Baking cookies

New boots

Elizabeth was recently fitted with a new pair of ankle foot orthotics. About a week before Christmas, Elizabeth's developmental pediatrician diagnosed her with cerebral palsy (spastic diplegia). The reasons for this diagnosis were that Elizabeth is still not able to walk and her feet are pointing out and rolling in. Shortly after Elizabeth was born she had developed a grade II brain hemorrhage and enlarged ventricles which may have caused her CP.
The orthotics that Elizabeth wears appear to be helping her and just lately she has been able to stand unsupported for 1-2 minutes. She continues to go to CME Medek which will be Elizabeth's key to walking independently.
She continues to work hard in Auditory-Verbal therapy, occupational and physical therapy as well.
Along with the many appointments, Elizabeth spends the better part of the day doing exercises and practicing speech. Her mom and dad often try to incorporate all her therapy into play activities.
Elizabeth is a very happy girl, she sings to herself while she plays. She surpised her parents by recognizing several letters of the alphabet (A, B, D, E, L, M, O). She can even say a word that starts with each letter.

After a mild start to winter, there was finally enough snow to go tobogganing. Elizabeth and her best friend Owen had a great time in the snow.

Tobogganing in B-town

Merry Christmas!

Elizabeth and her cousin Madison on Christmas day.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth had a great birthday. She got lots of presents (an easel for drawing pictures and a big wheel bike) and her cake was shaped like Dora's backpack. When she was asked how hold she was, Elizabeth held up 5 finger and said "twooo". Her vocabulary keeps expanding, she's recently added some opposites, "over" and "under". She's starting to use two words together such as "open door".
December has been a rough month for Elizabeth. She was in the hospital twice. First, she was admitted for pneumonia and RSV which is common for preemies. It is evident that her lungs are still very fragile. As result she will be receiving monthly RSV immunization.
During her first visit, she contracted gastroenteritis and needed to go back to McMaster for dehydration.
Since, Elizabeth has been eating very well to make up for her lengthy illness. She even ate broccoli...

This Halloween Elizabeth was an elephant.
It may not be obvious from this photo, but she had a great time.

Once again, time has flown by and Elizabeth is 19 months (corrected). It is hard to believe that she will soon have her 2nd birthday. Elizabeth continues to surprise her parents with what she learns. Some of the new additions to her vocabulary are 'thunder', 'tractor', 'chicken', and 'brum' every time she sees a car driving by.
Elizabeth started crawling a couple of months ago and has perfected her new skill and wanders through the house including on the stairs.
Elizabeth's schedule is still quite busy. She is now seen by a multi-disciplinary team in the area and has just began to see an occupational therapist and a speech pathologist who help her with her eating and sensory difficulties. She will also be seeing a physiotherapist that will help her walk.
Her audio-verbal therapy is going well too and just today, Elizabeth had her visit at Sick-kids hospital to get her ears checked. According to the test results her hearing loss has improved since her last test :-), and her audiologist was amazed with her progress.
Just recently, Elizabeth went to the pumpkin farm and saw some farm animals. When she got to the chickens, she said 'chicken, ummmm' (chicken fingers are her faivourite food).