Test Results

Today the neurologist's office finally called me with the results of Geri's chromosomal analysis... sort of. The first round of test results have revealed that she has some extra genetic material. However, these results really don't necessarily mean a thing. Many people who are well within the range of normal have extra chromosomal material. It could turn out to mean precisely nothing in terms of her abilities and future development. So, now they are conducting a more in-depth test to figure out the exact impact of this extra stuff.

Honestly, I'm not terribly surprised. The girl has congenital heart and eye defects. She has GERD. She may have had a vestigal tail (there's a scar that implies she might have had one removed) and her head is a little mis-shapen. Obviously, something happened here. Maybe the funky genetic material is what caused all these physical abnormalities and that's what we're seeing. Hard to tell, but it's nothing to get scared about. Not until she starts levitating or her eyes go white and a tornado takes out the house. We'll be watching carefully when she hits her teenage years for any X-men style developments.

In the meantime, she is learning and developing SO fast. Just tonight she hit a major milestone in the feeding department by eating an entire meal in a booster seat. Translation: NOT in my lap. That's huge, truly huge. And amazingly convenient, too! She has started potty training. It was her idea, I kid you not. She saw her sister sit on the potty seat one night and started demanding it. "Goppy, goppy," she says. In the morning she waked with a dry diaper almost every time, and when she's dressed we take her to the bathroom and she pees in the toilet. She sits on it probably 4 or 5 times a day, and uses it typically 2 times. She helps pull up her Pull-up and her pants afterwards. She has figured out how to remove her shoes and socks. She makes the hand gestures for the Skinna-ma-rink song and tries to sing it with me. She knows where my head, eyes, ears, and hair are. I think she also knows shoulders and toes. If I'm too slow at responding to her requests for "this little piggy", she simply does it herself. Her gait is improving, and she refuses to ride in the stroller now. In fact, she insists on pushing it and sometimes gets mad at me when I try to help her steer!

This kid is a sponge, and she wants to learn how to do everything. Well, almost everything.

We still have a lot of ground to cover. Chewing eludes her at this point. Her speech is not terribly clear. We know what she wants and what she is saying, but people outside our family would probably not know what she is saying at all. She's terrified of her little sister. She continues to lack flexibility and resilience.

Yet, she's come such a long way in such a shot period of time that I can't help but believe that she will overcome these hurdles, too. She's a fighter, that's for sure.