Heard in the Last 20 Minutes at our House . . .

Annie:
Annie and Ellie were excitedly talking about the future.  "You'll be four, and I'll be six!" Annie said, "Then you will ask me, 'Annie, what is the world made of?' and I will say, 'I don't know.'" 

Ellie:
"I'm just like a Daddy!" Ellie exclaimed, telling me about how she was going to take the little trash can in their room and dump it into the bigger trash can.  Then I heard her as she came out of her room, "Annie, I've done this like 12 times -- I'm done, I think it's your turn."  I had no idea she'd taken on (then grown to resent) the trash duties in their room.

Isaac:
My 19 month old and I had a bit of a miscommunication issue earlier.  He came up to me with a box of crayons.  He pulled one out and exclaimed, "Owens crayon!"  "It's Owen's crayon?" I asked.  "Isaac's crayon," he firmly shot back.  "Oh, Isaac's crayon."  He held up the crayon again and said, "Owens crayon!"  "So, it's Owen's crayon?" If the boy knew how to roll his eyes he would've, "ISAAC'S crayon," he reaffirmed.  "Isaac's crayon," I agreed.  He pulled out a new crayon, held it up, and this time I heard the ever so subtle difference, "Owans crayon."  I looked at the orange and orange-red crayons he was holding in his hands, "OH! ORANGE crayon! Gotcha!" Smart boy.  Not so smart Mom.  :-)

Owen:

He doesn't actually contribute much to the conversation yet.  But he's recently discovered he is very amused by the cow-print bar above his bouncy chair . . .

Completely unrelated:

This is what my walls look like several times a week . . . thanks, Isaac.

Grandpa Robert babysat the other day while Talina and I ditched him with four of our five children.

Isaac's been his usual talkative self this morning, but a few things have stuck out to me and made me laugh.

This morning he climbed up into my bed, asked for the "Mote" (remote) and pointed it at the TV then said, "Ah-tch Super Why."  I turned to Greg and was like, "Our little boy is growing up!  He's asking to watch "Super Why" first thing in the morning, instead of Elmo!"  I don't know why, but it really stuck out to me that he's now requesting Super Why instead of Sesame Street.  Greg just kinda looked at me funny.  :-)  But Isaac was quite disappointed that I couldn't just make Super Why appear on the television, and was not really happy about settling for some random Saturday morning cartoon he didn't recognize.  Until he saw a cat on the show!  "Cat!" he exclaimed and pointed at the screen, "Kitty cat!"  Then, to his utter delight, another cat walked on screen, "ANOTHER CAT!" He was so excited and kept pointing at the 'cat' and the 'another cat'.  I'd never heard him use the word 'another' before, and it was just so cute and sounded so big coming out of his little self, that it amused me.

Later he came in my room playing Ellie's Dora guitar, and he'd push a button and exclaim, "On!  Working!"  Then he turned it over and patted the back panel and said, "Good batteries."  Then he turned switch to off and said, "No batteries now."  He's almost got it.  :-)  Anytime a toy isn't working I tell the kids we need new batteries.  When Dad gets home. :-)  I don't know why, I'm perfectly capable of changing batteries, but in my head it's Dad's job.

Then Aunt Star came over to play.  Isaac kept showing of his "Isaac boots" that he'd just gotten, and Star was making him laugh.  He kept giggling and saying, "That is funny. That is funny." 

Speaking of Isaac's new boots, late last night I went to Kohl's with my Mom and sister (who knew it was open 'til 11pm?!)  We'd gone late when we'd heard that all their clearance was just marked down an additional 40% off that evening.  Who can resist a deal like that?!  Add to that some other coupons we had on hand and we did well.  Really well. 

I spent $89.04.  On $995.21 worth of merchandise.  (Of course, that's at Kohl's, which I tend to find a bit outrageously priced, and I wouldn't buy anything at Kohl's not at least 50% off.)

Not too shabby :-)  Five pairs of winter boots (three pairs of those for the boys were Toy Story 3 light up boots in sizes 5, 7 and 9 . . . I'm hoping this gets us through several Winters with both of them.  Especially since I was getting 'em for like $3 a pair!)  Two pair of dress shoes in the next two sizes Annie'll grow into, a pair of tennis shoes and some cute brown casual shoes for Annie in the next size.  Seven pair of pants in the next two sizes Annie will wear.  A Christmas outfit for Annie next year.  A three piece outfit (sweater vest) for Isaac for Church, and I think it was 9 long sleeve shirts for Isaac, two jackets, two complete outfits and five pairs of pants that all range from 2T-4T.  Also, three bras that aren't pictured. :-)

Isaac modeling one of his new outfits.

I came home so pumped up from our shopping trip, that it took 'til midnight before I was ready to fall asleep.  Then Owen was fussy, so I got him up and fed him.  Then we had what was quite possibly the WORST night sleep we've had since he was born.  I'm kinda kicking myself that I was up 'til midnight . . . but when I see all the stuff I got for less than $100, I feel a bit better :-)

My Morning . . . Every Morning

Every morning I walk into Isaac's room, where he's awake and sitting up in bed.  He lights up when he sees me, "Momma!"  He starts gathering his various blankets and a stuffed animal or two and with his arms stuffed to capacity, and starts to hand me things one at a time, naming each one.  "Boo banket."  "Blue blanket, OK."  "Bear banket?"  "OK, bear blanket."  "Pooh?"  "Winnie the Pooh, check."  "Today bear?"  "Cody bear."  (It's a Build a Bear in a Missionary outfit, with my little brother Cody's voice saying, "Hi Isaac!  This is Cody.  You don't know this yet, but I'm your FAVORITE Uncle.  I love you!"  "Ehmo banket?"  "OK, Elmo blanket. You ready, Bug?"  He grins, then he finally reaches his little hands in my direction, "Out!"

