Christmas Winner!

Having an almost 2 year old is lots of fun on Christmas. Thank you to everyone for the lovely gifts. Enjoy the video of Zoe's favorite new toy (thanks Uncle T and Aunt Virgey!) Love, Z Parents

Christmas Holiday

The cards are out the door so you should be receiving them shortly. Looking back on this entire year - wow! How far we have traveled. I wanted to share with my family and friends who have helped us along this journey, thank you for being a part of our experience. We are blessed to have walked the path with you. The coming year is filled with blessings unknown. Zoe continues to teach and amaze us in what things are possible with faith and action. We wish all of you blessings of health and prosperity in the New Year and much love from all our hearts!

Love, Z parents

Thanksgiving

We pulled off the full on Thanksgiving feast. We had Jeff's cousins Danny and Kristin as well as their brood over for turkey day. We bought the turkey fully cooked (it was predictably dry by the time it was served, but I had copious amounts of gravy to counteract). Our fabulous feast included stuffed mushrooms, crackers & cheese, veggies and dip, mini quiches, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad, escarole meatball soup, whipped carrots and parsnips and cranberry dressing. Dessert was apple betty and fruit salad. Everything was delicious and we all hung out at the park the next day. Nobody gorged themselves though a few had naps afterwards and games of Taboo went into the evening. All in all a fun family time!

Update on Zoe's Program

This is the update everyone's been asking for. We survived another trip to Philadelphia and Zoe has a brand new program for us to execute. Here are some of the highlights of her accomplishments:

Weight gain: 4.5 pounds (goal 5 pounds, previous 6 months gained only 1 pound)
Chest growth: 125% of normal
Head circumference growth: 125% of normal

While we were in Philly, Zoe decided to pull herself to standing and let go - several times for several seconds (5+ sec.). Her balance has improved, her creeping/crawling is lightning fast when she wants to motor but more often she prefers to cruise along furniture. Independent walking is getting closer and closer.

Zoe has become more and more vocal and is more consistently responding yes or no to our questions and comments. We will be focusing a lot on her reading program to make sure the print size is comfortable for her and that the content is where her interests lie. We will be resuming the Intelligence cards but it will be based on choices Zoe makes so I have to figure out how I can manage that process and we will be beginning more advanced math with her.

We'll be starting a new respiratory program with her to help Zoe take deeper breaths. This will be in addition to the 40 masks we do with her every day. We are reintroducing patterning and we're continuing with the Overhead Ladder program. She'll still have a marathon day of creeping and there were only minor changes to the nutrition program (we're still doing a 4 day rotation of a diet that eliminates the 10 most common allergens).

All in all, we're very pleased with the progress Zoe has made and the new program addresses exactly what we wanted to focus on. We have no idea how we'll get it all done, but we'll move forward and do our best.

The 3 main focus points are her breathing, walking and reading. And that's exactly our priorities as well.

Every has been asking how they can help and the best way for now will be with the Intelligence cards but I will have to give assignments for the categories and they'll have to be completed within a week. If you are interested in joining or continuing on the Intel team, just let me know and I'll figure out what changes need to be made.

We've been so thankful for everyone's support. We could not do this without all the help from such wonderful friends and family. We love you all very much!

Halloween catchup

Now I'm trying to catch up on my updates. Don't want to carry over last year's business into next year. Halloween was quite fun. Zoe really enjoyed dressing up in her costume - she was a lioness, and quite fierce! We did not go trick or treating since she does not eat candy. She did however attack the cat which was hilarious. Dan and Steph came over to check out the clawed killer and we had loads of fun. Enjoy the pics - and gggrrrrrr! She's a maneater!

New Zoe's Meow Cards!

I know, I know - I'm sooooo behind on updating the blog but it's been a whirlwind (when is it not?). In the next day or so, I PROMISE I will post all the exciting updates from Halloween to Thanksgiving as well as report on our last revisit to the Institutes.
For now, just wanted to promote my fabulous friend Laura who designed 15 new sets of Zoe's Meow notecards (above) - which make perfect stocking stuffers or for yourself if you're running low on thank you notes. The link is above at the top right of the blog or you can call her directly on (888) 246-2004.
For those who do not know about how Zoe's Meow cards got started, my amazing friend Laura wanted to do something special to help Zoe. She originally created 2 sets of greeting cards with contributions from some artistic friends and when the cards are sold, she sends us all the profits to help offset the costs of Zoe's Intensive Therapy Program (which is expensive, extensive and virtually uncovered by insurance).
Laura also designed our Christmas cards which are about to be sent out - so stay tuned to a mailbox near you! If you EVER need something designed or printed, big job or small, her work is outstanding and her commitment to customer satisfaction is unmatched. Please consider using her company and tell her it's because I recommended her. Love - Z Parents