Updates on Laurel (and other stuff): March 2009

Laurel started hippotherapy today. Not imitating a hippo like my sister-in-law thought (LOL!), but horseback riding therapy. She actually did it at BRIGHT camp when she was 2 1/2, and then we looked for it here and the place that had been doing it had just lost their lease. But turns out that one of Laurel's speech therapist's (who we're losing after >6 years BTW, wahhh) co-workers started one last fall that's only about 20 minutes away from her school. Laurel, meanwhile, has been showing a lot of interest in horses (I think it doesn't hurt that we now live next to three of them), and looked at me right away when I asked her if she'd like to try riding one. So she went for her first session today:



It was definitely a lot of work for her to stay sitting up (but this is one of the things that hippotherapy is supposed to be really great for, is sitting ability):



She kept trying, though:



Afterward, she agreed that she liked it but when I asked her if she wanted to do it again, she wasn't sure until I told her that it would get easier with practice. When I talked about it with her a little later, she agreed both that it was fun and that it was harder than she expected. We'll be back next Monday, anyway...