We're Still Here!

Well, it's been a while so we have a few things to update on! First of all, Suzie has made some tremendous progress in the past few weeks. First, she has begun to stand on her own for up to 10 seconds! She is getting much better at keeping her right heal down and putting some weight on that right leg. All that increased weight bearing has allowed her to start taking steps! She has taken up to 7 steps at one time but definitely does best in therapy after they've been working out her legs. She can take two or three steps at home before she sits down. But this is a huge improvement for her and we are very hopeful that she might start walking before the baby comes in March.

She also just continues to grow in her vocabulary and piecing sentences together. She can sing the whole song, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," all by herself, although she slurs several of the words. She is learning new words and new ways to express herself every day.

Here is a video of her standing for a few seconds all by herself:)


And here's our clever girl turning a basket over to stand on so that she can reach higher. She pulled this picture down and brought it over to me and said, "That's Daddy!"

Another update we have is regarding her eyes. The doctor only saw mild improvement from patching and recommended surgery to correct the strabismus in both eyes. While the problem seems mild right now and she appears to be able to see okay, her vision is likely to become impaired the longer we wait to correct it surgically. So her surgery is scheduled for October 11. It is an outpatient surgery so she will be able to go home that day provided there are no complications. She will have to be put under anesthesia and be intubated so I am not looking forward to that. We so appreciate all your prayers and trust in the Lord to continue to show His mercy to our girl.

On a more fun note, we have had a slew of visitors lately! My parents came two weeks ago, Kyle's parents came last weekend, my sister and niece come tomorrow and two more good friends stop by in October! We just love having our dear friends and family staying with us. Suzie likes it too:)

Aspiring Singer

One of Suzie's favorite thing to do is sing. Some of her favorite songs are Jesus Loves Me, The Wheels on the Bus, ABCs, and Elmo's Song. Here's a little video of her going through all the different parts in the Wheels on the Bus.


Here are a few pictures of Suzie Q:

So happy to be with Daddy:)

Trying to stand all by herself! She can get up but has no balance and falls over right away. But it's a step in the right direction!

Coming in March 2011

Baby Sanderson #2!

Goose-egg

Suzie has become quite daring in her climbing efforts lately. This picture shows the unfortunate result of her trying to climb from the couch to the ottoman. Poor baby!

Happy Birthday Suzie!

(Okay, so I've been trying to publish a post for Suzie's birthday ever since last Sunday, but the video option still isn't working right! So I decided to post anyway:)

Last Sunday, our sweet little girl turned two. I just can't believe how big she is! She is more and more fun everyday. We praise God for giving us the past two years with our precious girl. We were reflecting back on two years ago when we weren't sure whether our little girl would survive or be severely disabled. To see her now, her joy and sweetness, we are just so amazed at how much God has blessed us.

Suzie had a great birthday and got a lot of fun new gifts! Here is a little video of her enjoying one of her presents:) You can view the video on You Tube by clicking here, but I'll leave this up in case it starts working.


Her vocabulary grows everyday and she is beginning to speak in sentences now which just amazes us. Here are a few of her most common phrases where she puts a couple words together:
-"Help me Mommy!"
-"I go church"
-"Hold you" or "Hug you"
-"Up please"
-"Chocolate milk"
-"My baby" or "My Daddy"
-"Wreck em' Tech" (thanks to Auntie Debra)
-"Bye bye yucky" (when we throw her diaper away)
Another funny thing is that she has started calling her Daddy, "Kyle." I don't know why, but sometimes she'll be wandering around saying, "Mommy! Kyle!" It's so funny:) I'll try to be better about posting next month:)

Counting and Cookies

Okay, so I am aware that every parent thinks that their child is the most adorable, funny, and brilliant child alive. But I think since we were told that Suzie would be moderately/severely mentally and physically disabled, we are even more prone to gawk at her achievements and think she is the smartest little toddler that ever existed. Especially since she is so far delayed physically, we are just so proud of how she is developing cognitively. We are so thankful for all her progress. So here is a video of our brilliant little Suzie doing one of her new favorite things...counting!



(On a side note, the reason for the blog title is that Suzie's new favorite word is cookie. It is by far her favorite thing to eat, which she is now asking for every time we enter the kitchen or I say it's time to eat. She is also quite fond of the Cookie Monster at Therapy and the ladies at her therapy place have recently dubbed her "The Toy Monster" because she goes through more toys there than any other child:)

Recapping May

The month of May was another wonderful month for the Sanderson Family! Kyle gets to enjoy the next few months of teasing me for no longer being in my 20s as I turned 30 this month and Kyle doesn't join me until October. My parents came out to celebrate with us and we had a great time showing Suzie off. My mom taught her to say "Love you!" when prompted. It's very sweet and you can see how she says it in this little clip:

My parents turned into cowboys while they were here!



We've had some great events with the youth group and look forward to going to summer camp in South Texas in two weeks! We've had a great time getting together with friends and watching our little girl progress. Here's a video of her reading her book. Check out how many words she knows!

We are so thankful for her and so proud of her. The eye doctor hasn't seen much progress her exotropia, so he wanted to give the patches one more month and then we'll consider surgery if there is still no improvement. We pray that the Lord would allow her eyes to correct themselves through the patching, but we trust that He has a perfect plan for our Suzie. Here are a few more pictures!

She loves to stand up on this table and turn on and off the light. She's getting much better at climbing up on things!