'Bouncing'

One night last week we had satay chicken for tea, and the boys wanted popadums with it. I placed to bowl of them in the middle of the table and next thing Veronika was eating one. I have offered them to her before, but she has never eaten it. She loved it, and she had 2 more. I was so surprised that she was actually eating something, made a nice change. But of course it didn’t mean that she would eat tea the next night, or the night after that, or even the night after that!

Veronika continues to learn new signs. Her favourite at the moment is ‘bouncing’. Veronika loves to go on the trampoline. She sits at the sliding door, points outside and signs ‘bouncing’. Click below to see Veronika signing ‘bouncing’

After Veronika had been on the trampoline for 30 minutes yesterday, I continued to ask her if she had finished….and she kept shaking her head to say no, then she would sign 'more'....'bouncing'(wont let me upload another video at the moment, so will try again tomorrow)

We saw Veronika’s new Physio last week. We are continuing to work Veronika really hard on standing independently, and trying to teach her to ‘cruise’. She does a little of this in the hydrotherapy pool at St Giles, but on dry land, this is a really difficult skill for Veronika. In the hydrotherapy pool her body is supported by the water, it helps to balance her. She still can’t stand independently in the water, I dream about the day she will be able to, so I don’t have to hold her the whole time we are in the water. I find I need a few extra hands when she is in the water to get her working really hard, as there is so much to do. Keep her feet on the floor for a start, balance her around her hips, without too much support so she is doing the work herself, put the toys just out of reach so she has to move to get to them etc…..If we can get Veronika to start to ‘cruise’ on the furniture at home then we can possibly look at getting her into a walking frame, but 1st she needs to have the strength in her legs, and her left arm(the side with Cerebral Palsy) to support herself

Jordan, my 9-year-old had a friend over today to play, being school holidays. His Mum and I had the chance to have a chat, in between 4 boys aged between 6-9 running in and out. She was saying she is amazed at how well I cope with Veronika’s extra needs. I was trying to explain to her that it’s really not that hard. I know for a fact that Veronika shouldnt of survived her birth, and that I would rather have her than not have her. I find Veronika an absolute delight, she is so easy-going. Most of the day she is happy and content. It’s really hard to explain, but Veronika has taught me so much, not just about her, but about myself…..and I love my 3 kids to the moon and back, and would do anything for them. And if that means taking Veronika to 4-5 Doctors/allied health appointments each and every week, then spending countless hours on top of that at home doing physio, then I will, because Early Intervention will give Veronika the best chance to maximise her potential.

Veronika is a cheeky little girl too, she continually makes me laugh.This afternoon during her therapy session at home, we were doing her shape puzzle. She was deliberately putting pieces in the wrong place(square in rectangle, circle in square) and then she would crack up laughing and clapping. Was SO cute, and yes I didn’t video it, as I was keeping her balanced as this was a ‘standing at her little table exercise’.