Talking and Sitting

Cedar has seen the incredibly nice people at our infant learning program twice now, and things are going well.  She is behind on her speech, but it doesn't seem like it is anything she won't figure out eventually.  The speech therapist gave me some great tips on getting her to try new words, and it is already working.  Although I'm not entirely sure that she really needs any of this, it does force me to sit down and focus on my quiet third child.  With everything else that is going on, I realized that I just don't spend much time doing toddler things with her.  We read books for older kids, play with older kids, and spend a lot of time shuttling older kids around to their activities.  Even when she plays, it's often under Molly's direction.  Bryce got out some baby board books the other day, and she was pointing to things are repeating the simple words.  So I think this will help all of us in some way and can only be a good thing.

Two of the therapists were at my house this morning, and one of them saw Cedar sitting on the floor, like this:

She asked me, "does she always sit like that?"  And honestly, I wasn't sure.  Just not on my radar.  But I said "I think so."  And apparently this is a THING.  It is bad for their knees and causes bad hip development, and kids do it because they lack trunk control that they really should have by now, and I should really discourage it.  And then she sat like that about fifty more times, and the lady kept giving me this look and having me straighten out her legs.  And although these people are so totally sweet and are awesomely coming to my house and working with my daughter, I kind of wanted to show them this picture of me that is hanging above Cedar's bed.

 
I mean, I am way, way older than Cedar here.  I remember sitting like this as a kid.  I remember grown-ups commenting on it and telling me how flexible I would be (which did not come true).  And I think I turned into an adult with decent trunk control.  I googled toddler sitting, and immediately got all these hits about this very thing and why it is bad.  But I'm just going to have to go with my instincts on this one, and not add this to my list of things to worry about. 

Also, school is out!  Summer vacation!  Despite a bout with stomach flu that knocked a couple of us out earlier in the week, I am loving it.  Ask me again in a couple of weeks I suppose, and I may have a different answer.  But summertime in Juneau makes all that winter worth the while.  Enjoy.

Ballet

It is 10:30 p.m. and the house is finally quiet after Molly's big dance recital of the year.  There is a lot of formality to the whole thing, with dress rehearsals and make up instructions and a big, dark stage with a "curtain that opened all by itself!"  But Molly is in the very youngest group of dancers, and there was one little girl that refused to even go on, and another whose hair piece fell out on stage and cried (loudly) through the whole routine.  It was not so much dancing as just an experience.  One that most of the little girls, Molly included, found incredibly exciting.

There were older girls in the recital too, though.  Much older.  And they were really dancing, leaping through the air, lithe and incredibly graceful.  They were beautiful.  I was never a dancer growing up, was never graceful or lithe or glided anywhere.  And it's kind of hard to imagine a child of mine ending up like that.  But you just never know.  Dance on little girl.  Dance on.