The Copass Chronicles: A++

I took Lara to her weekly physical therapy appointment. Lara has been undergoing her bi-yearly re-evaluation at the last two sessions. I have mentioned in the past that these evaluations are a roller-coaster experience, a mixture of delight in her progress and sadness as we reflect on her overall phyiscal delays. I have learned to maintain a fairly unemotional and “what will be, will be” mentality.

The tests Lara went through often took me by surprise. Lara can do things I had no idea she could do, and I live with her every day. She stood for a full 3 minutes today unsupported, and would have gone longer, but we had to move on. She was able to stand, bend down, and pick things up off the floor several times, again unsupported. And she took 5 steps by herself!

I hadn’t seen these things at home, and had honestly felt a little concerned that Lara was no longer making much progress. Lara’s muscles are getting tighter, which is essentially what is supposed to happen as she grows, though it doesn’t mean she is getting worse...I sat pondering all this, when Lara’s results were explained to me. In grade form, she basically got an A++. Not only did she meet her goals for this time of year, but she has succeeded them, and is doing much better than Gretchen had hoped for. Lara has always met her goals, but hasn’t shown the good form and function that she does now. Gretchen said that Lara really does have good mobility for the amount of leg tightness she has.

I offered up some silent prayers of thanks to God today. We discussed new goals, which mainly just involve walking. By the age of 3, when her next re-evalution comes up, we hope to see her doing serious walking around the house. That’s hard for me to imagine. Walking around the house is much more functional and practical for Lara than walking around outside. So we will be thinking about particular in-house goals, like walking from the bedroom to the living room.

After therapy, I treated Lara to the Discovery Museum since PT didn’t wear her out; she wasn’t doing any exercises. We walked and played and shopped. We only were there about an hour, because my body is starting to enter 3^rd trimester mode (14 weeks to go), and I wear out easily. It doesn’t help that this baby moves all the time and wakes me up a lot at night. Last night was a night of hiccups, followed by some very severe kicking. We ate at Monical’s before heading home to bed.

Lara is becoming very self-sufficient lately. Macy taught Lara how to stand up on a chair to wash her hands in the bathroom sink. Lara insists on washing her hands by herself now, though she now also likes to wash my toothbrush, her comb, my fingernail clippers...When Lara realized she could do this, she began to use her chair for other things, like turning on and off the lights, which she can normally not reach. This is nice for me because it just means a few less things I have to get up and help her with.

In baby news, everything continues to go smoothly. Tuesday will mark the time I went into the hospital for a preterm labor scare with Lara. I have none of the symptoms that I did then, and I will consider every week past that marker a good victory. However, I am carrying low and can feel the baby bearing down, so I just try to remember to stay off my feet and lay down when I can. My next OB appointment is next week, following Lara’s developmental therapy evaluation. I am not looking forward to that evaluation. There is simply no good way, in my opinion, to accurately test a toddler’s cognitive development, and I have a hard time putting any stock in those evaluations. Plus, I really feel that this therapist marks Lara down significantly for very insignificant things. Of course, Lara showed to be at age-appropriate level or beyond at her last evaluation, but you just never know...how the therapist will behave and how Lara will behave.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. Lara made lots of Valentine projects this year. Aside from her valentine’s for friends, she also made a painting and a book.