I’ve been a wee bit disorganized of late. Every time I go to create a post some little household necessity pops up and the posting has to wait. The thing is- it’s so easy to think nothing is changing and easy to get worried that the delays are increasing and all the therapy isn’t helping. It seems like we’ll see or here a new sound or activity or response, get all excited and then it goes away for a number of weeks before resurfacing. Then I take the time to make a list; look back over the last few updates to see what was documented and see that there is so very much going on. I wish I had more time to share it in detail but for now some shorts will have to suffice.

Some shorts and notables of late on the Quail’s radar:

5/5/10: I clearly heard the word “Hi!” when I lifted her carseat to carry her into a talk Sara Rosenfeld Johnson was giving. She was apparantly warming up for entertainment. We took her to the talk that was being given to local speech therapists and families on oral-motor planning and therapy techniques figuring our quiet as a mouse girl would just blend in. Instead she surprised us by babbling the entire hour. Essentially one of us had to carry her out into the hall and miss the presentation entirely. I was a bit emberrassed to be so disruptive, but in the same respect- a room full of speech therapists can’t really criticize a kiddo initiating babble right? 

5/18/10- During Speech- she said Mama! First time- second time we’ve heard a successful mmmmm sound- did get one mmmmmm during OT months ago

5/23/10- Laughter- pure, golden, bubbling laughter in the night. Lovey had picked her up out of her bed for a quick snuggle before bed while I put Ms. Zuzu down- and as Zu drifted off I could hear it plain as day for the first time, continued belly laughter. He was holding her facing him and she was trying to “feed” him her blankie and giggling when he went num, num, num. She was initiating it and laughing SO hard- and SO long for her- real gutteral-pleased-joyful laughter. Or home has never felt so light and lovely.

5/22/10: Also this weekend something changed in the tone of her babble- to it not sounding so much like babble and more like a response in nonsense and like she is talking to us or herself. It’s hard to describe other than that. We’ll here it when we are talking about her bottle, her diaper…it sounds like she is trying to say the word.

5/22/10: Dancing! Baby girl was sitting on the floor and briefly started bouncing her bum to the rhythm of the music!

5/24/10: More teeth- She already had gotten since her first birthday her bottom center two. Now post surgery her top center left and her bottom left molar are poking their steely tips through.

6/04/10: And more teeth, the other ginormous center top right. I swear it’s a race to push through the gum facefirst or straight down. It’s like a tiny guillotine keeping her up at night.

6/12/10: Dada- she saw, she noted, she greeted with a wave: “Da da”. We squawked, we circled and we chortled back. The game has begun.

6/16/10: Dada rules and what a pleasant greeting- when she spots him: “Hi Dada”. Also when she hears him in another room, she will quietly say Dada to herself.

6/19/10: The top left molar side is poking through- the kid can’t get a break.

6/23/10: Army crawling in earnest- the left arm is still bent and she’s on her elbow- the right arm is straight- 3 pulls forward for the kiddo!

6/25/10: Miss Kathy said it was time to give up the middle of the night bottle- well apparantly we just needed to let the Quail know! Now that the teethers are through she seems to be able to sleep through the night. She’s been doing this off and on but each time a tooth gets close to poking through it breaks the cycle for a few days but then she gets back on track

7/5/10: The true hi-light of our trip, we found her motivation- Ice Cream! I was able to hold out bites to her and she was willing to crawl 5-6 pulls, eat the bite and then repeat- for a good 15 minutes or loop and a half! My mom promptly informed me she comes by it honestly- it was how they motivated me to crawl.

7/13/10: Solid meltables are no match for her pearly chompers! We got the go ahead to keep giving her meltables. I had tried it over the weekend and after one gag- she got it and chomped away. We had discussed in SLP that maybe part of her upset during mealtime was the need to feed herself or have some control over it. So we now have puff parties. Some puffs for both the girls and a straw cup for each and they share their snack. So cute until the moment that the cup gets plunged over the side of her tray.  We’re also using the puffs as a Hansel & Grettal style of developmental play motivation. We leave a trail of puffs where she can clearly see the first one and she’ll crawl along finding her way to the end of the path.

7/17/10: Scrambled eggies are a hit! With a little one who is used to only purees it’s monumental when she is able to chomp a food and not gag. Also- frosting. With the plethora of birthday parties this summer it’s only right that she get to share our weekend indulgences.

7/22/10- We’re working on her transitioning from belly to sitting and sitting to belly. The puffs work well for this as well- put one fairly far out- not so far that she isn’t interested but so far that that just leaning isn’t sufficient to get it. She will go down and crawl over to it. She’s also now started laying on her side with her top leg either bent so the foot sole is on the floor or in a mini-pilates scissor kick going up and down. The great thing about this position- she’s getting herself into it and propps up the arm that’s on the bottom- so she ends up bearing weight and strengthening that shoulder. Mostly because it takes her a bit to get out of that position. If we were to hold her there she would scream. But she’s managed to get herself into it and we scream in delite. Picture George Costanza and the “portrait” he had done of himself…

7/25/190 “Baby!” We both heard it! Woo-woo! Lovey and I were fixing dinner and the Quail had just finished up her snack. Lovey handed her the infamous Baby Kira- one of Zuzu’s precious babies- TQ picked it up and uttered Baby! Of course we spent the next 10 minutes trying to get her to repeat it with no luck- but much like Hi and Mama  and Dada- we heard it so it’s officially on the radar!