Gimme a chance.....

Today Jacob reminded me of an important lesson. It's so easy for me to be very cautious with the kids and jump to their rescue prematurely. I remind myself that sometimes you have to fall (physically or otherwise) to grow - to reach your full potential.

Late this afternoon I took the kids outside to enjoy the longer day and sort of sunny weather. Jacob and Lauren were riding their scooters in our driveway around a pattern they created with orange cones. All innocent enough, except Jacob is a daredevil and a whiz on his scooter. As he whipped around on a curve, he splatted to the ground. I ran to him to see if he was OK and he looked up at me from the ground and said "Mom, gimme a chance to shake it off." Well said, son. So, I backed up and he shook it off successfully and was on his way. Not a tear was shed and my tough little man reminded me that I need to give all of them enough room to prove what they are capable of.

In my last post I neglected to mention a huge improvement for us - Taylor is sleeping better again! Finally, she is healthy and sleep has returned to a manageable routine. She still wakes up a 3-4 times a night for her binky, but this I can handle. Eventually we'll have to move past this too, but I'm thankful for the relatively better sleep for all of us. She also has mostly transitioned to one nap a day, instead of two. This helps a bit to plan her day - unfortunately they're still pretty short naps - an hour usually. So, by 7pm she is wiped out. It works out OK, because we can cuddle her and put her to bed, and then cuddle the big kids and put them to bed. 7-8pm is like one big assembly line of PJ's, snack/bottle, stories/cuddles, and finally sleep...ahhh.

Taylor is also doing better at her therapy. Susan has noticed that her tight muscles are much looser now and it really does seem like her sickness (or being over-tired) causes her to revert to her tightened state. We're really hoping for a stretch of health so she can keep making progress. Today, she practiced weight-bearing on all fours. It was awesome to see her in a crawling position - although she is supported. Susan is a resourceful genius - she placed a rolled up towel under Taylor's armpits and held each end of the towel while Taylor was on all-fours. She could help Taylor balance her weight that way. We'll work to get her more comfortable to put progressively more weight on her hands. It's really exciting to start working on a new trick.

I thought I would share pictures that I took tonight - isn't she looking so big? Jacob was my entertainment for her of course - he can make her laugh so quickly. You can't see her teeth, but we'll try to capture those once they get a bit larger;)