The Princess's stats

You know that life with Jax is not so much therapies and IEP's, but more medical doctors and hospitals. We celebrate holding his head up for 30 seconds, and rolling from his back to his belly. Our more recent celebrations are grabbing for toys, and hoping someday he can communicate with some kind of switch device.

The princess had her annual testing with her Early Intervention therapist. She doesn't get a lot of services, Early intervention only comes twice a month, and when she does, its more watching her and me telling her what she's doing.
When she showed me the results, she scored around a 12 month in most area's of development. Social was the highest at 14 months. (of course!) She is currently 23 months old. I think those are fantastic results! I could care less that she is 23 months and only scoring around a 12 month range.
First of all, who made the rules of development? Tanner didn't walk until 15 months, Carter was riding a two wheeler at that age! No kidding, he really was! Every child is different, extra chromosome or not.
Second, this girl spent the first 13 months of her life in either an orphanage crib, or if she was taken out, she was plopped in a walker to spend the day. We've only had her home for 10 months, so she made 12 month strides in 10 months. I'd say that was pretty damn good!

I have 5 children, they are all so different. Mondo is 13, yet he's shy and terrified of roller coasters, he needs extra help to get schoolwork done, and he has a hard time making friends. Tanner is autistic, he is quite far behind his typical peers, but the kid can dance like no other, and he puts on skits in his class, picking other kids to play certain roles. You get him on stage and the social skills just come alive! The kid is an inner genius, and I swear he's going to be an actor/director! Carter is the all around kid. He did everything early and on his own. He is really good in school, is super friendly to everyone, and oh so helpful with anything that needs to be done. Everyone likes him and he makes friends easy. Teachers love him and I call him my student body president. Quite the neapolitan of kids I'd say. So you won't find me whining about how far Arina is supposedly behind "typical" kids. She is my little rock star!

I really think her brothers play a huge role in her development. The morning of this picture, I fed her breakfast, and was getting her bottle. Mondo and Carter were asleep on the family room floor. When I bring her bottle, she usually follows me from the kitchen to the family room, and as soon as she hits the carpet, she lays down for that food! This morning she crawled up so she was right smack in the middle of her brothers, and layed there to drink her bottle!

The boys are a constant source of entertainment for her. Actually, I think it may be the other way around. She has those boys smitten in every sense of the word!!