Wednesday, May 8, 2013

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.

3 comments:

  1. Way to go, Shilo...and family!! You are indeed a rockstar, little Chica! Your mama is pretty fantastic as well :)

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  2. Aw... she's a cute little drama llama. :)

    Kara

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  3. Congratulations on Shilo's milestone! I'm reminded of our friends'daughter, H. She is nonverbal at the age of 13. H was also a stubborn little thing...still can be, just not little any more. They thought she would never walk. She had ankle braces when little. H has been enrolled in public school, and my sister-in-law is now her 8th grade special ed teacher. H loves her "papers", carrying around a stack of coloring book pages she prints off the internet, shuffling through them while she waits for any action that's required of her. She also uses an iPad, before that a VOX, I think it was called. The iPad has opened up communication for her. It has appeared that H is quite low functioning, and to some extent, she is. But the iPad has shown that she has more in her head than she's been able to express. She's much less frustrated than she was when she couldn't get people to understand.

    My SIL requires H to say "Good morning" on her pad each day at school. H saw my SIL at a sports banquet and immediately used her pad to say "good morning"...as she knew she was expected! Never mind that it was evening.

    H has come a very long way. Our small community all knows H and her family, so they get a lot of support. Having H as part of our community has helped all of us consider things we hadn't been faced with before (very small community!) She's made us all better people for showing us the importance of every individual. H didn't seem to like me for quite awhile, but I'm pleased to say she now smiles and responds a bit to me.

    My friend, H's mom, is a very busy, involved and important advocate for special needs. She helps organize the area Buddy Walk, serves on various boards, is an Ag in the Classroom rep, does much for her church...I don't know how she does it all, but she does!

    Just thought you might like to read about an older child with challenges to overcome, like Shilo.

    Nancy in the Midwest

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