Hi Everyone,

Maddie turned two in August and that means she’s been home from rehab for a year now!  Although it’s hard to compare her condition to her baseline prior to brain surgery, we are extremely thankful for all the progress she’s made since leaving rehab last summer.  We will take it a day at a time knowing any progress is a blessing.

A quick medical update before getting into the pictures: Maddie had appointments with her electro-physiology cardiologist (for her pacemaker) as well as her general cardiologist within the past few weeks and everything is stable and as expected from her heart standpoint.  In fact the tiny leak in the patch repair for her VSD has closed up!  It’s great knowing that at least what started this entire saga is progressing well.  Praise the Lord!

The pictures below are from her actual birthday.

Later that weekend, we held a two-ti frutti themed family birthday celebration for Maddie. Abby and Maddie even wore matching watermelon shirts!

She’s not strong enough yet to open the presents, but her sister, Abby, was an enthusiastic volunteer to help out.  Maddie did seem interested in ripping the discarded wrapping paper since it makes a crinkling sound.  But since she wasn’t allowed to eat it, she lost interest quickly.

Recently, Maddie has been turning more spontaneously to her left on her own.  She still prefers her right side, as has been the case since her surgery but she’s starting to play with toys on the other side and really alerting to them.  We’re not sure whether it’s hearing or vision but it’s still nice to see that toys are now catching her attention!  As this progresses, we’ll hopefully be able to use that as motivation during physical therapy (e.g., crawling towards a toy, etc)

We’re continuing to encourage Maddie’s use of vision in positions other than laying down and she’s been doing well!  See below for a picture of her in her stander looking at a lighted slinky.

In occupational therapy, Maddie’s been introduced to the Snoezelen, a multi-sensory environment with various parts that light up and change colors, classical music in the background, and other therapeutic tools.  We focused on using the parts that light up and Maddie would notice when the colors changed and smile (see pictures below).

In general, Maddie has been enjoying occupational therapy recently with lots of smiles (generally spurred by vision!)

With the nice weather recently and Maddie’s condition improving, we’ve been taking the girls out for walks and other adventures.  Below is a picture of Maddie happily responding to Abby’s voice in her stroller.

The next time we were trying to take them out, Maddie fell asleep right beforehand, so we just let her sleep in the stroller.  She was *out*… even when Abby popped in to take a picture!

A few weekends ago, we went Asian pear/apple picking and on the ride there, Abby decided to sleep in Maddie’s lap on a pillow.  At first, Maddie kept pushing Abby’s hand off the pillow, but then I caught these sweet moments

Maddie’s also showing signs of recognizing people.  She’ll squirm when unfamiliar people hold her (ie. uncle Jerry from church) but will sit calmly when one of us holds her.  She also seems to love and in fact, prefer, being fed by Abby, as can be seen by the video here

 

We can’t believe it’s already been a year since Maddie came home from all her surgeries and rehab.  Looking back, her progress has been slow but methodical and most importantly, steady.  God has a plan and it is being revealed to us every day as we see Maddie improving over the past year.  Thank you all of your continued thoughts and prayers, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us!