You Go Girl

I just love this video we got of Tessa outside in her powerchiar last night!

We have been working with her on making good stops and turning when she is headed towards something...and it was so exciting to see her turn right before she started heading into the grass. Her powerchair can drive just fine on the grass, but clearly she was not interested in heading off in that direction!

She also does something really neat right at the end...she makes one of the most intentional movements I think we've ever seen her do in her chair. Towards the end, Darin is showing her the basketball and lets her touch it, then he moves back and asks Tessa if she wants to come get it...and wouldn't you know, she puts her hand right up there on her t-post and moves herself forward just enough to get her hands on that ball!

It was so exciting to see her use her wheels to go after something she wanted! There's just nothing like watching her be able to be in control of her own movement and then to watch her benefit from all her hard work!

~Whitney

Big Family Big Love

Hillarie and Donald helped us take some really great family pictures over Thanksgiving!

I know I'm partial, but it just doesn't get any cuter than this!

(of course my two would be the ones not looking at the camera ;)

~Whitney

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a wonderful time in Pflugerville for Thanksgiving!

Tessa and Grandpa

Tessa, Haden and Grandpa

Haden holding Tessa's hand

Kelbie and Tessa & a little girl bonding time

Uncle Kyle, Keaton, Darin and Mason

Parker, Keaton and Mason

playing Dominoes with Grandma

Cousins enjoying Thanksgiving lunch

A sweet moment between Rylan and Tessa

(the two, 1-year-olds!)

Parker, Rylan, Haden & Aunt Hillarie

making bubbles

Kelbie, Keaton and Aunt Lindsay

Tessa showing off in her powerchair

Tessa getting some lovin from

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Lindsay

Cousins playing so good together

Tessa joining in the fun...

and having a ball!

Me and My Sweety

Aunt Hillarie and Rylan

Parker, Haden and Kelbie

The three, 3 year olds!

Tessa and Uncle Donald

~Whitney

Thankful for Happy Kiddos!

Thankful for time to laugh over a yummy cup of hot chocolate with this sweet little boy!

And thankful for bedtime tickles and giggles with this sweet little girl!

~Whitney

Thankful for Team Tessa

Ms. Kayla got a sweet video of Tessa rolling to her side at OT last week! Ms. Kayla has been taking Tessa once a week at 8:00 in the morning to the Children's Center for occupation therapy with Ms. Jenny. We decided that therapy first thing in the morning would be really good for her because she does really well on the floor before she has any food in her system. It has turned out to be a wonderful part of Tessa's weekly routine and we have seen lots of changes in our Little Miss and her desire to explore at ground-level!

We are so so thankful for a wonderful nanny and wonderful therapists in Tessa's life. There is no way Darin and I could keep up with every single detail of ways to challenge and motivate Tessa, and we just can't say enough what it means to have such incredible help and influences in Tessa's life!

We are so Thankful for Team Tessa:

Ms. Kayla - nanny

Ms. Melody - physical therapist

Ms. Tami - auditory/verbal therapist

Ms. Jenny - occupational therapist

Ms. Deb - vision therapist

Ms. Amanda - powerchair motivator

~Whitney

Thankful for Daddy

I am so grateful to be married to such an amazing man! Darin is the best husband and father and I get choked up when I try to comprehend how I ended up with such a gift. It is incredible what we have been through in our 7 years together and I am so excited to see what the Lord has planned for us in the years to come. There is no one in this world I would rather do life with. This man knows me and understands me...and that is no small feat! The Lord has allowed us to be each other's strength in our weaknesses and I love how we are constantly motivating each other to do and be better.

This has been the most exhausting and challenging year yet...but this man has never once given up or wavered in his faith and he always finds plenty of time to smile, laugh, play, relax and l.o.v.e!

Love you with all my heart Darin,

~Whitney

Thankful for Fun Memories!

So very thankful that Darin and I were both able to join Parker today at school for his Thanksgiving lunch! We absolutely love the opportunities we get to make our little guy feel just as special as he really is! Parker deserves the very very best that we have to give him and I cherish the moments when it feels like he truly knows and understands just how much we love him!

~Whitney

Successful Modification!

With the help of Ms Melody (Tessa's PT) we were able to make a new little invention for Tessa to control her powerchair...a T-post. Tessa was doing pretty well with the toggle switch, but we all decided a T-post would set her up to have better success at controlling her chair.

It was a very creative idea: we just took two hot glue sticks, cut them down to the right size and melted them together...then I took a piece of ribbon (pink of course ;) and wrapped the T-post and hot glued the ribbon. All we had to do is pop off the other toggle and Darin drilled a hole in the T-post and mounted it on. Tessa has done really really well with it! We also went ahead and changed pulling back on the T-post to go forward and pushing the T-post to go backward. It confuses Darin and me when we are trying to help her steer, but it is more functional for Miss Tessa and she has mastered it beautifully!

