a summer of progress

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile as its been an eventful summer for the Hopester.

In mid June, she started doing this . . .

And within days, she was self-feeding as if she'd been doing it for months.  The video above brought Hope's occupational therapist to tears.  Peggy is like me and cries easily, but I hope you can appreciate how much this milestone means to all of us.  A few days after I took the video, she ate a half of canister of Gerber cheese poofs and looked up at me with a look mixed with glee and satisfaction.

On my birthday, Hope crawled over to the couch I was sitting on, pulled herself to stand on the side of the couch and then crawled up and sat down next me.  All on her own!  A pretty great birthday present, if you ask me. 

In August, we got these . . .

which are pretty sweet pink sneakers with special leg braces to keep Hope's ankle at a 90 degree angle forcing her to put more weight on her legs/feet.  Behind the braces is a gait trainer which is another name for a walker that is pulled from behind.  Hope is tolerating wearing her braces well and we are working to get her used to the walker.  I cannot wait to see her cruising around the house and making strides towards walking.

As a mom of twins, I have to be fair and at least mention some of my son's recent strides.  Kevin and I marvel at our little man and all of the things he says and already knows.  Just because his developments are occurring on a more a typical schedule does not make them any less amazing to us.

We have a new love in our house . . .

It's Thomas the train and friends!  No surprise, they get lined up (by Jack) in a similar fashion to our old Sesame street friends.

Both Dad and Granddad are quite a fan of the new train table . . .

as is Jack, of course.















Many thanks to Molly and Reilly for the huge box of Thomas trains and to the mom from my multiples club for the very affordable used train table.

Granted a new found love for Thomas and Friends is not really an accomplishment, but I mention it just as a lead in to my next video which I captured of Jack while hiding behind the refrigerator. This is one of those "look and find" books (much easier version of Where's Waldo) where you are try find the items in the panel within the picture.  Here, Jack decided to read and find things on his own.