Isabelle is 4 years old today!!!

Izzy having some cake!
Blow out the candles!
Izzy's baby
Izzy giving baby a kiss.

AIAHP

Amanda & Matt
Chad Timmerman on the golf cart
Matt "having a go" at a new exercise for Izzy
Tim Timmerman showing us how it's done

We are home from our trip for Izzy's evaluation and our training to carry out her program with the guys from AIAHP. We were thrilled to have experts in this area all the way from Australia to work with us. We learned so much over the last few days.

Izzy did pretty well with the evaluation, basically they just put on paper what we already knew. The good news is we are now armed with exercised and activities to wake up the right parts of her brain! I am very excited to see the changes over the next few months as we make the program work for Isabelle.

Some of you may know that we had already started a "program" based on the information in both Keith Pennock and Doman's books. We found out we had jumped a few stages so we now have a better program made just for Isabelle. Everything from spinning to disco balls to nutrition. It is pretty interesting.

Matt, Amanda and myself had all read the book so we knew a lot of the history and theories behind the program. They said usually the 'dads' don't read the book, so Matt gets a gold star!

Bailey's zoo pics continued...

Sad & Happy Days...

We have continued to stay busy!
Matt's grandmother Jackie died last week. She was 87 years old. Matt lived with her for several years and she was very dear to him. She apparently fell asleep and just didn't wake up. Her favorite food was bing cherries which she happened to have a bowl beside her when she passed away. We all went to her funeral. Matt's cousin Mike spoke and did a really good job sharing memories of Jackie.
Saturday we went with Mike and his wife and daughter along with Ginger and her friend to the ZOO. Izzy did great, she kept her head up the whole time and seemed to enjoy looking at the animals. Bailey was in charge of the camera and the only pictures he took were of landscapes and animals. I am adding a few from him. I was hoping for some shots of people!!!
Speaking of Bailey, he is at photography camp this week. This is part two. He loves to take pictures!
Our biggest news is that we have been doing the brain net stuff with Izzy for over a week and she is doing so well. IT IS HARD!!!! and takes a lot of time! ... but, it is so worth it. She has done many little things that are so encouraging and the people who see her can see changes already happening!
Next week is our evaluation and training with the group from Australia. We are excited to see what we are doing right and wrong and get busy with Izzy.
Some of the things that Izzy has done ...
-During vision/light therapy Matt put the light in her hand and told her to shine it on Emelia and she did!
-During another vision/light therapy, Bailey and Matt were making hand shapes on the wall and noticed Izzy trying to make shapes with her hand too.
-She called out mama while being patterned...
-She is watching her dvd's on the floor while laying prone (as instructed by the aiahp) and cries if the movie ends or the battery dies on her dvd player.
That's all for now... therapy calls...
Here are a few zoo pics courtesy of Bailey...