Lovely Leah

I've been doing all of my posting on the family blog, but I thought I'd post this little Leah update here too in case anyone is still reading! I've been neglecting to post some really cute pictures of Leah.  After all I've got almost a year and a half of picture taking to make up for, so I really should do better.  Leah is doing great.  It is amazing how resilient and loving children are.  She has truly opened her heart to us and her progress has been miraculous.  She is such a sweet, happy, and although this goes without saying...beautiful baby.  It is so fun to see her personality developing.  She now pulls faces and can be quite a ham.  She is such an amazing blessing and has helped me be a more patient, loving mom.  She was evaluated by a PT this morning, and I was so encouraged by his report.

Of course as expected her gross motor skills are well behind her age, but he didn't see any physiological reason for it.  He thought it was due to her rough start and lack of stimulation.  He said she has great muscle tone, and he was very impressed by the progress she's made in such a short time.  She now cruises along furniture and gets to her bottom and bum scoots all over the place.  She walks quite well with her walker.  She still lacks confidence on her feet but stood for a long time the other day by herself.  (I tricked her by giving her something to hold and then letting go.  She's a smart cookie and not about to fall for that again.  If she senses we're letting go, she immediately sits down!)  He predicted she will be taking steps on her own within a month or two at most and running around by the end of summer!  The other area she is delayed in is speech and communication which is very common among kids from an institutional setting.  We're going to kind of play this by ear and possibly start with a speech therapist.

Check out our sweet girl...(you will have to ignore her crusty nose in most pictures.  Despite non stop wiping, two rounds of antibiotics, saline drops, etc. she has had a nasty nose since the day we first met)!