What spoon? But I side-sit!

I wonder if any of you other Moms have experienced this?  Olivia had gotten to be quite good with her spoon and self-feeding, and then suddenly lost interest.  She sees the spoon in front of her with food on it and her hand becomes limp and she just has no interest in holding it and taking it to her mouth. She also has lost interest in throwing her spoon.  That is progress!  She will hold her spoon and take it to her mouth and put it down nicely on the tray or in an empty bowl when we are just practicing. But for the real thing, she is not interested.  She is doing beautifully controlling her own straw cup. She picks it up off the tray and drinks and sets it down nicely on the tray.  She is typically not throwing cups, spoons and bowls off the edge and at the wall any more!  Praise God!  She is self-feeding with her hands beautifully.  And will throw a piece off the edge of the tray when she no longer wants that particular food choice.  She does know the correct sign for "all done". She just picks and chooses when she uses it!

Olivia is accepting being put in "side-sitting" more and more these days and this is leading to getting in and out of sitting the right way more often. Before she always used the unapproved "Chinese Splits Method" which does make me cringe given I have worked so hard on the "pre" in and out of sitting exercises.  But I do now see that my work was not in vain, as she is beginning to accept doing it the right way.  I have a hard time feeling the urge to curtail all of her "illegal" moves, because I don't want her to stop doing everything altogether. But I spend lots of time trying to "catch" her before she does in the wrong way and get her doing it the right way with perhaps Olivia feeling as if she had done it all by herself the correct way.  Olivia's podiatrist talked about how important HIP issues are for people with Ds. We have worked from Day 1 on protecting he hips. I hope it pays off.  I heard recently of a child having surgery for hip dysplasia.  God willing we won't go there.

We work and we work with our kids, but they are independent human beings. I try to remember that and respect her first and foremost. Well! On second thought!  I LOVE her first!  That is what they told us in the NICU! Love her!  All the rest will follow suit!  And I think they are correct!

Look Mom! No hands!

Olivia is getting a bit full of herself!  She thinks she is the world's best self feeder.   NOT!!!  I would call this stage of self feeding the supported spoon stage.  Because if we are not keeping our fingers on the end of the spoon, she is redecorating the walls with her dinner.  Some meals she is really interested in self feeding. And then other meals she is very lethargic and apathetic about the whole endeavor.  I would have to say that is par for the course for Olivia in learning something new.  So as the doctor says, as long as Olivia keeps progressing in typical Olivia fashion, then there is nothing to worry about.  In some number of months we will be amazed at her ability to sit and feed herself without us supporting the spoon or fork. She is very good at feeding herself with her fingers no matter how mushy the food.

I am working on Dexterity with Olivia.  We are trying to isolate the index finger.  Kids with Ds tend to point with their thumbs. So we are trying to get her index finger activated to point instead.  I have pulled as many toys out as I could find that she can poke her index finger into.  The best thing is a wood bead block. She loves to put her index finger in both ends of the bead block and move it around.  She also will hold one bead in each hand, with her index finger in the hole and bang them together! Banging is good fine motor work at this point!

Again, thank you to everyone who supports us in raising Olivia!  Olivia has been a great people filter! The great amazing wonderful people shine like stars, and then (sadly) we also see the less than fabulous people disappear into the wood work.   It takes special people to appreciate someone else's special needs child!  Thanks for being a special wonderful sign of God's gracious goodness in our life!