izzy rides the bike!

I got a call from Izzy's teacher, Melanie, right before arriving at school today. She told me my presence was requested in the hall to watch Izzy ride the bike! By the time I got there she was pooped, but she still pedaled! The video is of her bike ride, towards the end she starts pedaling by herself again.

kid walk

Here are a few pics of Iz in the kid walk today…

The first one is kinda funny because she was working to get her head out.

izzy's report card

Kindergarten Progress Report
January 8, 2009
Izzy is demonstrating improvement on a regular basis in several areas since our last progress report.
Izzy is using her eye gaze on a more consistent basis to choose activities and when making her preference known from a choice of two things. She is becoming more vocal both with her likes and dislikes!
In the general education classroom she sits very attentively during group time on the carpet and has started responding vocally when the other students are interacting with her.
Izzy’s new chair is allowing her to be more on the same physical level as her peers in the classroom. The students love to sit beside her or stand by her chair and help her with her work. Izzy shows she enjoys this as well by looking at them and trying to do what is asked.
In Physical Therapy Izzy is showing major improvements. She always pushes with her legs when asked to stand and seems to be developing more head control.
My goal for Izzy is that we continue to provide her with many opportunities to communicate her wants and needs to friends and teachers and give her many opportunities to communicate what she is learning. We will continue to try to make school fun, interesting, challenging and a place where she can make many good friends.
Izzy is precious and a delight to work with!
Melanie
I HEART Melanie. She always expects a lot from Isabelle and I give God the glory for each and every improvement, but expecting things from Isabelle is wonderful because she meets those expectations.
After school yesterday Melanie mentioned she had a good day with Camilla. When we got home Camilla had emailed this:
Annie:
Sorry I had to leave today before I got to talk to you. Izzy did a fantasticjob in P.T. today. Her standing looked incredible - feet flat on the floor (shehad her braces on), working really hard to keep her knees straight, keeping herhead up. I was really encouraged today and I am so excited for that Kidwalk tocome in. Izzy seemed pleased, as well, and smiled several times. It was a greatday. I told her she brought joy to my heart!!! Hope you all have a greatweekend. Camilla
I ♥ Camilla! She has always pushed Isabelle with love!

news...

We got word from Asbury that the "kid walk" is finally all ready to be delivered! It is amazing when you go through the steps/hoops for something like this and finally get it! It is such a happy "finally" moment! We first tried this piece of equipment out in June. The pic is from that first trial of the kid walk. It is pretty new and we were all excited about how she looked in it and had great hopes for her in it. After a trip to the orthotist in November we began working on getting her feet in a flat position so that she wouldn't be working against them. Gary the orthotist made special stretching foot splints with springs that allowed her to push against them, but when she sleeps they automatically pull on her feet constantly. She has made such great gains over the last couple of months wearing the splints mostly at night. We tell her that she is getting her feet ready for the kid walk and she really seems motivated to tolerate the splints. We also got the swash in November and it has made a world of difference in her hips. I wish we'd had this all along!

They will deliver the kid walk Wednesday to school. I can't wait to get her upright more and see her have an opportunity to move. All she has to do is simply lean at first and the walker will roll in any direction. I am hoping that she will be excited about moving herself.

Isabelle had a good Christmas, she had a little cold but overall seemed to enjoy the holidays more this year than in previous years.

AFO measurements... left 18, right 8! The plan is to pick up the soft body cast (removeable and for positioning) in one week, revisit in two weeks for adjustments and at that time make molds for the new standing/walking afos and order the little shoes!!! We are so close!

God is good. All the time.

Happy New Year!

CHRISTMAS

results...

AFO measurement for today...
left 20 degrees
right 10 degrees!!!

AFO results...

Izzy with Gram & Emelia

I have been recording the angles of izzy's ankles each week since we got her new AFOs.  

When we started the left foot was 45 degrees and the right was 25 degrees

After the first two weeks it was 40  and 20. (measured by orthotist)

November 24 it was 32 & 18.

Today it is 28 and 12!!!  When we get within 10 degrees of our goal (90 degrees or normal flat foot) we will order the standing AFOs and shoes!

Our goal (set by orthotist) was to get 2-3 degrees per week!  She has exceeded those goals.  

We should be getting the KIDWALK any day now.  I pray that she is inspired to move when she gets in it and that her feet are stretched enough to stand comfortably.  Well, I really pray that she'll take off walking (Mark 11:24 ... 2 Corinthians 5:7).

swash

Here is Izzy with the orthotist, in her new swash!

Izzy was little red riding hood for Halloween.

Izzy is doing great in the swash! She is already looser in the pelvic area and hips. Yesterday Camilla said that she sat Izzy on the bolster and told her to stand up to the count of 10. I'm sure Camilla was holding her hands. So she stood each time and when Camilla said 10 Izzy would sit down. She challenged her to go to 20 but Izzy sat down at 10 or 11. I guess she was getting tired.

When Margaret worked with her afterwards she had rhyming flash cards and a switch that simply said "yes" for izzy to push. Each time Margaret showed her and spoke the rhyming words Izzy would push yes and did not push the button for the words that did not rhyme. She did all the answers correct and consistantly. At the end Margaret told her how well she had done and Izzy pushed the button for a "yes."

She is still adjusting to the new AFO's. She lasts about 1-2 hours before demanding they come OFF. We cut back the tension on the right one last night and are hoping just getting used to them on her feet will help her adjust. We're very excited about getting the kid walk soon and having her all ready for lots of standing and moving!