As we leave his room, he asks, "Ere Daddy?"  "Daddy's at work, Bug."  "Daddy at wort?"  "Yep, Dad's at work."  "Daddy at wort," he says firmly and moves on to his next question.  "Baby Owen?"  "Baby Owen is asleep."  "Baby Owen seeping?"  "Yep, he's asleep."  "Baby Owen seep," he confirms definitively.  We walk into my room, where Ellie's sitting in bed, watching "Sesame Street" (or "Curious George" if I was lucky enough to have Isaac sleep past 7AM.  I'm pretty much never lucky enough to have Ellie sleep past 7.)  I set him on the bed, he turns and exclaims, "Wow! It Eh-yee!  Eh-yee Momma!"  "Yep, Ellie's already up."  "An' 'ere Daddy?"  "He's at work, kiddo."  "An' Owen seeping?"  "Yep, Owen's still sleeping."  "Eh-yee watch Ehmo/Cat?"  "Yep, Ellie's watching TV."  "An' An-yee?"  "Annie's still in bed."  "In bed?"  "Yep."  "An' Daddy? At wort?" . . . .

I think we spent the first 10-15 minutes of Isaac's day establishing where the whole family is at that particular moment.  And it's one of my favorite parts of my day.

And yes, Dad is still at work.  

Productivity

I'm still supposed to be taking it 'easy,' but Greg is officially back to work (as of Monday of this week) and that puts me solely in charge of the welfare of four young children and the home they live in (and trash regularly).  I've been surprised at how great I've felt.  The baby sleeping 3 hour stretches almost all night is a big part of that, I'm getting more sleep and am more rested than I was when I was still pregnant!  A lot of my time is, rightfully, spent cuddling and nursing a newborn, but in between I've been happy to see how much a motivated Mom can get done.  Dishes, breakfast, kids ready for school and wipe down some counters and change the laundry before Annie's even left for school.  I don't think I was that productive before I had a newborn around.  I've been so pleased with how well I've felt, emotionally and physically, after having this baby.  I do not feel like I just had a baby two and a half weeks ago.  I'm way more rested than that :-)

Isaac's also quite productive.  Take for instance this afternoon.  Just while I was nursing the baby, he managed to get his hands on a red marker, write on the chairs in the kitchen, the walls in the hall, a couple doors, and then for his true masterpiece, he took that marker into the bathroom, and while repeatedly dipping it into the toilet, he managed to 'paint' nearly every surface of the bathroom (and most of his exposed skin) in red toilet water.  Floors, counters, cabinets, walls, the toilet lid (every single 'layer' of the toilet seat) and the potty chair.

Isaac's still talking a ton too.  Leaving my sister's house the other day, I said, "It's time to go home," to which Isaac responded by standing up and enthusiastically yelling, "Out to the van now,  guys!" ("Guys" is how he refers to his sisters as a group -- singularly, it's "Annie sisser Annie" and "Ellie sisser Ellie.")   I marvel at how much he 'gets' about how to use language for his age.  Ellie was two and a half years old and still referring to herself in third person ("That Lala's bear")  The other day I asked who wanted more grapes, and he yelled, "Me!!  I do, I do!"   Whenever he points something out, it's "That's a doggie," or "That's a ball."  Looking at a book last night, he saw a picture of a broken cookie jar and he shouted out, very concerned, "Oh no!  Broken!  Fall down on floor!  Broken, down!"  He's also my first real 'mimic' .  . . he repeats back whatever he hears, sometimes hitting up to 7 and 8 words from a particular sentence he heard.  On his own, unprompted, he talks in several word sentences throughout the day.  Not to mention his ongoing, indistinguishable, narrative of life.  Whole paragraphs of stuff we don't understand.  Greg mentioned the other day that between the strides Isaac's making in speaking, and with Greg staying home for two weeks with the kids, he's amazed at how much he understands of what Isaac has to say now.  He is pretty impressive at getting his point across -- a gift I still feel strongly that he was blessed with 'cause he'd have a new little brother around to be the 'baby' when Isaac was not even 18 months old. He is also very vocal about what he likes -- asking for specific foods, colors of blankets, books, songs, movies, youtube videos, people and games.  He asks about Owen all day long, and wants to hold him nearly constantly.  He seems a bit disturbed by how much the baby sleeps.

My Little Storyteller

So, Isaac is a talker.  We don't understand about 98% of what he has to tell us, but he spends all day keeping us informed of his inner workings.  When I get him out of his crib in the morning, he just chatters away while we walk back to my room.  I understand the occasional, "Daddy?"  "Dad went to work already, Bug."  "Ann-ye?"  "She's still asleep."  "TV?  Elmo?"  "OK . . . " but for the most part, it's long strings of verbage that I just don't quite get.  And I'm talking nonstop, sentence after sentence of one-sided conversation.

The other day, Isaac was mad at me.  Being that he's teething, he's been the world's grumpiest baby anyway, and now I'd done something to really piss him off.  Like, wash his face.  He threw himself out of my arms, went running down the hall screaming, "Ann-ye!  Ann-ye!"  As soon as he got to his big sister, he threw himself into her arms and just cried and ranted, "Ann-ye, Mama . . . " and entire sentences would flow out, detailing all the horrible things his Mom has done to him.  I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, although I heard the word "wass"(wash), and every 15 seconds or so, he'd start a new sentence with my clue I was being tattled on, "Ann-ye, Mama . . ."

