See What Can Happen?

Almost daily we talk about letting Maria do things on her own. "Leave her alone," we say, even while messing with her. Sometimes we let her feed herself, we encourage her to hold her own bottle, but generally her mom or dad or uncle or nanny do most everything for her... So imagine my surprise.... At about 1am, and again at 3am, 3:15, 3:30, Maria was coughing. Finally I got up, made her some juice to wet her whistle, gave her a few glugs, then put the bottle in her crib so I could grab it when she started coughing again. So, as I said, imagine my surprise, when at about 4:30 or 5am I heard her gulping, gulping, gulping!! She rolled over, grabbed her bottle, and started drinking! So amazing and exciting! And isn't that one of the great things about parenting a special kid--we celebrate and appreciate all her successes, whether big or tiny.

The other amazing thing Maria did was stand for Uncle Andy yesterday-a lot. He was holding her at the hips or waist and first she stood for about 5 minutes, then a little bit later she stood for 10-15 minutes! (He said her legs were so stiff, he thought she should use the stiffness for standing.)

And the mosquitoes are still loving her. First it was her feet, yesterday it was her legs. Huge welts that look like hives. I gave her a few doses of benedryl and it seemed to help. Fortunately they don't seem to itch, but they look awful.