laughter is the best medicine

The other night Emily was laughing at the noises Joe was making.
She was laughing so hard she could hardly catch her breath!

Love her laugh!

Creative therapy

I bought a small child's stool at Target for $2.50.

Covered it with a thick blanket and tada, a cheap therapy tool!

It serves multiple use. Makes Emily hold her own head up, in turn will strengthen her neck and head control

It makes her bear weight through her arms and knees and engages those joints so that hopefully she will learn to use those joints appropriately one day.

She wants to keep her fists closed so I have to keep opening them and showing her that she can keep her hands open while do this.

Yay, open hands!

She really enjoyed this! When I took her off she fussed so I let her do it again for a little bit, such a go getter :)

freedom

Emily is still very stiff and tight in her legs. Especially her left leg. She had her first PT session this morning and to say it was rough was an understatement.

It's just going to take time and lots of stretching.

I have talked about Emily's waterwaybabies pool and neck ring before but I want to talk about it again.

It's that great!

We put Emily in it yesterday and today to help with her leg stiffness and she is loving it!



Emily in her polka dot bikini



As soon as she hits the water she starts moving. I don't think she stopped at all and she was in it for an hour each time!

I took a close up picture so that everyone can see it is not strangling her. It is like if you were in the pool and you rested your chin on a float. You are weightless so it is not pulling on her head at all.

Her is a side view of the pool. I love seeing my girl standing, even if she looks like Captain Morgan right now ;)

She puts her right foot on the floor and pushes.

The smile says it all!

I am so thankful Emily's great-aunt Shirley bought her this!

She feels so free. Emily is always being held by something, us, her nurse, a brace, a pillow, or some type of chair.

Water therapy is the only time she is free to move how she wants to move.

When it's not 175 degrees outside we are going to take her swimming in a big pool with it. Then she can really move! :)