Lots of Language

Both Morgan and Piper are making nice progress with their language lately. This is encouraging for us in so many ways.

Piper, at 23 months is consistently using combinations of words. The other day I swear she said to me "I want eat a hot dog." Really. Oh, and "hot dog" is what she says when she means any kind of food. She also has finally decided to call Morgan "Boo Boo." I think she attempted "Morgan" for a long time and it finally dawned on her that "Boo Boo" was way easier to say. Last night she made her way around the dinner table pointing at each one of us saying "Mama eat," "Dada eat," "Boo Boo eat." Very cute. Even when she wakes up in the morning she'll call out "Boo Boo, Boo Boo!" until Morgan comes in her room to see her. It's nice to see Piper hitting her milestones with language. Obviously we did not see this with Morgan. It still amazes me that this happens naturally with "typical" kids. We've had to work so hard with Morgan to help her language along. It's nice to see Piper might just do it on her own.

Morgan has been using a lot more spontaneous, descriptive language lately. She is talking a lot about what she sees and even a little about what she feels. Last week I was playing a game of catch with her. I wanted her to come closer to me, since we were not doing well with her standing so far away. She refused and I "pouted" for a bit. She then said "Mama want to be happy!" This meant she wanted me to smile, I think. She's said this more often to all of us and is very satisfied if we give her a big smile. I'm not sure if she's really understanding the emotion or just wanting the smile instead of a frown. Doesn't matter, it's nice that she is recognizing the expression. She still is using a lot of repetitive and "scripted" language, but that is OK as long as new language is happening too.

Morgan is also talking more directly to Piper. She tells Piper that she is doing a good job and encourages her when she does new things. She is recognizing the words Piper is saying and often I hear, "That's right Piper, that is a ...." Too cute! If she doesn't want Piper to play with her she says "Piper, you go play with the...." She actually looks at Piper when she says these things, instead of looking at me to do something, or help the situation. This makes sense, since kids with autism tend to have a slower processing speed with language. She is able to keep up with an almost 2 year old and interact. Hopefully as we continue our RDI program (still in the parent education stage) this will improve and she will be able to interact with older and older kids. I'm feeling better, as we get closer to the school year starting, that we're making some progress this summer.

Look who's talking...

Piper has been surprising us with her language lately. Since Morgan developed her language very differently than most kids, we really still don't know what to expect from Piper at this point. She just turned 21 months...and to date she had somewhere from 50-70 words and is starting to use phrases. At this age Morgan still had less than 10-15 words, and didn't start using phrases until well after she was two, probably closer to two and a half.

Now, the phrases Piper uses are ones she hears often. Since Morgan can be somewhat repetitive, it's not surprising that these are phrases she hears a lot. She hasn't yet been able to "generalize" these phrases yet, but I guess that comes later. She does use them in the right context. Phrases we hear often are:

I want down! (While in her high chair, shopping cart or car seat)
I want Mama!
Here you go! (while putting something in our hands)
Here we go! (Backing out of the garage in my car)
What's that? (pointing to a picture or object)
Where's Dada? (or Mama, or Morgan)
Thank You
Oh No!
Oh Wow!
Oh Man! (I think I say this a lot without realizing it)

And she just chatters away all day. Except for these phrases and individual words, it's a bunch of gibberish to us. She has nowhere near the enunciation Morgan has, but Morgan is strangely advanced with this.We figure at some point we'll understand what else she is saying, but for now it's nice to hear her "practicing."

The Pumpkin Piper

My "changes" post was supposed to post TODAY, not yesterday... so my Wordless Wednesday became Wordy Wednesday. Oh well.

On to more updates. Our little Piper is now 17 months old and is turning into quite a character, at least around us. Our neighbor watched her yesterday while I had a dentist appointment and said she didn't talk at all. Hmmm. Maybe she's got the shyness gene I have. We'll see.

Here are some words Piper has added to her vocabulary lately:

Dance - "Da... da" (usually while swaying back and forth or turning in circles)
Stomp - "tomp" (If you're happy and you know it, stomp you're feet!)
Open - "op"
Ball - "ba"
Beep Beep - "bee-bee" (like honking a car horn, or pushing the "buttons" to the microwave in her play kitchen)
Apple - "a-puh"
Button (Belly button) - "dubba dubba"

Pretty cute. I still worry that she doesn't say "Daddy" or "Mama" really. Some times she'll say it when you tell her too, but not voluntarily. If you ask her "Where's Daddy?" she'll look right at him, so she knows who we are, she just doesn't use our "names." It just seems so strange that she's adding other words, but not our "names." I'm going to ask the Dr. about this at her 18 month appointment, if she doesn't start saying it by then. She definitely has way more words and overall better "functional communication" (pointing and body language) than Morgan did at this age. This gives me hope, but I still have a lot of worries.

