31/365

Today I am thankful for the fact that all day Lucy has done sweet things for Annie. She has brought her toys, rubbed her head, patted her back, and talked to her - all with no prompting from me. Each time she would do something for Annie, she would run over to me and say, "I be nice to Annie, Momma! I make Momma HAPPY!" She has no idea how happy it makes me to see them interacting with one another where they are both smiling and giggling. Annie loves Lucy. Every time Lucy comes near she gets so excited. It is really cute. Lucy has always been very tolerant and was kind from a distance to Annie, but she didn't really have much of a desire to interact with her. We have been making a lot of progress with that and it really showed today. And to just put the cherry on top, tonight when I asked Lucy if she wanted to kiss Annie goodnight, she said yes and put both of her hands on Annie's head and kissed her! She usually tells us no and just says a quick night night. It makes my heart swell to watch these two babies of ours. God, I can't thank you enough for these two girls.

I have one more BIG thing that I am extra thankful for tonight. On Friday we did a video conference with Cheryl, a pediatric Occupational Therapist that we met at our Tet party. She has very graciously agreed to give us some advice on ways to work with Annie on some of the things she is really behind in. She watched Annie on the video and showed me several different techniques to use with her. One of my biggest concerns for Annie is that she still will not put any weight on her arms when she is on her tummy. She keeps them really stiff or off the ground, but they don't support her at all. She uses her back, stomach, and neck muscles to keep her head off of the ground. It has to be tiring. She needs to put weight on her arms for obvious reasons. I would love to see her trying to crawl, but we have got to get her to start using her arms first. I worked with her tonight and just have to brag that she is at least trying. After a few minutes, she was done trying. She wouldn't keep her arms down, but this was our first go at it and I felt like it was successful. You can see her in her picture of the day. It is a weird picture because I was trying to prop the camera on something, get her in position, and push the shutter all at once. I am really proud of her.

Lucy is still in the best phase that she has ever been in, I think. She is great fun. So happy and loving. She has been coming up to me and just saying out of the blue that she loves me. She gives me big kisses and puts her hands on both of my cheeks when she does it. She snuggles tight when we read books at night. It is just the best and I wish she would stay like this forever. I always complain when she is in a bad phase, so I thought I should really brag on the good times. Despite all of this, she still didn't want her picture taken outside tonight!


Lucy has started something new each night. When I am home alone, Lucy gets to watch a show for 15 minutes while I put Annie to bed. The other night I came in to get her for our nighttime routine, and this is how I found her. She takes the cushion off the bench, gets her pillow just right, and covers herself with her "babies" as she calls her blankees. It cracks me up and is just so sweet to me.


This is really for my Mom. Remember when Lucy was just a baby and she played with that old belt of mine from when I was little? We brought it home so that she could play with it in the car. Well guess what? I can't find a belt for her anywhere and found this the other day while cleaning out the toys. It works perfect to keep her jeans up. Without a belt, these jeans fall right off of her. But not with her new Care Bears belt that her Momma used to sport. So glad you kept that Mom!


It is magnetic


This is Annie's normal stomach stance.


But we are working for this! Go Annie!


Dada - We know you had a crappy day today and just want you to know how much your three girls love you. Thanks for everything you do for us. We are so lucky.