New Tricks

Tessa eating a mum-mum. She gets a little choked at the very end, but Darin said the minute he turned the camera off she was fine...so no worries :)

Darin is so inventive! He made Tessa a new toy. It's a box with grooves in the sides all the way around it where he can put her rings. She has lots of fun getting ahold of the rings and putting them in her mouth...oh the feeling of accomplishment! (both by her and Daddy I think ;)

It's fun to try new ways to get Tessa to work on her head control. She responds so much better now that she has access to sound!! We couldn't hardly believe in this video how she starts moving her legs. It is literally the first time we've ever seen her make this kind of movement...and we captured it on video...fabulous!

We had Tessa's 3 month follow up with her physiatrist on Friday and he taught us a new way to hold her to get in some really good hamstring stretches. The biggest concerns for Tessa right now are the tightness in her hamstrings and how her hips are forming. They took hip x-rays, but we're waiting to find out what they show and if there are any big concerns at this point. The doctor said he had a dad make a lot of great progress using this particular over-the-shoulder hold with his child with CP. She'll only tolerate it in small doses at this point...but it's kinda fun and we'll work her up. The goal will be to make this our routine for carrying her from one room to the next throughout the day. Everything we do regarding Tessa's CP is all in an effort to prevent anything else from happening with the tightening of her muscles. Like I said before though, now that she is hearing us...it's so much easier to try and encourage her and talk her through what we are doing. We know she can't understand us at this point, but she can at least hear us and know that we are right there cheering her on!

~Whitney