Kayla has had a little rougher start than Lyssa. She was the smaller by half an ounce, which doesn't seem like much.....unless you are a very small preemie. The drugs had a bigger impact with Kayla and the doctors told me this is often the case with the lower, or "A" baby. Things such as fine motor skills and balance had to be worked on a little longer. Thankfully, through therapy, she has caught up in nearly everything that she should be doing for her age. She can run, throw a ball, stand on her tip toes and most importantly, to dance! When we started with a therapist, she couldn't hold a ball, much less throw it. Her fingers wouldn't work together so we had to teach her how to pinch her fingers together to hold an object. Marshmallows are very good for this so we spent a lot of times with mashmallows, cheerios, and green beans. Most parents don't even notice the day their child learns to grasp small objects.....it was a major thing at this house.
One day, we had been working with cheerios and Kayla was really getting frustrated and dropping everything. Lyss reached over from her high chair and fed Kayla from her bowl. We've really had to work hard not to give in to her. It would be so much easier to feed her or just carry her when she falls but instead, we have to walk away and let her slowly pick up those bits of food or pick herself up.
She has the bigger vocabulary and strangely, "turkey" was one of her first words. For days, everything was turkey. Now she has moved on to "duck" as her favorite word. Hummingbirds, Blue Jays, eagles....they're all ducks to Kayla. Another favorite thing is to "read" to us. She spends a lot of time reading her favorite books to whomever will sit under her. Some day we hope she learns English so we can understand what she is reading.
