Day Four: Whine? No Thanks!

What a day! Laila is definitely gaining more skills and she is definitely fighting it every step of the way! It is so exhausting watching her fight herself so much knowing that she can do these things but almost everything she has to fight, kicking and screaming before she calms down and and gets confidence. It's almost like there are two personalities in there! I'm thankful for the lessons God is teaching me through watching her though because isn't it just like our humanness to want to fight and do things our own way before we submit and figure out the there is something right there trying to teach us and help us not fall on our face but we choose to try the hard way first or we just give up altogether before reaching our potential. I have seen this in myself as well with her. I again want to say how thankful I am for all of her instructors and they way they are not only patient with Laila but also with me. They let me struggle and try and put her hand back in position and back in position and back in position and back in position and back in position and back in position and then they politely ask me if I would like to help ____ with their work while they take a turn with Laila. I know I'm part of the problem with getting frustrated too quickly and I know that is a part of my personality that is one of the reasons God gave me Laila to overcome but I'm just not getting it. Prayers in that area would be great :)

So, today I did see many many encouraging things in Laila's behavior as well. Right away in the morning before we even went I noticed how much easier it is getting to get Laila dressed. It has always been a huge struggle to get her shirt of coat on because she immediately bends her elbow and pulls her arm SOOO tight against her body. I think all the reaching for the bar and keeping her arms straight during the lying exercise as really helped that. YAY!! She also nodded her head yes to answer a question from her teacher this morning (remember again that you are blessed that you can even nod your head with ease!). Usually in the morning she is a little more quiet and looks around taking things in but by the end of class we're having to tell her to tone her large voice down. Interesting to watch her adapt to her surroundings like that.

One new thing that we worked on today during our individual program was rocking. She would draw her knees up to her chest and hold on under them. She could see how if she turned her head different ways her body would follow. She was also having to keep her head tucked to her chin which was building her neck muscles. She scooted pretty well on her back today to different stations that she had to go to and most of the day her instructor was able to solely help her walk with her ladder back chair when she needed to walk. Laila, my back says "thank you" :)

Her eating has been going good. The past three days she has finished a whole can of pediasure by mouth by the end of the day and that is so great for not having to be tied to her tube all evening since we are not doing g-tube feeds during therapy. I think not doing the feeds so she has an empty belly and then also working up a sweat and an appetite are really helping. Today they had students in the classroom so they told me I could leave during lunch time. This also helps because starting Monday they are going to try to have me just drop her off. When I got back she had eaten a whole cup of chocolate pudding and drank almost all of her milk which I'm sure she'll finish with dinner this evening like she has been doing. It's so neat that she is doing so well with this and I'm very thankful for it.

Well, now I ask for a prayers about making a decision. They really think Laila needs four weeks instead of three and have offered that she could stay for the first week of the next session to get in extra time of reinforcement. We have to talk about the finances of it and see how she does over the next week. Part of me says I should just stay because I'm already here and don't know when we could come back and the other part of me wants to be home. Hmmmm, hopefully God will make clear His plan for Laila and I!

The pictures today are from Laila sitting in the topic circle learning about shapes and sitting nicely with the blocks beside her. She stayed sitting for almost the whole time today without cheating and throwing herself back and the only reason she started was because we were sorting shapes and when she started really concentrating on it, her tone kicked in and she was so excited she tightened up her whole back and fell back. It's so funny how a little thing like me sitting next to her instead of behind her changes everything. Yesterday she throw herself back several times and today We put a mat behind her in case she did but I sat to her side and since she didn't have me there as the safety, she stayed up. Clever little one she is.....:) The other picture is of her right after we were finishing the sitting program at the end of the day. That standing is getting stronger and stronger!

Well, I'm so excited that Jack, Emma & Jackson will be her tonight and for the weekend. I look forward to doing some fun things around Grand Rapids and getting some big squeezes from my big kids. They are all doing really well at home too and that definitely makes it easier here for me knowing they are taken care of. I know Laila will be very excited too because she can't wait every night to talk to them on the phone and I know she misses them very much.

Thanks again for checking on us today and I want to leave you with a link to a video a man left in the comments to me on here. His wife is a conductor and it is a very informative video about Conductive Education. It's neat because the equipment, songs and everything are the same as what they do her in Grand Rapids. So cool! Check it out!

Click here for the video