Holly's Big Adventure

We had a great day today. It was Joel’s first day back to work, so it was long and we missed him a lot. In fact I had to get up and out of bed at… 9:15 YUK but that’s ok, Holly was in a very cheerful mood and had a lot of smiles for me. We ate breakfast, Prunes and Bananas for Holly and by 11:00 she was ready for a nap. I wanted her to be rested for her session with Katie today.

Katie brought a new toy for Holly, it was a fun Tunnel. At first, in order to get Holy used to it she simply put it over her like a ring and let her sit in the circle (it was bound shut) and then once she examined it she opened one side which formed a half circle. Holly was intrigued by this. Slowly Katie would put a toy inside and Holly would go and get it for her until finally she was crawling into it to get the toys and comfortable. Then she was ready for the full effect. We opened the tunnel all the way and to Katie’s surprise Holly was a very brave girl and she went inside and crawled to the other side chasing after a toy we put inside, and of course to get to her Daddy smiling on the other side.

Holly does this adapted circle scoot crawl and takes numerous breaks and sits. So Katie thought this would “force” her to crawl more in a straight line. And since it was round when she sat up she would be wobbly and have to balance herself. Also it would be hard to scoot inside the Tunnel. Finally to make it more challenging once she mastered crawling into and out of the tunnel she put a blanket and later a pillow inside that she would have to crawl and climb over and navigate to build her strength, balance and crawling skills. She aced it and did wonderful.

In fact.. Katie taught her so well, and in just one afternoon, that she decided to explore the entire house today. I am posting three video’s to show all of you Holly’s Big Adventure. It has been a while since I have posted a crawling update so I thought this would be good. Right after her session with Katie after we put the Tunnel away she was crawling “normally” This also “forced” her to raise her head more and look forward when crawling and she was holding her head up higher.. but by the time evening came (around 9:30ish) when we took these video’s she was moving fast, as she learned she could get far, but falling back on some of her old movements.

We hoped the exploration and crawling would tire her out, but alas it was a two nap day. I tried to get her down at 3:00 after Katie’s session but she resisted, so we played some more and then at her 4:15 bottle she fell fast asleep, so much so that when I thought to wake her at 5:30 she looked at me, grabbed her blanket turned and went back to sleep. Twice in fact she peeked her eyes opened and recuddled herself into a cozy position, so finally at 6:00 I picked her up and changed her. She wasn’t please to be awake at first but before I knew it she was stretching and wiggling on the changing table waking slowly. In fact she sat in my lap and drank a 6 ounce bottle and slowly woke up over the next 30 minutes. So when bedtime came she was tired, very tired, but she resisted. We did get her to bed by 11:00 so it wasn’t too bad. I think tomorrow will be a 1 nap day since we don’t have a therapy session. Tonight we had Pork Chops for Dinner, made on the now infamous grill. They were yummy.

Holly’s Big Adventure Part 1 - I’m Off (0:39)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ngk1U5woEc

Holly’s Big Adventure Part 2 – Distractions (1:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV11O7MtvU0

Holly’s Big Adventure Part 3 – New Destination (2:21)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwnu3PGUC2A

Here are some pictures from the weekend, as you can see Rockband was a Christmas gift for the whole family. This weekend and past week we also had fun Skyping with my sister. We got to talk with her on New Year’s while she was in the Country of Georgia, and Holly could see her on Screen. We chatted again when she got back to Azerbaijan, but only she got our video. She loved watching Holly play while we chatted and it was fun to catch up and see her.

Over the weekend we also set up the new Hummingbird feeder we got for Christmas. Joel saw a Hummingbird in our yard so we hope this will get them to stay, Holly liked looking at it because it was shiny. We also attempted to make an Ornament for Holly’s First Christmas, but I am not sure it worked very well. As the “Dough” Dried it kinda melted, it is still drying but my guess is perhaps it will at least come out like a print, but I might have to go and get some real ones made at the Ceramic Studio.