My Amazing Bottle-holdin’, Straw-suckin’, Sheep-pettin’ Girl
Maria had another big jump in abilities the past week or two. We saw her chiropractor for another Qigong treatment a week or two ago…coincidence? Who knows and who cares, but still…intriguing. One of Maria’s recent (March) goals from her occupational therapist was to hold her bottle for 3 minutes. She wrote that Maria “refuses to hold her bottle for her mom.” A few short weeks later, I often put Maria in my bed in the morning, give her a bottle, then get in the shower. When I’m done, so is she! All of a sudden, Maria’s holding her own bottle almost everytime for pretty much the entire bottle. It practically happened overnight–just like when she started drinking out of a bottle on her 1st birthday, when she hadn’t touched it in about 5 months. She’s also getting really good at finding her bottle when she drops it.
Andy’s been working with Maria to drink through a straw. The feeding therapist says it’s an important skill, more important/ advanced than drinking with a sippy cup (that’s my recollection of what she said, anyway). She wouldn’t use a straw for me, so I didn’t try it very often. Now, again, all of a sudden, she drinks through a straw like she’s a teenager. She’s still much more effective with Uncle Andy–with me she’ll drink for what seems like half an hour resulting in 1-2 oz less liquid, but so what, she’s doing it!
She’s also made a jump in the skill of feeding herself little crackers and Gerber stars. She frequently gets it into her mouth 1st try. She seems to quite enjoy it also. We got her a thing that looks like a pacifier with a net on it. It’s used to put food in so she can chew and suck on it w/o choking. Andy put banana then grapes in it for her one day, I put grapes in it the next day and she immediately grabbed it and put it in her mouth!
Friday we went to Farm Day. It’s at a small privately owned farm and is sponsored by the Foundation for Blind Children. Maria pet a baby goat, bunny, chick, and big sheep. She liked the sheep the best. After I showed her how to pet the sheep, Maria leaned her whole body forward and pet it with both hands! I think she liked its freshly sheared feel. She thought the baby goat was Kijana until I had her feel its tiny horn buds. That puzzled her!
The last 2 nights she’s slept with me. Not sure what’s going on, but tonight I think I’ll just let her fuss and stay in her crib. I don’t want her to develop a bad habit. She’s done so well with sleep, I’m not sure what’s up. Maybe my mom is visiting her and keeping her awake… Last night, she stayed awake very late, then finally went to sleep after I gave her Tylenol, so maybe she’s getting headaches??
Today is Easter. Andy’s coming over for a simple ham, zucchini, and potato dinner with a HUGE tiramisu for dessert that Sue gave us. Maybe next year we’ll color eggs or maybe I’ll get Maria a miniature horse!! It’d be better than a bunny!