Swim team

Blondie participates on the swim team every summer, although we haven't been able to do much this summer with the races. We found that swimming was the best thing for strengthening her hip, and helped with her strength overall. We've also noticed that each summer she gets better in using both arms. When we first started this, the second summer after surgery) she could barely move her arm and leg in the pool.

I may have to look into buying an indoor pool membershp for the family for during the year, but I'm not totally sure I can realistically fit it into the schedule. She can swim the entire length of the pool, but when she is with the swim coaches she tends to fake that she can't (when she is with me she does it all the time). Coach Dan (in the video) is her favorite person in the whole world, and FANTASTIC in making her do the things she pretends she can't do. We discovered this summer that she can actually do the butterfly kick pretty well compared to the freestyle kick, so when I can, I'll get video of that too.

Usually when Ms. Tonya the OT pulls out the green ball for tummy muscle exercises, Blondie has a GRAND time falling out of them. She is supposed to hang on to the side of the ball and keep herself up by using her muscles, but it is WAY more fun to flop over and mess it all up..... UNTIL the boy next door introduced the girls to Nerf Guns, and Brian ran out and bought 2. Now the older sisters can sit on the couch and wait for you to let go so they can take a shot.

Then holding on takes on a whole new meeting, and even your little glutes kick in to keep you up.

Disclaimer: No small child was harmed by the making of these pictures.... she giggled the whole time. See video....