The newest musical craze...

MC Fisher Price in her debut music video... (about 3 minutes long).

I'm posting a lot because Shoshanna is being particularly brilliant

It's amazing to think about how far her communication skills have come in the past 2 weeks. Before Passover, she had a five-word vocab:

1. hi
2. byebye
3. uh-oh
4. dada
5. yes (nod)

Now, she has a many-word vocabulary (including both signs and spoken words as "vocab")

1. hi
2. byebye
3. uh-oh
4. dada
5. yes (nod)
6. no (shake head)
7. ball
8. a doggy
9. eat (signed)
10. drink (signed)
11. more (signed, sometimes mimiced as "mmmm")
    
12. book (signed and spoken sometimes)
13. draw (usually signed, sometimes spoken)
14. sleep (signed)
15. wash (signed)
16. baby (usually applied to pictures of herself that are up on the fridge)
    

That's right, she's more than tripled her vocabulary in two weeks.

She can identify at least six body parts by pointing to them:

1. head
2. face
3. ears
4. nose
5. tummy
6. belly button

I've tried testing her on two-step commands this morning and she hasn't completed any of them successfully - she forgets what she's doing after the "go get" part. But yesterday we were playing in the kitchen and Matthew started doing "Patty Cake" with her. She promptly got up, went into the living room, got her book of nursery rhymes (which includes "patty cake"), and brought it back to him to read. We were VERY impressed. And this morning she crawled into my lap and signed "sleep" (a sign we'd showed her once or twice two days ago). I asked her, "Do you want to sleep?" She nodded "yes." So I took her upstairs, gave her a binky and rocked her for about two mintues, then put her in her crib.

That was over an hour ago. She's still sleeping.

Only a little bit in poor taste...

This entry from Overheard in New York.

On that note, however, I'll remind all of our loyal readers that our local WalkAmerica event is on April 30th. If you'd like to donate in Shoshanna's honor, you can do so here.

Today's Exploration: Trees and Mulch

Today Shoshanna investigated the world of trees (particularly bark) and mulch. She got gloriously dirty, too. We also (meanly) changed the definition of "street" on her - as far as she's concerned "no street" now means no wandering past the sidewalk. We're just much more comfortable that way - our easements are nice and wide (7 or 8 feet) and it's a good defining line. She learned the new "no go" zone pretty quickly too. And she helped me pick up sticks in the yard so that we can mow the lawn next time it's sunny out.

New Physical Therapist - or - Ways She's Super-Preemie

Shoshanna met her new PT for the first time this afternoon. Because it was her first visit (and becasue the paperwork from Shoshanna's February assessment hadn't made it into her hands), she basically put Shoshanna through a full assessment. (And hey, it only took her about five minutes to look at me and say, "And she's getting services WHY?")

Her motor skills, both fine and gross, tested at 17-19 months. (For those keeping score at home, she'll be 19 months old next Tuesday.) Amanda was very impressed at her drawing skills in particular. AND this eval was done when Shoshanna was completely exhausted. So, y'know, she's super. But we already knew that.

The other thing we did was talked a fair bit about her speech delay, and decided to put off having her formally assessed because right now she tests at her adjusted age. Since NY does everything based on adjusted age, she wouldn't qualify for services right now. This wouldn't be a big deal, only they'll only do formal assessments once every six months. So basically Amanda doesn't want us to blow our SLT assessment now when she wouldn't qualify for services and then and then not be able to do another one until she's 2. And since her vocabulary has EXPLODED in the past week (she's added "baby", "draw" (DAH!), "a doggy" (ah-dah-guh), and probably some others that I can't think of off the top of my head right now)... She's also invented another new sign - for "draw".

Like I said. Super-preemie.

The levels of exploration...

Shoshanna's current favorite game is playing with a bunch of rocks (read: broken concrete) in our driveway. She stacks them, bangs them together, etc. Yesterday I watched her hold a rock, look at the rock, look at her leg, look at the rock again. Then she pulled up her pants leg and started rubbing the rock against her bare leg. You could almost see her little brain going, "Hrm... I wonder what happens if I do THIS?"

This evening she was playing with the same pile of rocks and she discovered a small hole. It's probably slightly bigger than a quarter in diameter, and maybe half an inch deep. First she methodically used her little fingers to scrape all of the dirt she could out of the hole. The she proceeded to see which rocks would fit in the hole, and in which orientations, and if she could still stack the rocks even when one was in the hole.

And then she got to the next logical step. She leaned forward and licked the hole. And immediately started trying to scrape the resultant mud off of her tongue. I don't think she'll try licking holes again. (Matthew opines: "Yeah, she will.")

