A dose of cuteness

First, a cute story.  The other night as Dave & I were heading to bed he went in to check on her.  She needed a diaper change, so her got her out of the crib and went to work.  For the first time, she was really talking in her sleep (as opposed to that one time she was signing in her sleep).  I could hear her from down the hall---little sweet noises "Ada lala.  A da. Ba ba da." etc.  So super adorable.  Dave said that she never opened her eyes, just kind of chattered a bit and then went right back to sleep.

Second, a cute video.  This one is care of Maya's preschool teacher, and features her holding hands and walking with her new little buddy, Elijah.  (Thanks also to Elijah's mom, who gave permission to share the video here---I always check in with other parents before sharing stuff.)  I think it's hilarious how the women in the background are trying to kind of promote chivalry by asking him to slow down and be gentle because she's a girl :)  (Maya clearly couldn't care less).  And I love whoever says "Come on, woman" because, well, that's exactly what I would have said if I was there!



I think I need to get Elijah to teach me some tricks, because she doesn't hold my hand that easily when we're out and about.

 

Talking in '12

Happy New Year :)

I've done some reflecting back, and some looking ahead, and here's what I came up with:

2011 was the year of the walking.  I'd like 2012 to be the year of the talking. 

Talking progress, that is . . . I'm not expecting her to start speaking intelligibly.  But it sure would be nice if she got some more words, even if I'm the only one who understands them.  I'd like her to use her voice more, to give her tongue a workout and build those muscles. 

Weirdly, it's as if Maya can read my mind . . . suddenly, she's "talking" a lot.  (If you're a FB fan, you may have heard the video that I put up of her jabbering away in her crib.)  For the past 3 days, she's been a chatterbox.  It's amazing. 

From the beginning, she's been a silent quiet girl.  At the end of our first ever appointment with our first ever speech therapist, when Maya was about 10 months old, the therapist turned to me at the end of the session and asked something like "Is she typically this quiet?" and I said "Oh, yeah.  She doesn't really make noise.  Unless she's laughing.  Or crying."  That question haunted me.  I hadn't even put 2 + 2 together that she should be babbling.  I knew that words would come late, but I hadn't recognized the absence of the meaningless baby babble.

Now, we've got babble.  And word approximations.  Some old ("Ah!" for alligator has been around for a while now) and some brand new.  Like her name. 

That's right, people, she's (basically) saying Maya.

This was shot this afternoon.  Make sure your volume is on, and you'll get to hear: babbling, "me", "alligator", "Maya", "bad", and some jibberish.  It's all amazing.  She's finding her voice.


A hint: if you see a black box, click it. It should play.  If it doesn't, double click the "YouTube" box in the lower right corner and watch the video there.
She's getting noisy.  I've waited years for noisy.

Allow me to translate . . .

If you want to learn how to speak MSL (that's Maya Sign Language, a lesser known dialect of ASL) then all you have to do is watch this handy dandy translation video.  I made it for her preschool teacher (she starts on Thursday!  Only a few days left!) and thought I'd share it here, too. 





In other news, tomorrow brings us back to the geneticist to run a new test for a syndrome that's been on my radar for a while now.  I've been meaning to write about what that's like (from researching syndromes to waiting for test results) but this whole about-to-start-preschool thing is consuming right now. 

Soon.

Listen up!

Before this afternoon, Maya's spontaneous vocabulary was only 1 word:  Bye.  She loves bye and bye-bye and will shout them any time someone appears to be leaving anywhere.  People stand up at the dog run? "Bye-bye!"  We pass by someone in the hallway? "Bye!"  We leave the apartment? "Bye-bye.  A-bye.  Bye!"

(She can also say "mama" and "dada" but those are generally prompted.  And  "Mmmmm" can mean: milk, Maisy, Maisy video, moon, more, cow or moo.  "Hhhh" ("ha", but the a is silent) means "help".  These sounds are word precursors, but not true words, you know?  Like, we understand them, but not other folks.)

