Holiday Time!

Alayna sitting in front of the tree. I still don't think she'll get into unwrapping presents yet.

Hum...finger in mouth still. She very much needs that oral input whether it be from her finger, a blanket, a rubber toy, etc.

She fell backwards! Still not able to sit for a long period of time without assistance, but it is getting much better.

Getting ready to go to a family gathering at Grandma & Grandpa's house with lots of cousins!

All smiles! She just doesn't like to make eye contact with the camera.

She fell backwards again and sometimes I wonder if she does it on purpose. She giggles and thinks it is funny! Maybe it provides some kind of fast sensory input of something!?

This is Alayna in her kidkart at her preschool Holiday program. Every student in her class is in a kidkart of some kind and they are non-verbal. Each one had their own aid helping them with the program.

This is Alayna and her classroom teacher, Ms. Renee. We love her! She is so patient and kind.

Santa was there to visit with the children! However, as you can see Miss Alayna wanted NOTHING to do with him or at least while on his knee.

So, we tried it in a different way! She was more content with Santa while she sat in her kidkart. I'm glad I at least got 1 photo of her and Santa without her screaming!

They decorated each of the children's karts. The song they paraded to was called "Hippopotumus for Christmas." So, that is what the purple thing is peeking out of the gift box on her cart! It was so cute. I wondered how they did a program for kids that were non-verbal. They pushed each child up and down the aisles in the gym while the song played. The kids loved it! Most of them are very musical and enjoy those kinds of things. The movement in the karts helped keep most of them content too.

Here is Alayna and a few of her classmates. As you can see, they provided her with her blanket for comfort and her favorite toy book.

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've updated her blog. I think part of the reason is being extremely busy with activities of all kinds, in addition to Facebook. It seems as though that has opened doors for communcation with friends, family, and our 1p36 family.

First, happy holidays to you and your family. We have been blessed this year in many ways. Alayna is healthy and never once had any major illness of any kind. Minus a few runny noses she has had a clean bill of health for the year. We hope that 2011 brings us these continued blessings. Alayna has met her goals set at her school one year ago. We have set new ones for her to achieve, focusing on sitting, transitioning into sitting, chewing munchable foods, and manipulating switches and buttons. She has been adjusting to school well, but to be honest it is a very long day for her. She gets on the bus at 7:45am and gets dropped off at 2:30pm. Hopefully over time, Alayna will do better with managing her "tiredness" and not getting cranky as much as she still does. Alayna exhibits many "baby" behaviors as I like to call them. And naptime is stil a necessity and sometimes it is still 3 times a day!

Sorry for such a short post, but not too much has changed! We just keep chugging along and go about our usual days one at a time! Season's greetings to all of you and may God bless you all in 2011.