PT Update

Emmeline has had three whole dates with her new BFF, Miss Rebecca. Actually, Miss Rebecca might be my new BFF too. I'm not attributing Emmeline's incredible progress on her feet directly to Miss Rebecca, but I feel that she has played a part. At the end of January, Emmeline would not pull up on furniture, didn't want to support her own weight standing, cried if we stood her up, and refused to be on her belly on the floor. As of tonight, she CAN crawl (still doesn't like to, but physically is capable), will crawl up our entire flight of stairs without enticement, pulls up on anything she can, and can stand unassisted for about 10 seconds. She will walk if we hold her hands, and likes to walk with her baby doll stroller. The amazing changes that have taken place in the last 28 days probably don't seem amazing to parents whose children do these things on time - to me and Shawn, they are all marvels. I think she might actually walk before she hits puberty. Of course, she's technically still not even late for walking. But it kills me to watch children younger than her walking around blithely at the mall or church or school. She has worked SO hard at just pulling up. I still don't know how she got to be where she is; there are many different ideas floating around. My best theory is that she really didn't get the tummy time she should have because of her reflux, and her personality is very flexible. She isn't motivated by dangling toys out of her reach; she'll just choose a different toy then, thank you very much. She isn't very persistent in terms of physical effort. This of course means I have a pretty easy going kid - easily interested in something else after something verboten has been taken away - but it also means that we have to find some kind of motivation to get her moving. And that's the biggest difference I see now. She is moving for the sake of moving. She wants to try out pulling up on different things just to see if she can. She wants to climb the stairs, not because Mean Daddy is dangling Shelton just out of her reach, but because her brain is telling her to try it. If Miss Rebecca managed to change that, then she is definitely my new BFF.