She lives!!

So I got a couple of messages from people wondering where I had disappeared to...
I am still blogging!
I'm just not doing it here anymore...
I think eventually when I have the time I might merge all of the posts from this blog into my other blog and then maybe delete this one, or maybe not, but in either case, I am now just blogging on my other blog - Andersen Family Journal
It just got to the point where I couldn't decide whether to write about something on this blog or my other one, so I decided that I should only have one blog for my whole little family, instead of one for Avery and one for the rest of us including Avery!
So if you have been waiting around for me to post something here, please follow me over to my other blog! I'd love to hear from you there!
Thanks!

Drama

We're going through some tough times with Avery right now - she's pretty much been in the hospital since Saturday, and we still don't really know what's wrong. I've been texting updates to my facebook profile, so if any of you are on facebook, you can befriend me and keep up with Avery's status there. I'm also trying to update my other blog as often as possible, but that happens less frequently since I only have access to a computer when I'm at home.

You should read this, you'll like it :)

My husband emailed me an article about a girl with hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy today. I'm keeping a copy of it, I think this girl is inspirational, and she gives me high hopes for Avery :)
Find the whole article here.

"It really bugged me when I was little because I couldn't run as fast as the other kids or do some of the things that they did," Allen said. "One of the biggest effects of cerebral palsy is balance. When we were little, someone brought in a balance beam that was just an inch off the ground, and it was easy for the other kids, but I had to step on the ground a couple dozen times. I've had to wear glasses my entire life and I've always been picked on a little bit. But I've learned to cope."

Encouraged by her mother and older brother, Ray, Allen began running cross country and track as a seventh-grader at Memorial Middle School. She had to walk part of the course to complete her first cross country race, but she's been hooked on competitive running ever since.

"That sparked my interest to get strong enough to run a whole race, and I've never had to walk another race again," Allen said. "After I got good enough to run the whole race, my goal has always been to get out of last place, and that's something I've clung to my whole running career."

It gets even better!!

So, since writing that post this morning, Avery went to physical therapy and did something else really spectacular. I tell you, this girl is an absolute miracle.
So we were working on independent standing and stepping. Lisa was helping her learn how to get up to standing by herself, and then once she was up and balancing she was having her take 2 steps towards me to put some pieces in a puzzle. Avery was doing what she normally does - she balances, then she takes a couple of steps while falling towards me, if you can picture that. So she did that, and then I helped her stand up again and Lisa gave her the puzzle piece and I held up the puzzle. Avery must have though the puzzle was too far away, so without even any prompting, she took two little steps closer to me and then stopped, still standing!!

Without any help!!

My baby took her first completely independent steps!!!!!!

Lisa and I both about cried!

Big achievement

Okay, so maybe I haven't decided for sure about whether to continue this blog or not...I keep changing my mind...maybe it will be a gradual thing....! I just had to share something Avery did yesterday.
So Avery started hippotherapy again yesterday. It was supposed to start last week but it got canceled because of the cold wind and rain. Yesterday it was just raining, and they have a covered area, so we were still able to go! Avery was so excited! Anyway, Lisa is "testing" all her kids throughout the course of the 10 weeks of hippotherapy so that she can show that it really does help, and what she decided to do with Avery was to test her before and after each session to see how long she could stand up unassisted. So that's what we did when we first got there yesterday. Avery stood up on the mat, and Lisa sat behind her and handed her the pieces for this puzzle which I was holding in front of her.
Of course, we were expecting her to stand up for maybe a minute before she lost her balance. Her record up til then was almost 2 minutes, and that had only happened maybe 2 or 3 times. So Lisa started the stop watch and started handing Avery the puzzle pieces, and I held the puzzle and made sure she wasn't holding onto the puzzle for support. A minute came and went, and she was still standing very steadily. She finished the puzzle. She took out all the pieces one at a time and gave them back to Lisa. She finished the puzzle again. She started taking the pieces out again, and finally lost her balance and fell backwards onto Lisa's lap after

6 minutes 14 seconds!!!!

It was amazing!

So of course we thought that would completely throw off Lisa's testing, because she'd never even come close to standing alone for that long before, so she wouldn't be able to stand for nearly that long after hippotherapy! But we were wrong! After 30 minutes of riding the horse, we went back to the mat and the puzzle, and this time, Avery stood for...

7 minutes 4 seconds

In case you weren't certain before, my daughter is absolutely amazing.