But this afternoon, with her fabulous speech therapist (who I know is probably reading this!) Maya latched on to another word. 

And it's soooooooooooooo cute.



Did you hear that sweet little voice?  Saying a real word?  It's like a drop of rain to a man in the desert . . . on one hand, I wanted to jump out of my skin with excited, grateful celebration  . . . and then, so quickly, a thirsty voice in my head says "More, more, give me more, talk more." 

It will come. 

PS.  How cute is it that "done" appears to be a full body effort?  Adorable.

PPS.  Her first two clear words are "bye-bye" and "done".  We've got a strong willed little girl on our hands :)


(Hearing update:  We've got nothing.  More tests today solidified what we already know---when she uses both ears, in a quiet room, her hearing seems to be normal.  We need more detailed data, but it's difficult to tease out of her, as some of the tests are too sophisticated just yet.  We'll return at the end of the summer, and will be teaching her a new way to take a certain behavioral test between now and then.)

Simple certainty & Kristi Yamaguchi. Wait, what? Kristi Yamaguchi?

In 1992 Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal for figure skating at the Olympics.  Weirdly, I clearly remember the bio piece that they played before she skated.  In it, they talked about how she was born with foot/leg problems and had to wear casts, braces, special shoes  (I just wikipedia'd to fortify my 12 yr old memory, and she was born with club feet.)  They talked about how her parents always knew she would walk and run, and that she started skating as a form of physical therapy.  I (along with most of the country, probably) thought "Wow!  Good for her!  And good for her parents, for always having hope and never giving up!" 

Kristi Yamaguchi with casted legs/feet.  I'm not BFFs with her or anything, I just found this on Google images.

I mean, I was 12.  I saw a picture of a little girl with casted legs and thought, how can any parent look at their casted up child and keep the faith that she will walk and run and jump?  I marveled at their hope and faith. 

But maybe they didn't have hope or faith. 

Maybe they just knew. 

I have a child with splints and a walker, who passed by her first and second birthdays without taking her first steps . . . but I can absolutely say that from the first times that I saw her stand and play, I've known Maya will walk. 

Without a doubt.   100%.  She would walk.  It might take a few months, or a few years.  She may need giant leg braces or walkers or crutches for a long while.  But she'll walk.  (And although we're not there yet, I also know that she'll run and she'll climb stairs.  It will come.) 

Not faith.  Not hope.  Not bravado.  Just simple certainty.

The same simple way that you know that spring follows winter, I knew that someday Maya would walk. 

Before we got to the walking, there was waiting, stretching, taping, splinting, laying on the mats and doing exercises.  Propping her to stand at the coffee table and play standing up, shuffling just out of reach and lifting her feet for her to feel a step.  Pulling to stand, then sitting.  Pulling to stand, then sitting.  Enticing her to cruise along the side of the couch by carrying my laptop to the end, then tricking her to go back and cruise the other way. 

There was work.  There was practice. 

There was the mental  marking of an infinite number of baby step celebrations (Her foot didn't turn like that yesterday!  She couldn't get up so quickly a week ago!)

But there was quiet, patient certainty.  I wasn't hoping she would walk, I wasn't kidding myself or keeping my chin up,  I just knew she would.  Clear, simple knowledge. 

How did I know?  I could see it.  I'm with her all the time.  I can see tiny shifts in her abilities that many, many people would miss.  While strangers might see that she falls over 7 times at the playground, I see that she caught herself with her hands 7 times (!), and she's not tipping over backwards as often. 

They see the things that she has trouble doing, and I see how far she's come.

They see the things that she can't do yet, and I see that this month she can do things that were inconceivable 2 months back.

They see a girl held back by splints and a walker, and I see a girl who is zooming (sometimes too quickly for her own good) around a mall.

They see disabilities, and I see new abilities. 

And I'm not judging them for it . . . really, how could an outsider see it any other way?  They see her walker and her, um,  interesting new way of taking steps (she looks like she's rock climbing as she walks---hands and arms in the air as she overcompensates for her weak core by using her arms to help her go) and it really jumps out that she's working harder than the average toddler to get around.  It's easy to see her challenges, but it's impossible to see how far she's come.

