Eleven Months and Counting!

Well I haven’t posted a substantial blog for a few days, so I have a bit to catch up on. Monday was therapy with Katie. I was teasing her about how my blog was “all” about her, but then prefaced, “ok maybe just once a week”. But on Monday we had an amazing session. Holly had woke up late and I was so worried about her session thinking she would never take a nap before her session, but Alas I was able to coax her to sleep around 11:45 and she did sleep for 45 minutes. It was just enough time to refresh her and keep her in a good mood for her entire session.

Before it starting I was thinking to myself, I really would like to work on some fine motor skills, because we spend so much time dealing with the High tone issues at both Sally and Katie’s sessions it would be nice to do something different for a change. We are coming up on our 1 year review and Katie is working on her report so we were testing some skills to see where Holly is developmentally and with her goals and milestones.

One of the things we did is check to see if Holly could find something under 1-2-3 “screens” we used handkerchiefs and Katie’s cell phone which was something Holly was very motivated to get. We would put it down, and then cover it one at a time with each screen. First only one screen, to see if she would lift it to get the phone. Then we would put that one back and cover it with a second, but not let her lift both at once, she could only lift the top one, and then the next. At a certain level the child will give up when it’s not under the first “screen” or play with the screen instead but holly lifted all three screens very determined to get the phone.

We also played with the peg and peg boards. To see if she would pull the pegs out of the board and put them back in. She did pull several out of the peg board. She did not put them back in, but we don’t expect her to be doing that yet.

Next I was showing off Holly’s new “In” skill. Katie has been working on that with her for a few weeks. She isn’t consistent with it. She does it with the specific box and balls that she learned but not with every object and container. Though she is expanding and now putting other items in the container too. But then we tested a different “Box” and she didn’t get it at first. We gave her emerging status on that. We then used the “cups” that go inside each other. Nesting that’s the word I was thinking of. After showing her a few times she then would put 1 cup into the other. She was very skilled at pulling the three cups apart but needed a little coaxing to put one cup back in. She also tried to put the bigger one into the smaller one, and then was confused when it didn’t work and banged on it trying to make it fit, which was very cute. So we were really pleased with her progress on that.

She is not rolling a ball back when it is rolled to her, but she does watch it when it gets rolled and will follow it sometimes and then play with it when she is done chasing it down, and she is throwing toys, which oh joy, is a developmental milestone I am supposed to be excited by. Actually I don’t really mind at all. Especially when they are none dangerous soft toys like the balls from her pit. I just make Joel crawl under the table and collect them at the end of the day.

Let’s see, we tested to see if she would pull something to get to something else. She is so “mobile and active” that it was hard to really tell on this one. There was a little ducky on wheels at the end of a string. A few times she did pull the string to get the duck, but more often than not she just reached for the duck directly. But she likes to move around, and it is quicker to just lounge for the duck, so it was hard to tell if she really understood that pulling the string would get her the duck. Ideally she would be sitting in a restrained way and there would be a cloth and a toy out of reach on top of it. Then we would test if she knows to pull the cloth to bring the toy closer. I think I will try and set this scenario up later this week if I remember.

She is not stacking donuts yet but she is making attempts. She pulls items off the stacker and then “tries” to put them back on but misses getting the stick into the hole and the donut falls. She has got it a few times but that is the exception not the rule. We played with “choking hazards” very little spiky glittery balls to see how she reacts to the textures and to see how her pincer grasp is, when we tested this a few months ago she was using a raking grasp to pick them up, not she is using a pincer but it is not an advanced one yet.

She doesn’t quite get pulling yet. We have these oblong shapes that click into each other top to bottom and can be pulled apart. She is very intrigued that I can hand her a chain of 4 as a single object and then I can bend it and it becomes two separate objects but she doesn’t get that she can pull them apart. I think this may be a tone issue, as we would love to get her to do it, as a chance to get her to stretcher her arms apart and we do this as a passive movement exercise but she doesn’t do it on her own yet.

At first she was only putting the large balls into the box, but then as we continued playing she started putting the blocks in too. Katie wanted to see if she would stack the blocks but she was not really into that yet. Katie had a block in front of her and was trying to get Holly’s attention on it so she could watch her stack it and Holly lounged forward before she could grab it and urgently put it “in” the box. It took us both by surprise and was so hilarious. She was very please with herself, so of course we had to applaud her.

