January 21, 2009

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Josie screamed bloody murder getting undressed and in the tub again tonight. She's so afraid of getting her right hand and arm wet and she didn't want her hand splint taken off for her bath. The hand splint represents security right now. It took her a good 15 minutes to settle down in the tub. She refused to put her right arm in the water but I did lather her up despite the crying. You would have thought we were hurting her by her crying and yelling. It reminded me of when she first came to us in China and she hated her baths and I used to have to get in the tub with her.



It's one step forward and two steps back right now with Josie. Her left hand is definitely the dominant hand now. She's still not wanting to use her right hand and she hasn't moved (bent, flexed..etc) her new thumb at all. She's so resilient, so I know this is only time limited and we are continuing to find new activities that force her to try and use both hands.

Despite all my concerns or complaints, she's amazing. She's now counting. Emma worked on counting and numbers with her over Christmas break. Josie's so eager to count objects and her favorite books right now are the ones that are counting ones. What a smarty pants. If the teaching market ever improves in Michigan, I'd love to encourage Emma go into Education. She's such a natural teacher. I need to videotape Josie and Emma counting. It's so cute to watch.

On a completely different subject, we decided to have a little salsa music and frozen drinks with our dinner this evening.





As much as I love winter, the idea of warm weather sounds very appealing right now. Our salsa music and frozen drinks were a great temporary escape. Anyone else sick of wet boots, misplaced mittens and soggy snow pants?
at

11 comments:

  1. JillJanuary 21, 2009 at 11:48 PM

    Bless her little heart! I will say extra prayers for her......
    That hand still looks kind of sore though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wife of the Pres.January 22, 2009 at 8:02 AM

    Sorry Kim about the steps back! You said it though … resilient! She'll get there. In the meantime, enjoy the frozen drinks!!!

    Sick of C-O-L-D! We don't have wet boots or soggy mittens, but I am sick of the cold! This has been the coldest for us in years! We have not been outside in weeks. We just have cold and no snow. We had several days in the single digits for the high and that is RARE down here. Come on S-P-R-I-N-G!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. redmaryjanesJanuary 22, 2009 at 9:26 AM

    Yes, it's only January and I AM OVER IT!!
    Too much snow and too much cold for sure.

    Poor little Josie. It will get better with time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Buffi YoungJanuary 22, 2009 at 9:36 AM

    Well...I would be over the cold if we could get ONE GOOD DAY of snow! :( Not sure if that's going to happen this year...but we have had snow as late as April around here! So you never know!!

    I know transitioning back to using the right hand is SO hard for Josie. Bless her little heart!! It will come back a little at a time...I just KNOW IT!!! Hang in there!!! I hope today is a better day!
    Love ya,
    Buffi

    ReplyDelete
  5. NicoleJanuary 22, 2009 at 10:02 AM

    Sorry about the bathtime blues... Jacob used to scream like that, and he didn't have any reason to! We're actually doing showers with Katelyn. She enjoys them more than baths, we waste less water, and it's much faster.

    By the way... it's cold down here too. We got down to 27 last night... high yesterday was in the low 50s. Pretty chilly for Florida (I know, not near as cold as by you). I even had to scrape my windshield this morning!!! We got rid of our ice scrapers when we moved down here... fun!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Truly BlessedJanuary 22, 2009 at 10:29 AM

    I am SO totally over winter -- especially this bone-chilling cold.

    Poor sweet girl, it must be so confusing to her: keep your hand dry at all costs and don't use it to

    let's get your hand wet and try to use it! I'd be confused, too!

    Good job on the counting. I hope she'll count for use on Saturday. We are SO looking forward to that fun event with you and Kimberley's family!

    In case you're interested, Party City has some fun CNY stuff, including "Christmas lights" with red plastic lanterns on them. Very fun, very cute. I bought a bunch of paper lanters, dragons, the lights, etc. and we've had fun decorating the house. Gotta go buy a big tub to keep my CNY stuff in now -- right next to the Christmas & Easter things in the storage room.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Truly BlessedJanuary 22, 2009 at 10:34 AM

    Here's the Party City link, if you're interested:

    http://www.partycity.com/cgi-bin/parties/show.cgi?parties=Chinese%20New%20Year

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nik's KnacksJanuary 22, 2009 at 11:34 AM

    Poor little Josie. I can't blame her a bit, though. It's got to be so scary and confusing for her to have gotten used to the cast, now getting used to using her hand. It will only be temporary, she'll get the hang of it. She is a very smart little girl.
    Salsa music and frozen drinks sound so good right now....sunshine, flip flops, warmth....ahhhh.
    This CAN'T last much longer....ha ha ha

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mike and BarbJanuary 23, 2009 at 9:26 AM

    Oh, Kim, that has got to be hard to watch! I hope that Josie will get over her fears again quickly!
    What a great big sister she has!!
    Barb

    ReplyDelete
  10. ShannaJanuary 23, 2009 at 1:48 PM

    Poor darling. Her sweet face looks so sad in the bath.

    I am so sick of the cold. No snow for us, but the wind and cold are making me long for spring! I can't imagine what it would be like having to deal with snow every day! yuck!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Steffie B.January 23, 2009 at 7:21 PM

    totally sick of this weather.....hope Miss Josie get her groove back! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for following our adventures. I always enjoy reading your comments. Happy crafting! Happy thrifting! PS. Ignore that "robot" verification. You can ignore/skip that step since I can't seem to remove it from blogger.