2-13-05 Update

Happy (belated) New Year, and Happy Valentine's day. It's been a very busy couple of months for our household.

Natalia is doing well. She continues to "sing" humm, ma-ma or ba-ba to some of her favorite tunes...

I awoke several weeks ago to Natalia "Ahhh - ing" the Barney I love you song. In fact, what was extra cute about this little performance was she Ahhaahh the tune of I love you, You love me,(then added) ma-ma-ma-ma, and then back to the ahhahhh and repeated it again..It was so cute! Of course, I was thrilled that she put the tune, and the ma-ma together....What a smartie!

Natalia is not really crawling yet...She'll "crawl" or move a few feet just to get a toy which she can see visually...We should be receiving distance glasses soon, It will be interesting to see if they make a difference on her traveling floor time. Although not crawling, she does scoot-backwards...I've got to get this on video and post it on the web site...Very unique and clever. :)

We had another ABR (Threshold hearing test) Natalia hears normally in her right ear...Praise God! Overall her health has been very good lately. She is still G-tube fed. We continue to introduce food, which she quickly moves out of her mouth...maybe some day! She is still walking in her walker and making good progress at school. I've noticed her very aware of her surroundings lately. She is very aware if I come or go and shows the usually 3-4 year old separation anxiety initially and calming after several minutes. In conversations she acts appropriately to questions with an expression or shake of the head no...I am impressed with her desire to try. She wants to understand and I see her trying to communicate in her way...This is very encouraging. We are presently developing a media center for her in the den, where she will have her own, eye level TV, DVD, VHS, and computer for her developmental progress...We are very excited as to where the next few months will take us.

We did have a little slip in the rain about a month ago which sent us to the emergency room and she received 3 stitches on the back of her head. All is healed and well now.

At 4 1/2 Natalia was 42 in. and weighs 34 lbs. on her last Doctors visit.
She is tall as these kids go--So we'll see where she ends up...

The Trisomy 13 Support and Survivors pages have been moved from The Healing Power of Prayer site to a .org site...(You can still access them off the Prayer site as it links over) Living with Trisomy 13 .org
We're very excited about this new change and know it will bring added Trisomy Awareness in this new generation. http://www.LivingWithTrisomy13.org


Blessings to you all,
Thank you for sharing in our precious Natalia,
TheseseAnn