Aubrey's Room Makeover has Started

So a while back I posted an entry called Heart Warming Phone Call.

Basically - Angie VonDollen, who owns her own design business called Bleak to Chic - volunteered her time and talents to give Aubrey's room a makeover.

Well - she started the project this Sunday - she was at our house from 12:00 to 7:00 painting, putting up a window treatments, and hand painting flowers on the accent wall. She's not done yet - as she's going to add some more hand painting, Aubrey's Name, pictures, and the Angelman Saying - "Though I may not talk, I have much to say!" into the design. But - here's a sneak peak at what its looking like so far - IT'S AWESOME!

She is such a gracious person and we are so thankful for her time and efforts!

If anyone in Omaha area needs an interior designer, a home stager, or consulting on any designs - please check out her business http://www.bleak2chic.com/index.htm

Molly Update

So much of my time on this blog is spent giving updates on Aubrey, that I felt Molly should get her own post!! She will turn one on May 7th - - I can't believe how fast time flies!

She's crawling, cruising, and just last week took 14 steps un-assisted!!! She still prefers to crawl around -but she's up standing and testing her walking abilities more and more each day!

She also has been experimenting with her sounds. She'll jabber to herself -and try and repeat what you say to her. She will say mama, ball, uh oh, and said no at daycare last week.

Here are some pictures of her lately - I'll try and post a video of her walking as soon as I can!

UNO Dance Team Finishes 4th in the Nation!

In my "free" time I also coach the University of Nebraska-Omaha Dance Team.
On April 9th, the team placed 4th at the NDA Collegiate Dance Championships in Daytona Beach, FL. Here are some pictures of the trip:

One of the team Dinners:


Nina on the beach:



Ashley, Alex and Maddie:


Being Silly:

Coach Amy, Only Senior Emily, and me

The team with the 4th place trophy:

Great Weekend - Wedding and Met another Angel

This was a great weekend.

It started with my sister's wedding in Beresford, SD. It was so fun to see all my family and old friends and even better to see my little sister marry the man of her dreams.

CONGRATS to Mara and Nate Seier!!

We then capped off the perfect weekend by meeting another family with a child with Angelman Syndrome.

We had the pleasure of meeting Andria and Bart and their adorable angel - Kamaray (Kammy they call her). Kammy is just 2 months younger than Aubrey, however they just learned about her diagnosis about a month ago.

Andria found me on Facebook. I know her younger sister because she danced for USD. When they were all home for Easter her sister told her about me and Aubrey and encouraged her to send me a note! She did - and I called and talked to her for about 2 hours last weekend. WHAT A SMALL WORLD! For AS to be SO rare and have this connection through dance - CRAZY!

Anyway - they live in South Sioux City - so we thought it would be perfect for us to meet them on our way back from the wedding - and it was!

It was wonderful seeing Kamaray and hearing their tips, tricks, and diagnosis story. Kamaray - is very calm and steady - we were so impressed with this!!! She has just recently taken 3 unassisted steps = = so she is officially a ROCK STAR in our eyes!! But everything is so relative - and each child has their own strengths. They were so impressed with Aubrey's ability to feed herself and her willingness to eat any food and texture. Hopefully they will be good influences on each other - - Kamaray can get Aubrey up an walking and Aubrey can help her with her food aversions!!!

It was also so surreal to see how much they look alike. Kammy and Aubrey look more like sisters than Aubrey and Molly - CRAZY! I'm so mad that I didn't take pictures!! But I know we'll be getting together again some time so I'll take pictures next time!

I hope we helped them some with dealing with the new diagnosis. A year ago - we were them - just getting the news and all the sadness, devastation, and fear that comes along with the diagnosis. Its just good to meet other people that can relate - and that we can have as an additional support system.

Well - that's all for now!

Aubrey Started Speech Therapy!

So after 11 months of being on a wait list Aubrey finally started the Scottish Rite Augmentative Communication Preschool program held at the Munroe-Myer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She started last week - and two weeks into it we are so encouraged!

Here she is working with one of the instructors during their interactive book reading section.

The sessions are each Friday morning from 9:00 - 10:30 am. They are structured as a mini-preschool.

They....

* Review the schedule for the day
* Have a Short Lesson

* Have Song Time

* Interactive Book Reading

* Snack Time

* Goodbye Song

There are up to 5 students at a time with 3 therapists. The therapists are very engaging and use ALL forms of communication to work with the children. For instance, they'll be talking energetically while doing corresponding sign language. At the same time - they will be presenting picture choices to the children and for Aubrey - they even have a voice output device for her to hit. She's really new at this - and so it'll take time for her to get the cause and effect of it - but I'm so glad that we're starting this basic form of communication now while she's still so young!

One of my favorite parts they did was the Interactive Book Reading.

It was really neat to see. For the past 2 weeks they have been reading a "Making Vegetable Soup" book.

It's so neat how they put it together. They talk through the picture book and then each page - they bring out a more life-like toy for the children to do an activity with that corresponds to the story.

1st page: Planting and Tending the garden

So they bring out a watering can with actually water a toy plant. They also use toy gardening tools during this section.

2nd page:Picking the garden

They search for the plastic vegetables in a bucket of toy dirt

3rd page: Preparing the Vegetables
Clean the vegetables with a scrubber and "cut" them with a toy knife

4th page: Making the Soup

They then put the cut up vegetables in a big pot and take turns stirring with a big spoon.

I'm probably not explaining it very well - but it's really neat to see them at work. It's the first book Aubrey's ever been engaged in!

The other thing that has been so encouraging is that we've made some great connections with the other parents and kids already.

As I mentioned earlier - there are 5 kids in the classroom including Aubrey. The other 4 all have Down Syndrome. They are all awesome and very motivating! They are all walking, and some are speaking a few words already. All of them are pointing, clapping, and have some sign language. At the moment - Aubrey cannot do any of these things - but with practice and encouragement we are hoping she'll progress on her own time. Due to the Angelman Syndrome diagnosis - we know that she will likely never talk - but just to see those kiddos "understand" and respond is SO NEAT!

Another neat thing (I've used NEAT alot in this post!!) is that 2 of the kids have parents that work at Union Pacific like Chris and I! Also - there are two of the families that live in the same neighborhood that we just moved into! One just 5 houses down, the other maybe 4 blocks away!

How crazy is that - what a small world!

Well - that's all for now - can't wait to give more updates on the progress she's making!