Tessa gettin her brother ;)

~Whitney

Got the Giggles

Here's a dose of the really good stuff!

(the video is dark...but you don't need to see, just need to listen ;)

~Whitney

Mobile Miss!

Well, I'm calling it! Last night Little Miss Tessa rolled from her back to her tummy all by herself with effective movement! It was very exciting and a brilliant surprise! I was playing with her on the floor and Darin came in the living room and sat down and she made a deliberate attempt to roll over so she could see her Daddy! We didn't get any pictures or video, but I have a feeling there will be plenty more moments to capture!

Tessa has been changing and entertaining the idea of moving around on her own a lot more recently. I'm hoping this is a sign that her formula and food are beginning to settle much easier in her stomach to where she isn't in as much distress being down on the floor and can really start enjoying the freedom to experiment and move around. Just in the last week or so we have been spending lots of time playing on the floor with her in the evenings...trying new things and thankfully giggling most the time. Just the other night I put Tessa in a fairly new position propped up on the back of her Nap Nanny on her knees. She was such a trooper (with the help of Mickey Mouse of course) and really seemed to like the new perspective and even started trying to move around in that position too! I snapped tons of pictures...which might seem a little silly, but when you've gone 19 months basically only seeing your child sitting supported or laying down...there is just something too darn cute about a new position and the excitement can't be contained!!

Just look at that little ruffle-butt!

One of her 'serious-working-hard' faces

Awe!

Look at her go! She ended up kicking both legs out behind her at different times and even pulled them back up under her all by herself! Huge people! :)

"ok seriously mom...now I'm pooped!"

I am so proud of her! It is so exciting, for movement that was once very stressful, to be shifting into playtime, fun and a broadening of her world! I am so thankful for moments of free-movement, unassisted by equipment and the glimmer in her eyes of doing it 'all by myself'...a mother's dream!

~Whitney

Tessa's Motivator!

Parker is by far Tessa's biggest motivator! He is such a sweet helper and loves teaching Tessa new things. Here is one of our latest examples of the fun ways he loves his sister!

We use Tessa's felt board for both vision and auditory/verbal therapy. The dark board is a great contrast for her to really focus on the pictures as we put them up. We use audition first, to introduce the pictures audibly by their name and then place them up on the board for her to associate the picture with the words we say. Parker is a pro and Tessa could sit and listen to him talk all day, so it makes for a great activity!

~Whitney

Winter Gear

Tessa really enjoys using her powerchair outside on the driveway, so we got her some new gear and got her bundled up over the weekend to do just that! Since Tessa doesn't move around much, we are realizing how big of a challenge it is to make sure she stays nice and warm. Especially her hands and feet! She constantly has her hands in her mouth anymore...which is a fabulous thing...but not so much when it's chilly outside and her hands and face get all slobbery and cold! Anytime we've been outside, I've had to bring her in and take her shoes, dafos and socks off and rub her feet for awhile just to get them warm! The hat we found surprisingly works well over her CI, she is forced to chew on her mittens instead of her fingers, and I found the perfect little pink furry slippers that fit over her dafos...so she's got those on too.

Once again...pretty-in-pink :)

~Whitney

Dynamic Seating Video

I just watched this video on the Pride Mobility / Quantum Rehab website and found it very helpful. We are still waiting to demo a Kids Up, Kids Fast chair for Tessa. Watching this video made me excited to think about how much more comfortable she could finally be in a seated position if she had something like this! The Kids Fast is the smallest of the 3 chairs and has an 80 lb limit. We are assuming this will be like what we will be getting for Miss Tessa...hopefully it comes in pink! ;)

http://www.pridemobility.com/video/videoplayer.php?v=KidsUpOverview.flv

Accessorized!

Here's Little Miss showing off some of her new accessories!

~Whitney

New Accessories!

We got a fun package in the mail today! I found a sweet sweet lady on Etsy.com that was willing to attempt to help make Tessa's headbands for me. I don't have a sewing machine and it's just starting to take too much time to stitch together new headbands everytime they stretch out and don't fit her anymore. Lots of wear-and-tear happens since our Little Miss wears them every waking hour of every day, and for just $4 a headband...why not!

So, we got our first shipment in today! I ordered a few bows that I really liked too. I'm super excited to potentially have found someone to help ease the burden in this realm of life!

We also ordered Tessa two new fashion covers from Cochlear for her CI! It's fun to have settled into this reality of life and to start branching out and having a little more fun accessorizing!





~Whitney

Photo Shoot

Tessa (and Parker) participated in a little photo shoot on Saturday September 24th at Hearts for Hearing. They were updating their office and wanted to update the pictures they have too. We got a few of the pictures back and they are just precious! The photographers did an amazing job!

This first picture of the two of them is hanging in the lobby at Hearts for Hearing...

~Whitney