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!

Exotropia

Suzie had a follow up appointment with the eye doctor last Tuesday. We felt like the few days preceding the appointment, her eyes had gotten a little worse. The eye doctor immediately saw the issue, diagnosing Suzie with exotropia. Most likely a result from her cerebral palsy, her eyes tend to drift outward, the opposite of cross-eyed. He noticed it in both eyes, although the right eye is stronger than the left one. So he recommended we start patching her eyes for two hours a day. We patch the right eye for two days and then the left eye for one day, and repeat for the next three weeks until we see him again. I was a little skeptical that Suzie would even tolerate the patch, but she does so well! She cries when I pull it out, and will rub it sporadically, but she leaves it on and just gets caught up in playing. I'm so proud of her! I think part of it is that she really doesn't like the way it feels when we pull it off, so she's not in a hurry to remove it herself. I feel like her eyes are already getting better, although she still struggles the most when she is tired. But I am hopeful that this will resolve the issue and she might not need surgery. Here are a couple of pictures and a short video of our little pirate!





The day before her eye appointment we went to meet her new neurosurgeon in Midland. He was very personable (who knew a brain surgeon could be sociable!) and recommended we come back every six months until she is five years old. If I am tempted to be discouraged about Suzie's eyes and how she has another possible surgery looming in her future, I just need to remember many of the children I saw come in and out of the neurosurgeon's office. Many of them in wheelchairs and/or unable to speak or do anything for themselves. God has been SO abundantly merciful to our little girl and to us and we are extremely grateful for how well she is doing. Praise the Lord!