More colors and numbers

I haven't posted in a while, because we haven't had much to report. No news is good news! So here is another update on her development.

Melanie can now help me count to ten. She will count to 3 on her own (or maybe 5, but skipping 4). But if I count with her and pause at each number, most of the time she can say the next one on her own. And she's starting to count on her fingers. This all really took off when I discovered what is apparently the MOST entertaining tub game, with our two Ernie toys counting with each other and jumping into the tub at various numbers. Apparently it's a hoot, and Melanie would be happy if it went on until the water got ice cold.

Melanie also has more colors on her pallete. Now we have blue, green, pink, yellow, and maybe red. Still not very consistent, mostly because she struggles with focusing her eyes on a task. She'll tell me something's pink, without even looking at it. If she looked, she would know it's really blue...

We have not seen much improvement in movement in a while. We're hoping to see some great results next week, when we travel down to Chicago to see a master ABM teacher. Some days I have taped her ankles in hopes it may help stability and keep her ankles from rolling inward (pronating). I think it helps a bit-- my mom said today she's not lurching so much when she walks. Pati has been working on her feet, legs and pelvis in ABM lessons, and in our last session we saw some really great things! Toes flexed instead of always curled, pelvis tucking towards chest which gave her a stronger voice, etc.

Well, we've had this atrocious heat wave for too long now, keeping Melanie inside most of the time. She doesn't sweat at all, so we need to keep her cool. I'm pretty sure we'll be needing a cooling vest soon. Thankfully, she loves water and can handle it just fine without seizures. She has gotten too warm a few times, but no seizures, so I still feel really great about her seizure control right now.

In my next update(s), I'll let you know about our results from her neuropsychology evaluation and our time in Chicago working with Marcy.