She giggles

Isabella is quite the little giggle box now. She has been giggling at everything today. We went from no smiles to a few smiles to now all out giggling. You talk to her she giggles. You make funny noises at her, she giggles!! And she smiles all of the time. My cheeks hurt from smiling back at her so much. I just can't believe the transformation in her. Literally overnight she has come leaps and bounds. It seems like over the last few weeks, she has just started transforming. I knew it was going to come and I waited. So now here we are. I think I can safely say she is back to what she was in July (before the brain damage). She is smiling all of the time and sooo interactive with us.
She still has some trouble using her hands, but she is getting the hang of that too. She can hold onto small things that her fingers will wrap around. She will reach for things but is not able to control her arms that well. Her feet and legs however are a different story. She will reach for her mobile with her feet. She raises them in the air so she can kick it. She kicks her kick-n-play all of the time. So I am going to work on getting some video tomorrow of her doing all of her new really awesome stuff. You can't hear her laugh because she doesn't make that much noise over the trach, but you can see it and feel her laughing. It is just really way too cute.
Oh and we are also working on sign language. I am going to try to teach her. The only word I have worked on is mommy. She doesn't obviously respond to it, but she does look at me while I am doing it, so hopefully she will get the hang of it.
Also one last thing she did was I helped her to a sitting position the other day, and she sat unassisted for 45 seconds!! She is getting stronger everyday and fatter. She is almost 19 lbs. They had to decrease her calorie intake (I think I already mentioned that) So don't mistake the puffy cheeks in her pics for heart failure puffiness, it is actually just chub. She has not had any edema in months and months. She doesn't turn blue anymore and she doesn't mottle on her legs anymore. Oh and most important, her murmur is so quite that you have to really listen to even hear it.
Okay I just deleted something on here that I put last night. It was my two cents on something someone said about Isabella. Some of you probably read it. Otherwise for those who have not read it yet, I am sorry but you won't get a chance. I slept on it and got up this a.m. and realized it was a little harsh so I took it off. I just need to realize, that not all people see Bella the way the rest of us do. All of the love and support I have gotten from my comments and from some of you in person is all I need. Thats all Bella needs is positive people. We all have hope!!
With much love