Sorry it has been so long since I have updated!! Also new pictures are in order...
Phoenix is doing AMAZING.
As in. Super amazing.
She met her 6 month physical therapy goals in TWO WEEKS!! She is rolling front to back and back again, both sides. She is beginning to "give her left hand a chance to play", but if it doesn't do what she wants fast enough she shoves it out of the way and grabs whatever she wants with the right hand. She is reaching for things with her left hand now and is seeing 100% (no doubt in my mind on that one).
She is mentally fully developed for a baby her age, in fact perhaps slightly advanced... :D Or so this proud mama thinks...
She has started a new habit of shrieking as high pitched as she can to get attention, and fake coughing. She also is becoming upset with being put in her carrier and fusses at the straps for a while and looks at us like "Oi! Get me out of here why am I strapped down??!"I put her back in bed last night after the "midnight" feeding. She was asleep. I came back in to the sound of a lot of shrieking and find her sideways on the bed grabbing the crib bumper and trying to eat it as hard as she could...she was shrieking because it wouldn't get all the way to her mouth. How did she go from sleeping to wide awake and frustrated in about 2.5 seconds? I have no idea.
She is not crawling yet but she is scooting somehow...I'm not really sure how...all I know is she will be put on her play blanket, we look away, and next thing we know she is over by the door on her tummy attempting to escape into the wild to play with the ducks.
She loves the ducks that live by our house. She will sit and stare at them for almost 30 minutes without even starting to get bored :) Phoenix is ALMOST sitting on her own! So close! So close!
She has started to play "drop the block into the bucket", but is still upset once they are in there because she has a hard time getting them out.
Legally things are still battling out. Allen still is not able to spend nights at the house but God has provided him a place to stay every single night he has had to be away. My lawyer is trying to get us to put her in daycare during the day so that just I could get custody of Phoenix, and then maybe Allen could stay the night and I would be the supervisor for when he is home.
Not excited about daycare. The therapist tell us again and again that the only reason she is progressing so rapidly is because she has constant therapy all day long from Allen and Sarah. A daycare will NOT provide that. Also Phoenix has become very aware of when we are not home. She sort of shuts down and acts very subdued and quiet. Even this morning I had to leave before she woke up for an appointment and I came back home for a minute before going to pick Allen up from where he is staying and the moment I walked in the door she was completely lit up :) She especially loves Allen. She just watches him and laughs at him at all times. He actually has been gone from bed time for so long that she can't even go to sleep around him because she just wants to play, play, play!
And let me be honest - we were kept from keeping our child in our home for months. We still have to be supervised in all of our contact with her - granted it is by a wonderful, godly woman who loves us all very much, but it is still supervision at all times. Every single fiber in my being rejects putting Phoenix in a day care right now. Maybe when she is old enough to talk and tell us what she thinks of the daycare providers and the other children. But right now, with all of the therapy she needs and the attitude change when Allen or I are not present, I cannot in good conscience put her in a day care. If Allen can stay with her, there is no need for a daycare!! But the court system does not see it that way. I know legally it would speed things up, but I will not "speed things up" and "save money" at the price of my child's spirit being crushed everyday that she would spend away from us again.
Please pray for us on that front. Sarah is weary of being away from her family and needs a reprieve, but will not take it at the expense of putting Phoenix back in foster care. But I feel at this point daycare would be nearly the same as foster care because I work 9 hours a day which would leave us both (after the classes on parenting we now have to take) about 2 hours with her a day.
Unacceptable at this point and time.
God has a plan, and we are just waiting and watching and we know He will show us in due time. But the waiting...arg...not easy...
We love you all very much! And now I will post some pictures :) These are the same ones from Facebook so for those of you who have already seen them, I apologize for the re-run :)
- Shell, Allen and Phoenix Lehmann
First family photo in a supery long time!
Mom...I'm pretty bored can we go inside?
Brush my hair! Do it! Aaaahhh....yup, that's right. After this I expect a full pedicure and manicure and I am going to need you to exfoliate my skin as well.
Daddy! To the store! Chop chop! I will be dictating the shopping today!
Do you think this food is getting to my mouth fast enough? Me neither. So I made a grab for the jar!! But once again, I was foiled...gar...one of these days I will show them all!!
I can walk by myself, gosh mom!!
Physical therapy is super hard work guys!
These days I'm a pretty good swimmer. I plan to take on the olympics soon, seeing as my strokes are getting to the advanced level at such a rapid pace. Michael Phelps came by the other day and said I have a good shot at the gold in a couple years.
Silence! It is yoga time...
