Time Flies in February

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It seems that the month of February always goes by so quickly. Maybe it is because January is usually the coldest month of the year and the month just crawls; then when February finally comes, spring doesn't seem so far away. 

This year, with the milder weather, January wasn't so bad, and February is going by even faster than usual. Another factor to a fast-flying February, at least for our family, is that both mine and Rob's birthdays are in February. It is also the month Faith gets to celebrate one of her favorite holidays - Valentines Day.

Another fun time for Faith this month was having her 2nd grade program at school. She had so much fun singing along to all the songs and jingling her bell (all the kids got to take turns playing an instrument and hers was the bell) that she wanted to have another program! 

It was so good to see her truly relaxed and not having a tough time with startling when people clapped. And although she herself didn't have any lines, she was saying them along with the other kids when it was their turn to speak.

Faith jingling her bell

Faith joins in the singing with some of the other 2nd graders

This month we also had a parent-teacher conference which was turned into a mini-IEP meeting with Faith's teacher, her special education teacher, her therapists and the school principal. There are still some concerns with her having the ability to read from left to right but there are more ideas to try. 

Some really good news that we received is that during the first three weeks of January, Faith was getting between 80-100 percent on her trials with sight words and numbers. Before Christmas she was only getting between 40 and 60 percent. She continues to do well driving her power chair and is also getting good at using her buttons for her laptop at school.

Another area she is making progress is physical therapy. In January she received botox and that, along with much prayer, has enabled Faith to take 130 steps in her gait trainer. At home, she is asking me and Rob to help her take steps. We hold her up and support her while she "walks" from the living room into the bathroom or the living room to the kitchen. She is very good at using her right leg then her left and repeating the process until she gets to where she wants to go. Although it's tough on mommy's back, it's great for Faith!

This afternoon we will be meeting two students from the University of Mary who are studying nursing/physical therapy. Faith seems excited to meet them and if she's up to it, we are going to take her curling. She was up at 6:30 this morning so we'll see what her energy level is like.

Next week, she has hip x-rays and an appointment with her physiotherapist. I'm sure the words baclofen pump will come up again but hopefully (we are praying very hard) her x-rays show her hips are stable. Before we know it, February will be over, and a very busy Spring will be upon us!
 
Another one of Faith's favorite activities is doing SKYPE with our friend, Kimberly

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