Last night it was someone other than me or Ellie being told on though.  I had a Relief Society dinner to go to, and I took the kids to the nursery that was there.  Isaac freaked out when we first walked in, so I let him come eat with me for a bit, but then he was getting bored and asking for his sisters, so I took him into the nursery with all the sweet little 12-15 year old girls babysitting, he happily ran into Annie, and I went back to hear the speaker.  I thought I'd heard him crying out in the hall, once or twice, but every time I'd strain to listen, I wouldn't be able to hear him again.  Around 8PM, I was thinking, "There's no way he's still calm . . . it's past bedtime . . . "  I kept thinking of going out and checking on him, but didn't want to leave in the middle of the fantastic speaker's presentation.  But soon I saw a lady standing out in the hall, motioning me.  I hopped up (as quick as I'm able to 'hop' these days), and walked quickly to the Nursery room.  Where my girls were happily playing, but Isaac was no where in sight.  The older girls in there informed me some of their peers had taken him on a walk.  I ended up finding Isaac and a couple of the young women in one of the classrooms, where Isaac was just screaming at them.   Let me be clear here, he was not crying (well he was crying, but I don't mean he was just crying), he was yelling at them.  Chewing them out.  Long strings of angry baby talk.  And apparently had been for quite some time.  He saw me, dived into my arms and cried into my shoulder for a second, then sat up, and immediately, he was all business.  For the next 5-10 minutes, my 16 month old, ranted and raved and complained about everything he'd been put through that night.  He angrily threw together sentence after angry sentence.  I don't know most of what he was saying, though I caught little things.  (Per usual, he mentioned Annie, he also talked about 'out-sigh' (they had taken him outside for awhile 'cause it calmed him down, but it was so cold they've have to bring him back in), he mentioned 'Gi-gi' (which is 'Jesus' . . . he likes to point out pictures of Jesus in the Church, and apparently they had taken him on his walk around the building and he'd got to see some of his favorite pictures.  But, of course, that didn't keep him happy long).  He mentioned popcorn (which they'd had in the other room).  So far these all sound like good things, but I think I just don't understand the part where they kept him prisoner against his will.)  It was pretty hard not to laugh, but to just keep nodding sympathetically, 'cause he was just so freaking fired up and angry about it.  And I'm not even exaggerating when I say this went on for minutes and minutes, nonstop, with him needing no more encouragement than my occasional nod and 'uh huh'.  Eventually he calmed down, I told him we'd go home now, and he freaked out all over again 'cause we didn't have Dad with us (who was in meetings at Church for the evening).  We stopped by Dad's office to say 'good night', and Isaac launched into his angry complaints again for Greg, then when he realized Dad wasn't coming with us, he freaked out mightily and we hastily fled the Church and went home.  (Our Bishop, probably hearing the tyrannical baby out in the hall talking to Greg, actually told Greg to go home for the night, so thankfully he got home right after we did.) 

When he's not angrily detailing the many complaints he has, he can be quite opinionated too.  "Waffles!" he demands as we walk downstairs to breakfast.  "Nana!" he exclaims when I put him in his high chair and he sees a bunch of bananas on the counter.  "Gee Tales!" he tells me as he points at the television, wanting to watch 'Veggie Tales'.  He's gotten quite opinionated about the songs we sing lately too.  During the day, if I try to sing anything different, he sharply reminds me, "Pat a pat!" (Patty Cake).  He will occasionally ask for "ing wah me' ("Sing with me", which is the ABCs).  At night though, he has different requests.  Every night lately, I've gone in and curled my ever-growing boy up on my chest (draped over the giant lump of my belly, with his feet danging to my knees.  My knees, people!  He's getting so big!) on the glider. We rock and sing, and he melts into me and cuddles and I don't think either of us is the least bit interested in giving up our new found bedtime routine.  I sing him a bunch of different Primary songs.  The other night I'd been singing him, "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and he would sweetly sing, "Eech me, eech me," when I would finish singing.  I sang him "I Am Like a Star," and as soon as I was done, he looked up at me, kinda shook his head 'no', and firmly (but sweetly, unlike most of his demands) requested, "Eech me."  So I sang him "Teach Me" again, and when I finished he promptly sat himself up and started to clap.  I think it's the first time my singing has ever been applauded.  Tonight I asked him after we'd been rocking for a minute, "Do you want Mama to sing to you, or do you just want to lay here and rock?"  He thought about it for a second, the sleepily whispered, "Eech me, Mama." 

This kid endlessly cracks me up, melts my heart, frustrates the heck out of me, and wraps me around his little finger.  I can't wait to see what all this talking is about . . . I imagine that once he can make himself understood a bit better, some of his more recent attitude will dissolve as his frustrations with communication dissolve as well.  He just has so much to say, and I can't wait to figure out what it all is . . .

Mr. Talkative

 

So, I know I won't remember everything, but I was realizing I've never made a list for myself of some of the stuff Isaac is saying right now. So, here's what my pregnant, overly tired brain can come up with . .

He wakes up first thing in the morning, exclaims a happy "Mama!" when I open his door, then immediately starts to point down the stairs with an enthusiastic 'Ouhsa! Ouhsa!'  (Which translates to, "Outside! Now, already! We're wasting time indoors!")  The kid loves to be outside.  The only thing he possibly loves more is eating, so I can usually distract him with one of his other two favorite things.  I can usually snag his attention with 'Ah-psa' -- which started as 'applesauce' . . . the first time he ever used it he was asking for applesauce, but since it has kinda come to mean any and all food.)  (It's kind a confusing, and you can't really see it in how I've spelled them out here, but his 'outside' and 'apple/food' words are actually pretty close sounding . . . enough that sometimes I'm not sure which one he's asking for.  At that point it's easiest just to feed him a banana out on the back porch.)  :-)  He also signs and says 'mo' for 'more', as well as signs and says 'cahka' for cracker (or cookie, cereal or hard crunchy things of all varities.)  And an occasional 'wa' for a drink of water.  So, there's eating that trumps outside usually.  There's also nursing. Which he excitedly claps about and squeals "nuh!"  He almost never asks to nurse, he just excitedly exclaims it when it's time to nurse (usually first thing in the morning and right at bedtime, sometimes before a nap if I'm feeling like both of us need to curl up in bed and unwind a bit before he goes down), but today he was feeling sick, walked up to me, curled up against me and looked up and asked, "Mama, nuh?"

He tends to call Greg 'Mama', whenever he's asking him for something.  Then we'll remind him, "That's Daddy," and he'll laugh and start clapping and repeatedly crying out, "Da da da da," amused by his own mistake.  If Greg walks into a room though and Isaac seems him, or if he hears the garage door go up around 4:30 in the afternoon, then he'll happily exclaim, "Dada!"  But it's funny how if he's asking for something he automatically goes with 'Mama' to ask to have his needs met.  :-)   He will also ask for Dad in the mornings.  When I bring him into my bedroom to get his diaper changed and nurse, he'll look around and ask, "Da da?" if Greg's still not there.  (Greg typically leaves for work around 6:30 . . . Isaac typically wakes up between 6:15-6:40 . . . so Dad's home a lot of the time when he wakes up, but not all of the time. And he definitely notices the mornings Greg is MIA.)

I think he says 'sissas' for his sisters, but I'm not sure.  But I know he walks around all day calling for Annie with loud hollers of, "Aaah-na!"  (The week she started school, he'd walk around the house just mournfully wailing her name.  It was sad and adorable at the same time.)  He refuses to even attempt to acknowledge Ellie with any kind of title or name, and usually takes a swing at her if she gets too close.  They don't quite have the same relationship him and Annie have :-)

He does say "Am-ma" for Grandma, and "Am-pa" for Grandpa. 

