Hannah is still winning. Mama still whining. Nobody got a black eye from being clubbed with the cast yet. Success!
We have seen Hannah do many things with her right hand that she would never have done had lefty been available to her. Obviously the real measure of the technique's success will come when we see what stays with her later, but she is racking up experiences of Righty getting out there and doing things so I am sure neuronal pathways are being laid for future experiences to further the neuronal transmission, and so on. Lord Honey tried to get me to do something the other day and I said "no, I'm rewiring" because I was holding Hannah and doing something or other getting Righty in the game. We've been using the Lauri peg board shape sorter, and I think Hannah knows all her colors and shapes, the tricky bit is picking up a dropped shape that hits the floor, while getting one off the sofa is fairly accurate. The first few days she wouldn't try, she might just club it with her cast, and now she'll work at it, usually til she gets it. She is turning pages more in books we read, which I've been moving her hand to do for 18 months, but now I tell her to turn it and turn it she will (board books, obviously). She normally carries Ken around, but Barbies are heavy enough that you have to hug them, our better doll figures are the Playmobil people and the wooden doll family members you get at the crunchy toy stores who can be grabbed around the body or at least the feet by a hand as small as Hannah's. Our real failure is food, she will not make an effort to self feed with Righty. At first I could get sandwich chunks in there but now she squawks to be fed like a baby bird, and it makes her angry to be fed at the day care, possibly she doesn't want to look babyish with her friends? So I told them to bribe her with chocolate milk, because I am full of awesome parenting techniques like that. Sometimes I get a broccoli floret in her fist and she'll eat that, if it is well buttered. She can't hold her bottle, and her sippy cups are all too big. We get some success with the sippies with handles and she holds it with Righty and rests the weight on her casted arm, since it is so much stronger.
If anyone gets here just about to do this, or is thinking of it, get in touch with me and I'll give some tips if I can, and maybe a care package like sweet Mo sent. See the beads, Mo? I wish I had more shirts with big sleeves, but baby's big sister is only slightly bigger so we struggle even to find jammies and shirts.
Right now, I'm glad we are doing it, but when she lies about draped across furniture looking wiped out from carrying ten percent extra body weight all day, I really look forward to taking the durn thing off. And I am glad no one has a black eye. Knock on wood. The girl has a wicked left hook
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Surfing Sunday 5.02
3 years ago
10% is huge. That's like being pregnant. Well - you know what I mean. I was exhausted, too, when I was carrying that much extra.
ReplyDeleteWe spent a month with Ada in a cast. Feeding was our main success. We placed her food on her high chair tray and let her be. She fed herself. If the kid is hungry enough, she'll feed herself.
ReplyDelete"The Pink Glove," Jonah's name for Ada's cast, was a mighty weapon. We had to teach her not to swing it in anger. We also learned to duck. My wife took the worst shot to the head. It was an accident during play, but it sounded like a baseball hit off of a wooden bat.
She's doing well, mom. Keep up the good work.
Love the little head bob at the end of the video!
ReplyDeleteMy kids go crazy over those beads. The drive me insane.