Emily's new transport method - the piggy back

Emily has started to exhibit a strange new behaviour lately.

If she wants to be picked up, she'll normally get in front of you and put her hands up. If you're lucky she'll utter something obvious like "Up" and just make it incredibly obvious she wants to be picked up.

Lately, she's been walking BEHIND me. At first I really didn't get it, until I knelt down to tie my shoe and she hopped on my back.

Ah... penny fully dropped, I realised she's now wanting a piggy back, instead of being picked up in the front. I wonder if she's grown tired of my face and is much happier to look at the back of my head. Or if she sees this position as a happy in-between from the full on sitting on my shoulders.

Whatever the case is, her piggy back is not a proper piggy back in that she has no concept of actually holding on. It's more like riding the bucking bronco at a rodeo, but in this case I'm trying to keep her from falling off.

I discovered last night at Asda that the Emily Piggy Back (EPB) also makes it quite impossible to do any shopping as all available limbs are being used to ensure that Emily stays put.

Conclusion - good for the park, not for the shops.

Portage visit

Shiela from Portage came today to help Sue and I fill out a Disability Living Allowance form.

It took ages, but gave us time to talk to her about various other things about Emily - like why she jumps ALL the time, puts her hands over her ears, whether we should move her to a Sutton council-based nursery, etc.

We also got some more information about the specialty nursery Dragonflies. Apparently most of the kids there at the moment are "graduating" at the end of the school year so there should be quite a few spaces open for new recruits. It really sounded quite exceptional, low distractions, music therapy and hopefully some occupational therapy in the new school year.

It was quite an enlightening meeting, but it seems everytime Shiela comes round, it's quite a decent meetup.

We've also been told that Shiela will be seeing Emily again at least once after she turns 3 (Portage help children up until their third birthday) so it was good news all around.

See Emily play

Image via Wikipedia

When we've collected Emily from Katherine's place, Sue and I feel at quite a loss as to what to do with Emily, stimulation and entertainment-wise. Do we continue play time? Do we let her play by herself? Do we read to her? If we leave her to her own devices, are we being neglectful.

It's a worry, as neither of us want her to grow up thick, but there has to be a limit to teaching children. I'd like to think that Em playing happily with her blocks or turning my Xbox on and off with the remote is stimulating enough.

I guess we'll have to read up some more to make sure our little toddler isn't being mentally stumped.

Round and Round the garden

We have discovered that Emily absolutely loves Round and Round the garden, especially done with the actions. As you're tracing your fingers around her palms, you can see her face tensing up knowing that the "one step, two step tickle you under there" is only seconds away. It's quite a treat to watch and a good way to distract her.

Window dressing

Recently, Emily has taken to staring out the front window as a new favourite activity.

I don't know if she's looking at cars, birds or leaves on the trees, but it seems to placate her. The nice thing is she's doing it without the need for toys or other stimulus, which can only be good for her development.

If I put her anywhere near the loveseat in the window, she stands up turns to face the window and starts to grab at the curtains to get an unfettered look at the outside world.

Of course, like any child, she doesn't like to do this for that long as there's just so much else to do in a day, but she can keep herself busy for about 30 minutes, depending on what's going on outside.

This is probably the one and only time I'm happy to live on a busy main road.

New Year!

Went to my mate Matt's place for New Year's Eve with Sue and Em. 

Matt and his wife Clare have a three year-old called Liam. Thankfully they still had all his toys, high chairs, travel cots, etc. (comes with having all the space you get in Canadian homes). 

Anyway, Em was in seventh heaven with all the toys she could play with and it was quite nice to have her play with a slightly older child, albeit a rather loveable rambuncious three year-old boy.

As parents, we're living on a different plane now - our concerns are different, our attitudes are different and our conversations are different. Sue and Clare chatted about being a parent, we all discussed child care and it was interesting seeing in the New Year, only the second year that Emily has known. I kinda wonder what new things she'll be doing when we see in her third year... walking... talking... potty trained... cursive writing... who knows.