August 16: Update on Isla

It's been a while since I've written an update about what Isla is now doing.  So here goes an update, along with some videos.  Let's first talk about the things that she IS doing:

• She is great at communicating without words.  Right now her favorite thing to do is to point and grunt and use different tones of voice, and it is amazing how well she can communicate what she wants this way.  
• She also likes to point at everything in sight and say, "dat" and "dis".  It sounds like she is trying to say "that" and "this" but I'm not sure if that is what she means or not.
• She babbles a lot without many coherent words.  She does say a few words but not always on command...mama or mom and dada.  She says "da" for duck and dog.  The other day I thought she was saying "yuck", and she tries to say bubble by saying "baba."
• She knows some animals sounds:  sheep, cow, lion and elephant. In the video below she does all of them, except she doesn't really do her lion growl very well.   

• She knows some body parts:  nose, fingers, toes and sometimes head.
• She is an expert cruiser.  She can cruise around furniture, walls, anything.  As long as she can hold on to something with at least one hand, she can get just about anywhere.  Look at her, she barely needs any support at all to walk across the room.

• She scoots like a pro as well, though that one doesn't make me too excited.  

I'm sure there is much more I could write about all that she is doing, but I will save it for her 15 month update in a few weeks.  I just wanted to write some positive things before I get to the list of things she is not doing at 14 1/2 months old:

• She is not crawling.  Nowhere close to it.  I'm sure that eventually she will figure out how to crawl...maybe by the time she goes to kindergarten???  She has no interest, and she STILL screams when you try to put her on her stomach or in a crawling position.  I'm determined that all those hours of tummy time we forced on her have backfired, and she now associates that position with screaming and bad feelings.
• She is not pulling up easily.  She is pulling up.  She can pull up on many different things, like the couch and the coffee table and such.  But it is still hard for her and takes a lot of effort on her part.  In physical therapy today, we worked on pulling up a lot.  Shannon says she is just lacking muscle strength in her legs and hips, because she scoots.   The way she scoots doesn't really require much leg muscle work at all.  So those muscles are not developed the way they should be...thus making it hard for her to do things like pull up and walk.
• She is not walking by herself.  I really thought she would get the walking thing more quickly, because she has been so steady and sure on her feet for months now.  She just freaks out when she doesn't have something to hold onto. It often seems like it is more of a confidence problem than a physical problem.  She can stand by herself for a few seconds at a time, but only if she doesn't realize that she is standing by herself.  Once she realizes she isn't holding on, she immediately tries to grab onto something or sit herself down.

Isla is still going to physical therapy once every two weeks.  She is making progress, but it is SO SLOW!  I'm watching babies 6 months younger than her or more who can crawl and run laps around her, and it gets frustrating.  I just keep reminding myself that it could be much worse, and that she will learn all of these things in her own time.