We just celebrate Camilas’ second birthday… but we are
celebrating way more than her birthday; we are celebrating her tenacity and
perseverance, her spirit of fight and dedication, after all she is my little
warrior!!!
This last 3 or 4 months I been seen her more determinate and
with all her strength in one single objective: walk; sometimes brake my heart
see my baby dedicating hours and hours every day to make exercises, work so
hard to learn something that should be natural, but I think she understand that
all her hard work soon will give her a lot of satisfactions…
What are we doing to help her? Well beside of her therapies
and classes four times a week, in home we try to take advantage of every
instant to stimulate her and to have a learning experience with each activity,
every game and each moment that she have, and we always do it like a team, I think part of all the
achievements that she have is because the whole family is involve on her learning
and evolution, even Laila how is just four years old, she perfectly knows how
to stimulate her little sister, what kind of toys use for each propose, she
even use terms like fine and gross motor skills!
Little Camila is already 25 months old, and like I mentioned
before, she have al her energy in one think: walk. And she is so close to
success! She already walks for up to one minute all by her self and she even
turn without fall! But she still has to practice a lot before we can say officially
that our little princess walks. One month before her second birthday, seems
like she don’t have anything else in her head but walk! She was practicing her
steps over and over, like if she wants to get it over night!
How ever, the truth is that to get to this point , we had a
whole process, a team work with therapists, her teacher and the whole family, but
specially Camila, because without her determination, and her spirit of fight
and perseverance, I believe all her achievements would take a lot longer…
I also believe that one detonate that make her finally but
all her energy on walk, was incorporating the physical therapy class at the
pool, that is nothing else that walk with
the water up to her waist or chest, and if her feet star floating to much the therapist
but some weights on her ankles. Were hard months for her, hard work and effort
because she have to attend therapies and classes almost every weekday! Plus the
exercise and activities in home even so we always try to make her fun and a
game for her, I know she get tired as much has she enjoy.
Anyway! Here is some of the things that I been doing to help
my daughter with her first steps, without stop doing all the exercises and
activities to promote the crawling because they still give her the strength
that she needs to stand up for example:
KNELLING, after crawling, be able to stand up is not only
the next step, but one of the most important before start walking; we need to
motivate and help them to stand, and also motivate them to be on their knees
the most possible during the play time, like I mentioned before in the post
about crawling; when they are on their
knees, make sure they don’t put any weight on their ankles or butts, at this
point Camila was already crawling and with enough strength to have appropriate
knelling position; so I increase the complexity o the position making sure she
wasn’t putting weight on any furniture or table, specially making sure she
wasn’t putting her tummy against the
table or anything. Example, if she was on her knees playing in the sofa, is ok
having her hand or even arms on the sofa for some support but always have to be
a space between the sofa and her tummy and chest, this way she is getting strength
not only on he abdominal muscles but also she is working on balance, both
skills very necessary to stand up and in the future, walk. So let’s motivate
our baby to knelling each time we see the opportunity.
MASSAGES, I love them not only because the positive impact
in the physical development of our kids, but also in the affective area
massages are a wonderful tool, since my older daughter was born, each time I
change her diaper or after bath time, before sleep, even when she was getting
to noisy in church! I always give her a massage, when possible, I
use baby oil or lotion, in a further post I will talk more about massages, but
you can start with basic circular movements in all the baby body except on her
back bones, but I even massage their
faces, hands, fingers toes, head, everything! You can find more
suggestions about massages in baby magazines or books. The time frame really depends of the baby,
between 5 and 15 minutes. I always try to use the bath or massage time to talk
about the parts or their body or sing a song. And with Camila y try to focus on
her legs and abdominal area, because with the massage I am trying to make her
more aware about those body parts, and invite her to exercise and use those
body parts to gain strength and better control.
EXERCICES; since Camila was new born, I started giving her
some exercises, suggestion of my aunt Doctor and actually she really enjoyed
it. Over the time I increase the length and complexity of the exercises;
looking for more ideas of exercises in books, magazines, pediatrician, therapists,
her teachers… one of our favorites is with a oversize yoga ball, that I really
thing is one of my bigger helpers to get Camila walking; after a brief session
of exercises in the carpet, I sit Camila in the ball and I start moving her in all
directions one at a time center to right, back to center, center to left, back
to center, center to front, back to center and center to back, back to center. 12
repetitions, giving her some support holding her from the legs. If she struggles I hold her from the hips or
even the waist if I have to. After, I
put her belly down on the ball supporting her with my hand on her back and I
roll the ball until her right hand touches the carpet, then I roll the ball
back until her left foot touches the carpet; 12 repetitions and then left hand
and right foot. And repeat but this time with the back in the ball and I
support her with my hand on her chest.
TIP: Normally Camila really enjoys the exercises on the
ball, but when she is not too involved I do half of the repetitions or I try to
do something fun for her like bouncing her on the ball.
