amazing discoveries at home

this week maya made some great leaps toward some major milestones. let me preface this by saying maya, her ot (occupational therapist) and i have been working for many weeks on the action of "putting in" objects into a container. it's been a big struggle because she is still at the grabbing and throwing to the side phase.

this week, her ot suggested that maybe we step back a bit and work on things that maya enjoys and can do. if we focus on this then maybe she will not be so frustrated and stubborn at working on the new tasks. ironically as we were talking about this, maya decided to show us what she could do by grabbing a block and putting it into the container. this was the first time that she did this without our help. she just threw the blocks right into the container. it was such a great moment that we couldn't help but laugh with delight.

that same day, while i was putting dishes into the dishwasher, maya came over with a little yogurt container (i save them so she can play with them) and threw the container into the dishwasher. i was just so touched by this action. it was like she wanted to help do the dishes. she was just mimicking me i'm sure, but she got it. she really got it.

by the way, the dishwasher is by far her favorite place to be. she loves to look at herself in the reflection. she will spend quite a bit of time there signing to herself. sometimes she signs "baby signing time" over and over again and other times she just dances to the music i am playing. i try to do the dishes when she is not around so she won't try and grab anything, but once i open that door, or she hears the rattling of a plate going in, she quickly crawls over to investigate. she is curious, she is watching and she is learning.

more discoveries coming soon...