What is there to say?

I continue to be thankful at how little I have to post about Leah's spina bifida.  The couple appointments that we've had this month have been Early Intervention from the school district and swimming lessons.  EI's assessment continues to be that Leah is right at her age for all of her developmental milestones, with the exception of gross motor skills.  She's talking in 2-3 word sentences, she's picking up new words everyday, and her fine motor skills are above average.  Even though she's not walking, she is mobile in her own way.  She uses her zip-zac all over the house and at the random Barnes'n'Noble or coffee shop outings, and she uses her wheelchair at school and when we let her have mobility out in public.  She's getting so much better in her chair, so we've taken it out much more often.   Since she's still a toddler, sometimes I put her in the shopping cart or stroller to do errands.  

She also is doing swimming twice a week, which is awesome!  Tuesdays are 1/2 hour one-on-one lessons with an instructor.  They work on her core strength and also to get her to learn how to swim.  She's gone from hating the lessons and crying the entire time to reaching for her teacher every week.  Saturday mornings she does aqua baby class with either mom or day.  That is really fun!!  We float around the pool and sing songs and she mostly points to the other babies, the baby mamas and baby daddies.  We do swimming at a place about 20 minutes away that specializes in rehabilitation services for people of all ages.  There are a lot of other kids who use their services for adaptive swimming lessons with a variety of disabilities.  They also have lots of other adaptive sports, including skiing, wheelchair basketball, softball, and other sports she'll be able to play as she gets older.  On Saturday mornings they have wheelchair basketball practice and she likes watching the big kids play.  Soon that will be her!  

We also took her ice skating!  We got her in her mobile stander and put her out on the ice, and she went to town.  The biggest accomplishment was getting her to keep her gloves on her hands!  Now I very much dislike the winter and the cold, but at least this is something that gets us out of the house, and she sleeps really, really well after being outside.  On second thought, this is a great activity for Leah and Daddy to give me a little break.  That's about all there is to say for now.  I have a few pictures to share so check back another time.  I have a little girl who needs a bath!