sitting.

at a few days shy of eighteen months, shilo can sit alone.  the effort it took to force her convince her to sit makes me want to throw a little party.  i'll save that for walking though.
perhaps you are trying to navigate the same thing, and are wondering what finally convinced her to sit.  this parenting the most stubborn toddler a child with special needs in not for the faint of heart.
one night, i sat shilo on those very letter tiles she's sitting on in this photo.  they are foamy/rubber.  not hard.  not super soft.  but soft enough.  i sat her up, and didn't catch her when she decided to fall back.  it was a tough love moment.  jason was certain it was the worst thing he'd ever witnessed.  but, the next day is when she showed off her mad sitting skills for her therapist.  and she has continued to get better and better since then.  she still gets mad about it sometimes.

and we giggle a little bit at the level of drama involved.  and i remind her over and over again that she is more than capable of leaning over and rolling out of the position.  she eventually remembers and does it.  it may sound a little unorthodox.  this willful little, has to be outwilled though.  and if we rush in to rescue her all the time, it will increase the length of time it takes her to do each new skill.  i think God knew that shilo needed a tough mama who knew when to push, and when to scoop her up and snuggle her.  and He knew that shilo would push that whole, 'i need saved look' to the extreme.

i see you are all done sitting shilo.  feel free to sit yourself back up and hold up your arms to ask mama to pick you up.  this, however.  this, will get you a camera in your face.  because this mama doesn't respond to drama.  ask your big sister.  drama gets you sent to your room until you pull yourself together. and it gets you left in the middle of the kitchen floor until you sit yourself up and use your words.  we love you.  but our standards will not be lowered.

in all seriousness, we are very proud of our little.  abigail even signs to her, 'good sitting' over and over again.  our days are shifting towards as much time sitting as there is laying.  and, i have become slightly scared of what our next milestone is.  probably time to start thinking about baby-proofing.  we never had to do this for our big.  all it took was a 'don't touch that' and she was compliant most of the time.  i don't think that will be the case-between shilo's strong will and abigail often singing, 'go shilo, go' when she is being naughty.  *sigh*  for now, i will enjoy her sitting.