Belly time

Natalie's physical therapist told me the other day that she should spend 1 hour of time each day, playing on her belly. That has been a real challenge, because obviously since she's walking, she doesn't independently choose to spend a lot of time on her belly, unlike a baby who can't crawl and has no choice but to spend the day on the belly. Even Konrad doesn't spend much time on his belly anymore.

But Natalie has low muscle tone, so more time on her belly means a stronger back, which will improve her posture and balance. Natalie will readily spend time on her belly if she's distracted, and books are a great way to distract her...and reading to her is important for language development anyway (I just prefer to read to her with her on my lap).

Here she is "getting on her belly" for reading time this afternoon. She also likes to put puzzles together on her belly. She's made it to 20 minutes of belly time the last few days (with breaks) ...it's not easy, and I'm not going to sacrifice everything for the "one-hour holy grail" but we will try to do as much as we can!

You can also see the new shoes we got her today so she can wear shoes in the house all the time (we usually take shoes off in the house to keep the floors clean, but these shoes won't be worn outside). These shoes are tie-on shoes instead of velcro closures, so she can't get them off as easily as she does her regular shoes. Hopefully she'll be more stable and won't fall as much!