I just posted that video with her walking 3 hours ago and look at her now ! She is walking everywhere. Even when she falls, she can get herself back up and going again. She is so happy and proud of herself, she thinks this is GREAT and so do we!
I cant decide if Dad's mustache tickles or scratches. But I laugh like crazy when he gives me kisses.
Well, Thursday Malia saw a Pediatric Neurologist at Hershey and he seems to think that her CP only effects her left hand and left foot from the ankle down. That's great news that its not her whole limb. I don't know how he can say this but he thinks that her speech might be effected, we will see after the MRI so see what part of her brain is effected.
Gary and I have been working with her and her walking by sitting a few feet apart and getting her to try and walk between us. When we first got her she wouldn't even try, she would just flop down on her knees and crawl. But by clapping and making a big deal out of her taking even one step we eventually got her to walk about 3'. Today we were shocked when she kept making it about 6'.
My husband and I have a running joke around the house about how Malia will eat anything. She has never refused any food that I have given her. If either one of us is snacking or eating whatever she will come to us at lightning speed. She would eat all day if I let her. Well, last week I made chili and she wanted a bite, so I gave her one and guess what? She loves it, no surprise there. This week I made pork and sauerkraut. I had the bright idea to get the video recorder out and preserve her first taste of sauerkraut. You can kind of tell by her facial expressions that she is kind of shocked by the taste BUT she does not refuse more.....
Well, as you may have been able to tell Malia has opened WAY up now. She is a happy go lucky girl. She is always in a good mood and smiles and carries on like crazy. In fact we had our 30 day home visit and our agent said that Malia is the most adjusted child she has seen within the 30 day period. Wow, if you would have told me this would happen while we were in China, I would have told you that your nuts !!
As most of you know the first few days we had her were very difficult for all of us. She was shut down totally for the first 4 days. We were starting to think that she had some major brain damage, and yes, we would have still brought her home. I knew she would grieve and such but just did not expect a total shut down for that amount of time and didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. I still don't think it was grieving but rather a "I just don't want to deal with this" type thing. I'm just amazed at the child we have now and there is no doubt in my mind that she was meant for us and we were meant for her. She is so much everything I ever dreamed of. And her daddy is sooooooooo in love and smitten with her, as she is with him. They play almost every second they are together.
It took us a week or two but we finally got Malia in the pool ! We of course took baby steps but she ended up the whole way in (not her head !) and loved it. I think we are going to have a hard time keeping her out of it.
We decided to try camping this weekend for the first time since we've been back. We went somewhere pretty close to home in case Malia decided it was too much for her. She LOVES it !! Which is a good thing, since we love to go camping. We were at a camp ground that my brother was also at so we had his two children along. Malia took it like she's done it a million times before. Here are some pictures that we took, I will try to uploade a video of her first swing ride also.
