Monkeying Around

Now that I've found a way to connect you all to video (even if I can't post it directly on the blog), I'll try to post some of the stuff I've been meaning to post for a while. But here is a nice clip from yesterday -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cswo992u4Pk

Check out out Noa looks from side-to-side to find the Monkey's face. She has been doing more and more of this. I suspect she is "seeing" something, but as you can see the Monkey's head is always touching her so she can follow it that way - AND she gets that the head (or face) is something to look in the direction of. As simple as that sounds, that's a big deal. After all, where do we get the idea that we should look at a person's face? For us the face gives us important information (identity, but also expression). Blind kids tend to look down (esp. kids like Noa for whom it might be preferable to not have all the visual clutter of looking up which can be distracting). But Noa really gets faces and also turns her face to people more now too. It's actually hard to convey what a big deal that is for us - just emotionally to have her attending to us by turning toward us, it's just a level of interaction that is nice to have - it's a connection even though its not a visual one (if that makes sense).

The other cool thing is that Noa totally made this game up by herself. I just happened to be able to snag the camera and catch it.

FINALLY - WE HAVE VIDEO!!!

Well, sort of.

The video isn't here, it's on YouTube. BUT it's there.

You'll have to cut and paste the link - yes, I'm sure there is a way to create a link, but I'm really truly done with trying to make it happen - and I'm pretty sure it'll be worth a few extra clicks of the mouse to get to see....

Noa's new-found independence: getting into her wheelchair by herself!

http://youtu.be/NYkhUajuc4s

Other new tricks include finding her sit n' spin and getting on and off it by herself and getting out of bed and/or off the couch by herself (luckily she got out of our bed by herself to pick up a stuff animal, she realized that she couldn't reach down to the floor by herself and woke up Daddy to help her). She also likes to have her bin of stuffed animals next to the bed so she can pick which ones she wants by herself. The ones she doesn't want, she throws at the window or, more precisely, at the blinds which makes a very funny and apparently satisfying noise.

Noa is off of school now for a couple weeks before the regular school year starts up - so I'm sure they'll be lots to report. Will I find the time to actually report it? Stay tuned to find out...

Sophisticated Lady

Phew! How nice to shift back into talking about Noa - instead of all the yucky battles that we have to fight (I'm sure there will be more, but right now I'm enjoying a quiet moment).

PLUS there are so many great things to share! Here is Noa listing to Daddy read to her. She really seems to like this particular book: Don Juan by Lord Byron. Yep. She really likes it. But she's always had sophisticated tastes. When she was younger some therapists thought she had no attention span because she had no patience for Mary Had a Little Lamb - the truth is what she really wanted to listen to was Pictures at an Exhibition, or maybe something by The Silk Road Ensemble. I took her to listen to them live when she was about two years old. She did a solo in a family drum circle with them and ended up really hitting it off with them - later she got to try a bunch of their instruments. They were very cool.

ANYWAY - while she has always had very sophisticated taste in some things, she has been way behind the curve in so many things that are just basic kiddie milstones, like putting food in your mouth or rolling over... both of which she did last week all on her own!

While she will eat with a spoon, she has never put food to her mouth with her fingers - or licked food off her fingers. But she has been using some hand lotions with different smells, so I was able to get her finger near her mouth this week when she accidently touched her food (she would never let me put her finger in the food on purpose!) And once it was up there, just a little step to touching her lip and realizing that it was yummy. We got 5 or 6 fingers of food in before she decided she'd done enough, but it was a great start!

Then later that afternoon, she just did a little log-roll all by herself on the way to trying to stand up, which was great. Tummy time used to be the most tragic time of all for her and she always hated it; never learned to crawl at all - and while she will occassionally get to hands and knees now, I'd never seen her just roll like that.

Over all, just a lot more self-motivation, which is great but has led to some interesting discoveries as she becomes more adventureous about moving around the apartment. Like the other week when I left her in her play area to take a shower (used to always be a safe bet) and got out my very short shower to find her by the front door, having knocked over an umbrellas stand, playing with a bat. Guess it's time to do that child-proofing other parents are always going on about... hm.