Teag’s progress – March round-up

T and I at Joseph’s b-day party

It has been a very exciting month in the life of Teagie.  I almost wrote this post early, because by mid-month she had done so many new, exciting things.  Her special edu teacher Julie had her twin baby girls (CONGRATS Julie – and we miss you!) so we’ve been working with a new teacher named Kristin, who is awesome, as well as her usual team of PTs and OT.  With Kristin we’ve been working a lot on communication – we’re ready for that Teagie to be talking!

On March 10th, Teag started saying “Mama” a lot (we’ve been getting “Dada” for months now, Joel was starting to get conceited ;-)).  She’s also big on “Nana” and b-sounds.  On March 14th she gave her pops a nice b-day present – she started dropping blocks, balls, etc. in multiple receptacles – buckets, her toy cookie jar, funnels, etc.  This is a developmental step I don’t know too much about, but the teachers/therapists were REAL excited about it.

And my favorite…on March 15th, Joel said “Teagan, clap!”…and she did.  I never thought one tiny clap could make me so happy…we knew she could hear, but with her diagnosis we didn’t know if she would understand – and obviously, she can!  That little clap was so very big.  Since then, we’ve been testing lots of words – we’ll hold up pieces from a farm puzzle she has and tell her to get different animals – she’s a pro!  And her pals at daycare have taught her “If you’re happy and you know it” – so cute.

Since Teagie is proud to be Irish, she celebrated by having a stellar St. Patrick’s Day…on March 17 she stacked a block, drew with her aquadoodle toy (just for a second, but she did it!), and lifted her sippy cup to her mouth in her high chair.  The $@%# sippy cup!  FINALLY!  Meal-time continues to be the most challenging (unless we’re having pancakes, in which case she feeds herself like a pro) – and that sippy cup had been staring at me accusingly for months.  It may not be much – but it is progress.  She is also rolling a ball back and forth and doing other activities that are precursors to speech (bet you didn’t know that, huh?).  March is my new favorite month.

We also had a great time with family for cousin Joseph’s b-day party and Easter.

Playing the drums with Grandpa over Easter

On another note – I get a lot of comments from people about how positive I am, and reading what I’ve just written, I understand why.  But it’s not always this way.  Sometimes I’m pissed – REALLY pissed.  And if I let myself, I can go into a downward spiral real quick thinking about the unfairness of it all and the extra challenges my girl will face.  I might write about this sometime – I’ve thought about it a lot – but right now, I don’t want to put that negativity out into the world.  If it’s in my head it’s one thing, to put it down in words scares me a bit.  I want to be positive for my girl, because I expect positive things for her.

I will say this though…there are things in life we can change, and things we can’t.  Teagan can’t change her chromosomes.  That said, nothing annoys me more than when I see people complain repeatedly about things they have the full power to change.  Dude you’re dating treats you like crap?  Dump him.  Hate your job?  Brush up your resume and see what’s out there.  Change what you can, and save your resolve for the challenges you can’t control.  So thank you for the prayers, positive thoughts, dedicated yoga practices – I’m not even kidding when I say I believe they are working. Please keep doing it for Teagan.  And if there is something in your life making you sad that you can change?  Please do it for you.

(that got weird, didn’t it?)