New apps for fun cause and effect

Sophie has been doing a great job of using her eyes and her hands lately.  She is focusing very intently when given something new to play with and I am finding that she has been having good control with her hands when aiming for something to touch. 

 

I have recently downloaded some new apps for her because it had been ages since I had given her any new apps to play with!  She is really loving most of them.  Afew of them...

Peek A Boo Sesame Street
Finger Bells
Splish Splash Inn HD
Black & White High Contrast by Fischer Price
Sing with the Wiggles

Finding cause and effect apps that aren't too baby but keep her attention is still a struggle.  I love when she is able to work an app all on her own so that Sophie can have the satisfaction of doing it all by herself.

I am going to be on the hunt for some more apps that will work well for her, hopefully some fun Christmas apps too.  We have ordered an Ipad stand that fingers crossed will hold the Ipad up for her at the right angle too.  It will make it nicer for Sophie to use the Ipad in her wheelchair if I don't have to hold the Ipad all the time.  We have never had a stand so this will be all new territory.

Singing in the choir

For the last two years Sophie has been a part of the primary choir at school.  She goes to choir practice every week and thoroughly enjoys hearing all of her friends singing around her.

On Remembrance Day this year the choirs performed at the assembly for the whole school.  Sophie did a beautiful job and her EA made the assembly a joy for Sophie.  Sophie helped keep the beat with the help of her EA by shaking a maraca type shaker while her friends sang.  She watched out over the crowd and I could tell that she was very proud of herself and was having a grand time.

Sophie being in the choir was not something that I was sure would ever happen and even though she can't sing like the rest of us, she was certainly an important part of the assembly right along side all of her friends and peers.  It was definitely a proud mommy moment.

Looking for a new ride

Last week we had a much anticipated appointment at the seating clinic.  Sophie has basically grown out of her paediatric stroller that she has had since she was 2 1/2 years old.  It has been an awesome wheelchair and we still use it whenever we are out and about in place of her wheelchair.  Her newer wheelchair is too heavy for me to get in and out of the car on a daily basis so it stays at school during the week.  So since we don't have the immediate budget to get an adapted wheelchair van we need to get Sophie a transport chair.  I am hoping it comes in at under $5000, we shall see. Ugh.

The reason it gets so pricey is that Sophie needs so much support.  I never realize it until she is out of her own wheelchair and she is just a floppy rag doll that loves to wiggle and arch and kick.  I had really hoped that the first chair we tried would be the one.  It looks so comfy and it is a more base type model, which also means it is less expensive.  It doesn't have tilt and it only has a fixed recline so we think it is out.  She just can't handle the simple positioning.

The next one we tried wasn't a whole lot better, she was all over the place.  It does have tilt and recline which helps a lot but not enough on its own.  We had so many belts and straps on her it would take me 10 minutes just to get her strapped in.  She was getting caught on the arm rests and banging her head on the frame.  You can see in the photo below she has a chest harness, soft laterals with chest strap, three point seatbelt, tilt and contoured seat and she was still falling out.  We ended up adding leg straps too.  I was really starting to worry that this type of seat just isn't supportive enough for my girl.  So they added in a contoured type seat to a third chair and fixed laterals and all the bells and whistles and she did much better.  So hopefully we will be able to piece together a chair for her that will work well and be comfy.

 

She was so good trying out all these chairs, the appointment was over two hours long.  She never complained and was quite happy checking everything out.  Hopefully we will have a new ride for my girl soon.