Baby I'm Amazed

Jamie continues to amaze me! Yesterday, she did so well with the walking between the parallel bars that her therapists moved her downstairs to the longer set.  She made several passes, and did a great job.  Today, Jamie used a little contraption called the litegait to work on walking today.  The way the machine works is that there is a large metal frame that is on rollers, with a harness dangling through the center. (think like a grown-up bouncy swing like we used to have when we were learning to walk as babies, although Jamie's isn't bouncy.)  So once her therapists got Jamie into the harness, we all walked together down two hallways and then back to the PT gym.  The harness helps take some of the weight and pressure off Jamie, so that she can focus on using her legs to propel herself forward.  She still needs help from her therapists to focus on keeping her hips straight and to remember to move her legs, but she is really getting down the movements of walking.  Her therapists (and us) are also impressed with how crafty she is.  On our way back to the PT gym, Jamie somehow figured out that there are medal bars that run right next to either foot, so she started stepping up on top of them so that she could get a ride back, instead of walking herself.  One PT remarked, "Jamie, you are just too smart for us!" Ron and I got a good laugh out of that.  :)

Our girl also had a good day in speech therapy.  She worked on pairing identical items - the speech therapist placed a plate, a toothbrush and a sock on the table, and then gave Jamie an identical one to pair with each item.  She did that several times.  She would generally do well with the first two items, but would kind of get tired by the time she got to the third one.  I am assuming that by the time she got to the last one, her attention span was starting to wane. At the end, the therapist brought out word cards reflecting those three items.  Jamie could read the word "sock", but had trouble with toothbrush and plate.  She could pick what they said if the therapist gave her choices, but she didn't do as well just reading those two. 

While we were in her room after her dinner, I asked Jamie to give me a high five (this is something she has been able to do lately, and had done earlier that day.) Instead of giving me a high five, she poked my hand with her index finger.  I laughed and asked her to give me one finger, so she did.  Then I asked for two fingers, and after a few minutes and more prompting, she showed me two fingers.  Then, I said "Okay J, you showed me 1 finger, and 2 fingers, now show me 3." I repeated this a few times, and she finally responded, saying "one, two, three" out loud as she counted on her fingers.  So cool!!

Now I will be in real trouble if I don't tell you all Ron's favorite story of the day.  Jamie was in her bed when her dad walked in the room this afternoon, and as soon as he got to the foot of her bed and was coming around to the side, she got a huge smile on her face and said "Pops!" (her name for her dad). We all laughed, and Ron said, "Hey Jamie!" and, again, Jamie smiled that big huge smile of hers and said "Pops!" again.  It was so much fun! So, just so we're clear, Jamie said Pops, all on her own, twice today. :)

As I was leaving tonight, I leaned over and told Jamie that I loved her very much, and she looked me straight in the eye and said "I love you, too."  It was all I could do to peel myself out of that hospital room. 

Psalm 31:24, Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.