Busy Busy

 When you see a photo of Noa like this - pushing her shopping cart merrily down the hallway - it's hard to believe that she is anything less than your ordinary kid on the run. On one hand it's really cool to see her clearly enjoying herself and looking so wonderfully average and independent. On the other, it's kind of a strange shadow or fantasy... which I know sounds kind of depressing, but I don't mean it that way. I have dreams in which Noa is running or talking or looking at me, and this photo sort of reminds me of those. And she is doing great - making a ton of progress and this little cart (with an old stage weight on the bottom) is big fun. I certainly don't mean to dismiss what you're seeing here as being anything less than amazing, especially considering the fact that 6 and half years ago they weren't even sure she'd ever be able to sit up by herself!

And this morning Noa and I walked all the way down the swings in our building with her only holding one hand - which was huge. Even with the cart, she is really putting a lot of her energy into holding herself up with her arms and her abs. But walking one-handed makes her really take control of her legs, which is much more difficult for her. We had some rather dramatic mommy-grabbing moments and a few tumbles (she is good at rolling over to land on her butt, but not so good at putting out her hands). But overall she made it and was very proud - AND I could tell she was really doing most of the work because my shoulders weren't killing me (until I had to hoist her into the tiny toddler swing!)

Noa has also been working hard on communication. Learning to sign please and sign different food flavors (until recently food came in two flavors: same and different). She loves doing the alphabet, so I'll try to video that later.

All of this new stuff has led to some frustration and confusion. She learns something that she thinks is a sign, but it isn't, and we can't figure out what she is trying say... that's really hard. But we've seen this place before. She has a burst of learning and is over-joyed as her language catches up with her impulses, but then there are those places where signals get crossed. And almost as quickly as she learns to express herself more fully, she discovers new impulses that she can't express - and that is frustrating too. Ultimately it's a good thing when she gets to this place because we know a burst of learning will follow. But in the moment, it's a challenge (some head hitting, and hitting us - which is new, she finally figured out that hitting herself doesn't actually hurt us... which I guess it good?)

And as the final photo of this post demonstrates - learning and being frustrated and learning some more is exhausting!