At the clinic

Going to the clinic in the morning means I have to take a shower and get dressed earlier than normal because it takes at least 30 minutes to get there in morning traffic. Usually I'm taking a shower during Natalie's morning quiet time/nap before her first therapy, but neither of us got that luxury this morning.

She started out with PT with Caryn in clinic. Caryn had bought two pairs of shoes for Natalie, and I had bought another three pairs (after the first two pairs I purchased a couple weeks ago didn't work). Unfortunately we went 0 for 5 on these shoes. Looks like I'm going to have to break down and get Stride Rite shoes for her for a couple sizes until she learns to walk. Hopefully one of those will fit well for her and satisfy Caryn's wishes to support her as much as possible as she learns to walk.

Then she had an hour of speech therapy, which she will now get once a month. Both sessions went well, but no major breakthroughs to report. I didn't get to watch her on the treadmill, so I have no idea what that even looks like! Lukas and I went to a park first, then went shopping at a nearby mall, looking for shoes for Natalie and a jacket for Lukas. We were only successful at finding something for Lukas.

After therapy, we all went to A Child's View optician to look at different glasses frames options for Natalie. The optician there said the frames she currently has aren't unsafe...they're a pretty good option, and she was surprised that Medi-Cal paid for such nice frames, and that Natalie got transitions lenses free too. She was disgusted with the fit of the glasses on Natalie's face and insisted on giving the glasses a full tune-up. It was VERY nice of her...she said she just can't stand to see poorly fitting glasses, so we definitely reaped the benefits of her pet peeve. She sanded down the edges of the lenses on the side that faces Natalie's face so if she falls the lenses won't be as likely to cut the skin; she put on new nose pieces; she adjusted the frame arms; she put in a new screw; she cut the curly-Qs back so it doesn't look like Natalie is wearing earrings any more. She spent close to an hour (on and off) on Natalie's glasses, for free. We also looked at another glasses frame that she said would be a good option for a spare pair of glasses.

Since she said the glasses Natalie has are already a good option, I'm not in such a rush to get a second pair, but it's probably something we'll do this year.

THEN, we met my friend from work, Rose, for lunch and had a nice time catching up on each other's lives. Lukas enjoyed seeing her again too...he even recognized her even though I don't think we'd seen her in about a year!