He says "ba" for several things.  Ball.  Bear.  (His giant stuffed bear is "Ba bar" for Big Bear.)  And bath. (These three things are tied for his next favorite things!)

He says "Buh-bowls" for a nearly perfect sounding bubbles.  The other day he happily was calling out, "Ba ba ba ba ba!" as I was walking him up the stairs to take a bath.  When he suddenly looked up at me and grinned and asked, "Buh-bowls?"  I just smiled back and said, "OK Isaac, you can have a bubble bath."




He says "Buh-bye" and waves enthusiastically as people leave.  He picks up the phone and holds it up to hear ear (usually facing the wrong way) and chats endlessly, sometimes even beginning his one-sided conversation with the world "heh-o".

"Buh" is for 'bus'.  He has a toy school bus he LOVES to play in, but he's also started noticing buses on his shirt, in books or outside that he'll refer to as 'buh' as well. 

He says 'dah' for dog and 'woo' for 'woof'.  Other animal sounds amuse him, but he rarely if ever will repeat them back to me.

He exclaims, "Whoa!" in a near perfect Keanu Reeves impersonation that could win awards, at nearly every cool thing he sees, or everything he knocks over.  He uses the word 'whoa' approximately 100 times a day, at least. 







One of my favorite things he's started saying is 'bub, bub, bub' followed by a pause than, 'bat, bat, bat'.  This comes from a little game we play when he's cuddling.  He curls up on my chest, and I rub his back slowly in circles while I chant, "Rub, rub, rub . . . " then start patting softly, "Pat, pat, pat", then dramatic pause followed by, "Tickle! Tickle! Tickle!" while I lightly run my fingers up and down his back.  He loves this little ritual every bit as much as I do, and I love that he asks for it by name now.  Today in the bath tub he kept patting his belly and exclaiming, 'bat, bat bat!'  He'll also now ask us to sing "Patty Cake" by asking for 'bat bat'.

I'm sure there's a dozen other things he's used here and there, but these seem to be the core of what I can think of him using on a pretty much daily basis.  He seems to be speaking so much more than his sisters did at this age (he also walked steadier from a much younger age) -- I'm kinda convinced he knows on one level that he's gonna be the baby for less time than they were, so he's picking up the pace a bit!

Bed of Roses

Well, not a bed of roses, but a rose blanket.

Poor Isaac . . . he has some perfectly masculine swaddling blankets laying around. But Dad (aka: the Master Swaddler) insisted that Ellie's old rose swaddling blanket is vastly superior to all other swaddling blankets so we switched Isaac to the best blanket in the house. No matter how girly. :-)
Not that it will be an issue much longer, at only two months old, Isaac is already escaping Greg's Swaddling-Grip-of-Death in less than two hours each night. Both of our girls slept swaddled until 5 months, give or take, so Greg and I are at a bit of a loss with what to do with Mr. Incredible here. Do you see how HUGE he is? How much room he takes up in his crib? (He already fills the bassinet in our room pretty much from top to bottom. I don't know how long we'll be able to keep him in it.) I'm excited for his appointment tomorrow, to find out how long he's gotten and how much he weighs.

Annie's bruised and battered face.

Except that it's just makeup. Blush, to be precise. Applied liberally to the general eye area.
The picture doesn't really do it justice -- when I first walked in and saw her I was shocked -- she looked completely beaten.

Ellie woke up with serious attitude and weepiness this afternoon. I was this close to just putting her back in bed after like 10 minutes. (It continued all afternoon and evening -- maybe I should've saved us all a lot of grief and just gone with my gut and stuck her in her crib again!)
Here she is right after she woke up. She got up onto my bed, where Isaac was chilling out, and curled up next to him and put her arm around him and pouted. It was adorable.

We did get her a little cheered up with a sibling photo shoot on the bed.

But not for long. She was crying again soon. And Annie really sweetly took her into her arms and tried to comfort her.

The only thing that made Ellie happy was getting to hold her little brother in her lap.

Annie enjoyed it too.

My (momentarily) happy trio . . .

Ellie and I posing for a self-portrait.

Isaac trying to get that ever elusive thumb in his mouth once and for all.
Annie gently coaxing his hand in the right direction.

Annie, Isaac and Mommy.

Ellie wasn't in that last picture because she was pouting again.
But she looked adorable doing it.

Annie, on the other hand, was more than happy to pose and smile for pictures.

Ellie

Ellie has decided that it's time to identify colors . . . something that for a long time she thought was a bogus waste time. Questions like "Ellie, what color is Elmo?" was met with a dramatic eye roll and a sigh. Like, "Why are you asking me such stupid questions and wasting all of our time?!" Then, suddenly, about a week ago, everything became it's color. The pink pen is no longer called a pen, it's called "Mink!" (Or, pink, if Ellie used 'p' sounds when she said the word 'pink'.) Favorite toys are now just referred to as 'Lellow' or 'Mink' or 'Pupple' or 'Gween'. It's funny, 'cause I totally remember this stage of Annie's, where all nouns were just referred to by their color for a couple weeks. And it's fun to see Ellie do the same thing.

Ellie's talking more and more. I think we're achieving actual sentences. Or at least condensed knock knock jokes.
She rattles this one off quickly, like it's one big word, "MamaknockknockwhoderMOO!" [followed by hysterical laughter].
This is Ellie's version of Annie's favorite joke right now:
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupting c . . .
MOOOOOO! (Said to interrupt the other person, obviously.) :-)

She's very into ages and numbers. Anytime she hears the word 'two' she jumps up and shouts "Lala! Lala! Lala!" (Lala and Lalee being her two versions of her own name.) "Yep," we assure her, "we know, you're two." This can be anywhere she hears it . . . like at Church they're all, "Turn to hymn two-thirty-four," and Ellie's all, "Lala! Lala! Lala two! Lala two!" This morning she told me that she was two, Annie was four, then held up her hands, cocked her head to the side and asked, "Doh doh?" "Uncle Cody is nineteen," I answered (rounding up by a month or two). To which she happily danced around for the next twenty minutes singing, "Lalee two, An-nie four, Doh-doh (Uncle Cody) nine-teen!"

