Last Tuesday, Emmie had her 4 month check up. At that time, Emmie was borderline for concern because she wasn’t totally interested in toys yet. It’s incredible to think that that was only one week ago because she now is totally consumed with her toys. She bats at them, grabs them, pulls them towards her. She has begun to manipulate them in her hands, turning them around and looking at all sides. She will scoot herself around to try to get a better look at objects.

She’s even getting herself so worked up over yelling, squealing and talking to her toys that I have needed to rock her to sleep the past few days, which I’ve never had to do (so far, we’ve been lucky that with the right routine and if she’s tired enough, she’ll go right down to sleep). It’s like she’s now aware enough of the world that she wants to stay awake to take it all in, and she doesn’t want to miss any of it (even though she’s exhausted).

This morning, she was doing some tummy time in her crib as I sat on the floor and watched her. She’s always rested on her elbows on her tummy, but today, she much have figured out she could push herself up on her hands because she would do a mini-pushup for a second or two, then just BEAM as she looked around. Back down for a rest, then up again. I’ve never seen a baby look so proud of herself!

The thing that absolutely floors me about this (other than the thrill of seeing something for the Very First Time) is that the kids I work with do NOT have typical development (which is why I work with them), and so all of these little milestones are the result of LOTS of HARD WORK on the part of parents, therapists and kids. And here is this little human, doing something no one has ever shown to her, ever helped her do, ever taught her. And she’s doing it exactly when she’s supposed to and in exactly the right way. Astonishing.

I love my job, but I am even more grateful to it now, because I don’t know if I would be as observant of these tiny miracles happening right before my eyes.