And so began her love affair with water!

Well things have been going very well in Alexi's world!  She has been a busy, busy girl.  Eating is probably the most significant step forward for her lately, and she sure loves it.  All of the oral therapy we have been doing has certainly been paying off.  We have her Occupational Therapist to thank for that!

Although we are sad to see her go.  Alexi has had her final visit from her original OT as we recently discovered she is normally a supervisor that has been filling in for a few months.  Duty called and she is back supervising and has one of her best employees coming to start seeing Alexi this week.  As much as it saddens us, we have heard great things about our new OT and can't wait to meet her.

Aside from eating, Alexi has been reaching goal after goal on her developmental checklist.  All that hard work is paying off and Alexi is having fun every step of the way.  All of her therapy sessions now start between 7-8am and give us the rest of the day to get work done!  Yay for all of her therapists being able to do that for her(us)!!

Another new experience Alexi has been trying out is swimming!  So she's not quite swimming yet, but she sure does love the water!  We started her out by letting her take a dip in the hot tub.  Don't worry the temp was nice n warm like a bath.  Temperature was the last thing Alexi was thinking about though, she seriously could not get enough of playing in the water.  As a parent, you just can't beat seeing all that pure excitement from your child, it's gotta be one of the best parts of life.

 

She was pretty upset when we made her get out, which made me pretty happy knowing she enjoyed it that much.  If you don't already know, I'm a pool guy by trade so I've always hoped she would love the water like I do.  That's why we got her in the pool the very next day!  The heater had been on for a day but the pool was still a bit chilly.  We weren't sure how she would take to the big difference in temperature.  Yet again, she couldn't have cared less!  She was just so pumped to be in the water.  I "swam" her around the pool and it even looked like she started trying to swim through the water!  It is SO very awesome that she enjoys the water for more reasons than just the family business.

As some of you may know, water is GREAT for rehabbing injuries and exercise.  Water gives resistance, resistance helps build strength.  Building strength helps combat low tone.  One of the physical characteristics of children born with DS is low tone.  So am I glad she likes the water because I am a pool guy myself?  You bet!!  But knowing that every movement in the water is helping her gain more and more muscle development makes it that much better.

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