Hands up, like she's climbing rocks, to help her move and balance

But I see it all the time.  And luckily, it doesn't matter much to me what other people think she'll be able to do (well, except for Dave.  But that's for another post,  maybe a "part 2"). 

I would bet that there are a lot of other moms out there who feel the same way.  Although I had the idea for this post a while ago, I waited until she was actually walking to speak my mind, just in case there were any sweetly sympathetic readers out there who might respond with the cheery "Oh, Dana, of course she'll walk!  Keep the faith!  Fight the fight!  Keep smiling!"  I love the positivity, but it kind of misses the point for this.

What's the point again?

I guess the point is that parents are often gathering massive amounts of qualitative data on their kids (oh, my science nerdiness is showing, isn't it?).  We remember the past, and we're proud of where we are today.  (If you see a toddler with a walker at the playground, don't feel bad for that kid---she's happy to be moving independently.  And don't feel bad for the mom, as she's likely excited that the walker is working, and wondering how she can help her kid get up the stairs to follow the other kids.) 

Also, we can see the future.  Kind of.  Sometimes it's just easy to see the road our kids are walking on, and we can be totally certain of something that you may think we're wishing and praying for.  Sometimes, for us, it's easy to see.

(And lest anyone roll their eyes and think "This must be easy to write, now that Maya is taking her first steps and all", I'll throw another one out there.  Maya will talk some day.  I'm completely sure.  Maybe not until she's 5 or 6-or later- but she wants to, and she tries.  Someday her muscles will catch up, and words will come.  I don't say it boldly, or as a dare, it's just a simple truth . . . after summer comes fall, and someday Maya will talk.  Simple.)

Maya's an animal. And she plays with one too.

2 new videos from this week:

1.  Maya &Parker are BFFs.  He likes to try to engage her in playing, which is adorable.  When I unrolled the tunnel for Maya the other day, they immediately fell into playing this game:  Maya crawls through the tunnel, Parker walks along the outside.  When Maya passes by a window he would poke his nose with it, which makes her giggle wildly.  Then when she emerges, he gives her a thorough sniffing to make sure nothing strange happened in the tunnel:





2.  Maya makes animal sounds now!  She can do a cow (Oom.  It's "moo" backwards), a duck (which is clicking her tongue), and a dog (for some strange reason, a dog nods, apparently.  I don't know if maybe I nod my head when I say "woof" or what.  But if you ask her what a dog says, she nods).

Also, she'll "sing" for you, which is saying "la la la".

Stay tuned through the surprise ending.



As usual, if you don't see the videos just click play and they'll appear.

Our day in cell phone video clips

(As always, if you see blank areas with play arrows under them, just click the play arrow and the video will pop in.)

We're experiencing a little developmental boom over here.  I've seen it before---a bunch of new skills suddenly show up.  Sometimes they stick (like signing) and sometimes they disappear again only to come back later (remember when she first pulled to stand for a few days, and then quit and didn't do it again until like 4 months later?).   But I'm soaking it all up while it lasts. 

Besides the walking-with-the-stroller development (which is huge, huge, huge and appears to be sticking around for real), she's starting to chatter away a lot more.  She spend half the day babbling to me, Parker, her toys . . . I can hear her now talking to something in her crib (no joke).  Here we are, talking in the laundry room:


0:02-0:05 She signs "more"  (her version of it, anyway.  Kids who sign modify their signs, the same way a toddler might say "lello" instead of "yellow".  They get more refined over time).  Then she just is chatting away :)


She's a champion block stacker:



At 0:34 when I say "knock it over" I initially didn't know why she turned away from the table.  Watching it again, I just realized that she turned to knock on the wooden hutch.  If you rewatch it, you can see her starting at me, possibly thinking "Knock?  I thought we were doing blocks.  But, ok, I'll knock . . ."  
She's such a clever little thing, I worry that others won't be able to see the wheels turning in her brain.  Then she goes rogue and tries to hurl all of the blocks on the floor behind the table.

