What's new with Emma

Emma has been doing really well lately. She is attending the same school she did last year and is thriving at school. The crisis moments are getting farther and farther apart and it's giving her a chance to just be a kid. The other day, I watched her dancing with Abby and was overcome with emotion. I was so happy that she is getting moments like that, when I know so many other children with special needs don't. Every day is still hard in one way or another. Either her aggressive side comes out or Diabetes gets in the way or her minute by minute draining behavior will show up(food can't touch, blanket can't have wrinkles, chair has to be lined up just right, I could go on and on). These are the things that we are getting better at handling, they are a part of our "normal" life. I feel like the insulin pump has given her and our family more freedom and feel like we've adjusted to living with Diabetes. It's also helping her overall care, her last A1c came in at 8.2. which if you remember it needs to be 8.0 or below. We're getting closer! She still gets a lot of viral illnesses, but isn't getting as sick from them. She didn't qualify for the extended school year this year and I was really worried that she would regress. All summer long, I was shocked at how well she was doing. Behavior problems and illness were far and few between and I feel like her speech continued to progress. Things have been going so well that I decided to have her join the local dance group made up of individuals born with Down syndrome. She loves dancing with the Sparkly Pals and I love watching her. They had a performance this summer at the Hogle Zoo. Here are a few pictures.