Development

Before Lily turned three, she received services from The School for the Deaf and Blind.  Lily is neither deaf, nor blind, but she has small nerves in her eyes, and that qualified her for those services.  We received the equivalent of early intervention and orientation and mobility services.  Once Lily turned three, her services with TSFTDB ended.  Miss Alisha, her orientation and mobility therapist, told me how she saw, numerous times, how children's development basically exploded at the age of three.  With Lily, we never know what's going to happen with her development, so I just sat back and hoped that Miss Alisha's words were somehow prophetic for Lily.

Lily will be 3 1/2 next month, and I can joyously say that Miss Alisha's words ring true for Lily.  The development we've seen since Lily has turned three is truly amazing.  

• We're noticing a HUGE interest in toys.  Lily is reaching for items that we put on the floor and reaching out when she's in her gait trainer.  It's almost like she can't wait to get her hands on whatever item she's interested in.  She's also picking toys that she's dropped back up.  This is so important because we now have something to motivate Lily with.  Motivation will help her with walking or crawling.)
• Speaking of toys, I often give Lily a choice between two items.  Lily reaches for the toy she wants to play with.  You might say that she's just reaching, but the other day, I gave Lily a choice of two toys, and she didn't reach out.  She shook her head "no."  I found two other toys, and she reached out for the one she wanted.
• Lily's posture is improving, and her ability to sit for an extended period of time keeps getting longer.  She plays with toys with both hands while in a sitting position.  One of her favorite toys is a blue ball.  She likes to try to bounce it, and when we roll it to her, she tries to catch it.  Her reflexes are a little slow, but sometimes, she does stop it with both hands.  I think playing with this ball has really improved her sitting stamina and her posture.  She's definitely motivated to sit up and play with it.
• Lily is now able to put herself in a crawling position, hold it for at least five seconds (if not more), and rock in that position.  Today, her PT said she wouldn't be surprised if Lily began crawling.  This is so exciting to watch!  And the great thing about it is that she is practicing her moves--sometimes putting herself in this position ten or so times within a 15 minute time period!
• From the crawling position, Lily is able to put herself in a sitting position.  She's still at the point where she's sitting on her legs instead of moving her legs into a cross-legged position, but we're working on that one.  Last night, she kept practicing by going down on the floor and lifting up into sitting.
• Lily has what we call a Cleopatra sit.  She extends on one side and looks like Cleo sitting on a chaise lounge.  We've been working with Lily, trying to get her in a sitting position from her Cleo sit.  She's not 100% there, but her angle is a whole lot better than it's ever been.  The way this girl works, I'll say she'll probably be there in the next few weeks.
• Lily's enjoying new tastes.  We've been experimenting with different flavors of yogurt.  She's even enjoyed some chocolate pudding, and last night, she tried ice cream.  While she's nowhere near sustaining herself, just that she's allowing these new flavors is big.  So not like the Lily we've seen in the past. 

It's so amazing to watch all of this occur.  As always, it's on her own terms.  She's doing this stuff while she's sitting on the floor, when we're not sitting by her.  It's as if we've (and by that, I mainly mean her therapists, but since we reinforce what the therapists are doing, I'm including us) given her the tools, and she's creating the masterpiece.  It's spectacular because I know we (Dave and I) could do more.  We don't set aside a certain number of minutes per day to do therapy.  Her therapy comes in the form of play and transitions (like taking steps from her feeding chair to her pillow) and during diaper changes.  She gets time in the gait trainer, and we play with her while she's in a standing position.  But she's the one rolling on the floor, putting herself in that crawling position, making herself sit up, practicing.  My word, she has such an internal drive to learn these new skills!  I look forward to seeing what the next half of her three years brings.