Daryl - Ann

How are things now?

So apart from a couple of minor hiccups, Daryl-Ann has progressed very well, and at 2 years can now stand with support and walk quite well if we hold her under her arms. She eats ‘soft lumpy’ food, is learning to drink thickened liquids, and finally has four teeth.

She has started to focus a bit better and loves to knock things over, like towers we build for her from blocks. She has a big round button that she uses to turn toys on and off (like those noisy Christmas animals!) and she loves to be in her standing frame playing with her toys. She expects to ‘walk’ out to the mail box each morning, and at the end of May she made me cry by gracing me with her first laugh. It’s a very contagious laugh she has now, and her smile is so big you’d think her face would split sometimes! It’s so rewarding to pick her up off the floor after a nappy change and receive a huge smile and laugh for your efforts.

We look forward to the same things other parents do. The mile stones take a lot longer, and we may not see some of them, but when we do get there it is a huge thing, and so exciting. She is our first child, so in a way we know no different. It is still hard to see little kids in the supermarket and socially, but it is something we learn to cope with, because life goes on. Having a child like Daryl has opened our eyes to a whole new world we didn’t know existed. We’ve learned far more than we ever wanted to about the body, government agencies and the layout of our hospital! But as Mum is pleased to note on each visit down to us, we still have our sense of humour (it’s a bit dark sometimes, but hey – if you can’t laugh at yourself….), and we know there are people out there in much worse situations. We now just concentrate on helping Daryl to achieve all she can!