In the pictures at the top, Catherine is in a pony walker. She is beginning to tolerate this for longer periods of time. Hopefully it will motivate her to become more mobile because while she still suffers from hypotonia (weak muscles) she is also beginning to develop hyperwill (a strong will)…I made up that word. We are starting to catch on that she can in fact do a lot of things, but chooses not to. Grant it, most of the things that babies do naturally and easily come a lot harder for her. I have yet to see her pull to her feet all by herself but I believe she can do it. This is one of the challenges I believe we will have with her – convincing her to rise to the challenge. Fortunately for her, she’s so dang cute that she can get away with it. Sometimes. 🙂
Health wise everything is pretty status quo. Her last visit to the eye doctor in Cincinnati showed that there were no developing tumors in her left eye and the right orbit looks great too. He wanted to see her in 4 months again. Dr. Augsburger said that if no tumors develop within 6 months after the initial tumor, the chances of developing more drop considerably. We still follow up with a pediatric oncologist every 3 months, and MRIs every 6 months in Cincinnati as well.
Daniel is growing so fast. Everybody always says that about babies, but I am feeling it acutely this time. One of the blessings of Catherine’s disability is that she was a “baby” for so long. She loved to cuddle and was content to sit in our laps for as long as we wanted until about 6 months ago when she started crawling. She still loves to cuddle but she is progressing developmentally, and that’s great. But every mom can agree that we all wish our babies would stay babies for a little while longer. I am definitely appreciating Daniel’s infancy a lot more than I did with the others thanks to Catherine. He’s rolling everywhere, and soon he will be crawling. While Catherine does not care to stand, Daniel can’t get enough of it! Perhaps seeing what Daniel can do will motivate Catherine.
Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you.