On the other hand, she is impressing me by what she is picking up from us. Just this morning we were in the car at Morgan's school and I put some lotion on my hands. She watched me rub the lotion in and started making the same movements, rubbing her hands together. She seemed very pleased with herself for doing this. I think little things like this do show that she is socially aware of what other people are doing around her. Also, she was doing it totally on her own, without any prompting from me.

Piper is also doing a lot of pointing at things she sees, like pictures on a wall or something bright colored. She's been saying "ba-da!" while she does this. I'm not sure what this means, but she's calling our attention to it. This is something Morgan only does once in a while.

I hate to compare the two of them, but I really can't get around it. They both have their strengths and challenges. We still call Piper "hyper Piper" sometimes. I don't really think she's hyper, but she reacts very quickly and intensely when she wants something or if something is taken from her. We joke that the little ponytail on the top of her head is a fuse because she's a firecracker about to go off. David says someday she's just going to spontaneously combust.

We have two girls who are very strong willed. Challenging, yet I'm glad they know what they want. The other day I had a basket of clean laundry on the floor while I got Piper dressed for the day. She went and grabbed a shirt out of the basket and put it around her shoulders. This is how she "puts her clothes on." I grabbed a different outfit from the basket and tried to put it on her. She screeched and pushed the shirt away and went and got the first shirt and brought it to me. I guess that's what she wanted to wear that day because I was able to put it on her without a fight. She also seems awfully fascinated with shoes. Uh-oh.

She's getting better at using a spoon. She won't let me feed her anymore, so I have to put up with the mess if I'm going to let her learn. I'm behind on working on the open cup because I'm dreading more mess. Gotta get on that one.

What else? She's still pretty wobbly on her feet sometimes, but she still moves pretty fast. I've also got this on my list for the Dr (the wobbly part). She doesn't crawl anymore, so I know this will get better, but she falls down an awful lot. It doesn't seem to bother her though. She climbs on everything. She can even climb into her car seat all by herself which is especially impressive in David's bigger car. She really wants to climb up onto the stools in our kitchen... but I won't let her. She gets pretty mad, but sorry kid, you're not ready for that (or I'm not).

This kid's got some pretty good fine motor skills. Her Dr. mentioned this at her 2 month appointment as she tore apart the paper on the exam table as he was giving her the exam. She stacks blocks pretty well and puts the Little People in their various vehicles. She scribbles in coloring books (when she's not trying to eat the crayons) and she works well with the magnets on her doodle board. Pretty good.

Piper is even starting to display some pretend play. She turns any rectagular or oblong object into a phone and says "hi, hi." She puts play food in the pots in the play kitchen and stirs them with a spoon. As mentioned above, she pretends to push the buttons on the microwave. She pours us "tea" from her teapot and "drinks" from her own teacup. She brings us play cookies to eat. A good start, I think.

Oh and I almost forgot. The other day we went to Jump and Bounce again and Piper climbed all the way up the "ladder" on the biggest slide and slid down all by herself. She took her time getting up and didn't mind when the bigger, faster kids went around her. She just chugged her way up. She slides down any slide feet first on on her belly. So funny to watch. Go Piper!

Heard around our house

No, she's not a baby anymore, but Morgan is saying such funny things lately. She is working hard with her speech therapist to move along with her verbal expression. She is saying more and more words and starting to show more comprehension as well. Here are a few funny things she has said/done lately, some without any prompting.

At dinner last night:

David (singing a song from one of her toys): "Hello, the phone is ringing so I say..."

Morgan: "Hello"

David: "Bye bye, when I'm done talking then I say..."

Morgan: "Bye bye"....(not in the song) "Bye, see ya!"


This morning before breakfast:

Meg: "Morgan, it's time for breakfast!!"

Morgan: "Breakfast... doffee (coffee)?"

Meg (not thinking...wanting coffee): "Mmmm, coffee, yes, coffee"

Morgan (stops in her tracks and backs up): "All Done?"

