Books

By far, my favorite part of this week was physical therapy on Thursday. Abby did some walking in the gait trainer (walker). We haven't used it too much lately because she hates being in it. Usually all she does is try and turn around or slide out. It's funny because she wants to walk - she just wants to do it herself, which isn't really an option right now. But on Thursday her PT brought out the walker and we strapped her in. She was trying to wiggle her way out until her PT asked if she wanted to walk outside. Sometimes it is so obvious that Abby wants what you are asking about because she will stop whatever she is doing and just get really still (sometimes her eyes get big too). That's what she did when she heard outside. So out we went. Abby did great walking this time. It was fun to watch.

She even did a little off-roading in the grass.

When it was time to go back inside, Abby was quite upset. Apparently she wasn't done being outside. Once she was out of the walker she kept crawling to the door to go back out. She is very persistent, I will give her that!

I tried putting Abby's hair in pigtails again the other day. I left it curly instead of straightening it and I thought it was pretty cute. The back of her hair still hasn't grown in long enough to reach the pigtails, but the front looked cute! She may be too old for pigtails, but I like them.

 Awesome job standing against the wall!

I took this next picture for future blackmail purposes. Whenever we play in Abby's room, Spencer finds her jewelry box and pulls out all the necklaces. For whatever reason, he always pulls out this pink one and puts it on. You should see his face when he gets hold of this wand. When he hears the music his eyes light up and he starts giggling. Hilarious! I showed this picture to Anthony and all he did was shake his head and laugh. Silly Spencer.

Spencer also loves everything about Abby's chair. He has always tried to put various parts of it in his mouth. But now he has discovered that if he stands on the ottoman (which is a very big no no!) he can reach the handle. Oh goodness.

Abby loves books. She was always more interested in reading than she was with playing with her toys. We read to her so much that she had most of her books memorized. She would randomly spout off lines from different books throughout the day. I wish I had a video of her "reading." I can still picture her sitting on the step in our entryway with one of her favorite books. Her all-time favorite was a compilation book that had 4 Clifford the Big Red Dog stories in it. She called it the Emelizabeth book. There weren't very many words that she couldn't pronounce, but Emily Elizabeth was one of them. Piano was another - she called it the panio. Anyway, she would sit with her books and "read" them. She had them perfectly memorized so it really looked and sounded like she was reading them. Some books just had certain lines where she would say the important word, or add her commentary, or look at me with a cute smirk when it was something silly. But it was always the same - every time. She had those reactions assigned to certain spots in certain books. She still loves reading. And I keep waiting for her to just jump in one of these times and say her line. I still read to her quite a bit and it usually isn't a big deal. But Monday was a particularly sad day for me. I like our hectic schedule because it keeps me busy and it keeps me from dwelling on the yuckiness of this whole situation. But on Monday I let it all come to the surface and I had emotions spilling out all over the place. Unfortunately, I still had two kids to take care of and couldn't wallow for too long. While Spencer was napping, I was trying to keep Abby entertained and quiet by reading to her. But I just couldn't get through any of her books without crying. I imagine she is saying those lines in her head, but just can't say them out loud. At least, I hope that's the case. I often wonder if she even remembers those things. There are a lot of little catch-phrases that we repeat around here - things she used to say to us or that we would say to her. And I wonder if she even likes them anymore. She is almost a year older and we are still treating her the way we did when she was 2. What if she has moved beyond those things? She is still a growing, developing child. I hate not knowing what she is thinking, what she wants, what she is curious about, or even what she likes.