Ella did something a little different last night. After we put her in bed and left the room, she stood up in bed and started screaming her head off. Since this was very out of the ordinary and she was completely hysterical, we went in and calmed her down.
After some crackers, water, and more book reading, we put her down again and left the room. Almost immediately she stood up and started screaming again. This time however, she got back down, went to the side of her bed and got out. From there she walked over to her door, touched it, walked back and got back in bed. Then she stopped crying.
Yesterday at her naptime was the first time Ella had gotten out of bed with nobody watching. Apparently she just wanted to prove to herself she could do it again.
In other news, she's up to 27 signs now, and one of her newer signs is "potty", and she's starting to occasionally use the sign to request to use the potty.
She's also starting to be more responsive to our attempts to shape her vocalizations, and I managed to get her to say "duck" last night. This brings her up to 4 spoken words: bubuh (bubble), ella, dada, and duck. However we haven't heard her say bubble in a couple weeks, so she's really only using 3 at the moment.
Regardess, she communicates her needs to us fairly well using the signs, and she's actually very receptive to our requests. Of course, she's two so she might just do what we ask for 2 seconds and then go back to whatever she was doing before, but she nearly always follows simple directions when you ask.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Toddler bed follow-up.
Well, Ella has taken fairly well to the toddler bed. The first couple nights, she fell out once or twice. Since the bed is so low and we put pillows along side, this didn't really bother her and she just snoozed on the floor till I came in and put her back.
The only "hitch" of the transition was that up until Monday she *refused* to nap in the bed and would cry hysterically if left in the bed at naptime, so we had a couple napless days. However, that passed and now she naps in the bed without fussing about it.
Other than that, things are going well here. This morning we tried Ella in jeans for the first time since she started walking, and the reduced mobility resulted in several falls while trying to run around target. We spent the middle of the day indoors as tropical storm Hanna blew through, but it didn't really do much here but rain and blow down some small branches.
Anyway, I hope you're all well.
Matt
The only "hitch" of the transition was that up until Monday she *refused* to nap in the bed and would cry hysterically if left in the bed at naptime, so we had a couple napless days. However, that passed and now she naps in the bed without fussing about it.
Other than that, things are going well here. This morning we tried Ella in jeans for the first time since she started walking, and the reduced mobility resulted in several falls while trying to run around target. We spent the middle of the day indoors as tropical storm Hanna blew through, but it didn't really do much here but rain and blow down some small branches.
Anyway, I hope you're all well.
Matt
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Toddler bed...
Well, tonight is Ella's first night sleeping in a toddler bed instead of a crib.
We tried to get her to nap in it this afternoon, and she got scared of it, so no nap today. However, at the moment she's actually asleep in the bed. We'll see what happens in the middle of the night :)
We tried to get her to nap in it this afternoon, and she got scared of it, so no nap today. However, at the moment she's actually asleep in the bed. We'll see what happens in the middle of the night :)
Sunday, August 24, 2008
More signs, etc.
since my last post, Ella has added 4 more signs: cheese, on, wash hands, brush teeth.
In other news, while we're not yet working on potty training yet, we have been working on familiarizing Ella with it. At this point she doesn't request to use it, but when she's on it, she knows what it's for and will use it if she has to. This will hopefully make things a lot easier later on.
Ella's also had a lot of instances of waking up in the middle of the night over the past couple of weeks. We may wind up having to adjust her sleep schedule, because after some research, it looks like she's in bed for more hours per day than the average child her age needs.
In other news, while we're not yet working on potty training yet, we have been working on familiarizing Ella with it. At this point she doesn't request to use it, but when she's on it, she knows what it's for and will use it if she has to. This will hopefully make things a lot easier later on.
Ella's also had a lot of instances of waking up in the middle of the night over the past couple of weeks. We may wind up having to adjust her sleep schedule, because after some research, it looks like she's in bed for more hours per day than the average child her age needs.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Ella's signs..
Well, Ella has 2 new signs today, cereal and dog.
Actually, they're not entirely new signs today, but as of today we now know their meaning.
