Ok, it's been *way* too long.. sometimes life just gets busy..
In any event, the three of us have been fighting colds for the past week or two. At this point Ella's pretty much over it, and me and mentalmother are on the down-swing of it.
In other recent progress, Ella started standing up on her own, without using anything to pull up on, a little over a week ago. At first it was rare unless you specifically asked her to do it, but she's now doing it quite regularly on her own as a way to get up to standing. Previously she'd have to crawl over to something to hold onto to either pull (tall item) or push (short item) up on.
She's also continuing to develop her signs, and they're now coming fast enough I'm sure I've missed documenting some of them. But she's up to 52 I've documented, and who knows how many more she has. Back in august she had 15 that I posted as a list. Here's her current signs, in more-or-less the order she learned them:
Eat, More, Milk, Light, finished, Dog, Open, Book, Shoes, Daddy,Music, Hug, bird, Drink, cracker, cereal, play, cheese, on ,wash hands, brush teeth, potty, please, sorry, cookie, bath, flower, thank you, time (used to request signing time videos), swing, tree, grapes, slow, car, motorcycle, clothes, silly, rock, game, train, boat, ice cream, socks, cold, like, blanket, hat, excused, break (this one she invented her own sign, and was not taught the ASL version), bed, baby.
That's not a huge vocabulary, but it's enough to express a lot of basic needs and interests.
Anyway, I best get some sleep. Hope you're all well.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
A weekend of Ella fun.
A while ago, a friend had recommended Dutch Wonderland as a good place to take a young child after he took his daughter there. This weekend, we decided to take a long weekend and go up to Lancaster, making Dutch Wonderland one of our stops.
The amusement park was quite good. Ella was only able to ride the smallest group of rides, but there were quite a few for her, and she had a good time on them. She particularly enjoyed a "VR" ride, that was essentially a small movie theater in a bus-shaped capsule that rocked wildly on hydraulics. She laughed hysterically the whole time.
During our trip, we chose to stay at the Willow Valley Resort. This was a really nice place to stay too, and is very child-friendly. The resort has a indoor pool complex that's a lot like a small water park and Ella had a great time there. A lot of the water was shallow enough Ella could walk around in it. Walking in water threw her off for a little bit, but she quickly got the hang of it. We wound up getting a package plan that included breakfast and dinner at the resort. The breakfast smorgasbord is decent, but the dinner one generally left a lot to be desired. We actually wound up using one of our dinners as credit towards their Sunday brunch instead, and that was really very good, bordering on excellent which is really surprising in a buffet-style setup. It was really a day-and-night scenario with no comparison at all.
We wound up staying 3 nights, which was probably more than we needed, but it let us take our time and enjoy ourselves. I think next time we'll go for a shorter stay, and avoid the in-house dinners, but it's certainly worth doing again sometime later on.
The amusement park was quite good. Ella was only able to ride the smallest group of rides, but there were quite a few for her, and she had a good time on them. She particularly enjoyed a "VR" ride, that was essentially a small movie theater in a bus-shaped capsule that rocked wildly on hydraulics. She laughed hysterically the whole time.
During our trip, we chose to stay at the Willow Valley Resort. This was a really nice place to stay too, and is very child-friendly. The resort has a indoor pool complex that's a lot like a small water park and Ella had a great time there. A lot of the water was shallow enough Ella could walk around in it. Walking in water threw her off for a little bit, but she quickly got the hang of it. We wound up getting a package plan that included breakfast and dinner at the resort. The breakfast smorgasbord is decent, but the dinner one generally left a lot to be desired. We actually wound up using one of our dinners as credit towards their Sunday brunch instead, and that was really very good, bordering on excellent which is really surprising in a buffet-style setup. It was really a day-and-night scenario with no comparison at all.
We wound up staying 3 nights, which was probably more than we needed, but it let us take our time and enjoy ourselves. I think next time we'll go for a shorter stay, and avoid the in-house dinners, but it's certainly worth doing again sometime later on.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Fun at a wedding
This past weekend was my cousin's wedding, and we went, taking Ella with us. The rehearsal dinner turned out to be a blast for Ella. One of my other cousins has a 4 year old daughter, who was dressed in a bright-pink frilly tutu type dress. Ella thought this was the greatest thing ever, and proceeded to spend most of evening running following her and laughing her head off. When Ella would catch up, the other girl would turn around and poke Ella in the cheeks. This caused Ella to stick out her tongue and laugh even harder.
It was really great to see Ella having such a good time running around and interacting with other children.
Ella has also recently started walking around in grass without having her hand held. Since the surface is uneven this is a bit more difficult for her, and she's been resistant to doing so. However, by Saturday she was chasing her cousin Jake around the yard of the church.
On the language front, Ella is now up to34 signs. The 17 new signs ella has learned since August 12th are: cheese, on, wash hands, brush teeth, potty, please, sorry, cookie, bath, duck, flower, thank you, time, swing, tree, grapes, and slow. So, Ella has doubled her signs in a month and 10 days.. not too shabby.
Ella is also taking much better to the toddler bed. She finally took a nap in the bed. For a while she wasn't napping, then she started napping on the floor in her room, and now she's napping in the bed.
It was really great to see Ella having such a good time running around and interacting with other children.
Ella has also recently started walking around in grass without having her hand held. Since the surface is uneven this is a bit more difficult for her, and she's been resistant to doing so. However, by Saturday she was chasing her cousin Jake around the yard of the church.
On the language front, Ella is now up to34 signs. The 17 new signs ella has learned since August 12th are: cheese, on, wash hands, brush teeth, potty, please, sorry, cookie, bath, duck, flower, thank you, time, swing, tree, grapes, and slow. So, Ella has doubled her signs in a month and 10 days.. not too shabby.
Ella is also taking much better to the toddler bed. She finally took a nap in the bed. For a while she wasn't napping, then she started napping on the floor in her room, and now she's napping in the bed.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Toddler bed, signs, etc
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.
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.
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.
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