6 months=6 months

We've been home for two weeks now and Amelia continues to process all she learned in her one month excursion to Therapies 4 Kids. It's incredible. We've been trying to stay on top it and have recreated some of the things she had out on LI. We bought ankle weights, so we can walk her (we hold her under the arms and she takes the steps -- and is doing really wonderfully with it) and she can have a sense of weight on her feet so she'll place them down after each step -- although she does really nicely with out the ankle weights too. We bought a big "under the bed box" and filled it with dried beans. We actually sit her into it as a sensory exercise and hide toys in the beans for her to scoop out. It's funny because when we take her out she has beans in all kinds of places...diaper, under her arms and in her toes -- cute. We also did lots of things using stairs, and even though we have a stairwell in our apt bldg, they're gross and very, very hard some-sort-stone steps. So get this, Nestor and I were at Bed, Bath and Beyond last week and we spotted doggie steps -- you know, for little dogs to get up on beds and furniture -- and we got them. They're actually not bad. We can put them up to our bed or sofa and practice walking up and down the 4 little steps -- ah, New Yorkers are certainly creative with their space! Amelia continues to be get stronger and very vocal. No official words (that we understand, yet) but she is fighting us and arguing with us like every other 2 1/2 year old.

Yesterday, Melissa, Amelia's Special Instructor who has been with us since Amelia was about 6 or 7 months old, told me that she is in the process of writing Amelia's 6 month evaluation (every 6 months Early Intervention has the therapists do progress reports) and she noticed that for the first time Amelia developed 6 months in 6 months. This does not mean she is all caught up, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does mean that she has that much less of a gap. Melissa mentioned that socially and cognitively she is doing many, many age appropriate things. Nestor and I were so happy to hear this...it speaks volumes about what we and everyone else has been doing for our little girl.

Sadly, we will be losing Melissa in August as she will be moving to DC to be closer to her brother. But more importantly, she will be bringing her sweet charm and out-of-the-box approach to teaching to the special needs community in our nation's capitol. Also leaving us in August will be Amelia's Speech Therapist, Sophia. Sophia is so terrific, she's here so often that we've joked that she should just move in! And although we made a pact when she got married last summer "no pregnancy until Amelia ages out of EI" -- we didn't foresee her husband getting a job in Connecticut -- or I definitely would have added that. In any case, these two women have been so important in our lives over the past couple years and we will sorely miss them. Having said that, we are also excited for them and their new adventures. The kids in DC and CT are very lucky to have them!

As for us, we're heading back to Therapies 4 Kids on 7/21 for one week. We are so grateful for the opportunity to get her back in for a 1 week pop, we know how busy they are over there. We'll be doing the HBOT -- at this time they only have 1x daily available, but they may be able to squeeze us in 2x's depending on what happens over there with their schedules. And it looks like we'll be heading back out there again in September -- so exciting. We are truly so blessed to have met this incredible organization, who give us so much hope and inspiration to work harder and push harder, because we know that that's the only way to get results that will give Amelia the best chances in life.