The last couple of weeks have shown some huge developments in Lily’s developmental skills. One of our new therapists from Holland Bloorview has just been this incredible ray of sunshine in our lives and it would be easy to chart Lily’s developments alongside Catherine’s visits. We’ve been lucky to have some incredible therapists working with Lily, but something about Catherine just brings out the best in Lily. She doesn’t coddle her, makes her expectations clear and is incredibly strict but also maintains this wonderfully sweet and calm demeanour. From her first visit, Lily has responded to her in a way that we have never seen before and it is actually impossible for me to put into words how thankful we are for her appearance in our lives. So, instead of trying to come up with words, which I fear will just sound flat, I’m going to leave this one to pictures and videos tonight…
They had been working on standing, unassisted, for a couple of weeks. One morning, with just a little balance help from Elmo, she got it. The first time, she got it for about 3 seconds – and that was counting fast. Catherine suggested we try for 5 seconds. 20 seconds later, Lily finally sat down.
A week later, Jess called me on FaceTime while I was at work. All she said was, “watch this…”
[flickr video=13136708985 secret=52b61dfee3 w=500 h=300]
Fast forward to this week. Jess called me on FaceTime again. “I thought it was a fluke” she told me and then turned the camera onto Lily
[flickr video=13136745934 secret=52b61dfee3 w=500 h=300]
I watched, in amazement at our girl, who has worked so hard to keep anything firmly in her hands, see the magnet, grab the magnet, hold the magnet and then decide to put it in the bowl. All of those teeny tiny baby steps finally collided into a great big huge leap and a Momma, in tears, watching her little girl grow.
Life is good. Clearly someone deserves a nap.
