Bella's Progress
7-20-10
Summer is great!! I am playing baseball every Sunday, It is a blast. I got the game ball last month and will play in the state tournament in August. It is in Toledo and all my family is going to come watch me play! I have been in Aqua therapy this summer and love swimming every Friday. I even get to spend some time swimming with my friend Alex. I went to the 4th of July celebration at the church and saw my first fireworks. I kept my ears plugged the whole time and when they were over I clapped and cheered with everybody else who couldn’t wait for them to end! I got new AFO’s (braces for my feet) this week and they are super cool. They have this new design were you can pick a color and pattern for your actual braces not just the straps. Everybody loves them... I look so chic. You know what I say, if you have to have durable medical equipment you might as well make it stylish! I am thinking about a new hairstyle but have not made up my mind yet. Mom is starting to talk about school already... yuck. I think I will just keep thinking summer summer summer till I am forced to get on that bus again.
6-10-10
We put up some more pictures of Bella. Her daddy went to spend her lunch/recess hour with her the other day and got some great pictures. There are also some pictures from her Kindergarten graduation! Our baby is going to first grade…so hard to believe she is so big already! http://picasaweb.google.com/drichardSAI
4-26-10
I am 7 years old! I had an awesome good birthday at Uncle Pete’s house. All my family came, we went fishing, played ball, and rolled down a big hill! I posted pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/drichardSAI so go check them out. I am practicing new sounds all the time and have added bubbu (brother) to my vocab. I can now pull myself up to standing from a sitting position too. I practiced this in church one day and mom and dad freaked out so now I do it all the time for the attention... yeah, I’m cool! Therapy is therapy... yes I am doing well, but sometimes I get a little fussy about working so much.
We are planning a trip to Disney World in November. We are going to be staying in a place called Give Kids the World. It looks so cool! It has a 24 hour ice cream shop, and every day is a holiday! I am sooo excited I cannot wait to meet Cinderella, she is soooo my fave! Mom is nervous about me flying but I think it will be awesome! We will be getting a special oxygen machine, and monitor and all the other stuff they think I need to fly... all I think I need is a ticket, we’ll see.
Well I am off to yet another trip to the doctors, all my yearly check ups... bad part of having my birthday! I will talk to you all again in the summer!
1-10-10
Where did last year go! I am doing great in my new school. It is the coolest. Everything there works for me. I have enough room to get around in my power chair, and I go all over the school on my own... sometimes when I am not suppose to. I skipped class one day to go shopping in the Santa shop and everybody got all worried... a girls gotta shop!
I surprised daddy for Christmas and started saying my second word. Da Da. Kara helped me practice it over and over for a few months till I got it right. I say it all the time now, it always makes daddy smile. He made it his ringtone on his phone…he’s crazy like that. I had a great Christmas with my family in Michigan and can’t wait for my next visit around my birthday.
10-8-09
Bella has been very busy having fun this past month. In school and at home she has had days full of activities.
SCHOOL
Isabella has got into all the normal rotations at school and is enjoying them so much. On Wednesdays she has Library, Music, and Show and Tell, this is definitely her favorite day. She checked out her first library book last week and was so excited. I told her when we got home sissy could read the book to her she told me “no I read it to sissy!” and so it was. She is enjoying learning how to read and this week she was the star reader and read a book to her class called My Room.
The Kindergarten class does a color parade on Fridays and the children parade through the halls of the school decked out in that weeks colors. This past Friday it was blue day, and for those who know Dennis that can only mean one thing! Yes my child attends school less then 10 miles from OSU campus and was decked out in UofM wear. But that wasn’t enough, there is a song that goes along with color day and it is recorded on her VANTAGE so she can sing along with her class. This week at the end of her blue day song it loudly stated “Go Blue”. That song had 27 hits on it by time she came home Friday from school. I think it’s safe to say there are some OSU fans out there that are probably sick of Michigan already. That’s our girl!!!!
FUN FUN FUN!!!!!!!
On Sept 19th Bella’s sister Annika had her 9th birthday party. It was a swimming party and Bell had a blast! She spent hours swimming and had a great time hanging out with the big kids in the pool!
We had a great turn out for our first annual golf outing and benefit. We had a full week of rain prior to the outing and it barely stopped in time for registration. I can’t say we were not a little concerned but all turned out well. By time registration opened we had sunny skies and dry… concrete anyways. Unfortunately I can not say the same about the course, a little soggy but nobody seemed to mind. Bella joined us for registration and lunch. She then took a ride with daddy onto the course to wish our golfers good luck, and pick up a few tips. She went home and rested up and was back to meet the golfers as they came off the course. She stayed with us through dinner and for the top prize winners then it was bedtime! As she said good bye there was 80 golfers waving good bye from the dinner area, I wish we could have got that one on film...very endearing. We feel very blessed for all the support and the tremendous turnout that we had. Thank you to our supporters, volunteers, and golfers you are all amazing!
Don’t forget to check out the golf outing and birthday party pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/drichardSAI
9-5-09
Education:
Bella’s first week of school went great! She is a bit tired, but that is expected. She has quickly adapted to a full day students mentality, “recess is her favorite subject.” She loves the handicap accessible equipment on the playground. It gives her so much freedom. Her independence has grown a lot just in the last 2 weeks. We are so excited to see what this year holds for her.
Fun Fun Fun:
Bella spent her first night away from home without mom and dad. She spent part of Labor Day weekend with Kara while the rest of us went on a camping trip with our church. Kara and Bella joined us there for the last day of fun. Bella had a great time hanging out at the pool and around the campfire getting to know everybody. Bella said her favorite thing about her holiday weekend was spending time with Mrs. Reynolds (Kara’s mom) and petting all the dogs!
You can check out pictures of her first week of school and Labor Day weekend at http://picasaweb.google.com/drichardSAI
8-13-09
Education:
Bella is accepted into Colerain Elementary! This means that Bella will be in a class with 7 other Orthopedically Handicapped children that perform at a normal cognitive level. This school year will be spent with concentration on physical and cognitive independence. We have been waiting over a year to find out whether she would get into Colerain and we are so happy! Thank you to all who helped make this happen.
Health:
Isabella is doing great! All her yearly testing and appointments came with “thumbs up” as Bella would say! We had an overnight pulse/ox study done in June that showed great improvement in her ability to sustain her own oxygen levels.
Therapies:
Bella continues to grow greatly this year in many areas. We truly contribute a lot of this growth to starting Feldenkrais last fall. Since then Bella has learned how to write her name, and her physical growth is just stunning. She is sitting up more spontaneously and for greater lengths of time more and more with each day. She applies weight to her legs and arms with minimal assistance now and is even starting to attempt the motions necessary for climbing up on the couch!