Saturday 28 September 2013

Music Therapy for Em

We took Emily to music therapy today at Nordoff Robbins. The venue is a building next to the BRIT school in Croydon, which is kinda cool.

It was a half hour session with an Irish guy called Jimmy and he said afterwards that he could tell she was quite musical (nursery rhymes aside). When he changed key, she changed with him for instance. Apparently she also plinked away on the piano a little as well.

Afterwards, we were in Toys R Us and I felt like putting this to the test. I went over to the keyboards with Em and turned one on, playing a few notes. Em managed to plunk out a random tune as well. Not the Mozart I was hoping for, but she didn't shy away like she does when I approach her with my guitar in hand.

All in all, it seemed like a very positive experience and I'm looking forward to Em exploring music more and more over the coming sessions.

Monday 9 September 2013

Weekend with Emily (and attempts at dressing)

A slight snafu with a passport meant that Sue and Holly headed off on holiday to the Netherlands without Emily and I on Friday.
Emily enjoying a babyccino at Costa.

This actually worked out quite well, as I think Emily was feeling a little neglected and in Holly's shadow. Being away from her might be good (even if only for a few days) as she would have my attention 100%.

I've not been so hugged or interacted with by her in such a long time. We did a few errands together over the weekend, went to a couple of parks and even had Sunday morning "coffee" together at Costa.

One thing I'd been trying to get Emily to do over the weekend was to put her own nappy and trousers on. She can do shoes and (to some extent) tops over the head. She managed her trousers by herself on a couple of occasions. These successes were met with smiles, thumbs up and high fives. On at least one successful attempt, I actually got a smile and eye contact from an elated Emily.

It wasn't all fun though. There were a number of attempts where she started but go distracted by ... anything. If it wasn't so tragic, it would be comic watching someone try to clothe themselves with absolutely no interest in it, to the point of staring aimlessly out the window.

Not only do I have to pick my battles, I have to pick where I play them out.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

New School Year!

It's hard to believe that Emily is entering her third year of structured school activity.
Emily on day one of school.

She was in Dragonflies from 2011-2012, Red Squirrels at Rainbows from 2012-2013 and now she's an Orange Tiger at Rainbows for the 2013-2014 school year.

She arrived home today and gave me a massive hug and cuddle, before running off to her trampoline.

Not really sure what this year will have in store for her, or what advances / breakthroughs there will be (if any).

Her class has the addition of another girl (of the three girls in the school, two are Orange Tigers) so it will be interesting to see if there's any female bonding at all.

Watch this space.