She might not know shapes or colors, but she knows the important things, like farm animals:


And she loves books.  And cows.  And books that have cows in them.  And she does a big celebration when she finds the cow page in a book. (This video has a surprise ending).



Also, if you don't "like" us (that sounds weird) on Facebook, you might not be aware that "Amsterdam International" has now been shared by 493 people (or organizations) on Facebook.  If you have a FB page and you haven't shared the link yet, feel free :)

Walking & Talking

Walking:

Maya's got a mind of her own.  She knows what she wants, and now that she can steer her little stroller (which she's able to maneuver better than the more medical looking baby walker), she's able to go after it, too.

(I could upload 700 pictures like this.  I'm so excited that she suddenly is motivated to move vertically that I can't help but giggle and take a million pictures when we're out and she's (almost) walking!)

Sometimes she wants to wander around the basketball courts:

If I sit like that, I can scoot myself along on the stroller . . . I feel like a big kid .  I wanted to throw my arms up and go "Whhhheeeee!"  

But things got a little dicey  when she found a flight of stairs that she really wanted to go down.  Really, really wanted to go down.

We tried to explain that stroller + stairs = trouble, but she wasn't interested in listening.  Luckily, she's 2 and easily distractable, so the tears didn't last long at all :)

Talking:

We were on our way to Trader Joe's the other day and Maya was babbling up a storm---she loves to chatter in the car (maybe because we're not focusing on her and she's trying to join in with our conversations?).  Anyway, most people---even her speech therapists---don't get to hear Maya "talk" often . . . she really seems silent to most people.  She's always watching and listening, but she doesn't use her voice much . . . so we're happy to let you all hear her "talk".

I'm not sure what happened with the cell phone video recording thing, but somehow the sound is on a delay---you see her mouth move, but the sound doesn't come for a few seconds.  It makes more sense if you click the "play" button and then just listen, instead of watching.

Clearly, her expressive language (able to use her voice to express herself) isn't so great.  But her receptive language (her understanding of us) is actually very good.  You can see a little taste of that here, as Dave talks to her about her cow.

Speaking of cows, guess what we saw when we got to Trader Joe's:



I'm trying to tell you something

It's fun to watch Maya try to communicate with us more and more, through signing, sounds, and temper tantrums.  Well, the last one isn't super fun.  

We're working on encouraging her to make sounds instead of only signing.  She's pretty consistently saying "Mmmm"  or "Ma" for "More" and making some open-mouthed sounds for "Open".  She loves saying open----open food, open doors, open bags of toys.  Good things happen when you open stuff.

Here she is, first signing for me to open, and then trying to talk---note the big rounded mouth trying to make an O, and the fact that she does more than one syllable :)   Progress!

Talking (well, kind of) & talking (well, kind of)

Two talking stories:

1.  The other night I went to check on Maya on my way to bed, and could quickly smell that she needed a diaper change.  Ugh.  I didn't want to wake her up, so I tried to carefully lift her, lay her on the changing pad, and change her.  I was gingerly moving her around and her eyes were closed, but she kept shaking her head from side to side.  Then I saw her hands moving, and when I looked to see what she was doing, she was signing "More, more, more!"   I could barely suppress my laughing as I went to tell Dave:  "She was just talking in her sleep!!!"  Priceless :)

2.  As far as actual babbling goes, if you ignore Maya long enough she may start talking.  I know that a lot of folks have never actually heard her, since she's kind of a quiet watcher around a lot of activity, so here's a video from dinner today: (By the way, no need to adjust your volume---it takes her a while to warm up, be patient.  And I have no idea what she was trying to tell me, but it may have been about the crumbs on her tray.)



Also, to prepare Maya's dinner I had to leave her unattended for about 2 minutes.  When I peeked into the living room this is what I saw:

(I can almost hear Parker thinking "Oh, she's coming!  You're going to be in troub-ble!")

(Dave pointed out that this whole episode is very "Calvin & Hobbes")