I took izzy to the orthotist today to pick up her S.W.A.S.H. and A.F.O.’s. The A.F.O.’s were not quite ready, they are adding springs. Here’s Izzy being fitted in the swash…

We had to wait while things were shortened and lengthened and tightened …

All done! We go back next Monday to get the AFO’s. Here’s a pic of Izzy with the orthotist.

riding the bike!

Izzy has been doing great in school this year. I have been posting about it on my blog, but forget to post here too!

She spends her days with her teacher, Melanie, who is a visual therapist and Michelle who is Izzy's para. They do a lot of visual activities in their little room and then spend time in kindergarten class. Izzy has speech therapy now every day. Margaret (speech therapist) realized that Izzy gets tired of working after 20 minutes so she is seeing her daily for a shorter time. She has been using a storyboard software allowing izzy to press the mouse to have different phrases spoken. When I pick her up she is always prompted to push the mouse to say, "I'd like to go home soon." She uses eye gaze and now is using her hands to make choices. She does a lot of coloring and papers using hand over hand.

Melanie showed me a video that was taken in the classroom of Izzy coloring. She is putting it on a cd for me and when I get it I will load it up so you can see it too. Isabelle is really showing her teachers and therapists that she knows exactly what is going on and with a little patience can show them what they want her to do. Melanie works hard to keep Izzy inspired to work. She brings fun princess tiaras and clip on earrings to encourage her to make choices.

Camilla works with Izzy on Tuesday and Thursdays. This week she rode the bicycle on Tuesday and did great! She held onto the handlebars the entire time and relaxed her legs as the pedals went up and down. Today she was on a board that had wheels (hard to explain), but she was given a hoola hoop to hold and camilla pulled her up and down the hall. Camilla is great and is always coming up with fun things to try.

While I miss Barbara and Niecie who were her teachers for the last three years, this year is off to a great start! We still get to speak to them and fortunately Barbara saw Izzy on the bike and ran for the camera (she knows I love to SEE what Izzy is doing) and emailed several pics to me.

Tomorrow we are going on a field trip! We will drive to Shawnee to visit a pumpkin patch/corn maze. We'll ride on a hay ride and plan to stop for ice cream on our way home.

what's going on...

I was writing a response to an email this morning about Izzy and realized there were enough things going on to warrant an update on her!

I'm seeing some new things this year and it's pretty exciting. Izzy is starting to actually show interest in certain things. This after so many tries to get her to act interested in a toy or a food. She pouted when her teacher tried to replace a toy she was holding and stayed unhappy until she was given back the original toy. I watched her reach for Barney stickers in therapy yesterday and was actually surprised to see her little hand reach high to get the sticker. She really wanted it! I brought home cheesecake from lunch the other day and offered a bite to her. She gobbled up all I would give her. She loved it! I am so excited to see her show preferences!

She loves being read to, likes to be talked to like a big girl, and enjoys her time at school.

You know that we always give God all the glory and praise for any and all improvements in Isabelle, without His healing and protection we would not have her at all. We are so thankful for the work that He is doing and the wonderful things to come!

locks of love

Here she is... hair washed and brushed, ready to be measured and cut.

Sectioned and waiting for scissors... It has to be at least 10" tip to tip. No colored hair or layered hair.

One down...

Pause for tears.

Done.

Swallow hard. another tear.

The new style, she seems pretty pleased with her hair!

Whew... that was harder than I imagined. I just hope it helps someone, somewhere.

izzy is 6 today!

Izzy spent her sixth birthday sleeping in late, watching Gram and Grandpa John cook, and swimming with mom, dad, and brother Bailey.


Here she is in one of her new birthday outfits (from Gymboree)! So cute!

Swimming with mom!

Mom got this cute dress for Izzy. She wore it to church this morning and looked adorable. The sun was so bright she couldn't keep her eyes opened!

Her hair is so long! So long. I am seriously considering a cut. Like 10 inches... for this.

happy fourth...

A pic of Izzy from today.

summer school

Today was Izzy's first day of Summer School, which is basically a short session with PT and OT at school. It is on Wednesdays throughout June and July. Today we saw Camilla (our favorite :) ) and the representative from an equipment company came to try her out in a semi new product called Kid Walk. It is really hard to describe, but it holds her in place securely while allowing her oppportunity to move. It is really a neat thing and I was impressed with several things.

1. She is never very happy in any type of standing device and she seemed pretty comfortable in this.
2. She looked pretty good in it and her legs looked good.
3. She could easily move.
4. She did try to initiate a step or two at the beginning.

It did make her very tired. We moved from that to try a lightweight stroller because she is outgrowing hers and she almost went to sleep she was so comfortable in this. We are hoping to get a good deal on this demo model. They retail for about 2K and so we'll see. He's supposed to let us know about pricing later today. I don't think insurance will pay for another stroller yet because she got the big one about a year ago. We can't use it because it's too heavy to get in and out of the car so it's brand new. It is also really big. This one is lightweight like the one we've been using, just bigger. It was really comfortable to her and that's huge because she is rarely comfortable in anything.

I took a few pictures of her in the equipment because it is so hard to describe. Of course she had a slew of therapist messing with her the entire time. I'd like to see her in it alone, just left to do whatever and see if she tries to move. I think she would!

pics

See Izzy's new tooth!