Super Claire!!!!!!!!

After having a week off to goof around, Claire was back to work today. I know that I shouldn't be surprised, but she keeps doing more and more, always surprising me. We started the day with a quick trip to our friends at Starbucks. The highlight of the trip was a kiss from Andrew, Claire loves that. Then we were on to OT and speech. Claire not only made it look easy in two tricky swings, she also amazed Joy, the substitute speech therapist. I was so encouraged by Joy. She seemed to be convinced that Claire is soon to be using a device and that she will go well in a full inclusion program. These are dreams of mine, but to hear it from somebody inside of a school, it was very encouraging. To further add to her super day, she napped on cue and finished her lunch just as PT came to the house. PT was also remarkable. Claire's standing is getting better and she fell forward a few times, very exciting. Then as the icing on the cake, she yakked all afternoon with Kim, the sitter who she adores. I feel so blessed by today, it is almost too much to absorb, but I am enjoying it.

Another full day

It started this morning with a trek over the hill to Palo Alto to see Claire's primary care, who we hadn't seen since Sept. '07. Claire totally overwhelmed the doctor and she is going to go read a bit and we'll see her again in two weeks. The weigh-in is always a point of concern for me, but the champ weighed in at a whopping 24 pounds 8 ounces and is 34.5 inches long. The doctor gasped with joy and elated, "She's on the chart!" as she opened Claire's file with the new measurements. After that was done we stopped at In'n'Out for a little lunch for mom and headed home. After a rest and some lunch, Claire had an hour of PT with Tiffany. She was in full 2 year old tantrum glory demanding that she wanted her vanilla shake (from In'n'Out) now. We were using it as motivation for her walking in her walker, oh did she have her own thoughts on that. All in all, it was a good PT session, Claire did well and she even convinced Tiffany to let her take a break from walking and play on her iGallop. Next up was OT with Pat. Things really started to get exciting when we started to work on self feeding using the new water table (which was made with love by Claire's Grandpa). We started with veggie sticks and she was doing well, it got us to thinking. So we broke out the whip cream and had a party! I always love therapy sessions where people who know Claire and work with her tell me things like, "I know that she will spell and count"and there is such an overwhelming sense of promise. It sure helped to balance the doctor who questioned why I thought Claire was not retarded. If you would like to see all of the photos from today's OT session click here.