IMOT, Keppra, Baylor Checkup and Happy 14 Months Melody!!

Melody Rose, I cannot believe you are already 14 months!  You turned 14 months 10 days ago.  The biggest change over the last week is that you have become a WALKER!  Wooo hooo!  You are pretty much walking more than crawling.  You are sooo proud of yourself and can tell that you are doing something pretty big!  Everything has taken off so fast since your first step.  Addison started walking at 16 months and it took awhile for her to consistently do it after her first step.  So I am pretty shocked at how fast you have caught on to all of this!  I know pretty soon you girls are going to be chasing each other all over this house!  You have really been standing up to Addison and it's pretty funny to watch.  I think it's good for her.  You will put up a MAJOR fight when she tries to steal anything out of your hands.  I'm glad to see you aren't being a pushover!  I think it's important to share and I believe Addison has been learning some important lessons lately:)

Right now you have 5 1/2 teeth.  You have the bottom 2 and 3 1/2 straight across the top.  I feel like you're getting a new tooth every week!  I really can't believe how fast they are coming in.  Over the last month you have become super possessive of me.  It's been kinda hard and I'm sure it's just a phase.  You will completely freak out when I start talking to Addison, change her, hug her or anything really to do with her.  You will scream at the top of your lungs and make a beeline for me immediately.  You will just tug on me until I stop what I'm doing and pick you up.  You also want me to sit with you or hold you constantly.  If I walk away to do anything you get sooo upset.  AND you don't want anyone else to hold you.  We have been using the baby bijorn ALOT this past month.  I can say all of this but deep down I LOVE how much you love me!!!  

One of your all time favorite shows is The Backyardigans.  I'm pretty sure you love the show because of the theme song at the beginning and the end.  You get the biggest smile on your face when they sing the song and you immediately start wiggling side to side.  You still love to dance!  Tonight was the first time I saw you dancing while standing!  I have to admit it was a pretty awesome sight!  I can't remember if I've said this before- but when I sing a song you will join in and imitate what I'm singing and it is pretty right on tune!  It is hilarious!  You are VERY musical!  

Some things you really don't like are the vacuum cleaner and the mixer.  Oh wow, you just get hysterical when I turn one of those on.  I even have to warn Addison that you are about to start crying really bad cause if I don't warn her she will get sooo upset and worried about you that she will get hysterical and then it becomes a really viscious cycle!  

I have been trying to read to you more and more.  I have so much guilt about this cause I began to read to Addison from the moment she was born.  Now that things are busier I just have a hard time finding the time to sit with you and just read.  I don't think you are as interested in books as Addison is but I will keep on trying!!  Your favorite book is called Baby Faces.  It's just a picture of a baby on each page making a face and there is a one word description on each page.  When we get to the "yum yum" page you always say it and smack your lips.  You will hand me this book over and over even if we have read it 5 times already!  Atleast it's a book!

 

Addison started IMOT three weeks ago!  The program is 5 days a week 4 hours a day and for 3 weeks.  She finished the program yesterday and will get to continue doing IMOT 3 days a week until the end of the year.  We are so grateful for insurance!!!  So, when you started IMOT we made the decision to temporarily take you out of school during all of this.  The main reason was to keep you as healthy as possible so that you wouldn't miss many sessions.  You were staying sick with school and we know that school is not the priority right now.  IMOT stands for Intensive Model of Therapy.  It is a very specialized program where they put this neuro suit on you and you wear it for one hour out of the four that you are there.  The purpose of the suit is to align the body in the proper position and to retrain the brain.  The suit has all these bungee cords everywhere and everytime you take a step or move any part of your body you are moving against the resistance of the bands.  This program is known for helping kids make huge gains and break through plateus.  It is exhausting for kids but you were amazing and powered through it all.  I had to send tons of snacks and drinks for you and when you would get home you would typically sleep from 2-5:15.  AND I would have to wake you up at 5:15!  The first week it was pretty hard for you but your therapists said your endurance improved so much every single day!  Yesterday they held this "graduation ceremony" where they got us all lunch and we got to eat up there with you and all your therapists.  They presented you with a trophy, certificate and a Disney princess kit.  You LOVED your present and totally enjoyed all the attention!  You have such a BOLD personality!  We all talked about your progress and they said you made sooo many gains and were sooo impressed by you!  They are obviously trained to see things that we don't but they named so many things about balance, coordination and core that drastically improved.  We were sooo very proud of you!  It is amazing to me that even after the first week they could tell a difference!  I think you are pretty worn out and we have decided to let you take a whole week off of therapy this week.  It is the week of Thanksgiving and you won't have school either so it will be good for you to just recover and play!  You do miss school and have been begging to go so much!  There were lots of mornings where you would just fight me on getting dressed to go to therapy.  We finally realized that you are just TIRED and know that therapy is really hard work and would rather go to school where you can color and sing!  

