A taste

Natalie's swallowing therapy was canceled today, so we got a taste of what our mornings will be like in the future, sans therapy at CHOC. We went for a walk, Natalie got to take her time with her morning nap (usually she falls asleep just before a therapist arrives or we have to go someplace) and we ran some errands. A bonus was that Tom came home for lunch...very fun!

Natalie's OT came this afternoon and tested her (every six months they write a report on her progress). Her therapist said she gained in all areas, but the most significant gain was in "visual motor" skills because of her reaching and putting objects in cups. She's going to calculate her scores and give me more information tomorrow.

It has been wonderful to see Natalie interacting with the world more...I think there's been a sizable improvement with her glasses, but she may also have been at a plateau and was just getting ready to jump. She's pulling up onto her knees and trying to pull up onto her feet. She's taken a few tentative steps in crawling, and yesterday at Bible study the woman who watched her said she actually wanted (and tried to take away) the toy that Alicia was playing with. Go Natalie! I never thought I'd be excited that my child wants to take toys away from another child (that's all Lukas does, much to my chagrin), but it's a great developmental milestone to have her show such interest in things.

She is calling me "ma-ma" and I think she calls Tom "ba-ba" (doesn't quite have her "d" sound yet). She is starting to jabber more with consonants and vowels, besides a constant "ahhhhh" that she has been making a lot. She signs "more" pretty regularly, and claps, and is starting to raise her arms to "How big is Natalie? So big!" We're trying to teach her more signs...she recognizes other signs but doesn't make any others yet. Lukas is trying to help too...this evening at dinner we had a discussion about more signs we can use with her.