Motor Class = Playtime Therapy

Bridgette had three therapist appointments last week prior to Papa Jeff's surgery: her PT, OT, and her first experience at Motor Class.

When Bridgette's physical therapist came last week, she tried to correct B's posture by attaching two pieces of specialty tape to her back. We were supposed to leave them on until they came off by themselves.

But, you might note that the strips go down into her diaper. It lasted about 5 days before the stench of poop-saturated tape mandated its removal.


Today Bridgette had her second Motor Class at Kids on the Move. This is her "almost-crawl-but-mostly-stuck" position.

Motor Class essentially provides her with a new environment and a lot of toys she doesn't have at home. Thus, she may (or may not) be more willing to try to move to get them. Here's the normal class schedule:

15 minutes - Play time
15 minutes - Sensory time (in the corn box)
15 minutes - Lesson time (for the parents)
15 minutes - Music time (Bridgette's favorite)
15 minutes - Ball room
15 minutes - Snack time
1 1/2 hours total

Here is the corn box used during Sensory Time and one of the therapists, Becca, who helps run the class. Bridgette wasn't very happy at the corn box today, although she liked it last week. I have to watch her carefully to be sure she doesn't eat the corn. While this might not be a huge deal to most kids, corn is a big NO on Bridgette's specialty-diet list.

Sadly, I got no pictures of Music Time but Bridgette likes it very much. She keeps excellent rhythm with the egg shakers, the warm fuzzies, and the "black-bird" socks. She's fine with the hat song and pumpkin song too. The only thing she doesn't like during Music Time is moving the way we want her to. Shocker.

This is the "Ball Room." And Bridgette's favorite part of the Ball Room are the balls. I had to move B. immediately after this photo was taken. Her friend Superman climbed the ladder and successfully jumped off backwards without looking. But by then, Bridgette was safely in another corner of the balls.

Here is the rest of the Ball Room. Today I tried getting Bridgette to reach through the rolling tube to me on the other side. She was pathetically sad about it. I had high hopes, but baby hates the tube.

You might notice all the costumes. As a pre-Halloween treat, the kids got to go trick-or-treating around the facility. Bridgette hated that also. She cried, then sat down and smashed her forehead on the ground -- which made her cry even harder.


The swing is designed to move in all directions while the kids lay, sit, kneel or stand, holding on or not. It's pretty cool. Bridgette sort of hates it too. Frankly, all this hate may be a result of Motor Class overlapping nap-time by 100%.

No pics of Snack Time, but it's not hard to imagine. Snacks. Snacks on floor. Snacks on lap. Snacks in the cup holder. Almost no snacks in tummy. We have had serious trouble getting Bridgette to eat the last week. I'm afraid she may be losing weight again. We don't have Meal Time anymore; we have Peck Time.

In addition to lack of appetite, her poo is very runny again. Perhaps we've introduced something that doesn't gel with her system, but we can't figure out what. She's not showing any other indication of illness. In the meantime, her bum is bleeding again too and changing time is painful for both of us.

Overall we are seeing minute improvements, almost daily. They haven't added up to much yet, but we expect they will in the long-run. And if she treats mobility like she has everything else in life, one day she will stand up, walk across the room, climb onto the piano bench, play a Rachmaninoff prelude, then turn and proclaim, "Rachmaninoff is too tranquil. Do you have any Wagner?"

And of course, I will have to tell her, "It's pronounced 'Vagner,' darling."