Ellie seems increasingly excited about the baby coming, and likes to point out my large stomach to people and tell them the baby, or 'Eye-ik', is there. It'll be interesting to see how much the reality of a new brother meshes with whatever she's thinking is gonna happen in her little two year old head. Annie transitioned amazingly to having a baby come home. She was so excited and sweet and nurturing and just completely ready to be the 'big sister' (It's hard for me to even imagine at this point that Annie was actually over a month younger when Ellie came home then Ellie is right now.) Ellie is a very, very different two year old than Annie was, and I'm a little more nervous this go around. :-) Ellie is just much more 'the baby'. Annie was so independent and wanted to be in charge and grown up and 'big' at this point. Ellie wants to be the baby, and doesn't play independently as well or as long as Annie did at this point. I think she'll feel more threatened by a new baby than Annie ever did. If you'd asked me years ago, I would've assumed it'd be a bigger transition from only child to having a sibling for Annie than it is for Ellie to just add another sibling to the mix, but I'm not so sure about that now. :-) We'll have to wait and see . . .

Happy Birthday Greg! And a Bunch of Other Randomness

It's Greg's 31st Birthday today! Happy Birthday, hon!

Last year, I wrote a long birthday post that perfectly sums up the sheer amazingness of Greg -- he's the best husband, the greatest father and the most exceptional man I know. I had a lot of fun pictures of him as a baby, plus more recent photos with the kids and I. This year though, I'm in my last few weeks of pregnancy and his two (already-birthed) children have been just this side of crazy lately, so I'm tired and lazier. Here's a recent photo of him with Annie though!

Happy Birthday Greg -- I love you even more than I did last year (who knew that was possible!?) -- but since I'm having another of your kids anytime this month, and I spent a solid hour cleaning gobs of silver fabric paint that your four year old smeared all over our couch cushions, this is all the birthday post you get this year! Love you! :-)


Unrelated to Greg's birthday -
Here's a bunch of random photos taken of Annie for her dance class. Greg's Mom and I ordered some 8x10s of a few of our favorites, but until they arrive, I just have a couple low-res screen shots to hold me over . . .

Um, more unrelatedness -- I had my 36 week check up this week. The baby was again determined to be healthy and extremely active, and my blood pressure was an impressively increased 96/60 (which means no more ordered modified bedrest! Woo hoo! I am supposed to start laying down again if I have more dizzy spells though. Hopefully I can keep it above 85/44 for the rest of the pregnancy! Man, was I tired when it was that low all the time!). I feel so much better, and have more energy -- not something I was expecting as I entered my final month of pregnancy! (I am getting more and more sore and achy though, so it's a trade off.) Ellie was so excited to find out I had a doctor's appointment today that she walked around the house saying "Beep, beep," all morning until we finally left. (Which is her way of saying we'll get to hear the baby's heartbeat.) As soon as my midwife walked into the room, Ellie pointed at my stomach and said, "Beep, beep!" and showed a great deal of impatience for the 'talking' portion of the exam. She squealed with delight when the midwife got out the doppler and found the baby . . .
36 weeks though. Wow. That means I should (in theory, quite possibly) have my baby this month (give or take a week or so, let's keep our fingers crossed for June though, shall we?) I should probably pack a diaper bag or something? Or tour the new hospital? Ooooh, should I be filling out pre-registration forms? When do you do that again? We should get a carseat in the van sooner or later . . .
This is all happening very fast :-) And really slow. All at the same time. :-)

One last random thing -- Ellie's speech is coming along remarkably. It really was like one week something 'clicked' and she suddenly 'got' the need for verbal speech, and it's just exploded since. Her Speech Therapist (or 'Tee-sure" (for teacher) as Ellie calls her) is in awe when she comes every two weeks of the progress Ellie makes . . . in fact, she's starting to wonder if there's much more she can do for her at this point. Ellie's speech is less lazy now (rather than just Dada, Nana, Mama, Lala, she will say our names as Daddy, Annie, Mommy and Ellie (or La-lee, which is cute too) -- not always, we're still Mama and Dada a lot, but more and more we're hearing two different sounding syllables throughout Ellie's speech.) She's putting words together now -- which is helpful, 'cause now she can yell stuff like, "No! Mean Mommy! Mommy mean!" Makes me wonder why we wanted her to talk so much? :-) She used more words and less gestures to get what she wants, even asking my to get down one of her favorite books the other day by asking, "Hola pato?" She went from barely using a dozen words a few months back to asking for the book "Hello duck" in a second language. :-) She suddenly loves talking on the phone, and will chatter away with whomever we can find available during the day. She sings constantly. She blows her teacher away by pointing out letters and saying appropriate words like, "A, Annie! D, Dada!" She jabbers way more often (an essential language-learning skill that Ellie completely lacked just a few months ago).
This brings up the question of did we worry over nothing? I've had people recently say to me, "I guess she never needed the Speech Therapy afterall, huh?" I wouldn't go that far. I always hoped for the best, that it would just suddenly 'click' for Ellie (the desire to talk, the ability to do so) and we'd see monumental progress made practically overnight. And it's happening, we're watching it every day and it's amazing. Had we 'left her alone' would've it happened anyway? Yeah, probably. BUT, I really feel that the Speech Therapist has been pivotal in Ellie's progress. Those things that 'clicked', they all came from her teacher. It was Julie who somehow got Ellie to see the need to speak. Julie trained her to just try -- to mimic sounds, to attempt words, to just give it a try -- something Ellie would never do for us.
Yeah, these things probably would've all 'clicked' sooner or later anyway, but I really feel it was Julie's intervention that has Ellie speaking as much as she is now. Plus, each time she's here, she teaches me dozens of new techniques and games and little ways to encourage Ellie's speech that I wouldn't have come up with on my own. Ellie would've spoke either way, but I think it's happening much faster (and before this next baby is born!) because of the Early Intervention program and professionals. I haven't regretted a minute of our time working through this program!

