Small Steps

June has been a miserable month, mostly dull grey skies and rain. The kind of weather to have the central heating on, not to get the paddling pool out. However, yesterday the sun decided to grace us with it's presence and it was relatively warm. We leave the front door open when it's warm, allowing a breeze to move through the house and Bee likes to put her toys one-by-one on the front step. Despite this she's always had a phobia of actually being on the step, or the drive, as they're made of poured concrete and textured. Sensory overload. So she'll sit on the mat in the hall, throwing her toys outside and giggling to herself. We lost a (very overpriced) helium balloon from 'In the Night Garden Live' in this fashion. Gutted.

Yesterday, as the sun shined, the front door was once again open and Bee was merrily chucking her toys out one-by-one. She was dressed in a lovely summery pair of blue leggings and a matching smock-style top. I took advantage of the moment, sat on the step in front of her and encouraged her to sit next to me. She was not keen but not yet upset so I picked her up and placed her next to me. We had no tears, progress! We played for a few minutes and I decided to push my luck. In for a penny, in for a pound right?

Last time I'd been out in the car I'd parked by the curb instead of in the drive, so we had a large expanse of open space. I started with the encouragement:

"Ooooo look Bethany, can you see Mummy's car?"
"Shall we go and look at Mummy's car?"

"Show me where Mummy's car is"

And on it went until Bee was so excited about this car she could have been meeting Iggle Piggle in person all over again (that's another story!) I stood and helped Bee do the same. Holding one of her little hands in mine, and with a lot of encouragement, we walked down the drive to the car and all the way back again. Maybe not a huge achievement on it's own, Bee has walked further than that and with considerably more enthusiasm that this time. BUT, yesterday Bee walked to the end of our textured drive and back...

...with bare feet!

It's difficult to explain just what a big achievement that is for a child who is afraid of touching anything textured and has a special dislike for sensation on the soles of her feet. I'm so proud of her. She did it and we had no tears, no tantrums, just the occassional "naow naow" in complaint.

My brave girl.