Aaliyah Natalie Alisca

Born: July 18, 2003 

8-25-08 Aaliyah is now 5 years old!

1 week

18 months

6 months

3 years old

Update: 6-26-08

Aaliyah graduated from Inspire preschool on June 20th 2008. We were so proud of her, she climbed the stairs to go on stage with one of the teachers holding her hand. She sang and stomped her feet on cue to the songs that they sang. She had a blast at the graduation ceremony. The teachers and her aide cried because she's moving on to another school starting in September. Developmentally Aaliyah is coming along, she's more vocal and says a few more words, such as hi mama, hello, what's up, outside and bye-bye. She's also following instructions better, most of the time she'll come when you call her (when she doesn't come it because she's doing something she's not supposed to), if you give her something to give to someone she'll give it to them. She sings the alphabet song if you sing with her. She's also moved on to a new big girl's room, we took the crib away about one month ago, she's still adjusting to sleeping on a twin bed by herself, we have the safety guard to prevent her from falling off, we also have a safety gate to prevent her from walking out of her room. She's walking for longer periods of time and has started to run, she loves it when anyone chases her, it's so cute. She's going to be 5 on July 18th, we plan on taking her to Sesame Place to see her all time favorite character…Elmo, this is going to be the first time we go on a long car trip with her and stay at a hotel. Aaliyah is very healthy (thank God), she continues to learn and grow everyday. She's the love of our life.

Update: July 17, 2007

I can't believe it, but she'll be 4 years old tomorrow. We've come along way from when she was first diagnosed. I found myself looking at her as she slept last night and I thought about all the changes this little person has brought to our lives. She's such a loving person, she has the purest soul I have ever known. She's now officially a walker, she walks most times when she wants to get somewhere, unless she's in a hurry at which point she'll crawl. I went to the mall with her on Saturday and she walked for the most part. She's more independent, she tries to feed herself more. She hates wearing diapers, she pulls them off every chance she gets, so we always have to keep pants on her. She's also talking more, she repeats a lot of what we say. She's very social and affectionate, she's also very strong willed.

Thanks so much for this site.

Natalie Raphael-Alisca
Ra_equity@yahoo.com

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My daughter's name is Aaliyah (pronounced A-Leah), she is full T13 (the Geneticist suspects mosaicism but we won't allow the necessary test to confirm) She is healthy, she's only had two surgeries, one to insert tubes in her ears and the other was to remove the extra digits that she was born with. She has coloboma in both eyes but she appears to have good vision. She was born three weeks early and weighed 4lbs 12oz 171/2", she now weighs 16lbs 8ozs 32". She's babbling saying da-da, ba-ba, ma-ma, she also says up. She's been doing the combat crawl since she was 12 months old. She's not able to sit unsupported for long periods of time (she'll fall over after about 1-2 minutes). She plays with her toys, her main means of transportation is rolling. She loves to kiss and is always smiling. She holds her own bottle and can eat pureed foods, she's now learning how to chew. Washingtonville, New York

Update 1-25-07
Medically Aaliyah has been very healthy. She had a new set of tubes put in the early part of 2006. She recently went to the doctor with a stomach virus and the doctor commented that because of Aaliyah he now believes in miracles. The only issue that we have with Aaliyah is that she keeps a cold during the winter months.

Developmentally
She started a special needs preschool this past September. She recently began taking a few steps (5-6) unsupported, she's also talking more, whenever someone knocks I say who is it, she replies who's it. She says that's not nice, after I say it when she does something wrong, I don't think she understands the meaning because she continues doing what it is I don't want her to do. She's very intelligent, whenever we put an obstacle in front of her she figures out a way around it, for example she has a habit of turning off the TV or changing the channel by pressing the buttons in front of the TV, her father cut out a plastic top and taped it to the TV, she figured out how to put her little hands underneath the plastic to reach the buttons. She also has a habit of playing with her spit, she knows that I don't like that and that I tap the back of her hands whenever she does this. She'll play with her spit until she sees me coming at which time she'll either start to clap or she'll throw me a kiss. She loves watching Elmo and no matter where she's at in the house if she hears the Elmo song she crawls very fast to the TV. She won't play with any dolls except for the Elmo doll that she got for Christmas. Her teacher says she's a big help in school, she loves to turn the pages of the book during circle time. She loves music and can hum the Ring around the rosie song as well as Jingle Bell.

I'll send her latest picture soon.

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Update 4-24-06
Aaliyah is doing very well. Her development is as follows: Physical: She sits up totally unsupported (accomplished at 19 months) She pulls herself up to stand (accomplished at 22 months) She crawls on all fours (accomplished at 24 months)
Walks holding on, as well as when you hold her hands (last 4 months) Socially: she's learning to talk, she says hi dad, hi Linda (her P/T's name), she says all done and hello.  She's also learning to feed herself, she's learning to drink from a regular cup.  She follows simple directions: come here, sit down, stop and give kiss.  She's very social. She's starting the preschool program in Sept.