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corner view: daily communication

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MORE

SORRY

APPLE

 

DA-DA

EAT

BABY

ALL DONE
I had high hopes for this post and have been looking forward to it since the topic announcement last week. I treated myself to a video and space upgrade on the ole blog and set out to make a movie of all of the signs we do in our house! Sadly, our industry queen fell sick to a high fever this weekend and she was unable to perform for a good part of it. The footage we captured we were going to label as Bieber Fever since it included her signing rendition of the hit single Baby, Baby, Baby complete with a gel Be Kool patch attached to her tiny forward to keep her fever minimized and her charisma high. But, well lets just say between technology and viral bugs the film isn’t quite prepared. So we’re going with the B-side and showing a few photos.
 
We started signing with Zuzu our 4-year-old when she was about 9-10 months old. With this experience under our belts and a clear research study of her showing that it OBVIOUSLY did not inhibit her ability to talk (come visit us anytime of the day), we had no qualms joining our buddies in the Down syndrome community as Rachel groupies around her show Signing Time. From early on both of our girls have been able to make fairly clear choices about what they wanted. I say fairly, because the Quail is just now starting to be able to sign with out prompts and doesn’t have a full enough vocabulary yet to cover all of her bases. She gets quite animated when she needs something and doesn’t have the sign to tell us yet. I have no doubt that the Quail will talk with as much animation as her older sister one day, but in the meantime we know it’s important to give her a means to communicate that will minimize her frustration of getting what’s in her pretty lil noggin out to the rest of the world. We’ve done daily therapy to overcome her motor planning and oral-motor weakness that comes along with Down syndrome and we KNOW she has things to say- we’re happy to adjust how we listen to meet her half-way. Both the girls will sign with each other now and for Zuzu, it’s become so instinctive that her hands will automatically go to the position still now as she’s saying the words for some of the earliest ones she learned.
 
Learning sign was easy and fun- there are tons of websites, board books, flash cards and videos. Instead of watching other TV our kids look forward to watching the antics of Rachel’s littles doing the things they do everyday. Zuzu’s first sign was more. When we started with the Quail on more she struggled and it seemed to abstract of a concept to begin with. She needed a one-handed sign that correlated with a concrete subject- so we backed up and went with her favorite motivator- eat! We started hand-over-hand having her sign eat and we did it as well and then handed her what we were eating. Now she’s to the point where she does it when she’s hungry on her own. Below is a list we’re keeping of her signs. I know I’ve forgotten a few- but this starts us off:
By herself:
apple
banana
cereal
cracker
sorry
please
more
drink
eat
book
bye-bye
up
all done
dog
dada
night-night
phone
hi
baby
dance
 
will do back when I sign it
thank you
fish
cat
momma
my turn/me
car
sock
shoe
shirt
pant
diaper
bib
woosh-woosh (her breathing treatment)
milk
chicken (to eat)
 ball
motorcycle
where
what
 

 Edited to add: Here’s a link to her signing and a lil of her Bieber cover

Corner view is a weekly Wednesday post hosted originally hosted by Jane, currently by  Francesca. A topic is given and you can see impressions; be it in photographic or poetic in form from around the world:

 Jane, Dana, Bonny, Joyce, Ian, Francesca, Theresa, Cate, Kasia, Otli, Trinsch, Isabelle, Janis, Kari, jgy, Lise, Dorte, McGillicutty, Sunnymama, Ibb, Kelleyn, Ninja, Sky, RosaMaria, Juniper, Valerie, Sammi, Cole, Don, WanderChow, FlowTops, Tania, Tzivia, Kristin, Laura, Guusje, Susanna, Juana, Elsa, Nadine

Quail Day: 1 step for mankind…

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and 3 in a row for our dear Quail!!!! Today, the day after her second birthday we came home to an extremely energetic bird. Monique was over for speech therapy and we remembered that the Quail hadn’t shown off her new stand up and plop down trick. So after a few rounds Monique asked if we had tried holding out her favorite-do-anything-for-a-fruitloop treat to see if she would take a few steps over to us to get it…and sure enough! She crawled for icecream and walked for fruitloops- I see a huge ice cream sundae in that girls future! Way to go Abi-quail! We’re so proud! Watch it for yourself here. Technically that’s not the actual first step. She got a set of 3 in before we got the camera recording. All the better- she did it more than once! Did I say already how proud we are!?!?!?!?

Happy Birthday dear Quail!

