Ah, the good life

It has always been a good life, but finally, this weekend I was able to exhale and soak it all in. Saturday we wandered down to the aquarium to meet up with our good friends Garrett and Heather and their two children. Since we were with friends we were able to get a picture of the four of us. It was sunny, Chloe being as smart as she is, refused to open her eyes in the bright light. Pretty good though, no one was screaming ;-) After we lost the will to go on in the crowded exhibits we went out to the tide pool. There were groups of four diving and doing some sort of educational instruction. I stood with Claire and Alicia as the two were transfixed watching the group below us. As we stood there it was the perfect balance, warm sun beating down with a gentle sea breeze to take the edge off. Since the weather was so epic it was decided among the grown ups that the day should be further enjoyed while eating ice cream. It was leaving the touch pool that was a huge surprise highlight of the day. Claire was so calm after standing and watching the divers that I thought she could walk up the stairs to leave, and she did! There were about five stairs. She would pick which leg to step with and I would help her to place it on the stair, then she would step up and take another step to get to the next stair. She was so proud of herself, so I told her we would go celebrate with ice cream. She didn't need to know that was already the plan, she was stoked! I can't say that I remember much of the rest of the weekend. Once we got home Jared and I rotated so we both got naps, for some reason we were exhausted. Both girls are a good time, but both facilitating and enjoying the fun does wear one out. Now I find myself at Monday afternoon and off to a pretty good start to the week. As I type Chloe is very excited about the octopus rattle hanging above her and her new found ability to twirl it over and over. It is warm, a perfect end to the summer only 10 days left of being home alone with both girls. I am already starting to miss having Claire around all day, but I know she loves being in school. So we will just go slow and enjoy today and deal with the rest later.

So excited!

I haven't been blogging much lately because I have been using all of my energy to communicate with several schools and all of Claire's various people. Today we had a very exciting day. She got to go back for her second day of school to Mount Hermon's Playschool. Playschool is a really neat preschool that has many fun things that Claire really enjoyed, mainly lots of kids. She had great fun playing with clay, watching the fish and hanging around the train table. When I went to pick her up she was beaming, she was so happy. We then got to take a break at home for a little down time and food before heading off to physical therapy. Sue our amazing PT could notice a huge difference in Claire's demeanor. Since she has spent most of the morning having fun and playing, her body was very loose. She was able to take several steps while holding onto a swing, a very unstable object. As we left Claire was so proud of herself for doing such a good job. I can't believe how hard she worked, but she was so excited to be able to put the pieces together and do it. She was really aware of where her body was and what she was doing. She knew that she was doing things that don't normally come. We came home, both of us exhausted from the rigours workout. I was surprised that she didn't crash in the car. When we got up to our place I laid her down, took off her shoes and read a story. Certainly, she was close to sleep. Imagine my surprise when I went in her room 45 minutes later to find her in her bed laughing and playing. We had a little talk about how exciting it was that she had such a great day and important it is that she sleep so that we can play later on when Daddy comes home. Amazing, after that she went right out. Here is a video of what I saw when I went in, before our chat. Thought I would get it on tape, in case I need to remember of great she is some other time when she is overtired and unruly.

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.