You go girl

Despite my last post about the girls being sick, teething, etc., Hannah has still been making progress with her push wagon and is really getting the hang of it now, as you can see from this clip. What's so exciting is that she's able to really get her feet flat on the floor for the most part, as opposed to walking on her toes. She's so cute about it, too. She always says, "Show Mommy" or "Show Daddy," when she starts pushing the wagon around. She's so proud of herself!

Hannah still resorts back to toe walking and dragging her left foot a bit when she's tired or not feeling great. I guess muscle tone can change all the time, depending on lots of circumstances, so sometimes, like in this video, she is really loose and fluid and other times she's really tight and not so smooth. But the important thing is that she has the capacity to be more smooth in her walking and this bodes really well, I think, for the future. We just need to keep working hard at keeping her stretched and loose and at the same time, building more and more strength.

Go, Hannah, go!

Unpeeling the developmental onion

Seeing Hannah and Isabelle standing up next to each other, moving around the house together, is amazing. I don't know who's more excited: them or us. Hannah has been doing SO great with pushing the wagon (she's a little less interested in the walker but as you can see in the picture, she does tolerate it for a little while). I never thought we'd see this day. For such a long time she was too tentative and cautious and disinterested in doing it, and now we just put her behind it and off she goes!

I think when you parent a child who achieves milestones much slower than other kids their age, you are so much more aware of each individual step in the developmnental process. It is painfully slow and trying on even the most patient of people, but it is also magical and mystical and makes you really appreciate how incredible it is that our bodies and minds can do what they do. With Isabelle, we like all parents and were so excited by each step of her development and cheered her on along the way (we still do!) But with Hannah, it's like a slow-motion version that magnifies all of the separate pieces that must come together in order for her to achieve a motor milestone. And not only do we see each one of those pieces so clearly, but we can also see the ripple affect of that achievement because it has been such a long time coming.

Two specific examples: First and most obvious is the sheer and complete joy the girls express when they are both up and about as they are in this photo. They squeal and giggle and are so incredibly excited that finally they can share the perspective of being upright and standing. But another example unveiled itself to me today while Hannah was pushing the wagon into the dining room. When she got next to the staircase, she stopped and put her hand on the banister, tapped it and said, "What's that?" We walk by those stairs several times a day but always with someone holding her and so she knows what the railings of the banister are, but not from the perspective of someone standing upright and walking by it.

How incredible that she is going to start experiencing her world in a whole new way, and because her language skills are so far ahead of her motor skills, she can tell us what that is like. I am so grateful for the opportunity to watch this all unfold.

Making strides

Here's our girl getting more comfortable with pushing her wagon (you can see Isabelle getting into the act as well). Radio Flyer makes an excellent one for beginner walkers because it is heavy and has little clickers that help the wheels from going too fast. We've had this since the summer and for awhile, all Hannah would do is take a step or two with it and then either it would go out from under her or she would just stop walking and ask to do something else. Then we went through a stage where she would not even want to go near it or any other push toy, and only wanted to walk around holding onto our hands.

Finally about a month ago, she started to really get the hang of pushing it. This video doesn't really do her efforts justice; she can now make it across the length of the house at a pretty good clip without assistance. She drags her left foot and walks on her tiptoes, and it still gets out from under her sometimes, but she's moving forward on her own and that's just HUGE. We're so proud of her!