So what DOES she do?

The holidays and the stress that come with it are over.  We were all beyond spoiled by our families.  I took the three days off between Christmas and New Years, so it worked out to me having eleven days off of work.  Now we are trying to get back into the groove of what our normal schedule was prior to my "vacation."

I've been giving some thought to the previous entries that I posted, and decided that I need to write one that is more positive.  While they are all hopeful, and somewhat happy, they also all focus on what is "wrong" with Lyric.  They go into detail about her weaknesses, and her delay.  So I have decided to take the time to talk about her strengths, and the things that are actually ahead of "schedule" on her development track.

The first thing I always think of when I talk about her strengths are her cognitive and problem solving skills.  These are the ones that get us into the most trouble, and the ones that we probably struggle with the most.  Part of the reason why we have a hard time getting Lyric to talk is because if she wants something, and she can't get it, rather than asking us for help she figures out how to get it herself.  We gave her small trinkets as an advent calendar, which is a German tradition.  By the third day, she had figured out where all the gifts were hidden.  When we refused to give her extra gifts, she built a ladder out of laundry baskets to reach them.  After some finagling, she figured out that she needed to open the door to the cupboard slightly, then crouch down to pull it open the rest of the way, then stand back up to be tall enough to reach them.  Essentially this means we can basically forget doing any kind of child proofing beyond putting what we don't want her to have in the basement, because she inevitably figures out how to get to things.  If she wants a glass of milk, she will get the milk and her glass and bring them to us, rather than just asking.  If she's hungry, half the time she just helps herself to what she wants from the fridge, only getting us if she can't open the package.   It took her about 30 seconds to figure out what a jump rope we gave her was for, and while she can't do it very well, she has the concept down pat.  

Along with this, she has a memory that can get a bit scary sometimes.  She'll remember how to use things after only seeing it used one time.  She'll remember where things are in stores, even if she's only been there one time.  If we turned her loose in the grocery store, she would be able to do our shopping for us - because she knows exactly where all the regular items that we get are located in the stores we go to.  She's also very good at finding things in the house when we ask for them, like her shoes or the remote.  Unfortunately for our cats, she's pretty good at finding them, too. 

Her motor skills never cease to impress me.  Her hand eye coordination is better than mine, which is very encouraging for me because I am actually essentially blind in one eye.  She can hit a baseball extremely well, both on a tee and when it's pitched to her.  She's very good at Little Tikes basketball.  The one time she's been to Chuck E. Cheese, she killed at Whack-a-Mole.  Her fearlessness loaned her a lot of skill when she was in swim lessons, and she could jump off the edge of the pool into my arms with ease.  She has gotten to a point where she can pour her own drinks (she just can't remove the caps), sweep the floors for me, and wipe off counters (and she enjoys doing it - better appreciate that while I can, right?) with ease.  I'm dreading the day when she is able to turn doorknobs and open beverages well, because we'll be in so much more trouble then.    She already knows how to lock and unlock the front door, so we'll have to figure out something new for that.  

She is extremely perceptive of people's emotions.  Particularly if they are unhappy or in pain.  If Travis or I injure ourselves in some way, she's usually the first one to give us a hug and ask if we're "awight?"  She seems to be able to understand if we're having a particularly stressful day that doesn't involve her, because she tends to tone down her behaviors on those days, making the challenge of dealing with her one less thing to worry about.  She's also extremely polite, and always says "Thank you" for things.  She has recently started saying "No, thank you" if she isn't interested in something as well.  She understands a lot more language than she can speak, and can actually follow basic directions well (like "Please go throw this away.")

Even though she has a speech delay, she does actually use quite a few words and phrases on a regular basis (I would say it's probably around 50 - 60 at this point).  She knows pizza, recognizes dogs and cats, will greet me at the door saying "How are you?" and counts from 1 - 4 actually understanding what those numbers mean.  Unfortunately for Travis, one of her phrases right now is "Get out!" when he tries to play with her in the toy room, or eat with her in the kitchen.  She has also recently learned how to "shush" us, which she thinks is hilarious.  She's very good at 'find the picture' type puzzles.  She seems to have some sense of fashion about her, and loves to pick out her clothes each day.  She will ask us questions on occasion, like "What's that?" and "Why?"  She loves to sing along with songs, and is actually quite good at hitting things with rhythm.

The point in all of this is that even though she is behind, she's still an extremely intelligent child.  I have no doubt in my mind that there will come a time when she "graduates" from needing a little extra help to find her voice.  She picks up new words and skills each day, and continues to surprise us every day with things that she's been holding back.  It's easy to get caught up in the negatives when you're dealing with early intervention and speech therapy.  I've found that taking the time to focus on the positive aspects of what she does makes the whole process much easier.