My sister- the aspiring respiratory ther./nurse/doctor

This is Maya and her patient Lucy. The other day Lucy was coughing and Maya calmly, but quickly ran over to grab the face mask we use to do CPT on Cicily. (CPT is when you take a mask , or cupped hand and just thump on a person's chest to clear their lungs. We frequently thump Cis' chest when she's coughing.) Maya proceeded to pick up Lucy, lay her down and begin CPT. Treatment was successful -Lucy stopped coughing.

I suppose Maya could be aspiring to be a respiratory therapist or, even better, a Mom to her own wonderful child like Cicily. We've already started wondering when we'd feel comfortable leaving Maya and Cicily alone at home. Let's see, Maya can already replace an HME, suction a trach, call 911, run a feeding pump, and perform CPT when necessary. We'll start working on trach changes. ;)

Preschool Girl

First day of school

What is that smile all about?? I could not get a real smile out of her that morning. Maybe she was just too excited about school.

Last week the preschool had a carnival. Cicily got her face painted!

She always wears all of her "daytime gear" to school: hearing aids, glasses, orthotics, and trach and g-tube of course.

Cicily started preschool last month. She goes to a district-run preschool about a mile away from our house. We were pretty sure we only wanted to send her if she could have her own nurse with her in class. However, after meeting all the faculty at this preschool we felt very comfortable sending Cicily without her own nurse. There is a great nurse at school that helps 3 of the children who have trachs. She goes from classroom to classroom to make sure they're safe and don't need suctioning. Cicily's teacher is fabulous!!! She signs to Cicily, sings with the class, is very easy-going and even suctions Cicily's trach! Cicily has physical, occupational, and speech therapy at the school. I love her PT, she's always giving us new suggestions and doing new things to help Cis learn to walk. Cis' OT is one that worked with her when she was one year old, she's been a favorite OT, so we're glad to have her back! And her ST has worked a lot with kids with a hearing loss and I've been impressed with her plans so far.

I went to school with Cis the very first day to make sure everyone was comfortable with the trach and to see it all in action. Everything seemed to go well, so she's been going on her own ever since. She cried when I dropped her off for the first week, but now she goes with no problem. She's always so excited to tell her Daddy about what she did at school when he gets home. We're very glad she likes it and is gaining a lot of new knowledge, social learning, and therapy skills.

Hippotherapy

What is that you may ask -as we did - some kind of therapy employing hippogriffs? It's actually therapy on a horse. Cicily does her hippotherapy with an experienced, caring physical therapist named Rachel and a patient pony named Ruby. I could explain hippotherapy, but this is a short, great explanation already written, (plus I'm really not a hippotherapy expert yet). http://www.americanequestrian.com/hippotherapy.htm It basically just makes sense in an intrinsic sort of way - you sit on a horse that moves and your brain figures out better how to move. It is more expensive than other therapies, because we have to pay the stable costs. We sort of count it as Cicily's "extra-curricular" activity for now, since we can't exactly pay for dance or singing lessons for her, so she gets horse time (which she probably loves better anyway).

Cicily LOVES seeing all the horses and petting Ruby! Enjoy some pictures of Cicily enjoying her Ruby time.

Signing "walk" to let Ruby know to get the fun started.

After each lap around the arena, Cicily gets to climb off Ruby and tickle her nose. It's definitely Cis' favorite part of the whole deal.

Telling Ruby thank you.

Mommy's favorite part of hippotherapy.

I Love You Gramps

Cicily and her Great Grandpa Vern Watkins. Cicily was sitting with Gramps at her birthday party and her nurse Kelly snapped this priceless picture of Cis signing "I love you" to Gramps. Cicily has always been very fond of her Gramps. He always delights Cicily with his realistic bird calls. She smiles huge, makes her delighted sigh, and signs "bird". I don't think I've ever seen Cis sign I love you quite that well either. A truly dear picture to capture a dear relationship.

Three Years!!!

Cicily giving kisses to her new baby. Maya gave her the doll and it is her favorite!!

Opening presents, while getting a breathing treatment and a g-tube feeding - all in a morning's routine - even on her birthday.
Cis' new HUGE horsey Grandma and Grandpa gave her.
Maya and A.J.'s hiding spot from which to jump up and yell, "Surprise Cicily, Happy Birthday!!"
Birthday party- opening presents from cousins.
Dad helping Cicily get some of the booty from the pinata, before it's all spoken for.

Cicily turned 3 years old last week! What an adventurous 3 years it has been! Cicily's packed so much into her 3 little years - too much in some ways and not nearly enough in other ways. I'm not sure how many times I've rejoiced that she was able to be here to celebrate her birthday with us. The night before her birthday as I sang to her before bed, I was crying thankful tears that we get to see her smile on her 3rd birthday.

The morning of Cicily's birthday, she opened presents. She got lots of birthday wishes on her special day. The next day we had a surprise birthday party for her. All her grandparents, and most of her cousins, aunts, and uncles celebrated with us!

Cleaning a Toilet

Cicily was a little quiet and I hadn't seen her for a few minutes, so I asked Maya to go see what she was up to. Maya comes back, laughing and says, "Mom you're going to want to see this, come on." I followed her to the bathroom and this is what I found.

How many Moms get the chance to feel sincere joy at a scene like this??? I love it for a few reasons: 1. She somehow reached all those things and manipulated them appropriately. 2. She knows what to do with a toilet brush and toilet paper. I've never taught her that. We know she's cognitively on target, but I always love seeing proof! 3. She was LOVING it! Loving cleaning a toilet.

My Nurse

This is my very own nurse Kelly. She comes to play with me everyday except for Wednsdays and Saturdays. She also takes my temperature and listens to me breathe. I love playing with Kelly everyday, I wasn't ever nervous around her like I am some new people. I like that she wears glasses like me! Kelly is learning all about me and my little extras, today she even changed my trachy. Hopefully she can go to school with me in October to keep me safe. Thanks for being in my life Kelly!