Improving Speech and Time Flies

Ellie's been using more and more words. And the words she's been using for a long time are getting clearer. Greg and I just about did a dance of joy when she called for him the other morning with a clear, "Daddy!" One of Ellie's speech issues has been that she just uses one syllable, then repeats it, to say many of her two syllable words. (Think of a baby saying "ba-ba" for bottle.) This meant our whole family was Mama, Dada, Nana (Annie), Doh-Doh (Cody -- this is our favorite). Then suddenly this week, we've heard Mommy, Daddy, Annie and Doh-dy. It's not consistent yet, but it's happening with very reassuringly increasing frequency. She's also recently moved from a noun-filled world of just naming names and objects, to using a bunch of words like go, stop, up, down, in, out, off, on. And she asks for everything with a sweet, "peees" (Please.) She's combining more and more words now -- pointing out a big truck, and a 'bug up' (a fly walking up the screen on the patio door), up please (which means despite being sore and tired and huge, I pick her up every single time she says it, 'cause I can't tell my two year old who just barely decided to start speaking that I'm not going to pick her up when she so clearly asks for me too! And there's no reasoning with her about me being 8 months pregnant, she seems to have no empathy.) :-) She finds amusement and joy in mimicking words or showing off a new word, which opens up a whole big world from when she refused to even attempt to say what we asked her to. And all of this in time for her second birthday next week!

Speaking of which -- this may sound dumb, but it just hit me yesterday that the girls birthdays are NEXT week. I mean, sure, I knew they were coming up. I knew they were the 19th and 20th of May. And I knew that was soon. But only yesterday did it hit that they were literally only a week away. My babies are going to be two and four in one week (or less now)! Then came the realization that this baby's coming soon too. I mean, sure, I was telling someone just last week I had 8 weeks left. And 8 weeks seemed close, but not that close. Then at Annie's dance class yesterday, one of the other Moms asked me how long until I was due, and I thought for a second, and suddenly realized, "Wow, like 6-7 weeks." And then later on in the day it hit again, that if Isaac was born as early as Ellie was (which I don't think he will, but it's a possibility), I would be having a baby in 5 weeks. Holy crap. We haven't painted or decorated the nursery (which currently has a cute pink checkerboard trim around the wall), or finished the sandbox, or started the shed, or got the yard all ready for summer, or cleaned the house from top to bottom, or made a dozen meals to throw in the freezer for later. Or all the other things I want to get done before the baby makes his debut. And, between my low, low blood pressure and the dizziness and weakness that's been plaguing me lately, these projects are looking all the more daunting (although, really, it's not like I was gonna be out building a shed either way). I think I need to make a list and just get started . . . or accept the fact my baby boy's gonna spend his first couple months in a room with pink wallpaper trim :-)

Signing Update

Ellie is picking up signs I hadn't realized she'd even been paying attention to, so the whole sign language thing is going well. (I asked her what a picture at Grandma's house was of, and she signed 'tree', a word I hadn't realized she'd learned yet.) I'm especially pleased because she now verbally says "More", "All done," and "Ball" while she signs them -- all words we've been trying to get her to say forever, and now she acts like it's no big deal to toss them around all willy nilly while signing. (Her speech is suddenly increasing -- which is great, as she hadn't said a new word in months before this -- now all the sudden she's saying several new things a week. She's gonna progress right out of the Early Intervention program right around the time we get her all set up! :-) Her meeting with her new speech therapist is for not next Tuesday, but the Tuesday after.)

Ellie will watch about one "Signing Time" video a day or so, (although this last few days we haven't had any, as I'd accidentally put CDs on hold at the library, and not DVDs.) She doesn't actually act all that interested, walking away and wandering back during the video, but then throughout the day, she'll run up to the computer and point and say, "Leah! Leah!" and then smile and walk away. (Leah is the little girl on "Signing Time", and Ellie's favorite part of the videos is the theme song where they sing, "It's signing time with Alex and Leah," and Ellie sings "LEAH!" loudly at the end of the sentence each time they say it. Leah has become her word for the videos, the theme song and sign language in general.)

The other cool bi-product of Ellie's new "Signing Time" regimen, is that Annie is fascinated by it, and can't get enough. She's always asking us, "How do you say that in Spanish? OH! I mean sign language?" (Daddy's beloved Spanish has definitely taken a back seat to this new foreign language in our home). She's using dozens of signs, and is always happily showing them to her little sister. I now find I'm checking videos out from the library more for Annie than Ellie, most recently putting the ABC video on hold, a video I think will hold little interest for Ellie, but will fascinate Annie, who's always trying to perfect her signing form.

So, in short: "Signing Time," good.

Knows What She's Talking About

When Annie finished her lunch today, I asked Ellie if she wanted what was left over (Ellie had already had thirds, but was still acting hungry). "Mo, mo" she laughed as she enthusiastically signed 'more' over and over and over again. Annie looked at me, with wide eyes and said, "Well I suppose someone is hungry!" I laughed and agreed. A few seconds later, Annie turned back to me and asked, "I used 'suppose' right, didn't I? That was the right word? What exactly does suppose mean?" I assured her she'd used it perfectly, and we talked about how else it could be used and what it means. It made me proud to see her take a stab at a word she wasn't 100% sure on. This is my kid who when learning to talk, would quietly mutter a word over and over again, sometimes for days, before she'd loudly say it for the 'first' time once she knew she'd perfected it. She doesn't like to be wrong, or to sound like she doesn't know what she's talking about, so I was impressed at her using language she wasn't 100% sure about.

Earlier in the meal Annie'd been counting, to some arbitrary number she'd chosen. Upon finishing, she triumphantly cheered, "And I was correct!" I love watching a three year old experiment with words -- when "I was right" would've worked just as well, and been the 'easier' word, they just seem to try and reach for new ways to say the same things.

Ellie, Can You Hear Me?

"How is her hearing?" the professionals would ask, right off the bat, whenever I got into a discussion about Ellie's speech delays.

"Oh great! She notices the littlest of noises from outside, she pulls me to the window to tell me she heard a dog or a truck or a bird. Her hearing definitely isn't the problem," I'd assure them.

So, guess who failed her hearing test this morning?

I feel like a freakin' genius.

