She's 7

This post is a bit late as things are a bit busy here ( new baby, Christmas, Elizabeth home from school and getting all the gifts for babies in the NICU have kept me hopping) but somewhere in the madness Elizabeth turned 7 years old. It is pretty crazy as I still can remember her being born and being so tiny. Fast forward to 7 and she is quick witted, funny, a bit sassy and now great big sister. She is growing like a weed and at some point tipped the scales at 50lbs which now I am thinking the opposite from how to fatten her up but now how to maintain her weight to avoid her gaining too much. I think it will only be a short while before she is bigger than me.

She is doing so well at school this is such a better year; she loves science, religion and math. My worries of her finding math difficult are laid to rest as she completing small addition problems now and is counting by 2's, 10's etc. She is reading small chapter books and rarely has problems reading difficult words, her favorite books are Junie B Jones and of course any Dino book.

I can't say she has a true friend yet but she has lots of friends who she does play with. Social skills continue to be a challenge but the support needed is less now. She has started Sparkes and I hope that will be another place where she can socialize and meet other girls.

Her walking is not as good as it used to be; a huge growth spurt, not going to weekly PT as I was on bedrest and me not being able to do as many physical activities with her during my pregnancy I think has contributed to her falling more and tiring out. Now that I am on my feet we are back to walking and getting out.

In swimming class she is now jumping in the deep end and swimming back to the wall on her own with no floaties (I couldn'twatch when I was pregnant as I would have contractions) so that is amazing. I think by the summer she should not need her floaties.

We are working on her being more independent at home as I cannot always help her now and I think there are things she should be more active in; with lots of prompting she was able to put her snowsuit on and before her new AFO's could put on her smaller pair, in the morning she now gets dressed on her own, brushes her teeth and comes down for breakfast with less prompts and now even holds her brother while I gets dressed.

We are pretty proud of her and her determination is noticed by everyone who meets her.