A Catch Up!

The last two weeks have been so crazy, the wonderful news is that we have sold our house. We are just waiting for contracts to be exchanged and this will happen this week. Selling and buying a house is huge. We negotiated for 2 days selling our house and about a day for the house we plan to buy. I really can't wait, we all can't wait. Our new house is low set and we can go outside with ease and going for a walk and playing the garden can be part of our daily routine instead of just rare activities. I am trying not to get too excited but too late, I am. Of course challenges will still be present in our lives but it will be made easier to bare. Faith's bedroom is know where near the kitchen and main living areas so we can let her sleep or rest happily without her being curious about what is going on not a few steps away from us. It is amazing what we grow grateful for, for example, the laundry is just outside the back door and Faith can come with me and help me and part of normal household activities. As with our current high set house it isn't possible for me to take Faith to the laundry I usually wash at night or when she is asleep. I tried the other day and she got excited and started poking the washing, I just couldn't manage it. Her face filled with disappointment just over going downstairs. We will miss our neighbors so much, the older couple on one side have been so wonderful to us. They are part of our lives here and I plan to include them as much as possible from our new house. After all, it isn't that far away.

Purple elephant that vibrates

So apart from pest and building inspections, signing contracts, all those fun activities with buying and selling a house Faith has been progressing really well. We have been continuing with learning makaton sign, oral alerting program and oral stimulation program. The speech pathologist made a progress sheet so we can record daily patterns, how well certain things are received and so we can make changes as we go. We have this little purple elephant that vibrates and we work up from her foot to her face to get her use to different sensations. It is supposed to help wake up muscles. Sometimes she likes it sometimes she doesn't. Our aim is to remain consistent. Just like with brushing Faith's teeth. My husband brushes his while we help Faith with hers. She gets quite excited. We are also teaching her to spit and Faith thinks it is so fascinating. I do find it a challenge to include it all in our day. I just have to keep reminding myself this effort now will help Faith in the long term. She is doing so well with it. Her new word is home and when we come into our street she says home. It is so cute and wonderful to hear and know she is understanding more.

Stepping stone clouds

Yesterday, the sun was shining and the breeze a little icy but all three of us were home so we got out the teddy bear picnic rug placed it under a tree and sat back and enjoyed the warm sun on our pale skin looking up at blue skin with stepping stone clouds. I felt my comfort level rising and just being outside, with Faith looking up into the palm trees watching the movement of the breeze through the trees, she was happy. I just want her to be happy and the simplicity of being outside made her happy. We all lay and sat out there for quite a while and it was such pleasure. 

It is nice in a way to deal with 'normal' toddler things, Faith is teething, and oh, it is not nice. Her little cheeks are read, she is drooling, the hands are in her mouth. If only she would eat and give those gums a helping chew but not as yet. A couple of nights ago from around 2am she just couldn't sleep, nothing would help, she just whined and was sad. What a long night. But isn't it a relief that it is teething and not something sinister. As it is always there as the first thought, is it a shunt malfunction or is it a UTI? In this case it is not, yay!