Meg (realizing she's checking to make sure I don't use the coffee grinder...she hates the loud noise): "Oh no, Morgan. No coffee. All done!"

Morgan (happily heading towards the stairs): "All done!"

Meg (kinda bummed I can't make coffee... oh well)

Silly Daddy

I've heard that as children are learning to talk parents should agree upon the words that will be acceptable for certain body parts. For example, using the word "bottom" for what I usually call a "butt."

Unfortunately we have not had that discussion and instead of "bottom" David just taught Morgan how to say "booty"...and even worse it is pronounced "boo-tay."

She pronounces it quite well. Sigh.

Will be back soon...

Aunt Ali came for a visit so we were pretty busy and not blogging for a while. We had a great time hanging with the kiddos and indulging in some Old Navy shopping, snacks and sweets. Good times...updates will be coming soon!

Here's a "gem" for you to hold you over...

Last week David went to use the bathroom right before bath time. He didn't completely close the door and Morgan decided to follow him in. She carefully watched what he was doing and then announced "Juice!!"

OK, kind of gross, but really funny!

And the stockings were hung...

We put up our tree and decorations this weekend. I love our little tree! Enjoy!

Morgan likes playing with the ornaments around the bottom of the tree. None have been broken, yet. She especially likes the "M" ornament and says "M! M!" every time she sees it.

It only looks like we have three stockings, but there are four here. Mine is the green one and David's is hanging behind it on the same hook. That's what happens when you think you'll only have one kid and you buy stocking hangers that say "J-O-Y". I'm looking for an angel or other single stocking hanger to add to the three letters so we can show all four. Isn't Piper's cute (the red and white one)?! Grandma B and Aunt Ali made it and just delivered it to us when Ali visited.

Here's just the tree. Isn't it pretty! I wanted a small, simple one and it turned out perfect.

Whoa!

Morgan has taken to using this word often. Tonight she was running from the dining room into the living room. She looked over her shoulder at David who was doing the dishes in the kitchen and she tripped over her own feet. She caught herself with her hands, then slowly stood up again, turned around and said "whoa!" She'll also say this when she does her "twirls" and gets herself a little dizzy. Hilarious!

Ring Around the Rosie

A little more than a week ago, David and I took the girls with us to Safeway to get our flu shots. We had to wait a bit before getting the shots, so we took turns following Morgan around the store while the other waited with Piper.

On my turn with Morgan she headed towards the frozen foods aisle. When we got there she stopped next to a few ladies who were chatting. She turned around and said to me "ashes, ashes!!" This is what she says when she wants to play Ring Around the Rosie. Unfortunately she doesn't pronounce "ashes, ashes" quite right and it sounds like "ass, ass." Oops. I hurried her away from the ladies before they heard her...I think. It was pretty funny though. We still laugh when she says it at home.

Baby Talk

I haven't posted much about this at all, but I'm not sure why. At Morgan's 18 Month appointment the pediatrician was concerned about her lack of words. In fact, she said that she was "borderline" needing to see a speech therapist. Yes, at that point Morgan only used about 5-6 words, but I know that kids develop at different rates, some are late talkers others earlier. As Morgan doesn't have another official Dr. Appointment until she turns two, we left the office saying that we would follow up on Morgan's speech when we made appointments for the new baby. The Dr. gave us some tips on how to work with her in the meantime.

Since that appointment I took more notice of other kids Morgan's age. I did have to admit that most of them used more words and communicated a little better. Now, the Dr. did acknowledge that Morgan seemed to understand what was being said to her, but she just didn't yet use words to communicate with us.

So, fast-forward to now. I'd say that Morgan has about 25 words now. An improvement, but I think still a little behind in the professionals' opinions. Some words she uses regularly and others she will say to us if we ask her to (such as "what does a cow say?"....Moo). We got some books with big pictures and words and continually encourage her to "say" certain words. Not much happened for a while, but in the last few weeks she's even busted out some words that we were not actually "working on." I'm not sure if it's because we've been making a big effort at this or she's just reaching a developmental point where she's really ready to start talking. In any case we are very proud she is making some good progress here.

She is also using a lot more signs, which helps, but they only do so much. For example, if she uses the "more" sign sometimes we know exactly what she wants more of...but sometimes we don't. Then she gets frustrated if we can't figure it out. At mealtimes we'll say "more what?" and she'll slap her hands on the tray of her high chair in frustration. I do think these times of frustration are good for her though. They seem to happen right before she takes another leap in her skills. Considering the amount of slapping of trays and sometimes hitting of Mama that's going on right now...I hope there's another burst forthcoming.

