Another breakthrough day

The day didn't start out as a breakthough kind of day - it started out as WWIII. We decided that this weekend would be all about the sippy cup and getting her to hold it. Man oh man. Yesterday during snack while I was working with her she burst into tears - I thought maybe I had hurt her hand while trying to help. It turns out that probably wasn't the case.

So...the rules for the weekend are that she doesn't get a drink unless at least one hand is helping to hold the cup; only exception is if she is choking or something and really needs a drink. Will took the first shift during breakfast. It did not go well. By afternoon snack anytime you tried to get her to help it was a BIG fit and tears and no drinking. Of course we had to deal with the fit, in addition to the cup.

I worked with her some after snack while she was playing in the living room. I just held the cup and let her grab it, etc. Not a lot of progress, but she wasn't flipping out about it.

We took a quick trip to Target before dinner to try and find some spoons for her. The spoons we have either have handles that are too big for her hands or the part that goes in her mouth is too big or the handles are too long. We have been looking for days for a better option. I bought some disposable ones that are better than what we have, but aren't the best. A friend said she saw some that should work at Target. I have been to two Targets and have come up empty. Babies R Us is on the agenda for tomorrow.

When we returned from Target it was time for dinner. Once again it was a battle with the sippy cup, until Will changed his approach. Instead of putting the cup up to her mouth and "forcing" her hand onto it he held the cup about 8-12 inches from her mouth and just waited. Eventually she would reach out and grab the handle and pull it to her mouth. At the end of dinner she was grabbing it repeatedly, sometimes with both hands, and putting it in her mouth to take a drink. YIPPEE!

Now, if that wasn't enough of a breakthrough Megan decided to show off after dinner. She climbed up onto the landing to play with her toy all by herself. The only times she has climbed up there is when I am sitting up there enticing her to come play with the toy. This is the first time she has done it on her own.

More pulling up

Megan is doing great with pulling up. We are still having to entice her, meaning she is not just pulling up when she is playing by herself. This is the same thing she did with getting onto her knees - we had to constantly entice her at first and now she just does it all the time.

Pure Joy and.....pulling up

This afternoon when I got Megan up from her nap I took her in the play room for a little bit. I sat her at her "Crawl and Go" toy that she got for her 1st birthday. She has played with it a few times but she has never "fully gotten" the toy. She has played with pieces of it, but not really played with it until today. I sat on the futon and watched her play with every aspect of the very large/expansive toy. She touched every little decoration and found the three ways to turn on the lights and music. Each and every time she managed to turn on the lights and music she would do a little happy dance that included wiggling her hiney, moving her arms up and down and bopping her head. She was sitting with her back to me but I imagine that there was also a big grin involved. It very much looked to me like pure joy.

Pulling Up
This morning during her therapy session Megan pulled herself into standing by herself for the first time. She repeated the behavior for me after her nap and then again for Will when he got home. She pulled up 4 times. I am so proud of her. She is doing it the more difficult way, very much her style.

Eating and play skills

Megan did awesome today with feeding herself. When Will started out getting her to feed herself he would put 1 piece of food on her tray at a time. I knew that we needed to work on putting more food on her tray because this one piece at a time is no different than if we were still feeding her except that now she is a lot messier; so today at her first snack I put several cheerios on her chair and she did great. I did have to verbally stop her from cramming them all in at the same time, but everytime I would tell her to wait she would wait.

She kept up these skills through lunch, her 2nd snack and even dinner. Dinner was really awesome - we loaded her tray with sweet potatoes, green beans, meat and bread and she had a blast. Will kept having to remind her to wait/slow down/finish what she had in her mouth because she was so excited and just wanted to eat everything she saw. She is so happy to be in control of getting her food, and she is doing so great at it.

On Thursday I am going to start working on the sippy cup. I am not sure how to go about it since it is not like she is picking it up and throwing it like she was the food. With the sippy cup she pretty much ignores it and she barely drinks anything as it is so I will have to make sure she gets enough liquid during this process.