Riding the bike!

Another big milestone is that you were able to stop taking Keppra!  That was the seizure medicine that you have been on since the accident.  You never had a seizure thank the Lord but it was just for precaution.  We are sooo grateful to get rid of this medicine for good and now only have to do the Baclofen for your muscles.  Your calf muscles are tight which causes you to tip toe when you walk.  Therefore we have to give you the muscle meds to help pull your heels down a bit.  The braces also help with this.  Therapy has helped over time and hopefully they will fully drop one day. 

Taking your last dose of Keppra!

Melody LOVES to spy on our neighbors!  She loves Mr. Bill and is always checking out the scene to see what's going on that day.  She just loves being outside and we have tried to take advantage of this nice weather before it gets too cold!

We had Addison's Baylor checkup a few weeks ago.  We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge again and Addison had a BLAST.  Her memory is sooo good and I have honestly never seen a bigger smile on her face when we walked into the water park.  She knew where everything was and knew that it was gonna be an awesome day!  It wasn't so awesome when we had to leave though.  MEGA MELTDOWN.  and we got some big time stares from every single person there! Oh well!  Totsie kept Melody while we were in Dallas which was pretty much necessary.  We were so busy with appointments and making sure we were on time to every little thing! 

Sitting in front of the fire at Great Wolf

When we got to Baylor we went to check out your favorite fish tank.  We have made it a point to visit all your favorite spots everytime we go back.  I think it's pretty special to do cause every single time we come back you have improved sooo much!  During the 6 week hospital stay, we would visit these fish and each were given names by you and were treated like your very own pets.  Here you are pointing to each one and saying what their name was.  What a good memory!

Here you are visiting with Dr. Raji.  We LOVE her!  You weren't sick but you insisted on wearing this mask and at times the gloves!  You know her very well and talk her head off.  You walk around those halls like you own them and they just get the biggest kick out of you!  It's sometimes hard for us to recognize alot of progress cause we are with you everyday.  We were wondering what she would think and were so very excited to hear what she had to say.  She was amazed at your progress over the last 3 months and just described all the areas that you had improved-( we are talking about walking).  She takes a video of you walking down the hall each time so that she can compare at the next appointment.  We see her every 3 months.  When we finished we of course walked down the hall where your old room was.  We said "hi" to some nurses we recognized and I over heard some new ones whispering and saying, "She was a patient here"?  I glanced over without them noticing and their expressions were priceless.  They looked as if they couldn't believe you were ever there!  You could tell they were shocked that it was only 7 months ago.  Dr. Raji still says that your progress is very speedy and we are so thankful for that.  She says because of that they believe your recovery will be wonderful!  

Here is one of the playgrounds at Baylor that we would bring you to.  We love to see you on this equipment each time we come.  It is amazing to us cause we have vivid memories of you not even being able to walk out there.  Now you are walking, climbing, sliding- pretty incredible stuff!  You can see Addison climbing up the stairs at the bottom left.  I also love this pic cause it shows the Dallas sky line.  All of my favorite buildings right there:)

Now this was funny!  We walked pass the therapy room and you insisted on us going inside.  We walked in and said hey to everyone we knew and you just owned that room.  I even have a video of it.  You walked all over looking at specific things and you could tell it was as if you remembered everything from a dream.  You would pause and stare at something and think real hard and move on.  Then you went to the corner and stared for a second and yelled, "Where did the treadmill go"?  They all cracked up laughing!  You were right.  That was the exact spot they kept the treadmill.  That was the place you stood on your feet for the very first time.  Wow.

Checking out the therapy room at Baylor!