Cuddles

Every morning when I go to get the Enya out of bed she leans in to me and gives me a big cuddle. During the day at odd intervals Enya will come crawling up to me, pull on my trouser legs until I lift her up and give me another cuddle. If I sit down on the floor she crawls onto my lap and pulls herself up into standing and gives me.. you got it another cuddle. I love this constant stream of affection, I used to always bug my family for hugs as a kid and it looks like Enya takes after me in this regard. Ciara on the other hand until recently expressed her affection with open mouthed kisses or by biting our noses, however in the last week she is also starting to lean in and rest her head on my shoulder for a quick cuddle. Double joy!!

Z has taught Enya a new trick: he asks "how big is Enya?", then she lifts both hands above her head and starts to laugh.It doesn't make a difference who asks the question she always responds with the same action. Too cute! We've tried it with Ciara as well, but she just doesn't get it yet.

For all that Ciara has always been the more vocal of the two, I have the feeling Enya will talk first. She is trying so hard to communicate, she will earnestly babble for minutes at a time pausing every so often to wait for a response from us. Ciara on the other hand started calling mama last week and appears to be slowly realising that when she says those syllables, she gets a quicker response.

I forgot to say we took part in another physio course this week, the good news is when I spoke to the physio she agreed that the neurologist had been talking out of her hat with regards to Enya's "tone issues". During the assessment the usual points were noted (poor abdominal muscle coordination leading to thoracolumbar lordosis and reduced pelvic stability) but a new point was asymmetry of the legs in standing and crawling. I had noticed the asymmetry myself (she stands with her left leg out to the side) but I'd thought that was just Enya's quirk, I guess not. Once again it was stated that Enya would not qualify for physio if she were not already in treatment as her gross motor skills are within 2 months of her actual age (12 and a half months to 13 and a half months). However as she has been in physio all her life pretty much, they would like to continue until the asymmetry is gone i.e. until she is walking at least. I know I've complained often enough about physio and I'm still not convinced that Bobath wouldn't offer extra stimulus but I will continue Vojta with Enya as long as necessary and by that I mean as long as I can see a need for it. A good thing during the assessment though was I saw Enya cruising on furniture for the first time ever. She has been standing for a while but doesn't walk along the furniture, she prefers to crawl the 2 steps to change position.

And lastly for today, Enya has finally got her vaccination after being cancelled twice. Unfortunately they said we've got to come back in 4-6 weeks for another set for both girls!