I was feeling tired late this morning so instead of me having to chase Megan out of the hallway I created a blockade using 2 hardsided Samsonite suitcases. When I am in the living room I can hear the difference of when she is in the entry or when she has gone down the hallway. I was hanging with Sam in the floor when I heard her at the end of the hallway. I checked on her and she had moved both suitcases up against the wall and was sitting in the floor on the other side of them just playing. About 20 minutes later it got very quiet - people have always said that when kids get quiet that is when you have to worry about them and that is so true with Megan. So I went to investigate and she had opened the door to Will's office and was sitting around the corner playing with some items that were in the floor. She did chase a ball into the office but she was nowhere near it when I found her.

Day 2 with her new skills

Megan kept it up today.

She did great feeding herself all day long. She did better with dinner tonight than she did lastnight because I took her finger-feeding into consideration tonight. Last night she struggled with her peas - she loves them but they are too small at this moment; I am sure in a few days she will handle them just fine.

She did great getting up onto the landing again today. She even got up into high knees at her Pooh chair and at the coffee table - she was trying to get onto her feet at the table so I helped her and she stood right up. The great thing is she was trying to get there herself, so maybe in another couple of days we will be there.

Climbing onto the landing

Megan crawled up onto the landing this morning. She did it several times and got herself down twice. We were just taking her down and getting her to do it again and after she climbed up 4 or 5 times we enticed her to get down and she did great.

What a day Megan is having - feeding herself, climbing up onto the landing and it is only 9:42 am - I wonder what else this day has in store for us.

Feeding herself

This morning, for the first time in a year, Megan began feeding herself. She ate several cheerios and her entire prune all by herself. She even managed to get a couple bites of cereal by herself too.

UPDATE
Megan has fed herself all of her food all day long. She ate both of her snacks and her lunch by herself. It seems that this issue was a discipline/defiance issue and we should've/could've been at this point some time ago had we been on top of it.

Finding mommy

When I am home alone with the kids I leave the bathroom door open and Megan has never followed me to the bathroom. When someone else is in the house and I close the door she follows me. She will knock on the door and then put her little hand under the door. It is so sweet; but then I have to yell for someone else to come move her so I can get out without hitting her with the door.

Figuring things out

Megan has always been very curious and yesterday she was trying to figure out where the sound was coming from on a new toy. She eventually discovered the speaker on the bottom of the toy and she would lay her head on it and hit the toy to make it come on. After that she started looking for the speakers on all of her toys.

I love watching her try to figure out why something is not working the way it is supposed to when a toy has been turned off. She will try and try and try to get it to work - what's great is that she doesn't get upset about it, but instead will move on to something else.

A few days ago she started scooting across the floor while sitting "indian style" on the floor. She bounces up and down and moves forward - it is pretty cute.

Please

Megan did the sign for please today for the first time. Whenever I ask Megan if she is hungry I hold her hand and do the sign for eat and then please so that she says "food please". Today after I finished doing it she smiled (typical) and then did the sign for please 2 times.

Our little Trixie

Will grew up reading a comic strip with a little girl in it named Trixie. Trixie would chase or play with a sunbeam.

Megan LOVES the sunshine. She will crawl all the way across the room and down the hall to get to a strip of sunshine on the floor. She will hit it and just play in it. If you make shadows she will attack them. If the shadows "get" her feet she moves them away to "keep them safe". It is very adorable.

Doing really well

Megan is doing so well with getting into standing from both sitting and from her knees. Her legs are getting stronger and stronger.

She had been standing up at the table from sitting in a little chair, but the therapist gave us a foam square that is a little bit shorter than the chair and more difficult to stand up from because it gives. She is doing so well with it, and it is helping to strenghen her little legs.

We are also working with her to go from her knees into standing by slightly tilting her to the side she brings one knee up and then stands. She wants to stand up so badly that she is trying to get her leg up by herself, which of course is the point.