Super Speed

Life is going by so incredibly quickly. I feel like I have so much to write about, but little time to do it. Emerson continues to do amazingly well. She seems to be developing in leaps and bounds. Crawling has just opened up her world. She is exploring the world around her with gusto! She loves to get into whatever Ella is playing with. She tries to grab away any toy that Ella has in her hand. Needless to say, Ella has not
been too pleased with her baby sister lately, but we are thrilled. Check out Ella's little grump face above. I should get her in acting lessons. :) Emerson is no longer the little girl who sits contently with whatever we put around her. She has also started pulling herself up to a kneeling position and then to a stand. You can see the effort that it requires, but she wants it and is willing herself to make it happen. She is also so much more engaged in all the baby games we have been playing for months. Now she will play patty cake, peek-a-boo, so-big, and "If you're happy and you know it". Can you tell we are just beaming over here!!


Other great news is that we are having a Summer Solstice party to raise money for WS research. And well, it has taken on a life of its own. We are in the throws of planning this event and could really have a few hundred people attend. I have been contacting local families with children with WS, collecting items and services for a silent auction, and praying that we are not in over our heads!! We are going to be giving the money to Dr. Bonnie Klein-Tasman out of UW-Milwaukee. Here is her link to show her current research: http://www.uwm.edu/~bklein/research.html
We are so lucky to have her so close to us and we finally got to meet her this past week. She is incredibly smart and has vast experience with children with WS. My husband and I were peppering her with questions and she had explicit answers with research to back it up. Emerson was a hoot in Dr. Klein-Tasman's lab. She was babbling up a storm, looking around the room throwing sweet smiles and in general was just plain showing off. Brian and I were like, "Who is this child?" Normally, she is pretty quiet, but here she decided to have a little babbling conversation with the
researcher. Dr. Klein-Tasman told us how wonderfully Emerson seems to be doing. She is very engaged with both people and objects. Exploring freely, but checking in with us once in a while. Brian and I just shrugged our shoulders and thought, "You know, she really is doing well." It is always just so nice to hear and frankly, you can't hear it enough. A few months ago, Brian and I were very frustrated. We were not seeing any progress and Emerson seemed so disengaged with us and the world. Boy, have things changed. Anyway, Dr. Klein-Tasman is going to attend our fundraiser along with a few of her graduate students and give a short talk. Wish us luck with this fundraiser, we will need it!!