Shoshanna's Second Passover

Shoshanna had great fun for the last couple of days having not two but FIVE grownups all to herself! Our friends Lisa, Troy, and Ben came to visit for Passover. We had a great seder on Wednesday night, and Shoshanna played happily in her high chair for the first half of the ceremony and most of dinner. By the end of dinner she had gotten sick of the high chair (where she spent the pre-dinner portion of seder coloring) and was getting prety tired and cranky, so we took a break to put her to bed and then did the second half of the ceremony. It worked out really well, and she loved the 4 questions finger puppets that one of L's co-workers had bought for her. :^D

Shoshanna's not a big fan of plain matzo (and really... who is?), but she'll happily eat tam tams (matzo crackers) and passover cereal, so we're all set there. Oh, and she loves maccaroons and haroset (the latter of which we're limiting her intake of, since we did make it with wine - not a lot, but you can definitely tell it's there).

Thursday we went up to Niagara Falls to wander about - it was a GORGEOUS day. We didn't let Shoshanna out of the stroller (unless she was being carried) when we were near the falls themselves, but we did turn her loose to stomp around, stick her fingers in the mud, and chase
seagulls. (Squealing all the while.)

There's nothing like having an early intervention occupational therapist come to your house to visit for a couple of days to kick you into trying to teach your slightly speech-delayed toddler to sign. (Her receptive language - what she understands - is FANTASTIC, but she has a vocabulary of 3 spoken words (hi, bye, uh-oh) and a few signs - she nods yes, waves (but also says "hi" and "bye" ) and she holds her hands in a particular way when she wants up or to be handed to a certain person. She uses "da" for Matthew and "ma" for me inconsistently, and has lately been labeling objects that start with "b" universally as "bah".) So Lisa gave us some helpful suggestions (and prodded us about pushing for speech and language therapy with early intervention) the biggest of which (and I'm sure she'll chime in here and remind me if I'm getting this wrong) were to slow down and give Shoshanna single words to imitate and to encourage her to sign. We're just so used to her understanding more complex sentences and instructions!

Anyway, within about 10 minutes, she had spontanously signed "more" and she's been mimicking us signing "eat" and "milk" as well as the first sounds of some of our words. She invented her own sign for "wash", too (rubbing her hands together). She's getting pretty frustrated with us, though, because we're insisting on doing this silly mumbojumbo with our hands before we give her what she wants. And to add insult to injury, we're trying to make HER do the mumbojumbo, too! We're so mean.

Oh, and she spontaneously barked at a dog on TV yesterday morning and a cat on TV this morning (hey, it's furry and it's got four legs...).

18 month checkup

Shoshanna's 18-month checkup was today. She has been declared to be darling, healthy as a horse, and strong (because she's still pretty good at fighting off people doing things to her that she doesn't want - still the pugil champion!!!). She actually hadn't gained any weight since her appointment a month ago (still tipping the scales at 21#14), but she's somewhere between one and two inches taller than she was a month ago (as much as we ever trust length measurements on excessively squirmy toddlers who would really rather NOT be pinned to the exam table). The doctor has no concerns about her growth, eating, development, any of it.

And so, let us celebrate our LAST SYNAGIS SHOTS EVER! Hooray! We actually aren't expected back at the doctor's office until SEPTEMBER. Holy cow, what will we ever do with ourselves in the meantime!

More Adventures in Toddler-hood!

Shoshanna has had a couple of firsts in the past 2 days, which pretty much sum up life with a toddler.

Yesterday, she went off the diving board for the first time. We were having mommy-n-me swim class in the deep end (with floaty belts on toddlers & adults alike) and the only kids there were Shoshanna and her friend Courtney. C is a little bit of a daredevil, and she's been going off the board since the beginning. So C did it and Shoshanna clearly thought it looked like fun, so we figured we'd give it a try. Liz, her swim teacher, took her to the board, they walked the length of it (with Shoshanna holding Liz's hands), and then Liz lowered her to me. (This is the same way that Courtney goes off of the diving board.) She was never actually airborne, and she really really wanted to go again.

Today, Shoshanna had her first time out. We were playing in her room and she sunk her teeth into my leg REALLY HARD (hard enough to leave a bruise & almost break the skin - through my jeans!). When telling her very firmly "No! Don't bite!" was met with the same "proud of myself" grin that she had after the diving board, I scooped her up and deposited her in her crib for a minute-and-a-half (or thereabouts... I didn't actually time it). She howled, but hopefully she'll get the message that biting is not acceptable.