steps and games

One of the things that her PT has told me to try (to get Ella walking) is to have her balance with her back up against some soft furniture, then get her to lunge forward into my arms. This exercise does not work. She thinks it is hysterical every time I try it and will explode in fits of laughter while collapsing to the ground, or bending and twisting around in such a way as to avoid any attempts by me to get her to balance on two feet. While it is amusing to go through this, it isn't very productive in the "learning to walk" department.

Today, Matt and I tried something new. We have found that, if you get Ella walking (holding onto your hand) and then kind of let go while she is headed toward a much desired (and stable) object, she will take a step or two of her own to finish getting there by herself. So, we set ourselves up in the hallway, one parent at each end. One of us had her walking toward the other, who would be sitting on the ground. We would walk her to within a few steps of the other parent and then force her hands to let go and she would take two or three steps to get to the waiting parent. Then, of course, the whole thing repeats with the direction and parents' role switched. We did a couple of rounds of this. Sometimes, like I said, she would take 2 or 3 steps, sometimes she would only get in one. Whenever she collapsed into someones arms, she was ALWAYS laughing and smiling.

By the end of the exercise, she was so hysterical with laughter that she wouldn't even stand up without immediately collapsing her butt back down into Matt's lap. This, of course, devolved into her favorite crawling game that we like to call "Come and Get Me" which consists of her crawling a few feet away from you, sitting down, and waiting for you to come and "get her". "Getting her" means that you crawl toward her very loudly and with purpose. Upon reaching her you must then bury your head into her stomach and tickle her saying "I got you" in a funny voice. Laughter ensues, and the whole process is repeated. The cutest thing is that, when she starts getting really into the laughing, she will only crawl a few inches before sitting down to make you "get her" again. And sometimes she will come to "get" you, which is when I pull her on top of me, lay back on the floor as though she has tackled me, and thrash around saying, "you got me!"