What Bogomila's been up to

The brain is tired tonight, and once again, the things I really want to post aren't going to come out, but in the meantime, here are some videos of Bogomila's progress with her therapy and her goal of someday walking! We still are holding all future predictions loosely, but what our daughter has going for her is some serious determination.

Bogomila and I walk together almost every single day at home. Our usual route is around the house, then she rests in a chair while I run in and attend to other small people (usually Gloria is toddling alongside of us!) Then I'm back out and we get another lap around before heading inside. We do this by having me walk with my forearms under her armpits to give her the balance she needs as well as taking some of her body weight. As she's getting both faster and stronger with this, I asked her therapist to show me how to help her walk with a belt rather than my arms under her - she has to do more of both the balancing and the weight bearing that way, but I've still got a very secure way to keep her safe. This is the result!



This past Tuesday at the center I only got to watch the end of her session, but was delighted with what they had to show me. Look at her standing up using the wall all by herself! Again, Lori's got the belt, but that's a safety precaution. Bogomila's doing the work of standing by herself!



And then she got to push me in her wheelchair...



I'll also mention that I've read your comments to her on past posts about her therapy work, and she sure loves hearing the words of praise! She'll downplay what she's doing when we talk about it at home, or share it with Dad, but I think she's pretty proud about what she is learning to do...although it's a whole lot slower progress than I think she had hoped for! It's been delightful to us, though, to see how her progress so far continues to be visibly noticeable!

And, oh - an anecdote from the other day. When we first got her braces (skobees in Bulgarian), she did NOT like them. They made her feel like a robot (not sure if she meant how they felt or how they moved, or how she thought she looked), and they hurt. She would wear them for a few minutes at each therapy session, under duress, and that was it. Lori would teasingly sing to her about her skobees (Lori can make a song for anything!) and I could hear Bogomila's cries of protest from the other side of the therapy center! We finally got to the point where she agreed to wear them for 20 minutes or so once or twice during the week when she was just sitting in her chair.

And then, almost like a switch, she realized that the brace, especially on the right leg, really makes a difference in her alignment, and she will willingly wear that right brace whenever we go out walking! I realized how fully that switch was in her mind one day last week when we arrived at the therapy center, and I realized, oh! I'd forgotten the skobee bag at home.

"Oh, yay!" was Bogomila's response, followed immediately by, "Oh, no!!"

She's realized that they're a good thing, and she much prefers walking with that right brace on now.