It will be interesting to see what happens with her communication once the new baby arrives. Some say she'll regress, others say she'll take the "big girl" role and improve her skills. We'll see!

But not the Hippopotamus/Armadillo

Morgan has this cute baby board book by Sandra Boynton called "But not the Hippopotamus." It's about a bunch of silly little animals that hang out together, but the hippo is alone. It describes all these activities the animals do together...intermixed with "but not the hippopotamus" and then shows a picture of the hippo wistfully watching the other animals interact. Towards the end of the book the animals invite the hippo to come join them which of course she excitedly accepts. Then the last page ends with "but not the armadillo" and shows a sad picture of an armadillo all alone. Morgan always ends this book by saying "a-day-o" which of course is "armadillo". I think it's funny that even with the numerous time she hears "hippopotamus" at the end she just repeats the last word "armadillo". A few times when she brings me the book to read (by the way, "book" is "b-b-b-b"), she will say "a-day-o" right away. Its definitely the "armadillo" book, not the "hippopotamus" book.

Hate to say it...

...but Morgan seems to be sick again. I'm sure you all just love the "sick baby" posts, but it seems as just as she's getting better, she gets sick again (or more teething on top of it). A few days ago we had a weird occurrence where she gagged on some food and threw up. Then all day yesterday she didn't eat well. Each time I tried to introduce some mild food she'd cough some and then upchuck again (yuck.) By dinner time I gave up trying. She didn't seem hungry and I wanted to avoid more messes.

This morning she's all sneezy and has got the constant runny nose, as well as the tell-tale sign of her 'weepy' left eye. Yup, another cold. She woke up around 5:30 am and wouldn't go back to sleep. Luckily David offered to get up with her (yay!)...he'd been out of town for two days, so he didn't mind spending some time with her so I could get a little more sleep. She ate a decent amount of cereal at breakfast, but wasn't too interested in lunch. She's napping now. Overall she's a little subdued, but still pretty active and "herself." This morning she also repeated "woof woof woof" when we looked at pictures of a dog. Actually I said "woof woof woof," she said something more like "woo woo uff uff uff." Pretty close don't you think?!

The sun is out here and temperatures are slowly creeping up. Let's hope it will be an end to the sickies for the Summer. We're ready!

Dreaming of Old MacDonald?

Every night Meg, I or both of us will tip-toe into Morgan's room while she's sleeping just to look at her. She's so adorable that we want one last look before bed.

Last night was like any other. Meg was downstairs, so I decided to go on a solo mission. Morgan had been asleep for about 2 hours, so I felt it was safe go in without waking her. I carefully opened the door, got about two steps into the room when a dreamy little voice came drifting from the crib bellowing: "Wwowwww"! I froze... did I just wake her up? Is she now going to have an epic meltdown that'll require 20 minutes of soothing, and make for an extra cranky baby in the morning? Should I just sit on the floor and pretend I'm not here?

Against my better judgement I approached the crib. I resigned myself to finding wide open brown eyes expectantly hoping for a late night crib rescue so she could resume destroying our bonus room. Instead, she was fast asleep, oblivious to the fact her startled Dad was hovering over her. I made sure she was out, then left quickly as I was about to start cracking up. She may have uttered noises in her sleep before, but it was the first time either of us have heard her say a word.

I couldn't wait for Meg to come upstairs so I could tell her what happened. My only regret was that she wasn't there to hear it, though if we were both there I'm certain we would have both cracked up and woken Morgan.

So you may be asking yourself at this point "What's the Old MacDonald correlation?" As you may have read in a previous blog, Morgan's first word was "duck". Somehow that transitioned to the classic kids tune, where Meg and I sing to her, and she fills in the animal on the farm - always a certain water fowl - then adds in another loud "Duck!" at the end of the song.

Lately, however, she's revised the ending of the song. After the last E, I, E, I...O she's replaced "Duck" with "Wow!" I take it as a compliment, as if she's in awe of our performance. It didn't strike me until Meg mentioned it that maybe she was dreaming about us singing to her. (If any one's heard me sing, this could be classified as a nightmare.)

Regardless, this has produced one of the most cherished memories of parenthood yet. There's so many firsts that you just don't take into account as you consider what it would be like to be a parent. Each one seems more and more amazing. I could go on for hours, but I think I'll go check in on my little sleeping angel. I hear she may be reciting the Gettysburg Address tonight!