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Our dear lil bird is TWO!!!! We celebrated over the weekend with a hoppin good time at a local bouncehouse place with a yummy sweet cake from a German bakery, pizza for all and a Dora backpack full of treatbags lovingly put together courtesy of Zuzu. Zuzu was instructed prior to the party to remember that we are the hosts and we need to make each and every child and their family feel welcome. She was a busy big sis taking her role seriously, from greeting kids as they came, to handing out the treatbags, lining up the party hats, leading the chorus of Happy Birthday and making sure there were juice boxes galore. She even managed to sneak in a good bit of bouncing and a round of air hockey with Momma. The Quail was in her prime, after she not so delicately informed us she had no intention of wearing her special Birthday Princess hat throughout the party, she settled on a brief showing post-cake. Stranger anxiety is high right now, and we were a little worried what a room full of 40 of her besties and their families might do to her little flight or fight system. But she LOVED it! She was able to hang with Lovey throughout the eating, singing and treatbagging and then moved on to the Toddler bouncecastle with ease. It was a testiment to everyone’s hard work over the last two years with her to watch her greet friends with a hug and pat, rip her chompers through cheese pizza like she’s been doing it all her life and holler when her cake wasn’t delivered to her place fast enough. She’s become a baby panda bear wrestling with her sister anytime Zuzu sits down long enough for her to scoot up on her. This being her fave of the gross motor activities has enabled her to crawl up, over and through a maze in the toddler bounce was a huge delight. There wasn’t time for presents at the party, but rest-assured party-goers- she loved each and every one of your thoughtful gifts. Her only complaint was as to why we weren’t taking 30 minute breaks between packages so that she could play with each one before her stister swiped and renamed each and everyone.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped us throughout the day- other mom’s and dad’s and their ability to sense when an extra hand or five is needed at any given moment is truly my saving grace. Happy Birthday Sweet Quail- we love you to itty-bitty bits!

gratitude journal: In honor of 2 years with the Quail..

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1.being such a little concerned sweetheart about everyone in your world- if someone is sad or upset you are the first to scootch over and offer up a bear hug and plenty of sympathetic oooohhhhhs…

2. Being the feistiest lil sprite around town- no doubt you will not be bullied- you’ll swat back

3. teaching so many people about loving people as who they are

4. helping me see what others, and myself in the past see as obligation as a sweet gift- I used to think of your breathing treatments as one more thing to check off each day- now I can’t wait to snuggle you and your sis while you both cuddle up each night

5. learning to trust you and what you are telling us- you are the antonym for passive

6. your trust in us- as you seek us out when you are upset

7. you are such a smartie-smart girl- you continually amaze me as you progress from itty-bitty sweetheart baby to full-on, take the world no holds barred toddler

8. the pride I feel in the tiniest things you do

9. your ability to be soooooooo naughty- you repeatedly swipe your therapists things and hide them and then proceed to empty our cabinets into the tub and potty

10. the way you LOVE to dance with me & Daddy- you snuggle in for a slow song, bounce along to a peppy one and reach up to the sky when a song you know comes on or we suggest dancing

11. the way you holler to let us know you are up in the morning and keep at it until we are too

12. the way you race to the door at school when you hear your peeps approaching

13. the way your whole face lights up when we make you laugh- via tickles, silly games, or your jokes and teasing of us

14. your ability to communicate with your whole body- you launch on to your sister and dad as Captain Pounceypants, swipe a poor food offering off of your plate with more gusto than Marlon Brando

15. the people you have married to our lives

16. your insistence on doing things your way (which is so similar to your sisters)

17. your similarities to Zuzu- its uncanny how alike in basic make-up you are

18. how incredibly rascally you are in ways that never crossed your sisters mind

19. your determination to do everything you see everyone else doing- you’ve now jumped into the wrastlin piles at school

20. you love to be sung to- it calms you, centers you and cheers you

21. your unicorn status in a sea of horses

22. your kittenin into us

23. that you are mine- thank you dear baby

Quail & Zuzu Days: The cutting edge…

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Have you seen our bird? Her feathers have been trimmed- the Quail bob that she is named for remains intact though! She got her first haircut on 1/29/11. She’s had her bangs trimmed and we scavenged a few of her dark brown locks that came with her birth for posterity’s sake, but the first official cut happened 3 weeks before she turns two. When I was looking back through Zuzu’s photos to find one from her first haircut I realized that the girls were the same chronological age when we finally felt ready to do this- and I essentially and unknowingly gave them the same cut! There seems to be something weirdly biological in it I think!?

Quailday: One step for mankind…

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One step for mankind...

…and a few dozen for this little rockstar! I may very well keep crowing about this all week. Please excuse me, but I am sooooooooooooo incredibly proud of our little bird! Last night, I got out the contraption that I had devised and thought might be a brilliant walking tool when the time was right and lo and behold…it worked! I put a couple of small hand weights into a cooler we have. It’s about 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. The perfect height for the girl to pull up on and then use to stabilize herself as she walks. All the walking toys, she’s not ready for them yet, they fall over when she tries to pull up on them and if we help her up, the slightest push causes them to fly out from under her. Even my spiffy Plan Toy Walker that I was certain would be brilliant because you could adjust the tension on the wheels. For right now, having this big heavy, but not too heavy box is perfect. She pushed it all the way down and back our hallway before plopping down!!!!!

I’m tickled as pink as those little Garanimal hi-top sneakers she’s sportin these days!