Maisy Dean is 9 months (next week)

This is a little early, and I'm at work so I'm stealing these picture off my mom's blog.This is a funny, sweet little girl. Dylan was never much of a snuggler, but when she's tired she'll just lay her little head down on your shoulder. It melts me. Also she has the squishiest chubber cheeks on the planet that I could kiss a bajillion times a day.
Her little dimple when she grins, makes you want to see it over and over again. She loves her brother and is always getting in his way. I'd like to think that she loves her mom more, but it might be a toss up. She's getting better and more consistent at signing "milk" and "finished". She hasn't really picked up signing "more" yet. What I really love is that for the last couple of weeks she's started repeating sounds like, "babababa". This doesn't mean "bottle", it's just noise. And even though it's just noise right now, yesterday she started with the "mamamama". Cruising furniture is just beginning. I spend a ridiculous amount of money on clothes for her. I never knew how fun it would be to dress up a little girl.I'm nervous about her having a little play purse and tea set. I'm not sure how to do the ultra-girly thing. The saving grace is how tough she is. She's taken some good hits and spills without too much fuss. Give her another year and she'll really be giving it back to her brother; he'll deserve every bit of it.
Also her hair is starting to come it. I'm a little worried about fixing little girl hair. Headbands have been really easy.

Long Time Coming

I am about to step on to a BIG soapbox. Stop reading now if you're easily offended when it comes to your kids.

I was at a work party on Saturday and a fellow PT brought her little boy who is 2 months younger than Maisy. Cute kid; except for the helmet. I was flabbergasted. How could a PT let something like this happen? Just because we don't work in peds doesn't mean that we can't notice that our kid's head is always turned to one side creating a flat spot. So what do we do? We stretch them until they're symmetrical. It's what we do. How could you let something like this happen? I can't turn off the PT in me. I hold a kid and I'm facilitating their muscles or challenging them somehow. I can't stop.

Also as a PT we know what normal gross motor development is, and we should be freaking out if our kids aren't reaching those milestones. Just a refresher: (I'm super glad that someone else said this first on instead of me, because I'm strongly of the same opinion.)

Rolling back to stomach - may occur later because we do not place our children on their stomachs to sleep and therefore they are not playing in this position as earlier as children were in the past

3 – 6 months:
Hold head up in supported sitting
Rolls
Weightbearing on forearms, elbows, and hands when on stomach
Reaching with one arm when on stomach
Gross motor skills start to emerge at 4 months therefore increase floor time
Concerns: arching back – this prevents normal development

6 – 9 months:
Transitions into sitting from all fours
Sits independently
Uses trunk rotation
Pulling up to knees
Crawling
Protective reactions
More floor time – develop proximal control in shoulders for use later (handwriting)
Look for a variety of movement patterns
Spend less time in walkers and saucers – these increase toe walkers

I don't care if you sleep your kids on their back. SIDS is scary. But they need to spend every waking second (exaggeration) on their stomachs to ensure normal development. The fact that both of my kids crawled at 6 months does not make them freaks. So everyone quit being surprised. And to quote another study that I don't have the reference for kids need a minimum of 81 minutes of tummy time/day. Their back sleepers, they hate being on their stomachs. I get it. Be the parent and do what's best for them. Increase it slowly everyday, until they tolerated it better.

Sometimes I wonder if the head shaping helmets are some kind of racket with SIDS studies. No one is going to do a study to see how real SIDS is. In the mean time, kids have an increase in torticolis and flat heads. As a PT I should be stoked that the torticolis is increasing business, but seriously those head shaping helmets are around $3500. We know that cost is crazy inflated because it's a medical supply, but still.

Deep breath. Step off the box.