthalmologist's office

My aunt Jill sent us a package this week that had a few things for the kids (including some kids' song CDs that Caleb loves!), a book on CD for me, a book and a thoughtful note to let me know that she was thinking of us and praying for us, which was what I appreciated the most.

Also, around this time, my friends also left me a nice package with some favorite candy, some dairy-free/soy-free recipes and a list of times they were available to watch my kids. I was also visited by someone who lives in the area, whose mom is friends with my mom. She brought by some rolls and gave me a hug and said, "I'm here just to let you know how much you are loved." She stayed and chatted for a little while and then went back to her day.

All of these thoughtful gestures meant more to me than the people involved will know and through their actions, they let me know that my Heavenly Father loves me and is aware of me and my family.

My Aunt Jill sent us the cutest bows! I managed to clip one for a minute or two to what little hair Leila does have. They'll still be cute once she finally gets hair too!

Hiding under the train table.

We had a Primary temple trip this week so our whole family went and ran into a friend from my freshman year at BYU, who lives in College Station. It was fun to see her family and she took some pictures for us!

Touching the temple

It looks like Caleb is praying by the fountain of the temple; in reality, he's just doing his excited hands watching the fountain. 

This was another present from the package from Aunt Jill.

Practicing with a sippy cup. She mostly just gets herself wet.

Leila also had her ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) evaluation this week. Based on her diagnosis of 22q, she automatically qualifies for help but it was good to see where she was at with her skills. At 7 months old, she tested at 7 months in Cognition, 5 months Communication, 8 months Social Emotional (thanks to being close to Caleb in age!), 6 months Self-Help/Adaptive, 7 months Gross Motor, 6 months Fine Motor.

Leila really isn't far behind in any area and with continued OT/PT, she'll continue to catch up. We also started having a developmental specialist come once a month to help with communication. I think the biggest help for her is that she and Caleb are so close in age. I never thought I would want kids 17 months apart, but I was surprised how quickly I was ready to start trying for baby number two and then even more surprised at how quickly I got pregnant! God knows best and Leila is giving her best chance at success by having a brother to follow after and play with.