Well, she has a cold right now, and they said with the pressure in her ears, that her ear drums were hardly moving and she wasn't registering much below 25 decibels. So, we come back in a few weeks, when her nose is cleared up, and try again. So, we didn't really learn anything new, except that even when she doesn't have an ear infection, she may be dealing with hearing problems due to pressure. I might make another appointment with the ENT (we were just there yesterday with Annie), but I don't know what they can do really. She can't get tubes yet . . . they'd said if she'd had one more ear infection by the end of January, we'd do tubes, but she's been miraculously infection-free this season. She did have two infections back in fall, but none this winter . . . trust me, I know . . . I've taken her in three or four times absolutely convinced that her grumpiness and lack of sleep was due to another ear infection, but so far it's just been a big waste of multiple co-pays. (Annie was having pretty severe hearing problems right before her second set of tubes, but with constant ear infections and a history of tubes clearing them up, she was a no-brainer for surgery. Since Ellie's not really getting infections, who knows what options we have . . . ) We'll do the test again in a few weeks and see what happens . . . which Ellie will be happy about! She had the time of her life in the sound booth for the hearing test -- there were barking dog toys, and drum playing teddy bears, and things would light up and start to sing when she'd look towards the sounds . . . she was laughing and giggling the whole time. When we came out of the booth, the audiologist said, "Well, she certainly has joy in her life!" As we were leaving, Ellie ran back to the sound booth, and threw herself against the door, refusing to leave because she just wanted to go back inside and do it again. I assured her we'd be back again soon . . .

Her other tests went great -- vision tests and health histories were all taken care of this morning. Now that all her medical stuff is done with the school district (or, done-ish, since they're not counting this hearing test), they said they'll pass it on to her assigned speech therapist, and we'll move on from there . . .

Now I'm patiently waiting. (Why hasn't anyone called yet?!)

Miss Ellie

Last night, I was telling Greg all about Ellie's Early Intervention Intake/Evaluation experience, and I was sharing one story with him that had him laughing so hard that I couldn't believe I'd forgotten to mention it to others I'd talked to throughout the day!

At one point in the evaluation, the therapist had gotten out three objects: a shoe, a ball and a cup. She then asked Ellie questions about the purposes of each item. "Which one do you throw?" caused Ellie to grab the ball with lightening speed and chuck in across the front room. Impressively. The therapist even whistled and said, "Good arm!"

But my favorite moment of the entire evaluation was a perfect example of Ellie's personality and humor that came shining through during this activity. "Which one do you put on your foot?" Ellie immediately reached for the shoe, but then froze the second before she picked it up. A mischevious grin spread across her face, and she leaned over and grabbed the cup instead, stuck it on her foot, then lifted her cup-covered-foot up into the air triumphantly and gave the therapist her best "how cute am I?" smile.

Then, just for fun -- here's a picture of what Ellie's wearing this morning.
Yet another thing that'll make her Dad smile:

Big sister Annie ready for dance class (well, except her hair isn't pulled back yet -- I've been avoiding the freakout and tears until the last possible moment) and Little Ute Ellie sitting together in their respective thrones. They drag these chairs all over the house to set up court.

"Cheese!"

And then here's just a photo from an outfit she picked out the other day:

Little Miss Non-Verbal 2

Ellie's been stubborn about talking.

I've mentioned her massively impressive non-verbal communication skills in the past, and trust me, I'm not exaggerating. The kid can get her point across better than most adults I know.

But, of course, this emphasis on the non-verbal communication is in direct proportion to the lack of verbal communication.

I think she doesn't recognize a need for additional verbal skills, since she happily communicates all she needs to without the aide of spoken language. In fact, for a toddler who speaks so little, she has a shockingly few tantrums or breakdowns about it. She seems quite content with her speech abilities. Which makes it difficult to make her talk more :-)

I've been concerned about her lack on interest in talking, but not overly so . . . but lately she's started 'dropping' words. Things she used to say, but just doesn't anymore. She's also gotten VERY lazy about her pronunciation of words she used to say. Dropping speech at her age is a huge indicator of problems like autism, but nobody who's ever been within a thousand feet of Ellie would suspect the kid has autism. But, it's had me a bit worried to watch her digress. It's, well, disconcerting. You don't expect your nearly two year old to make backwards progress in any area, and it ain't fun to watch either. (Plus, I've been stressing myself out thinking, "She has to talk before the new baby comes!" But, at the same time, that's misplaced fear, as she communicates just fine, and we're not really in dire trouble or anything just 'cause she doesn't use a lot of words yet.)

I've spent the last couple months debating how much this worries me. (As background, there were several people very worried about Annie's speech abilities, and she was also labeled a 'late talker' by most who knew her. And look at the kid now. To think we ever worried! So, with Ellie I've been much more relaxed about it -- until it just started to get to be too much, and the Mom/Worry genes kicked in and I started to stress.) At times, in all honesty, it's made me break out in tears. As much as I hate to compare and contrast kids, 'cause it does nobody any good, I would sometimes watch videos of Annie at a younger age using, easily, a dozen or so more words than Ellie ever has, and tears would start to flow. (Of course, Ellie can scale heights, jump and run in ways Annie couldn't have imagined at this age. All kids are different, I know that. On an intellectual level.)

So, we talked to a Speech Therapist at one of the schools my Mom works at, just to get her opinion about it. She said that it seems like maybe she's a bit stubborn (sounds familiar), and that especially since Annie took a bit longer to get talking (and look at her now), there probably wasn't anything to worry about, but that I could call the Early Childhood Intervention people in the Jordan School District and talk to them. So, I called them last week, talked to an intake person and got her an appointment.

So, today, the Speech Pathologist came out to our house and evaluated Ellie. They were immediately smitten with one another. :-) Ellie had the time of her life playing games and such with the therapist, and the lady could not stop gushing about how funny, personable and just off the charts intelligent Ellie is. They tested her in seven areas.

There's a breakdown of all the numbers and such, but it's a tad complicated in the translation, so basically:

Her gross motor skills were very impressive. (Poor short Ellie was dinged on this a little, 'cause she doesn't do stuff like walk down stairs -- darn her stubby little legs that can't span whole stairs!)
Fine motor skills were at the very top of the charts for her age (this was all threading beads and stuff . . . the things she likes to do when she 'helps' her big sister make necklaces and stuff.)
Cognitive (her attention/learning) was great, on the high end of the normal range for her age.
Her receptive language (what she understands/comprehends) was also at the very top of the charts her her age. The therapist commented that she understood everything she said, and her vocabulary of understood words was incredibly impressive.
Her self help skills (problem solving, meeting her needs, getting what she wants, taking care of herself) was completely off the charts (basically the therapist kept testing her until she reached the four year old range, and just stopped testing her then.)
Her social/emotional skills also off the charts (again, she just stopped doing the tests once she hit about a four year old testing range).

