I know that some of you may be under the impression that because I’m a little girl, that my life is pretty easy. But let me tell you, you can not come as far as I have in the last year without working a lot! Sometimes the work is kind of fun, like when Janet, my vision worker comes. She always brings new toy ideas for the mom’s or shows them some new iPad apps that we can use to help me work on my sight. And when my OT Kristin comes, I get to eat anything I want AND play with toys. It’s pretty amazing.
But then there’s PT (that’s physiotherapy for those of you who aren’t up with the lingo). PT and I aren’t always really great friends. You see, I have this little issue with sensory input, as in, I don’t like it. Well, that’s not entirely true, I like it when I’m entirely comfortable with it and I can control it. The problem is, to be comfortable with certain things, I have to learn how to do them and that’s where my physiotherapist, Anne Marie, comes in handy. She’s really great at understanding that sometimes I need to go slow and need a lot of coaxing before I’m ready to try something new (this is called sensory prep). So, before I learned to sit, she would take my hands and wrists and put a lot of pressure on them so that I got used to the feeling of having my arms bear weight. I used to scream when she would do it because I didn’t like the feeling. It didn’t hurt, but it was just different and sometimes I’m not so great with different. But eventually I got used to it and now I love to sit.
But now, apparently just sitting isn’t enough for everyone. They want me to start working on creeping and crawling and even standing up! They just don’t get it. I mean, if my hands didn’t like sensory input then my feet really didn’t like it. For a while Anne Marie (or the mom’s practicing at home) would have to lock my legs into place and then just hold me tight against them while I practiced being on my feet and letting my legs feel the pressure. Luckily for me, Anne Marie is very very patient and calm with me and when I start to feel afraid, she just pulls me in close for a quick snuggle so that I know that I’m safe and we start again. She seems to know, without me really telling her, that I just need a little extra time to do things my way. And because of that, look what I was able to accomplish today!
That’s right people….no hands!! That’s just me and the balance ball, hanging out and standing up! I’m kind of a big deal….
