Bigger and better adventures

Talia has been having some extra physiotherapy to help with her gross motor skills and in the past week it seems to have really come together for her.

At 6 months corrected she was able to sit, lean forward, and roll from front to back, but then she failed to make any significant progress for several months.  She couldn’t move out of the sitting position, or off her back.  At 9 months corrected we started the physiotherapy, and within weeks she had started turning to the side, an important first step in being able to shift her weight from her bottom (while sitting) onto all fours (ready for crawling).

Now, at nearly 11 months corrected she has finally started to pull herself up (not successful yet but definitely trying), she is rolling from back on to her front, she pulls herself onto all fours from both a sitting and a lying position, she is starting to rock on her knees and looks like she will crawl very soon.

Today I held her hands and she was able to take a few wobbly steps with very little assistance.  We have her 12 month review coming up in another 5-6 weeks and suddenly I feel confident that we won’t be a complete disaster in the gross motor skills department after all!

I have lots of warm fuzzy mummy feelings today.

The rolling was definitely not a fluke - she was practicing it again today, and just before dinner she rolled over and over and over across the floor.

Woo hoo! So far she’s tried slithering, bum shuffling and rolling.  Crawling cannot be far away… fingers crossed.

At the start of January Talia figured out (with a little help) how to roll from front to back.  We assumed it wouldn’t take long before she rolled from back to front.  We were wrong.  Rolling has never been a form of locomotion, or even a tool to reach items only a little way out of her reach.  (Heavens, that’s why one has staff!)

Four months later, the penny has finally dropped.  Yesterday I found her on her tummy in the cot (I always put her down on her back), and this evening she rolled from back to front on the floor as we ate dinner.

Better late than never! And yet again we can rejoice in a little milestone that I imagine many parents just take for granted.

As another blogging mother I know said recently, there’s an advantage in being lazy. By the time you eventually write a post, there is so much more news to put into it!

Well, since the excitement of Talia sitting by herself a few days before Christmas, we’ve had all kinds of excitement.

• the sitting just gets better and better
• she can now say da da (dai dai)
• she has been in a swimming pool for the first time
• she is grasping objects with both hands
• she held a bottle by herself for a time while drinking from it
• she is using one object to hit another object (usually the formula tin, which makes a good drum)
• she has discovered her lower legs and reaches down to hold her shin/ankle
• her shrieking volume has increased (ouch)
• and now, she can roll over from front to back!

At last, a way to avoid the dreaded tummy time - roll straight over onto your back!! I think she would have done it sooner if she had figured out how to move her arm out of the way. Daddyfeatures showed her how to do it 2 days ago and now she remembers the trick and puts it into practice.

We are officially declaring the last two weeks as “wonder weeks”. So much change in such a short time, it is just fantastic to watch Talia’s development happening before our eyes.

Happy new year everyone - 2008 is going to be just amazing.