At this point, the therapist is telling me she can't believe how smart Miss Ellie is (she called her Miss Ellie the whole time, it was really endearing), how she just understands absolutely everything, the vocabulary she understands is huge, how impressed she was with how well Ellie follows multiple step commands, how she can match anything and sort and organize and stack and everything else at levels well above her 22 months. How quickly she was catching on and learning new things. I was starting to think she was gonna say something like, "Um, thanks for wasting my time bringing me all the way out to your neck of the woods! What made you think this child would possibly need our help?!

Then the kicker.

Her Expressive Language Usage. She scored a 1. I don't know if a 0 is a possibility on the scale or not, but I'm thinking 1 was about as low as it gets.

Yeah, she's way behind on where she should be for her age in verbal language.

She's very lazy in her vowel sounds, and uses only about half the vowel sounds she should. She used a lot of consonant sounds, but not as many as she should, and she is also lazy in how she pronounces many of them and combines even fewer. (Like if a word has two different consonants, she'll just use one of them -- which is why horse is just 'es', etc.) There could be something actually wrong that's making these sounds hard for her to make/process/hear/etc. Or, she could just be stubborn and lazy. She doesn't have a lot of drive to verbally communicate, because she's comfortable with what she's able to communicate now. So, at this point the therapist wasn't sure what's causing the problem. We'll go in now for extensive hearing and other physical tests at the actual doctor's office at the district, and go from there.

Because of her score in this one area though, she does, in fact, qualify for in-home services. So, starting next week (after the physical) we'll have someone coming in and working with her. We'll start off just focusing on her making new sounds (not words). The therapist was saying she's pretty sure when whatever it is that's holding back to speech is taken care of, that whole huge vocabulary should come spilling out and we can expect her to be talking pretty much in complete sentences . . . we just have to get the words out of her head first!

So, everything I thought was confirmed. My toddler is an off the charts brilliant little charmer who wraps adults around her little finger. (The therapist was unbelievably smitten with her -- she could not stop gushing about how smart and charming she was.) But, that something's wrong in this one area. Maybe even really wrong?

The therapist left, and on one hand I felt like I was on cloud nine. What I'd thought was true -- she's intelligent and understands us and communicates amazingly, but she's not talking the way she should. I'm not worrying unnecessarily about this issue, but at the same time, my kid is an exceptional little toddler (they all are though). On the other hand, seeing the black and white of a score like a '1' was a blow to the chest that knocked the wind out of me. I mean, I knew she wasn't talking like she should be . . . but to not even make it on the charts. To be verbally communicating on the level of, what, a 15 month old? I was left with questions like, "Is something really wrong with her? Can she not make these connections? Or is she just stubborn, slow or just not ready in this one area?" And most importantly, "Can I be OK with this?"

I've always been a firm believer that all children are gifted. Some count early, some are budding artists, some can do things physically with their bodies that others don't accomplish until much later. Some are into numbers, some have fantastic memories. Some are amazingly empathetic and kind, much more so than their peers. But all children, have something they not only excel at -- but something that makes them truly gifted. With Annie I checked those stupid 'developmental charts' monthly. With Ellie, I threw 'em out -- 'cause they don't matter. Ellie's a gifted child. Like they all are. I don't need to know exactly where she falls on some chart in each and every category. But watching my child not even make it on the chart for something as basic as speech, kinda shakes things up. Brings into question my whole view of childhood development. Can I practice what I preach? Can I easily make peace with such a significant developmental delay? Will it bug me? Will I be able to look past it and see all the amazingness and not get hung up on a 'below level' diagnosis?

Well, here we go. I'll have help. I'll have specialists giving me advice on how to encourage Ellie. Which is what I was wanting most of all when I started the intake process. But in the end, we'll still just mainly be waiting. For whatever it is to 'click' for her -- whether it's a physical, emotional, lazy or stubbornish issue -- but at least I'll have a highly trained team of professionals telling me how freaking adorable she is the whole time. :-)

Wish us luck! :-)

Stubborn Talker

Not the biggest shocker, but, Ellie can be stubborn. Never more so than when it comes to spoken words. The child communicates better than some adults I know, never leaving a single question to what it is she wants or is asking for . . . the nonverbal communication skills that kid has are amazing. But she seems to have almost zero desire to speak. She uses names -- Anna, Mom, Dada, Ampa, Gam-mah, Baa (her stuffed lamb), Broo (her stuffed elephant), Woof (her stuffed dog), Nam (her stuffed kitty -- it used to be "Meow", but she got lazy and now it's just Nam), and a few more. She says 'thank you' and 'bye'. (Oh, and she just started coming up and saying "diaper poopy" to me when she needs to be changed. That was kind of a shocker.) But beyond that, she won't use many words. If she wants a drink, she'll point and mime drinking or whatever it takes for whomever she's with to ask, "Do you want a drink?", to which she enthusiastically replies, "Yeah." But, ask her to say 'drink' or 'water' (words she has said before, so we know she can), she just repeats the word 'yeah' until you give in and get her a drink. She'll have an entire room of people saying, "Come on Ellie, say 'ball' . . . say it, say 'ball' . . . ba-ba-ba-ball . . ." and she'll just stare at us curiously, walk over and grab the ball and walk out of the room. Words she said months ago have never been heard from again. She's just stubborn -- I swear there's a bit of "I'm not going to say it, just 'cause you want me to."
This is all very reminiscent of her big sister though, so I'm not worried about some of her 'delayed' verbal skills. Annie stubbornly refused to talk much up 'til about 20 months, then it suddenly exploded. From 21-24 months there were literally dozens of new words every single week. And I ended up with a two year old who spoke in complete sentences, using words like 'actually' and 'practically' and 'probably'.
So, I'm really excited for the next several months of Ellie's development. I can't wait to hear what she has to say!

Edited to add: Fitting with both this post and the last, Ellie said her first sentence today! She had been very fussy all morning, (she doesn't seem to be feeling well, even going down for a nap before 9:30AM) and was crying in my lap, when I asked, "Ellie, do you want to nurse or do you want a drink of water?" "I want to nurse," Ellie replied pretty clearly. I was shocked. It was almost kind of ironic to have that be her first sentence after writing these last two posts! :-)