Ella's first version of a sign can be pretty deformed from the proper sign, so they're tough to correlate with a meaning unless she uses them in the right context. She also doesn't tend to start using them right away in response to being taught them. They tend to lay dormant and then sometime later she'll just randomly start using the sign. It could be hours, days or weeks since we last tried to teach her that sign or she saw a video containing it. (Ella does have a good collection of signing time videos, and has learned several of her signs from them. The videos really are quite good and I highly recommend them to parents who want to teach their child sign.) .
I also realized I've never put up a "list" of all of Ella's signs, so here they are:
Bird, Book, Cereal, Cracker, Daddy, Dog, Drink, Eat, Finished, Hug, Light, Milk, More, Music, Open, Play, and Shoes.
She also has a few common gestures that I'm not sure if they're other signs, or just things that are fun. We'll see.
Actually, they're not entirely new signs today, but as of today we now know their meaning.
Ella's first version of a sign can be pretty deformed from the proper sign, so they're tough to correlate with a meaning unless she uses them in the right context. She also doesn't tend to start using them right away in response to being taught them. They tend to lay dormant and then sometime later she'll just randomly start using the sign. It could be hours, days or weeks since we last tried to teach her that sign or she saw a video containing it. (Ella does have a good collection of signing time videos, and has learned several of her signs from them. The videos really are quite good and I highly recommend them to parents who want to teach their child sign.) .
I also realized I've never put up a "list" of all of Ella's signs, so here they are:
Bird, Book, Cereal, Cracker, Daddy, Dog, Drink, Eat, Finished, Hug, Light, Milk, More, Music, Open, Play, and Shoes.
She also has a few common gestures that I'm not sure if they're other signs, or just things that are fun. We'll see.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
More walking, signs, etc.
First, a brief progress update.
Ella walked on her own in the yard for the first time today. She struggled a bit walking up the gentle slope, but seemed to enjoy it.
She also used a new sign today, completely without prompting. I was feeding her lunch, and I started off with a few cracker pieces. After those were gone I gave her veggies, cheese, grapes, etc. About halfway through all this, she spontaneously signed "cracker" at me, not quite perfectly, but quite close. So, I gave her more crackers, showed her the correct sign and she echoed it properly while chewing away happily.
After that was gone, I asked her if she wanted "more cracker", and she signed both words at me. This is the first time Ella's used a two-word phrase.
Not bad for one day.
Finally, something unrelated to Ella but made a rather odd twist to my day
If you encounter one of these (saddleback) caterpillars, don't touch it. I brushed against one today and I can tell you first hand they hurt quite a bit. Very much like a good solid bee sting where they've had time to inject lots of venom. I used the scotch tape trick, washed, and used meat tenderizer to extract the venom. After all that my arm hurt for about 4 hours, and still has a mild tingling sensation 8 hours later.
Leave it to me to find a caterpillar that actually has venomous stings. Apparently that one is quite potent as stinging catepillars go, but there's one that's clearly more potent (the puss caterpillar, and it can be found in Maryland too.)
Ella walked on her own in the yard for the first time today. She struggled a bit walking up the gentle slope, but seemed to enjoy it.
She also used a new sign today, completely without prompting. I was feeding her lunch, and I started off with a few cracker pieces. After those were gone I gave her veggies, cheese, grapes, etc. About halfway through all this, she spontaneously signed "cracker" at me, not quite perfectly, but quite close. So, I gave her more crackers, showed her the correct sign and she echoed it properly while chewing away happily.
After that was gone, I asked her if she wanted "more cracker", and she signed both words at me. This is the first time Ella's used a two-word phrase.
Not bad for one day.
Finally, something unrelated to Ella but made a rather odd twist to my day
If you encounter one of these (saddleback) caterpillars, don't touch it. I brushed against one today and I can tell you first hand they hurt quite a bit. Very much like a good solid bee sting where they've had time to inject lots of venom. I used the scotch tape trick, washed, and used meat tenderizer to extract the venom. After all that my arm hurt for about 4 hours, and still has a mild tingling sensation 8 hours later.
Leave it to me to find a caterpillar that actually has venomous stings. Apparently that one is quite potent as stinging catepillars go, but there's one that's clearly more potent (the puss caterpillar, and it can be found in Maryland too.)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Distance record...
Well, Ella set a new distance record today. Twice today she walked from our bedroom to our kitchen without touching anything, about 48 feet, and also did a similar distance at the food court.
Go Ella go!
Go Ella go!
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