Therapy Update

The days and weeks pass so quickly now that I forget to keep everyone in the loop. This girl is still tackling everything head-on, though she is definitely 'two', and will remind you of that (loudly) when she sees fit.

Physical Therapy:
Ruby is still walking everywhere. She can now walk up and down our sloped driveway without assistance. She doesn't always fall, but balance on an uneven terrain is still a challenge. She is building up her endurance too; I challenge her to walk up the hill on our street at least once/week. We use a push-toy, even though it doesn't offer much stability, just to help her feel like she has a purpose in the walk. She's getting higher and higher up the hill every time before she runs out of steam.

Ruby is walking backwards all of the time too. I remember that was one of the things to keep looking ahead to, but Ruby decided to teach herself how to do it. She's also dancing. This mostly consists of her waving her hands and 'stomping' her feet, but it's cute as can be. She'll hear the music and immediately make eye contact with you and start shimmying.

Finally, Ruby is fearless and a climber. She will climb into or over anything she can. I have to imagine this is good for her, so I try to give her opportunities for it as much as possible.


Speech:
Ruby is making some real progress in this area. A while ago she mastered her "ooooh" sound, and then her "oooo" sound. Then she started giving us different faces, specifically mouth shapes. She will give me five faces: funny, sad, happy, scared and mad. These little exercises are great for speech!

Ruby is currently 'moo'ing like a cow and 'woo-woo'ing like a dog and 'oo-ooo'ing like a monkey. Her current words are:

• yes (ess or yesh)
• Hi
• Bye-bye (bah bah)
• mama
• dada
• Maddux ('icksss')
• eat
• more (still a little bit 'mohh', but there is more 'r' most of the time)
• I love you (work in progress: 'eyeee lah oooo')
• want ('oo-waah' - this only comes when I prompt her)

Ruby still sees three different speech therapists (in addition to PT every other week and Gigi's a few times each month): one weekly, one every other week and one every 4-6 weeks. She is a busy busy girl! It is paying off though… She now will repeat most things when I ask her to, to the best of her ability.