After the big kids all go to bed, we get to have some good one-on-one time with this little ray of sunshine. She rolls around on the floor finding treasures in nooks and crannies and she smiles and laughs at every eye contact. It's one of my favorite times of the day.
She's been working hard at the all the skills that don't seem much like skills once you're older than two.
Sitting was the first of them. She teeters and faceplants and tips to the side, but she's doing it! And she has a whole house full of cheerleaders who clap and cheer for her each time she tries. Which usually gives her burst of uncontrollable energy and topples her to the floor.
She's also been working on eating from a spoon.
It took her a terrifically long time, in my opinion, to figure out how to move her tongue the right way. Each little bite ended up in and out of her mouth three or more times before it finally made the appropriate journey. For two weeks we patiently (and sometimes less than patiently) worked at it.
Food and this girl got off to a rocky start in her life. She gave us a bit of a scare for the first four months as she wasn't gaining weight like she should, dropping steadily from the 25% at her two week appointment down to the low point of 3% by the time she was three months. During that time I fought valiantly to feed her like she needed - pumping and nursing around the clock, taking supplements like crazy, and giving her extra bottles whenever she seemed to want one. But still she dropped, and dropped, and dropped and I wrestled my emotions over the failure of it all. At her three month appointment when her weight came back in the 3rd percentile, the doctor said pointedly that I needed to stop nursing and start giving her straight formula, thickened with rice cereal, and to record every single ounce and teaspoon she ate.
Slowly she's been gaining her weight back - but it's been an emotional and stressful ride. Anyway - so it would have been nice if she had been able to take to the solid food easily, but she had her own little agenda and wanted to create a bit more drama. And so we worked at getting it right and now she's eating like a champ.
One day she figured out that she could scoot around a bit to get what she wanted. Her focus and concentration was impressive as she dug her tiny fingers into the carpet and pulled herself along towards her goal.
The kids (and I) all thought it was pretty funny to put things just out of her reach and make her work for them.
She never really gets frustrated, but she certainly gets confused and it's beautiful to see her think through the problems.
But regardless of whether or not she actually attains her prize, she is always, always beautiful to watch.
By the time she's two, all these new little skills will seem silly. But today they're so exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment