A taste of freedom

Emma loves people.  I mean, she LOVES people.  She's the happiest at Church, ballgames, and any public event.  She just loves to people watch and be around people.  Simple as that.  

Her love of people makes it super easy for us to take her out and about everywhere we go.  She isn't a bit overwhelmed with noises or people.  In fact, she thrives on them.  When we are out in public Emma gets a lot of "sneaky" PT work - looking here and there, she's not about to let her neck flop over and miss any action!  When we are at home she always wants to be in the center of the action, in the same room as us.  The challenge with this, though, is that we are often moving about the house from room to room and we don't love to keep Emma in her rolling equipment all the time so we can easily take her with us.  If we have her on the floor and we leave to go to the bathroom or put away some folded laundry she cries because she can't follow us and she can't efficiently move to a different toy or area.  This leaves her in quite a predicament and results in a lot of frustrated crying.  

Emma's situation is starting to change, though.  She is getting really good at using her crawler to move around the house.  She is managing to turn corners a bit bitter and move from the living room to the bedrooms to follow us.  She is also starting to take more steps in her KidWalk.  She can't turn the KidWalk on purpose (she does turn it by mistake and run into things quite a bit!) and follow us around but I feel that will come eventually.  

The other day I was cleaning the bathroom and put Emma in her crawler.  I kept popping out to check on her every few minutes and found that in a matter of seconds she made her way across the floor to look outside the patio doors.  My heart melted.  Melted!  Then I grabbed the camera to capture the moment of my girl looking out the patio doors waiting for her beloved dog to return and demand re-entry into the house.  She was even yelling out the window for Finnegan! 

Isn't this the cutest photo!  I just love looking at it.  One thing that I miss is seeing Emma's little tush during the day (diaper changes don't count).  She is often in equipment that covers it or laying on her back and it's so nice to see her cute bottom in this photo!  A couple of minutes later she managed to wander under our kitchen table and I helped her spring free.  She had been moving at a very quick pace and took a small break under the table, thus her floppy position.  Once she was out from under the table she perked back up again.  

Emma's new-found bit of independence is quite liberating for her and for me.  It gives her control over getting to the toy she wants to play with, wander to another room to find someone, and a way to get into a bit of mischief.  And for me, it allows me to put away laundry and some other stuff around the house without feeling guilty that Emma is stuck somewhere without me.