Being a second child myself I was determined that I would not let my second child's milestones pass uncelebrated and her childhood pass undocumented. I had the best of intentions to photograph and video and write about and shower her with as much attention as I possibly could without completely abandoning the first child. Unfortunately my plans for raising Myffy, like my plans for raising Lu, have pretty much all been derailed by Lu's autism. Even though Myffy is with me always, her childhood is being spent in therapies and appointments and strapped into her carseat as we go in between. The only pictures and video I ever manage to take of her are quick, on-the-fly and taken with my phone (the above wonderful picture was taken by my friend Tamlyn Corrs back in May). Yet inspite of all the ways that I feel like she's being short changed in this deal, Myffy is absolutely thriving.
She is growing in size and strength and skills in a way that seems amazing to me. The only other child I've ever watched develop step by step is Lu, and as we now know that wasn't quite typical development. I guess that knowing Myffy has a 1 in 5 chance of being autistic because she has an autistic sibling (as opposed to the 1 in 110 chance every other child has) I'm watching her development like a hawk. After watching Lu have to painstaking learn every little thing step by step in discrete trials rather than absorbing it from her environment the way typical children do, I actually feel astounded that any of us are able to learn all the things we normally do. The development of little brains is amazing.
And Myffy's little brian is doing amazing things. Right now she's approximating Mama, Dada, Nigh-nigh, up, down, more, bath and she's doing the signs for nurse and more. Every now and then during Lu's therapy Myff will try to say a word Lu is working on then we all clap and cheer for her and she does the hip-hip-hooray arms! She is a speed crawlyer, a sturdy stander and a competent cruiser. She's getting really good at comandeering people's fingers to help her walk around. And her own unique little personality is bursting out in so many ways. She's getting really opinionated about things, and loud and demanding. And it is awesome.
Yesterday was Myffy's 1st Birthday Party. It was soooo fun! Myffy was so excited to have so many people around the house all day that she absolutely refused to take a nap and consequently fell asleep during the BBQ, right before cake time, and because we had so many little ones over who needed to head home for their own naps and evening routines, we actually cut the cake without her. Which meant that she missed seeing her name misspelled on her cake. I had called it in to Baskin Robbins and repeated the inscription over and over "M as in Mike, Y as in Yankee, F as in Fred, F as in Fred, Y as in Yankee. Somehow it came out "Happy 1st Birthday! Go Myssy Go!" I'm sure it won't be the last time her name is misspelled. But I will make sure to either check the cake myself or remind Stew to check the cake when he picks it up from now on. But Myffers didn't mind. She thought it tasted great. And looked super cute eating it. Thanks to everyone who came over and helped out!
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