Celebrating Milestones

Every child, has milestones. The first smile, the first time they roll, sit up, laugh, walk, the list goes on.  Seeing my babies smile for the first time, roll for the first time, walk for the first time, has always been a happy and exciting moment.  It always made me feel proud and happy to see my children growing and learning.

After having Stella the way I look at milestones has changed dramatically.  It's the small things, the little milestones that I never even thought of as milestones before having a child who is differently abled.

Fine motor skills, gross motor skills, I am amazed by them!  Not sure what these skills are?  Fine motor skills entail the small, intricate things that your body can do, like picking up Cheerios with your pointer finger and thumb, picking your nose, writing, playing an instrument.  Gross motor skills are all the big movements that your body can do.  Crawling, walking, jumping, moshing in a mosh pit, "dropping it like it's hot" on the dance floor.

A few months ago, I was at a music class with both Sophie and Stella.  As the girls were singing and dancing, I was watching all the other little kids and smiling at how much fun they were having.  A little baby caught my eye.  She was probably 10 months old and was pulling herself up to stand.....against a WALL!

A wall, people! 

She had nothing to hang on to but the flat, smooth wall and yet there she was pulling herself to stand against it.....and she made it look easy!!!  My first thought, after feeling a pang of envy, was "now those are some good gross motor skills!"  The strength she had to have in her core and her legs to be able to pull her cute chubby little body up!  Before having Stella, those thoughts would have never crossed my mind.

Teeny tiny minuscule milestones that I never even considered a milestone a few years back are now celebrated with screams of delight!

For the longest time we worked with Stella to show her how to pick up a ball, move the ball with her arm, and then let go of the ball into an object (like a container or toy).  Not a big deal right? That should be easy. I have learnt that these movements are in fact very complex and can take some time to master.  So when Stella finally mastered it.......CE-LE-BRATE GOOD TIMES ...COME ON! (sing while you read this, makes it sound way better)  I was over the moon with excitement!  Who wouldn't be? After seeing your child, work on this movement over and over and over...to finally achieve that milestone...

Powerful.


Have you ever pointed your finger at someone, or something?  Yes??  It takes some serious fine motor skills to be able to bend three fingers, then have your thumb on top of one of these bent fingers.  But wait, you must then leave your index finger UP!!!  Not work for you, but for Stella, this took her a bit of time to figure out.  Now?  Well now she is a pointing genius!! She points at everything!

CE-LE-BRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON (don't forget to sing while you read!)

Two small, minuscule milestones have been HUGE, MASSIVE, THRILLING milestones for this here momma.



Putting a medicine dispenser into a coffee cup. Just working on her fine motor skills, no biggie.



The big milestone that I am quite honestly waiting on with baited breathe is seeing Stella take her first step, unassisted, all by herself.   Yes, of course I want to see her walk, but the first step, the most important step, this is what I am most looking forward to seeing.  Once this is accomplished, it will just be a matter of time before she is walking and then running away from me.

I can see that she is not far from this momentous event and when it happens I plan on singing (CE-LE-BRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON) and dancing and posting a video on facebook. 

But in the meantime I will enjoy her taking her time (even though sometimes I would reeeeaaally love it if she wouldn't) and cherish the adorable little leg, shuffle crawl thing that she does.



Stella's leg shuffle crawl. The fastest in the West!





PS. Usually it takes me about a week just to type up one blog post.  I type, retype, edit etc.. until I think it is perfect and then I pulish to my blog.  So I began this post last week.  Today while Stella's aide and I were chatting, lil miss Stella took THREE steps unassisted!! I cried, screamed (but forgot to sing!) and clapped with much excitement.  She took us both by surprise so sadly I did not get it on video.  But have no fear, once I capture her taking steps, you will see it for sure!!!