Standing, Showing, Signing

Look who's up and standing...




showing...

and signing to us.

Ashley Kate is starting to feel better and better each day. She is standing. ( Ok, I know she's wearing her leg immobilizers that won't allow her to bend her legs and not stand up, but in my book since its full weight baring on her feet then she's standing). She didn't have a choice since I wedged her between the toy chest(actually the family room chest that has been taken over by her toys) and the couch. Once she stopped her fussing at me I think you can see by the look on her face and the lack of tear stainson her cheeks that she actually did really well. This is the most she has been up on those feet since last fall! She stood and played for over an hour!

The second photo gives you just a peek at her favorite thing to do. She points (and sometimes taps) at things she KNOWS she KNOWS the sign for, but is too lazy to do. Instead she wants to point it out to us and have us sign it for her. It cracks me up. You can't get much lazier than that! Anyway the exciting thing to us is her desire to WANT to know the sign for everything. Even the things we have no idea what the sign is. She is so very smart and each day learns and recognizes new things. Dave and I have lots more learning to do. Currently we have the first 6 episodes of signing time, the 3 books and the flash cards and have those pretty well mastered, but its not enough. As soon as I get a little extra cash I have to get the other episodes for her. This weekend we had a family quiz over the signs in her books. It was really fun to see the kids race to sign each word Dave called out from the book. Its even funnier to see Ashley Kate sit on their laps and tap at each word she wants THEM to sign for her.

The last photo is a sign that as far as I can tell Ash made up. I have no idea what she is signing, but she does. She does this sign over and over again all day long and looks at me like I'm just not getting it. She's right. I'm not getting it. She (like most kids )puts her own little twist on lots of the sign,s but I can pretty much figure them out. Except for this one. I just don't get it.

The best thing about these photos is the way she looks. Can you tell that she's starting to feel better? I think it shows on her face. She smiled and played for a good portion of the day. She was so, so sweet and silly. We enjoyed her so very much. We've missed our silly baby as she's struggled with so many days of not feeling so great lately. She still has a cough and a rattle in her chest, but she is really feeling better. My heart is so blessed that she is surviving this round of pneumonia without being placed on a ventilator. Its the first time in her life that she's kicking it while still breathing all on her own. She still has 5 more days of IV anti biotics that are run every 8 hours and we will continue giving her breathing treatments every 6 for the next two weeks. Then it is my hope that she will be on the mend for a long, long time allowing her to feel better, get stronger, and resume therapy.

Its 11am and both of our girls are still sleeping. Oh, how I would like to join them, but its Monday and that means its laundry day. I mean every day is laundry day but Mondays is the day I commit to doing it all day long. I guess the buzzer on the dryer is calling my name beckoning me to drag my tired self in there to retrieve its contents. I just wanted to share some pics of our pickle with you and let you see how amazing I think she's looking. God is really, really good. Have a great day. Trish