Swimming Lessons I

We didn't put Evie in swim lessons last summer and since I plan to (hopefully!) be at the pool a lot this summer I thought it would be good to kick off with some lessons. We chose the less expensive recreation center route since these would mainly be lessons to expose her to the water, rather than full on lessons to teach her to swim. I think it was a good way to go.

Evie loves the pool and doesn't really mind getting water in her face. Often if she gets splashed she covers her face but then quickly asks for "More!!"

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Swimming Lessons II

I was a little concerned at first because Evie was having a terrible time going under the water without coming up sputtering. They told us to have them blow bubbles or hum so that they wouldn't breathe in. Although Evie did fine with these things outside the water, she and I couldn't seem to get our timing down and every time she would start to hum or blow bubbles, by the time I got her under she had stopped and would therefore swallow water. What ended up working for us was to forget about telling her to blow bubbles or hum. I just told her that I would say, "One-two-three, Under!" and that when I said "under" I would put her under. This worked like a charm. I don't know if she hummed under there or simply held her breath, but she only came up sputtering about 1 or 2 times after that. Whatever works, right?!

I find it funny that when she was about to go under, I would hold my breath as well (I didn't know I was doing it until I saw these photos).

Going under!!

Overall, I was really pleased with all that Evie learned and I was so impressed at what a trouper she was. Even with all the sputtering at the beginning she didn't start crying. She would sometimes say, "No bubbles!" (since that was what would precede her going under). but that was about it.

Whenever I tell Evie that something is over or she can't have something, she says, "Bye bye ____(whatever it is)___" So every day when the teacher would say it was time to go home and I told her we had to get out of the pool she had to say, "Bye bye, pool!!"

"Painting" the House and the Fence

One of the backyard activities that Evie enjoys doing is "painting" the house and fence. We fill her bucket with water, hand her a paintbrush and let her go to town. Of course, in our recent heat, the "paint" evaporates in about 2 seconds!

Our Growing Girl!

Oh, Evie, you are growing so much! You no longer look like a baby; you are our little girl! We have been so pleased with all the progress you are making! You are so much more confident in your walking and are even moving toward trying to run. We have changed your therapy from ECI to private therapy and have been SO pleased! Right now you are working on stepping over objects, stepping up and down a single step left foot first, using rails on a staircase, kicking a ball, throwing a ball, and more. It is wonderful to see you working on obvious skills at every session, and the goals this center has laid out for you are so specific--I love it!!

***As a side note, please pray that insurance will pay for this therapy since at this point they are only allowing us to have 60 sessions for the year (of which we've used quite a few already!). We are trusting that God will work this out as we go through the appeal process with insurance. I have been on the phone with them a lot lately and I think we have found a supervisor who will help us. So far she has been wonderful! It turns out that the insurance company had no record of Evie's stroke so in their eyes, there was no reason for her to have OT, PT, or Speech. (How they could not have been aware of this after the MRI, visits to practically every doctor known to man as well as regular visits to a developmental pediatrician, I have no idea! What did they think they were paying for?!) Now records have been faxed over from her developmental pediatrician and the appeal process has begun. I believe the Lord has been at work in this and am confident that things will work our for her to get all the therapy she needs, but it is a little scary because if this doesn't work out then the cost PER SESSION (and she will probably need 5-6 sessions a week) would be $90!!! We certainly can't pay $450+ a week for therapy!! But I would be so sad to have to leave her current spot because it has proven to be a TON better than ECI was and other private therapy spots that I checked out weren't in network at all, so they would be even more costly. We appreciate your prayers for this to all get worked out in our favor, but above all, that God's will would be done and that He would be glorified.

Here are some shots of our BIG girl:

Oh, how I love your laugh, sweet girl!!

Soda Belly

Poor Soda has had a lot fewer belly shots taken of him than Evie, but hopefully, being a boy, he won't care too much. I have already gotten one "You look like you're ready to have that baby now!" comment and I am expecting many more in the next 2 months. I think the 7-8 weeks of not being able to exercise did a number on me. Oh well. I'm just going to embrace it and be SO thankful for this little one that took 19 months in coming!

Pointing to baby "Brudah!"

Nature Preserve

Now that Evie is confidently moving about it's a lot of fun to take her on adventures to wide open places. One afternoon Richard and I took her to a nature preserve in the area.

Evie and Daddy looking down at the creek below:

Evie pointing out objects along the path:

Evie and her daddy touching trees to see if the bark is rough or smooth:

Evie pointing out a bunny on the path:

Throwing rocks into the creek:

Walking back up the big hill:

Splash Day

Evie got a zoo sprinkler set from her Momo, so we invited a few friends over for lunch and splash time. It was great to enjoy the cool water!

This may look like Evie is miserable, but 9 times out of 10, after getting sprayed or splashed, she comes out of it saying, "More!"

Here's our Little Tykes pool that we got for the bargain basement price of: FREE! One of our bulk trash rescue items:

After pool time it's always important to have some tunes:

They were pretty tuckered out afterward. A split second earlier, Evie, Robert, and Laurie Jane ALL had their thumbs in their mouths, but I missed it: