Dreaming of Maria

So a couple of weeks ago, I dreamed that Maria was sitting on the floor playing with Fidel Castro. I have no idea where that came from.

Of course, that's not as wierd as the dream I had a few months ago that I was holding her and the top of her skull was gone. Her head was full of water and I was trying not to let her squirm too much so the water wouldn't spill.

But the real reason I'm posting is to let everyone know that there are new pictures and a new video on the website.

Married in Vegas, Baby!

Well, we finally did it. Maria's mom and dad got married. In Vegas. In a drive-through. In a limo. Maria, Manolis, and I drove over last weekend. My sis and brother-in-law came from California, my brother flew in on Saturday. Manolis' friends were all either working or half a world away. We got married in the early afternoon at the "famous" Little White Wedding Chapel; the minister was about 45 min late -- kind of ruins the idea of a drive-through, but anyway... It was fun.

After the short, sweet ceremony, we had delicious desserts from the Lenotre at the Paris Hotel/Casino (our "wedding cake"), then dinner (our "reception") at the Mon Ami Gabi, also at the Paris. No muss, no fuss, no planning, no stress. I didn't invite my folks (or anyone else besides Uncle Andy, Auntie Rose, or Uncle Paul) and I get the impression they're not amused. Think of the money they saved by not having to throw me a wedding...

We got a super cool 3D image of Manolis, Maria, and I in a block of "crystal" from Cashman Crystal at the Luxor. We'll try to take a picture and put it on Maria's website.

Maria's doing great. Eating, drinking, standing in the stander. Her ankles are at 90 degree angles more often, she can sorta sit up propped with pillows, she's rolling from back to tummy maybe almost once a day -- not too consistently but more than before! The therapists remain happy with her progress. We remain optomistic.

Doing Well

Maria's not quite as enthusiastic about the stander, but it's still going well. The problem according to the therapist is that it is very easy to have her just a little bit out of alignment and then she's really uncomfortable. So it's a matter of trying to read her subtle signs and tweaking on strap placement and tightness and so on. However, her speech therapist says she can already see changes in how she holds her shoulders and neck, and Maria will often lay there with ankles bent instead of having her toes pointed so it's clearly helping already.

Cathy got Maria this little papasan chair that also seems to have really helped her posture and alignment. However since she's started using the stander, Maria keeps trying to get out of the chair like she's trying to stand up! We've tried to get it on video but don't have any that really capture the event.

She is so close to sitting up on her own...but we've been saying that for weeks. But she's definitely even closer than before. She has also rolled over from back to belly unassisted a couple of times but certainly can't do that consistently. But, again, is very, very close.

As I write this, Maria is off to Vegas, baby. Cathy and Manolis are getting married tomorrow in a terribly romantic quickie drive-through ceremony. Rosanne and Paul are heading out today for the whole weekend, and I'm flying out just for the day tomorrow.

I know I keep saying this, but pictures will be posted soon.

First time in the stander

The vision therapist brought over a loaner stander on Monday and the PT tried her in it for her first time. Maria loved it! We strapped her in on her back then brought her up to about a 60-70 degree angle and she got this intense look of concentration on her face. The PT has a toy piano, and Maria was going nuts on it. Since she doesn't have to focus so much on keeping herself upright, she can concentrate more on manipulating things. Maria kept getting so excited about everything. We kept her in it about 30 minutes then let her out. I tried it again with Cathy that night and Maria wasn't quite as enthusiastic, but I think I may have had the straps wrong so it was uncomfortable. The nanny has worked with kids in standers before so should do well with it. We'll try her in it 1-2 times a day for 20-30 minutes, then slowly increase the amount as she learns to tolerate it. We have pictures which I hope to put up this weekend.