Little Lucia: A New Year full of new things

Little Lady Lucia. Our sweet little lady Lucia has been doing well continuing to work on sitting, some days 1 minute, some days up to 5! I've said the words, "she's a sitter" and can't believe it's true. Just last Friday when I asked her school teacher how her sitting had gone the last few days she too confirmed and said, "she's a sitter". Really really something amazing to hear.

lu in a new style-borrowing her cousin Charley's bikini-she was so happy!

Speaking of school, the last few weeks Lu and I have been looking into where she will attend kindergarten next year. We have had such a wonderful experience at her current school, her pre-school at Palmer Elementary- just 4 minutes from our house, but they do not have a program for K-5 that will "support Lucia's needs" so we have to move to a program that will...it seems to be a bummer. I wish I could walk her right down the street to our neighborhood school-Carson, with the rest of our neighbors, and someday with Scout. But Carson is not on the list of schools for kids like Lu. Currently at Palmer, Lucia is with typical kids and a few special kids, up to 12 kids with 1 teacher and 2 assistants-all of which we love. She also has several therapists throughout the week who work one on one with Lu. Starting next year and going forward she will be in a all special needs class-not saying it's a bad thing but it's really nice to see all the kids interact-typical and non-typical, and have her close to our house. Fortunately I did find one school we like so far - 20 minutes away. We'll continue to visit all schools with a MI (multi-intensive classroom) or MI-S (multi-intensive severe classroom) and hopefully find the best place for our girl. There is more to it than just finding a place WE like but this is how LU and I are going to go about it. More to come..

Lu and her buddy Alexander at pre-school

We also just finished an addition to our house, a master bath with a roll-in shower for Lu! Roll- in meaning a shower wheelchair can roll right in, there is no curb from bathroom floor to shower floor, the shower is also big enough for a wheelchair and we have a hand shower to wash our bird. We also now have a tub big enough for me and both my girls! It's a dream bath come true! In time we'll want to figure out how to get Lucia in and out of the tub with a lift of some sort but we're getting there!

working on window treatments too :)

We also have a wheelchair accessible van making it's way into our family. It is being modified in Atlanta now and should be heading to Denver within the next week or so. I never thought i would be so excited about a mini-van!

Friday night my phone rang and it was Lu's PT, Grace, asking if we had plans the next day- Saturday..I knew she had something up her sleeve and I said we could definitely get together. She shared she had something to give Lucia. Grace brought the best gift, a big light table/desk, the most amazing light table! Not only was the table FREE as a couple in her neighborhood was just giving it away, but it is the perfect height for Lu to use in her stander or gait trainer, it tilts, and Lu loves it!!!!! Listening to the pure joy and excitement in Grace's voice tell me about it was so cool. That feeling of finding someone special a gift and you can't wait to give it...that is what I heard. We put Lu in front of it and she was more focused on that table for over an hour than I have EVER seen her! It's so so awesome. Had we purchased one from a special needs magazine it would have been close $600 or much higher and not even be the right height! We'll probably spruce this one up in time but receiving this was like Christmas all over again. Thank you Grace Jory! What a gift you are and is this light table! Grace shared the pictures w the couple who gave away the table and it brought them to tears- something taking up space in their closet now is a little girls favorite toy.

Seeing our Lucia light up with interest, engage in something is simply amazing.
A new strong sitter, a new school for our bird in the fall, a new bird bath, a new bird van and the best bird table...mostly wonderful,exciting new things for our family in this new year.
My only real complaint is the usual..it's going by too fast.