November 18, 2003
Well, all is going well in Ellie-land.
I won a $100 gift certificate from Kbtoys.com for writing a review about Ellie's
car seat, so the Yuletide shopping is already done! Yeah me!!!
Ellie is proto-crawling, as I call it. She is pushing up on her knees for
a split second, then flopping forward. She will occasionally use her arms to pull forward, too. So, I am hoping
we will reach that "Crawling by Christmas" goal I set back in June.
She is also learning how to use a spoon to feed herself. Admittedly, I am
slacking off on this. It is just soooo much work to have her hold the spoon, then show her how to dip it into her food.
She has grasped the concept of bringing the spoon to her mouth, but not that she has to put food on it first. She seems
to think food magically appears there. And I get impatient and she's hungry, so I usually just wind up feeding her.
Not so good. But we're trying, and that is what counts.
Ellie should be getting a stander on loan from an equipment lending library, as
her insurance and secondary payors won't cover one for her. She is apparently, not "involved" enough. Which is
good and bad. But this is one item we cannot afford to buy on our own. They run about $500.00! Ouch!
She has been wearing the sample thera-togs at PT, but I honestly don't see much
improvement with them. The real ones are made out of a slightly different material, and she'll wear them next to her
body instead of over her clothes, so hopefully, that will help.
We did try her in a walker/gait trainer week before last, but she just wouldn't
put any weight on her legs. Walking is a loooong way off. But that's okay.
On the speech front, she's just babbling up a storm! She "says" M, H, N,
T, V, B and D. She teams up her consonants with the vowel sounds of A, U and E. Very advanced (for her)!
Of course, other 16 month olds have freakin' vocabularies, but I think we are all aware that Ellie is having alot of cognitive
delays, as well. I don't think we are gonna miss the boat on permanent cognitive impairment. Oh well. Not
much I can do about, that, is there?
On a positive note, Ellie is at age level in her social interactions, which is
awesome! She loves being tickled, and will smile when I do something funny.
So, all in all, Ellie is still a happy little noodle, albeit a bit of a space cadet
sometimes. That's okay; I love her.
October 7, 2003
More great news! Ellie can stand (with lots of support)! But she's standing!!!!
Miss Kathleen has decided to focus on standing and then walking (I can't believe I just typed the "W" word!!!) in PT.
Ellie is going to be measured for
Theratogs , a special garment that will help her be more secure and steady as she learns to stand.
At some point in the near future, we are also going to get a
stander and a
walker , or gait trainer. The stander comes first, then the gait trainer (probably by her next birthday). We are
still working on crawling at home, but Kathleen thinks Ellie will probably walk before she crawls. This is because Ellie's
hips are so loose, and every time she tries to crawl, her hips splay out like a frogs legs. Ellie does have some
special shorts to help with this, and I am going to have her wear them more often during the day. We are also going to ask her OT about
getting her a special high chair or table with a tray, so she can sit and do more fine motor work. I like this one,
called the
Turtle, or the
Tripp Trapp chair (also called the Kinderzeat) for the highchair option. Regardless, Ellie will be getting alot of new stuff in
the next year! I am pretty sure the Early Intervention program and Medicaid will pay for all of it. Of course,
we might not get the nice stuff then, but I'll argue for it. After all, these things have to be in our home...
Well, it's getting late, so I must run. Expect more updates soon!
October 2, 2003
Yeah! I can update again! The interface is screwy, but who cares?
Ellie can now drink out of a straw! We showed her at ST on Tuesday once, and she got it, no problem. So I've
bought her two little cups with built in straws and she just loves them.
On an odd note, she doesn't want to drink milk anymore. Yes, my child; daughter of the gallon-a-day mommie, doesn't
like milk anymore. I think it's because she has a terrible stuffy, phlegmy post nasal drip thing going on and the milk
is too creamy. Poor kidmuffin.
But other than a nasty cold, she's doing so well. She can pull her knees up under her now and almost push up into
a modified quad position.
She's also giving kisses. She gives them all open mouthed and drooly, but who cares?
Last weekend, Mom and Ellie and I went to mom's friend Kathleen's birthday party. Well, they have a HUGE big screen
TV. And ya'll know how much Ellie loves TV... She actually has one "word"; "vavava" means "TV". So Ellie
is sitting on Grammie's lap and saying "vavava" and giving her a kiss on the cheek, then saying "vavava" and looking at the
TV and then giving another kiss. This went on for a minute or two. Dern kid was asking her Grammie for a big screen
TV. She's not even 2 yet and she wants the big toys...we'll blame Uncle Matthew for that.
But she is babbling more, and using more "word" type babbles and more sentence structure when she "talks" to her toys.
She even talks to Pheenycat! She'll reach out for him and say "Bababa". That's her generic word for any object.
"Dadada" is for a person. Sometimes she uses "badaba" for the cat.
Well, must go start suppy...More soon!
