Health in Motion- week 3

Now it's our turn to learn! Yep, week three brought about instruction for Daniel and I so we can take home everything she's learned and implement daily. Since these movements are different from what we've done in the past and they must be executed in a certain way, it's important that Natan show us the specific steps, where to place our hands, correct vocabulary for verbal cues, etc. He can also correct us if we do something improperly or we allow her to complete a movement/transition incorrectly. We'll know for sure what to do/not to do/look for when we leave Natan.

Maggie's schedule is two hours of functional therapy with Natan, 1.5 hours for massage, break, then another hour with Natan. The order and times fluctuate on a daily and weekly basis, though they're usually similar. She always has a break between visits with Natan, though, never 3 hours straight with him. Since the first week of instruction was Daniel's last week here, he went for the two hour session with Natan and I took the one hour.

 Because we were working with Maggie, we couldn't take any pictures, but the HIM staff did and graciously allowed us to use them. Natan taught us how to do everything he and Maggie worked on the previous two weeks: stretching, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing, walking with the walker and all the transitions between. While I had a good idea what he was doing and started implementing things at "home" in the evenings, there was still a learning curve when I was actually the one on the floor guiding her.

Natan gave Maggie a flower :)

This week ended with the boys leaving. It was hard saying goodbye to all our boys- Daniel was sad to leave his girls behind, but was ready to get the drive over with; Will was a little sad, but very happy to be heading home and Jake, well, he's a baby. But Daniel said he appeared to be looking for mommy when they got home. I missed them all very much, cried of course, and I found it difficult to hold back tears once I got to HIM (they left when our break ended). Still, we had some girl time and I think Maggie really enjoyed having mommy all to herself. She never really has. The weekend was the hardest- so much time to fill and not a lot to do without spending a bunch of money. We played, took walks, went grocery shopping and window shopping at a nearby mall which is huge. We especially enjoyed the Disney Store- Maggie has never been there, but instantly fell in love with the abundance of princess items, particularly Rapunzel. She was promised another visit to the one at home and was pleased with this. I didn't take many pictures since we mostly hung out and walked in the neighborhood or stores. It rained all day Saturday but was beautiful Sunday with a tiny bite to the wind.

 fell asleep during our neighborhood walk