when the parents are away....

So, Ella spent the night at her grandparents on Friday. She took her first independent steps while she was in their kitchen. According to the story relayed to me, she wanted to get to the baby gate that blocks entry into the downstairs bathroom. She had been holding onto my mother's hands and let go of them to take two steps to the gate. Then she held onto the gate and turned around looking for my mother's hands. She then proceeded to hold onto one of my mom's hands and play with the gate with her free hand.

Today, with me, something almost equally amazing happened. She was standing up, playing with a large sheet of stiff, clear plastic. She had been playing with it while it was on top of the coffee table, but it fell off and she moved away from the table (by holding onto one of my hands) to pick it up. Then she got excited, let go of me, and held onto the plastic with both hands. It is very hard to say how long she actually balanced like this. Probably no more than 2 seconds, but that really does seem like a long time when it is happening. The whole time she was looking at me with big, excited eyes. Whether she was excited because she had the plastic, or because she realized what she was doing is unclear. She balanced very well, though. At the end of the time she didn't lose her balance. Instead, she dropped the plastic and reached out for my hand, again. Obviously, much praise was then lavished upon her.

As mentioned in an earlier post, she is walking a lot by only holding onto one hand. However, she has not completely let go of her dependence on wanting two hands sometimes. I think that a lot of this is mental, though. You can tell because she really barely seems to use the support of the hands when she is holding on. She thinks she needs the support more than she actually does.

At the rate she is going, I bet that she will be independently walking by Christmas! What a present that will be.

new moves

Two amazing things today.

She walked up and down the hallway numerous times while only holding on with one hand.

She got up to standing by using the coffee table for the first time.

signing

After about 3 weeks of fairly intense work with the sign for "more", Ella has got it. It looks a lot like a clap, but Matt and I can tell the difference, and that is what really counts. I have been told that she will refine the movement over time to look more like the actual sign.

She still won't use it without prompting, however. For example, if I say, "do you want more, Ella? Show me "more"," she will make the sign. I don't have to make the sign first, though. All she needs is the verbal prompt. So, next we can hope that she will use it to really communicate without any prompting from me.

So, she has made her first big step into the world of communication!

bits and pieces

Ella has her first appointment with a developmental specialist on Dec. 7th. From listening to others who have gone through the same thing, I expect very little to determined by this visit except how many tests she should have and how many other specialists it will be recommended that she see.

I have started to get a little more time to myself, thanks to other members of the family. I am feeling much more sane for it, so thank you all for helping out.

Ella seems very close to walking on her own. She can balance, as long as she isn't acutely aware that you are not touching her. If she realizes that you are not holding on, she smiles and you and lunges forward into your arms. She thinks it is funny when you try and make her balance and she falls over to have you catch her. She can walk pretty well only holding onto one hand, but she won't do it for long walks (up and down the hallway), only for short ones (moving from toy to toy, or from a toy to you). Now, given this information, I have heard of children staying at this phase for months at a time (up to almost 6 months in one case).

Ella still won't get up to standing unless she is on another human being, or does it using the PT bench we have. So, we are now working on strengthening her hip muscles (by having her bend far over from a sitting position) so that she can push up to standing from the floor, instead of always needing a raised surface (my legs, or the bench) and then walking her hands up to something higher to get herself upright.

So, on the physical front, it is now just a focus on getting her to stand up more independently, and walking.

On the language front: she still isn't talking and we have no way of knowing when she will ever get it. I spend a lot of time talking to her face to face, singing songs, etc. We are also working very intensely to get her to use the "more" sign.

It has been theorized that she has a type of learning disorder called dyspraxia. This means that she has problems with motor planning. This explains why she needs to be shown how to do something multiple times before she can do it herself. It may also explain the lack of speech because making her mouth muscles purposefully form a word is also a motor planning task. And, since I can't make her talk to teach her how, all I can do is try to get her to imitate me, which she doesn't seem very interested in doing very often.