Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Let's Go To The Race!

On Saturday May 16, 2009, we gathered with 45,000+ people at the Columbus Race for the Cure to celebrate breast cancer survivors and to remember those that have lost their battle. In particular, we walked in celebration of Owen and Clara's Grammy, Great Grandma Katie, and Great Aunt Tracy.

While the weather radar did not look promising when we left the house that morning, the showers broke up before reaching Columbus and we only felt a few minor sprinkles during the early part of the walk. Due to the size of the crowd and the size of the stroller, we decided not to try to fight through the crowds and left shortly after completion of our 1 mile family fun walk.

The fluorescent pink wigs in the pictures below were worn in memory of a local news anchorwoman who passed away in 2008 after a recurrence of breast cancer.

Pre-race picture time while waiting for the 5-k walkers to pass the starting line.

A view of the walkers at the halfway point of our 1-mile family fun walk.

The finish line!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

On the Go!

For the past couple of months, Clara has been getting into four point position (hands and knees) with an apparent desire to be more mobile. Up to that point, her independent mobility had been limited to rolling with a little bit of squirming.

During her early experiments with four point, she would rock back and forth a bit before tiring and plopping on her belly. In March she started to try to move her legs forward, but would not move her arms in coordination. With one foot pulled forward under her bottom, the resulting shift in her center of gravity made it easy for her to transition to a sitting position. So, her method of mobility transitioned from rolling to roll, sit, flop, and repeat. Needless to say, this process is not a very efficient way to get to a desired toy.

Since March Clara relied heavily on the roll, sit, flop method of mobility, but would occasionally manage to sneak in one or two actual crawls before flopping on her belly. Each visit to the PT and OT began with the question "Is she crawling yet?". Within the last week Clara seems to have put all of the pieces of the puzzle together and is now putting several crawls together on a regular basis. Clara's OT and PT were very excited when she demonstrated her crawling prowess for them this morning.

For now, she needs to be motivated by something she desires that is out of her reach, such as any toy that Owen is using. Before we know it she'll be across the room in the blink of an eye. If she is anything like her brother, it won't be long before she is upright and cruising the furniture.