Stephanie's birthday

I cannot believe that Stephanie is now 6 years old. She has grown so much in the last year and has made some progress. She communicates so much more and can tell or show you what she wants more easily. She is still combining 2 word phrases and even has some 3 word phrases on her own and not always prompted. During the summer she is getting 30 hours of therapy a week and since the 2nd week of summer we have been doing better. There was a little adjustment once school and the routine ended. She will go to k5 in the fall but will do a shorten day and leave after lunch and recess. It will be a big adjustment for her but I think she will do great. She is haing a great summer so far and all the issues she had last summer with noise have been worked through and are no longer a problem. Last year she hated airlines, fireworks, storms, lawn mover, and you name it. It was loud and unexpected she didn't like it. The therapists worked on a noise tolerance program last summer, fall, and, winter and once we got the iPad we got a firework app and this year we have seen fireworks twice so far and they were great! So proud of her. Even a couple months ago when we had my Grandpa's funeral (miss you lots Grandpa) and there was a gun salute and she watched and didn't even flinch.
She has also done great with water/swimming this year. Of course I didn't sign her up for swimming lessons this summer because the last 3 summer have been a waste of money and stressful on all of us. But so far this summer we went to a local wading pool with a little slide and gysers and she loved it. We even went to little man made lake for both the girls' birthdays and she loved it. She was walking all by herself in shoulder deep water. The second time were went she could have stayed much longer but we had all enough sun for the day. She has been so excited about our little pool at home too. She even loves it when in throw her in. She has made such great progress that we are going to try a water park in the Dells next month, thanks to Jeff's parents, as a gift for the girls' birthdays. Stephanie has been back on the swing all summer after fighting it last summer by wanting to go in the easy baby swing. She runs to it everyday and loves being pushed higher and higher. She even goes down the slide, slowly, but at least she goes down it. She is having a great summer and is making progress. At times it seems slow, but I have to keep reminding myself that progress is progress. Happy Birthday Stephanie. Love you so much. Keep up the hard work!!!

Stephanie got a even bigger bed!!