Like a prima ballerina

The day before Sophie's birthday we had a big delivery.  We had been planning this for quite some time and the day finally arrived, we had a lift system installed.  Doesn't sound too exciting, right?  Well, normally that would be true.  It is a functional piece of equipment that will hopefully save my back from total blowout in the future.  Which is great, but not really exciting.

 First ride at home, on her birthday night

The exciting part is that we not only got a sling with the lift, we also got a HOPSA dress.  I have talked about Sophie using the HOPSA before, here.  It is the most visited post on my blog, viewed multiple times every single day.  Sophie loves using the HOPSA at her therapy centre and we have longed to have one at home for her for a very long time.  That wish has come true!

 Being raised up and playing soccer

It is an amazingly simple walking sling but it provides so much.  Sophie is able to walk around the room without a big gait trainer.  She is able to pirouette around the room like a prima ballerina.  And she does!  This was not something that I ever expected to see my girl do.  I have to say it was a pretty exciting day.  :)

 

Getting ready to be hooked up by one of her awesome nurses

I have so many ideas of things that we can do together now that she has a HOPSA dress.  She already received a piano play mat for her birthday from her grandma and grandpa.  It has been fun to use, Lucas and Zoe also think it is fun so that is a huge bonus because Sophie loves watching them demonstrate!

Playing the piano and textured materials that make noise and feel funny under foot

I have a plan to build a play table, kind of like a sand and water table.  There are sand and water tables for special needs children available, but they are soooo expensive.  Once again, call something special needs, jack the price up 100x.  So I am going to build my own.  I am just waiting for the right table, hopefully I will find one at a garage sale this summer.  It is all planned out in my head, I just need the pieces!

 Trying some supported sitting

Unfortunately Sophie has been quite sick for over a week now, we had to postpone her birthday party with her friends from school which was really sad to do.  She hasn't been to school and has just been recuperating at home.  Because of this she hasn't tolerated the HOPSA for longer than about 5 minutes at a time, but hopefully by next week when her antibiotics are done she will be back to herself and enjoying playtime more.