First we are selling the house, so I have been spending a lot of time cleaning whilst Sally has been asleep and an equivalent amount of time trying to discourage her from strewing toys all over the place. I laugh at the suggestion that ten month olds enjoy taking things out of boxes and putting them back - my ten month old considers a stacked pile of cups or a box full of things an afront to her authority and will destroy it as quickly as possible and with maximum coverage of the living room. If you tentatively suggest she might like to put it back she looks at you as if you are mad. The good news is that the obsessive clearing and cleaning has paid off and we have a buyer! As I write we are waiting to hear back from the vendor we are trying to buy from, but our fingers are tightly crossed for success!
Sally has learned a new skill. When we read her Dear Zoo we always roar on the lion page. She spent an afternoon with my Mum and by the time I got back Mum had taught her to roar when you ask her "what noise does a lion make?". Now whenever the lion box appears in Dear Zoo she roars before you even say anything! I've spent a few days building on this as she clearly really enjoys being able to answer a question and especially loves it when we roar back! We've now added what noise a cat makes, to which she responds with a sort of strangulated but recognisable 'ow' sound. She is such a clever girl! Her understanding of 'give Mummy the' has matured now as well - she now knows the words for more objects so if she drops her toothbrush into the bath and you ask her to give it back she looks around for it to hand it to you. She understands 'sit down' and 'stand up' and 'open your mouth', too - all useful!
Her walking continues to improve. After a tantrum at the playground after I wouldn't let Sally walk off the end of the slide I decide to give in and get her some shoes. I really wanted to wait as I know barefoot is best - but she wants to walk outside! It took me a while to hunt down a shoe shop as I wanted to go somewhere that would both measure and fit her shoes properly and would have a wide range of options to choose from. I settled on a place in Letchworth which turned out to be very good, so I was pleased. The choice was a bit limited as a result of her thin and slightly funny-shaped feet, but we got some that weren't too frilly and ridiculous. She is a 3F and in Start-rite.
Her skills are now at the point where she cruises at speed around the house and as long as she is not thinking too much about what she is doing can manage quite a long unaided walk. As of this week she can walk to something, stop, bend down, stand up and walk off again, which is great. She does lack confidence however which is really frustrating. She is getting better at falling over but can still be completely put off even just by sitting down suddenly - which is ridiculous because she can now sit from standing all by herself. She is generally a lot less frustrated (and therefore a lot more pleasant to be with) but still gets in a stress every time it doesn't go to plan.
I think if she had more faith she'd be walking properly by now. I've been taking her outside in her new shoes to get her used to walking where no furniture is available, with mixed results. Occasionally she will happily be left standing and then toddle over to you, but mostly she looks around at the wide open space and clings desperately to my legs crying, refusing to be left alone. It is good for falling practice however. It sounds mean but by letting her fall over on the grass where she can't possibly hurt herself she is learning to be less bothered about crashing down, and more importantly how to save herself when she does. So although I get quite frustrated with her clinginess ultimately I think good things are happening.
The newest trick to try is that I have bought her some tradition reins to wear for outside walking. I put them on her earlier and she managed to walk the entire length of the house without touching anything. Although I didn't have to support her with them the feeling of the straps obviously gave Sally a sense of security and she thought I was holding her. Whether this will work long-term or not I don't know, but we shall see!
0 comments:
Post a Comment