Of course after she went through a week of taking 3-4 steps then decided she didn't like doing it lol. We didn't push her too much, we knew in her own time she would try again and she did. Two nights ago she decided she wanted to do "big girl walking" as she calls it, and took 8 steps! The next night she made it up to 18 steps :) :) She kept telling us to move back further so she could try to walk further each time. It is truly the most wonderful thing to watch- my baby girl trying so hard to do something she was never supposed to be able to do. And succeeding. Even when she loses her balance and falls, she gets up and starts again. I'm so so lucky to have such an amazing daughter. I can only imagine how difficult it is to try to balance and walk when you can't feel your feet and not have full feeling of your legs. Which is what makes it such an amazing achievement that she worked and worked at it until she did it.
I've watched that video so many times, I'm one proud mama!!
It's like we've entered a new chapter in our lives now. Caitlin is only a couple of months off being a 3 year old. She's going to be a big sister in around 6 weeks. She's starting nursery in 2 weeks. 5 days a week, and she'll be gone Monday - Friday from 8am to 2pm. What am I going to do without her!?! We've spent most week days together her whole life just the two of us. We've got a great routine going were we eat breakfast together, play, I do her physiotherapy stretches with her while watching nursery rhymes on YouTube, we get ready then do whatever we need to do that day together, (apart from when I was working and even then we were in the same building lol). To think that this is all coming to an end makes me so sad! Soon we will have no mornings together except when she's off on school holidays but her baby sister will have arrived by then so it'll be 3 of us. It's exciting that its the start of something new but I know Caitlin loves to sit with me while we play, chat, laugh and cuddle and I love it too. I tear up thinking those days are rarely going to happen any more- I'm really going to miss them!
She's learning so much all the time. A few weeks ago she decided she wanted to tell me her very first made up story. It went,
Caitlin- "Mummy sit down, stay very still, I want to tell you a story."
Me - "okay, what the story about?"
Caitlin - "Once upon a time, there was a dragon, a green dragon. It scared me. Then it scared you. Then we told it to Sssshh and it went away. The end."
Short but sweet ;)
What she says about her baby sister - "I love my baby sister. She's in your bump Mummy. I think she's going to come out and see me in a wee second and I'll share my toys with her."
She also made up her first song. It went...
"We all have to gooo to sleep..but I'm not!" The monkey, the lion, mummy, daddy all go to bed...but I'm notttttt." Repeat many, many times lol.
We've had a great summer, apart from a couple of blips. Firstly, she has developed a squint that's only noticeable when she's tired but all the same it's definately there. We're off to the orthoptists in a couple of days to get her assessed but I'm thinking glasses are in her future! Though I think Caitlin would look very cute with glasses, it'll be getting her to keep them on which will be the problem!
We also had a scare with Mr. Shunt. It all started a couple of weeks ago when she woke up complaining of a sore head. Now when your kid has a shunt and they complain of a sore head, alarm bells start ringing. It was 3 days before we were due to go on holiday. I thought she couldn't be that unlucky after all the problems shes had with her shunt. She ate a little breakfast and I debated whether to take her to the playdate to the farm that we had planned for that day. Her temperature was slightly high but she insisted she wanted to go to the farm so I give her Capol and I took her to the farm. On the way she fell asleep. My kid does not nap in the morning! More alarm bells ringing. I kept telling myself she hasn't vomited so I'm sure it's nothing. We arrived at the farm. I woke Caitlin and she immediately proceeded to vomit all over herself and me. I could have cried. Plans of holidays were fading while I started organising the hospital stay in my head. I took her home and on the way she fell asleep again. When we got home I couldn't keep her awake, she just kept falling asleep which is not like her at all. I knew if I took her to hospital she would go through the CT scan, the X-ray's, all of which I'm not allowed to be in the room for because i'm pregnant so I called her dad and we said if she was no better when he returned from work we would go down to the hospital. I tried to check her temperature again but the damn thermometer broke! So I hunted for something else and found a temp-a-dot which showed she had a extremely high temperature. No wonder the poor kid kept sleeping. I managed to get more medicine into her and she just lay on me and slept.
Just before her dad arrived back she woke up and started talking a little. I had the fan on her and had her stripped down to her nappy and thankfully that was helping bring the temperature down. She even asked for Coco Pops and when she got them she polished off the lot. I was so relieved! She slept great that night and despite being a little lethargic over the next couple of days she was definitely on the mend. Shunt scares are no fun. I hate that she can't have a bug, or a headache, or just be having a day were shes tired and grumpy without worrying about it being her shunt. Thankfully this time it wasn't. On the saturday she was awake at 5.30am asking when were we going on the plane to Hampshire, home to Peppa Pig World!
She was so excited. I was nervous about the plane trip. All those stories I've heard about planes and shunts, how the noise on the plane can really upset children who are sensitive to noise like Caitlin. How the pressure changes can affect the shunt, some say it does, some say it doesn't. I just had to hope it didn't!
I had so much packed in her hand luggage to keep her distracted. From earplugs to headphones to help with the noise to books, toys and the Ipad uploaded with loads of apps for her to keep her entertained and it was only an hour flight! I needn't have bothered - she sat the whole time looking out the window and chatting to us! We must have reminded her ten times that when the plane goes up in the sky there'll be a big noise but it's okay. And when it happened we braced ourselves for screaming and crying but we never expected what actually happened. She turned to us, smiled and said, "That big noise is just like my Grandad's snoring!" Haha. That was priceless.
After the plane we got lost on the 2hour drive to the chalet, then got to the holiday park and sat down to some food at their restaurant. Unfortunately when we went to collect our keys for the chalet we were informed we were in the wrong holiday park...oopsie :S
Thankfully our holiday park wasn't too far and we were soon there, and got to bed early for a early start in the morning...of course we had to spend our first full day there going to Peppa Pig World! Caitlin's face says she all. She was in piggy heaven.
We got to meet Emma and her kids, Thomas who also has Spina Bifida and his little sister Isobelle.
It was a really sunny warm day so after we got through all the rides Emma kindly lent me Isobelle's swimsuit (I hadn't thought to take Caitlin's) so the kids could cool off at the water park. They had a brilliant day, it was everything I had hoped for :)
And that was just the beginning!
The rest of the week consisted of a trip to the zoo,
Caitlin the meerkat!!
At the park in the zoo,
With her Granny & Grandad,
We went for a day trip to Bournemouth were we went to the Oceanarium, took the train along the pier, and went on the carousel.
Caitlin even shared her ice cream with a squirrel.
We met Sammy the Seahorse (from the holiday park)
We met up with another family we know through one of the Spina Bifida forum's. Cadon was very sweet and happy to let me take a photo. Caitlin was acting a little diva.
Our chalet was 5 mins from the beach so naturally we had to go there...
Even when it was windy & cold she asked to go...
She figured out how to take pictures of herself,
We spent a couple of days in the holiday park, swimming, going to soft play and to the park.
But the highlight of the holiday was always going to be Peppa Pig World. After going the day after we arrived, we had to go again...
Peppa's house,
On Grandpa Pigs train,
The only downside was because Caitlin's ankles are so weak she walks on her feet like shown in the pic, and she scraped her little toes quite badly :(
Not that it stopped her having a ton of fun!
She was one happy little lady. It was a incredible holiday and it was a lovely trip to have were it was all about her. Before she knows it her baby sister is going to be here & turning her world upside down!
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