Tuesday, July 13, 2010

the unstoppable Natalie.

Have I ever mentioned how WILD Natalie is? Don't get me wrong now..she has her calm, adorable, cool as a clam moments. Many in between the crazy WILD energy she can have.
Ever since her October heart catheterization when those collateral veins were closed off, she has been UNSTOPPABLE NATALIE.
This child is crazy.
She'll come out of nowhere to sit on you, lay on you, wrestle you, tackle you..it just doesn't matter..if it's random moments of 3 year old physical strength you don't mind having thrown at you, then Natalie is all about it. As a matter of fact, as I type this she is laying ON her daddy's head, trying to pin him down.
You can't tell that this kid has a heart problem and it's now becoming really funny...funny, because you just don't expect it. You may catch glimpse of her scars but you can't let it fool you.
She is strong as an ox but can be as gentle and sweet as a "pretty princess".  A pretty princess who will leap after you screaming "can't catch me!!!" or "I'm gonna beat you up" (luckily, said while giggling..or does it make more creepy?)
Her leg muscles are getting bigger and we've noticed that alot more lately and all of that began a few months ago when our physical therapist pointed it out to us.
One thing she still has, which I'm not sure if I've mentioned before (and something that was just mentioned in one of my favorite blogs).. is something called "in-toeing" where the knee and foot twist internally making her walk with her toes and knees pointed inward. (thanks Kris for that great link!)
Her in-toeing, so far from what we've noticed, hasn't really made her fall much or really cause any problems. We're not too concerned right now because she has an excellent chance of growing out of it. The reason I wanted to mention that was because of how Natalie's at home physical therapy includes exercises to move her rotate her hip bones outwards to counteract the in-toeing. Since Natalie doesn't qualify for more routine care from any physical therapists now, we do this at home on our own. If she sits with her hips outward, which she loves to do.. we tell her, "criss cross applesauce", she sits "indian style" so this helps to slowly fix the issue overtime. We haven't noticed any difference yet, but I'm sure it'll help. Again, it hasn't caused her any pain or problems so we're not too worried at all.
Natalie also just grew out of her sandals again, and instead of paying 10, 15, or even 20 bucks on yet another pair of new seasonal shoes, I found a really cute pair of sandal-shaped water shoes at Target last week. Natalie needs really soft soles to help with her therapy, so she has fallen in love with them. It's exactly like buying a pair of the expensive Pediped's but on a really tight budget. lol They don't even look like water shoes!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I loved this. People always watch my 3-year old heart child "running, running" (she says this as she runs in a big circle over and over and over and....) and wonder if she really has a heart problem. Once she got her Pacemaker her energy (not low before) went through the roof. My husband asked for a remote to dial her down sometimes. They are nothing but amazing! Looking forward to following your journey!