Look at what I can do now!

36 months

Ellie is a different child than the one that last graced these pages. She's walking with confidence now, and has been since October of 2004. She's starting to run a bit, too. Over the past few months, she's learned to kick a ball, stomp her feet, do this quick little stomp/shuffle I call "tap dancing", feed herself with a spoon and fork (as long as I put the food on it first) and to take off a baggy shirt.

Her speech is just amazing. It's still very, very hard to understand, and she's not using sentences at all, but she uses words consistently now. Too many to count. She loves books and stories, too. She likes to turn the pages (that old paper obsession popping up!), but she really looks at the pictures now, and she enjoys hearing the stories themselves.

Music remains her first love, though. I am confident she will be a musician at some point in her life. Probably the drums - like her dad and her Grandpop before her.

She'll be starting special ed preschool this coming school year. I'm excited, nervous and happy all at the same time. It will be so good for her, but I'll miss having her around all the time.

18 Months

Oh, the changes we've seen these past few months...

Ellie is such an imp, now. She just started crawling (on Christmas Day - BEST PRESENT EVER!!! There will be video posted soon...)

She never falls when sitting now; she transitions onto hands and knees and back into a sit. She lays on her tummy and pushes up onto all fours. She hardly rolls as a method of locomotion anymore; crawling is ever so much more fun!

Her verbal and oral motor skills are coming along so well. She says "tat" for "cat" and still with the "vavava" for "TV". She has just started verbalizing the sound "Mom", but hasn't really applied it to me as yet. She is doing "tiny bites" and can eat three Froot Loops in twenty minutes! Hey, that's a record for her!

Her appetite is wonderful, and she is up to 21 pounds! That's the 7 percentile for her age. Her height is in the 50th percentile! She just had a check-up at the pediatrician, and she's all systems go! Very healthy...especially since she got her flu shot...

She can hold her own sippy cup or straw cup when I help her grab it. She won't pick it up on her own, yet. We are working on self-feeding with a spoon. She never has picked up her food with her fingers, but she'll get that, too, one day.

Her cognitive skills continue to improve, although she remains behind her "normal" peers. She takes balls and blocks out of containers, but no putting them in. She still loves shaking her Gasparilla beads, of course. She also loves squeezing stuffed animals, and makes good attempts at playing her xylophone.

Her favorite toys continue to be her Fisher-Price Aquarium with Flutterballs, her beads and anything that makes music!

She is just so bright and happy and loves to look at the world around her. She'll be my little scientist one day!

14 Months

Ellie is officially sitting independently now! She only falls over when she wants to! Or when she's really, really tired.

We are going to start weaning her off the Klonapin over the next few months. That is kind of scary, but good, too.

She's still not crawling yet, but she's been working so hard on sitting, I think/hope that is why. We are working on standing in PT now, and Ellie even has her very first pair of pink sneakers, with sparkles on them!

She's not talking yet, but she is using little grunts to let me know when she wants a drink! She is babbling up a storm, though. No "mama" yet. Boo-hoo. She does say "Vavavavava" for the television. Maybe. Can't be sure. Of course, I'll be saying maybe she's talking the day she comes out with, "Mommy can I....".

That's my kidmuffin, alright. Not even two yet and already a TV addict!

Nothing else has really changed. She's gaining weight better now that she's taking Periactin. She wasn't eating, and come to find out (make that Mommie finds out after lots of internet research...), Topamax can cause anorexia in children and infants. So, that is why she was having such a terrible time gaining weight. She still has a hard time putting on weight, and her head isn't growing as fast as it should be, but I've learned not to put too much emphasis on all the testing and clinical measurements. Ellie is just gonna be who she's gonna be.

12 months old...

Ellie just had her birthday, and wow, has she come far in the last two months. She is almost "commando crawling" on her tummy, and can now sit for almost 20 seconds at a time. But, after she falls over, SHE PICKS HERSELF BACK UP!!! And then sits for another 15 seconds! What an amazing kid!

She is rolling over all over the place now, as that is her preferred method of locomotion. She plays with toys more, even though she is still usually shaking them back and forth, she sometimes shakes them up and down now. She is much more interactive with people, and lifts her arms up to be picked up.

She understands the words "mama" and "yogurt" and "fruit" and loves to watch Sesame Street. She is getting to be more and more typical in her interactions with people and the world around her every day.

10 months old...

Ellie is now 10 months old, and is doing well.

She can roll over from front to back with no problem, albeit not as easily as when she was three months old. I've been told it was easier for her at three months because she just kind of pointed her big ole' head where she wanted to go, and her body followed! But, no, she was really rolling over a three months and lost that skill as the seizures worsend. In my opinion, the seizures worsened the hypotonia, even though there is no visible brain damage in Ellie's MRI's or CAT scans.

Ellie can also roll over from back to front, but she doesn't do this as often as front to back. It's just not that much fun.

She can sit up, with back and minimal side support, for about a minute at a time. After that long, she folds herself over and touches her toes. Cirque du Soilel, here we come!

She bangs her hands around until she reaches a toy, and then grabs it and bangs it around. This is what constitues play for her. I wish she would play with more purpose, but three months ago, she barely even noticed toys, so this is progress!

She knows her own name, and is learning what "mama" and "grammie" mean.

She likes to spin in circles and be swung back and forth. She also likes to be upside down.

She loves the sound of paper crinkling and of applause.

And, most importantly, she SMILES!! And LAUGHS!! My little Ellie enjoys life and I get to share it with her. She doesn't always experience it the way other babies do, but then, what is the fun in being like everyone else? She's my unique little noodle/flopmonster/pumpkin and I am so glad she's in my life.