EIEIO

Still working on those party pictures...

...in the meantime, Morgan has a new "trick." It's actually not that new as she's been doing it for a few weeks. I can't believe I haven't posted about it yet, but it's about time.

We consider Morgan's first word to be "duck." When she says it, it sounds like "duh." She first said it in the bathtub when playing with her rubber duckies. I also like to sing the song "Old MacDonald" to her a lot. She is fascinated with this song and will always stop what she's doing to listen. It comes in handy when she is trying to grab the remote or something else mischevious.

Somewhere along the way she connected the ducky in the bathtub to the duck in the song. As you know, in the song you have a choice of animals to say when the time comes and I use duck a lot because it is easy to make the "quack quack" sounds. I don't like the animals like a horse or a sheep where it's hard to make their sounds. I do them every once in a while, but not too often.

Well...not too long ago when singing this song I noticed she was saying "duh" while I was singing it. I really can't remember how this happened, but now when we sing "and on that farm he had a..." then you say the name of the animal, she says "duh." Most of time it was right on time with the song too! She also punctuates the end of the verse by saying "duh" again. Too cute! And the kicker is that now when she wants you to sing Old MacDonald she says "duh" "duh" "duh" until you start singing, then she gets the biggest smile on her face! She also just got a farm themed "see and say" toy for her birthday that has Old MacDonald on it. She does the same thing with the recorded music and says "duh" when it gets to that point in the song.

We still don't believe this, but David and I found ourselves demonstrating this skill in the doctor's office yesterday. Our pediatrician is really nice and we thought she'd get a kick out of it. She said we needed to videotape it...unfortunately we only have video on our camera, but we might give it a try.

So for now Morgan really only has interest in the ducks on Old MacDonald's farm. Every time I try another animal she just keeps saying "duh." Hopefully she'll learn some other animal sounds someday.

Our Good Girl

Morgan is imitating our words more and more. Recently I realized she was making a hard "G" sound, this is a brand new consonant for her. Now, she doesn't say "goo goo" like it is thought that many babies say, it is more like "guh".

While listening for a while I figured out that it was a two "syllable" sound like guh guh...guh guh...guh guh. She'll be crawling around the floor or climbing the stairs and I'll hear her cute little voice saying guh guh...guh guh...guh guh.

Suddenly it dawned on me that she was imitating me saying "Good Girl." I do say it a lot. I say it when she's drinking from her sippy cup, eating really well or to encourage her along as she's climbing the stairs. I say it when she masters new skills or when she gets up from a particularly nice (restful) nap. She's really a good girl in general, so I probably say it even more than I think I do. David says it some too, but most often I think it is from me. I'm not sure if she knows what it really means yet, but I think she's getting close!

New Sounds

Morgan is making all kinds of new sounds lately. At her Dr. appointment last week the pediatrician pointed out that she can make an "n" sound, which I hadn't noticed. The doctor said that was a good thing, by the way.

Just to name a few, along with the usual "da da da's" and "ma ma ma's" she'll say "doh doh doh," "ya ya ya" and something with a "tsh" sound. Currently she is in her jumperoo making a high to low pitched yell of some kind. She just discovered it so that means she'll do it many times before she gets bored and moves on to something else. Loud yelling or even screaching is a common thing now. Sometimes it happens in very public places and I smile and just keep on going. She's also starting to string sounds together that sound somewhat like sentences. She'll look at us, make her "statement" and we'll say "oh, of course Morgan" and "yes, tell us more about it!"

Last night while having a diaper change, she looked right at me and said "ma-ma." This was similar to the event in her high chair a month or so ago. Like last time, I tried to get her to say it again with no luck. It could happen any time though. We can't wait for some "real" Mama's and Dada's!

Baby Talk

I forgot to post about this earlier, but I think it was just a fluke anyway. Yesterday I had Morgan in her high chair in the kitchen while I emptied the dishwasher. I turned around to look at her...she looked right at me and said "Ma-ma." I got so excited I ran over and kissed her. She's been saying something that sounds like "mom-mom-mom-mom" for a while...but this time it definitely did not have the "m" sound at the end of it. It was a clear "ma-ma."

She wouldn't say it again though, and hasn't said it since. Who knows...even if she didn't really mean it, it was nice to hear it with her cute little voice.