STANDING UP; when she
was ready, all by herself she started standing up, at first when she was sitting,
she would hold the end of the sofa or any kind of furniture and pull to stand;
I used to put toys and all kinds of “motivational” objects at the edge of tables,
sofas and chairs to get her more interested to stand up and get the prize. It is
very important to practice this over and over, the objective wasn’t that Camila
stayed standing for long periods of time, at this point the idea was that she
sit and stand as many times as possible, I tried to make sure that she bent her
knees when she stood up or sat down. The
next step once she was a pro in this, was pulling to stand when she was on her
knees, the idea was that she put one foot on the floor and pull to stand; after
she was doing this without difficulty, she started standing up when she was sitting
on the floor, and again pulling on any surface available like a sofa or chair;
the last step, was when she was standing
up without any kind of help or support, even if it was just for a brief moment.
The most important thing here is practice, the more that they practice the
sooner they will learn, and the secret to make our babies practice is
motivation, with your loving words,
claps, songs, toys, books, even food! Anything that you know your baby will
like.
WALKING HOLDING THE SOFA; when Camila was a pro standing,
she started trying to give a few little steps, holding the furniture, at first it
was really hard for her because even when she moved her foot to make the step,
she usually forgot to move the other foot, so she ended going to the side; with
my hands I used to help her to move her legs in the walking motion until she
started doing it by herself, at first very tiny steps, but with time she got
more confidence walking.
WALKER; Important, it has to be a push walker and not the
old fashion types where the child is sitting in the middle; those walkers are
unsafe and even if the child is walking with it, it is not actually exercising
the muscles that the baby needs in order to walk independently like the abdomen
and legs. In these old fashion walkers the only thing that the baby moves is
the feet and not all the time in the right position.
In our last trip to Mexico, Camila tried one of these
walkers and only for one day; not only was it really hard for her to move with it,
but in several occasions she was about to fall, she climbed to the tray and
tried to “walk out”. Fortunately we were
always close by to “rescue her”. Anyway! With that in mind, it has to be a push
walker type, or even a little plastic chair that the child can push. In Camila’s
case, it really surprised me how fast she became a pro with the walker! She
really liked it and learned in just one day!
Probably because of all the previous activities and exercises that she
had being doing, she saw the walker the first time, pulled herself up and started
pushing and walking, just like that! At first I helped her a little bit,
because she had the tendency to push faster than she could really walk, I also helped her with turns and obstacles
but after a few days she was able to move all over the house with her walker,
she just needed a little bit of motivation once in a while. Most of the walkers
come with lights and music and colorful toys that keep the babies interested.
At this point I think they have all the tools they need to
someday, walk independently. It’s just a
matter of time, and practice (a lot of practice). Our work? Encourage them to do it and keep them
motivated.
CONFIDENCE; This is
always one of my top priorities, make sure my daughter feels safe and confident,
I am always close by to prevent accidents that can make her feel scared and
insecure. I don’t want her to think that
walking is dangerous. Also, to increase that confidence, we applaud all her successes and every single
try. Camila loves when we clap for her,
she even requested every single time she did or attempted to do something, she tells
everybody “bravo” and she make sure everybody is clapping.
RIDE ON TOY; Santa
Claus gave her a ride on toy where she sits with one leg on each side of the
toy and she has to walk in other to move the toy. It took her a while to really be able to use
this toy, about 5 months after she became an official walker. but we practiced
a lot, I still need to help her with the turns, most of those ride on toys
can’t really turn unless the child lifts them a little bit from the front part,
Camila’s toy is really nice because she can actually stir and turn at any
direction she want without having to lift the toy, which make it a lot easier for her.
HOLD HER HANDS; Very
basic! But the most important, let your
baby walk, as much as she want, hold her hands and let her walk, the most
practice the baby get, the sooner that she will walk independently. And I know sometimes is way more easy just
hold them or put them in the stroller. But is really worth.
The truth is that this list is just what most of the
children do when they start walking, but sometimes they pass by each stage so
fast that we don’t even notice. For kids
with different abilities, usually take them a little bit longer in every
stage. Camila begging this process when
she was 19 months old, with the kneeling
position; 4 months after, she begging to do 3 to 5 mini steps by herself, at 26 months, she was walking up to one
minute without help and about 8 to 10 meters, including turns without loosing
her balance. At that point she was able to walk long periods of time if we hold
one of her hands. But her main way to move around was still crawling, she
needed a lot of encourage and motivation, practice.
And now, she is 33 months old, she is a pro walking,
everywhere! Anytime! She officially became a walker January 2, 2012 almost 26 months old.
Completely stop crawling! Loves to dance and even run!! “bravo” my baby!!! What
a wonderful way to start a new year! I love you baby!
Right now we are working in going up and down stairs, and using
the tricycle, but this is another story, I mean, another post. J
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