I think she will get the stacking thing soon. She used to immediately knock down blocks when I stacked them, now she watches them and me and even makes an attempt to put a block on top of another, or on top of the box, I think if we keep playing the stacking game it will come along soon. I think I need some bigger blocks that are easier to stack too.

She is now starting to watch when I scribble; when we tried this a few months ago she was completely not interested and kept trying to grab the paper and pen. We have these cool round crayons for her once she is ready, but for now she is much more interested in chewing the plastic round holder part so I have to take them away from her when she tries to eat the crayon part. But today she did watch me draw with them at least for a few moments,

Oh, and she also played with a single toy for 3 or more minutes which is a shocker.. Well no I lie, she flips through her books for a few minutes at a time, but she often goes from one book to another so even though the “page turning” activity is several minutes, it is not usually a single book. But Katie had a shape sorter bucket with a lid that was the shape part and it had a blue handle and she just wanted to investigate the little bucket. She turned it every which way and moved the handle over and under and side to side for several minutes until she had completely examined it.

I wish I had gotten pictures of all these various activities but I never think to take them during our sessions. If Katie brings all of her toys over again on Friday I will try and take some pictures. I think our biggest delay is language. I am still going back and forth with regional center to get services. They sent me a packet called “It Takes Two To Talk” Which is part of the Hanen system. I already had the infant baby one and I think this was from the toddler one. It did have some good suggestions, many of which we are already doing. However, I don’t think the language issue is with receptive communication but rather a tonal muscle thing. I think she has trouble making her mouth make the shapes needed to make certain sounds. She really only makes B, G, M, L Rarely, A, I, E, P Rarely. She does not make D, N, T, C, F, H, R, S, W and she should at this point in the game be able to make many of those.

I am going to try and get an Eval at the mind institute when I go at the end of the month and see what Dr. Hagerman’s Speech therapist says and what suggestions she has, but particularly because it took me a good three months to get her to eat and another to have a coordinated chew I think there are tone issues in her facial muscles, and those are the types of things a Speech Therapist works on at this early age. The other thing I might try if my insurance doesn’t cover it, or if I can’t get an appointment to see her at Davis is see if I can get approval through Regional Center for just an Eval and “Training” session to get the therapist to work with me on what I should be doing with Holly re: Oral Motor for the next 6 months until she qualifies.

Receptively I think she is also starting to pick up on some signs. We use Eat, More, All Done, Play, and Change pretty regularly now, and her mood, expression and verbal response changes when we use them. For example if she is whining and we say and sign “change” she stops wining and ready’s herself to be picked up and changed. When she is done eating and whining and I say and Sign “All Done” she smiles and gets excited and starts to pull off her bib. But she hasn’t really made any attempt at expressive signing yet, at least as far as I can tell. I think this might be a tone issue also, though I hate to sound like a broken record and blame everything on that, but because she is so tight I think it might be difficult for her to make some of the “fine” movements needed to sign. I also think I might not have the eye to notice if she is doing them in her “own” way. Joel thinks she has a sign for pacifier, so when she does it I give it to her, so maybe he is right.

Oh that reminds me, I am not sure if I mentioned this previously or not but Regional Center denied me for Respite Services. It was funny reading the email which basically said, we totally think you need a break and time to yourself but all 1 year olds take constant care and supervision and there is nothing special about Holly;s care that warrant respite at this time so we hope you will consider getting a babysitter on a weekly basis for yourself. I had to laugh. I wasn’t really expecting it and I can always reapply later, but in the mean time I am working towards joining a babysitting co-op babies group. You have to be recommended by one mother and affirmed by two others, so I have been attending play dates with the group getting to know the babies and mom’s so that once I know them a little better I can join.

This is ideal for me. I would love this. I think paying for a sitter would be so hard for us, because I don’t have a personal relationship with someone who Holly knows who could do it and that I trust, other than my friends who are Mom’s and Dad’s. So what better way to save money and get a night out then to have Holly spend a few hours playing with a mom and baby she knows and recognizes? She would be comfortable with this person because prior to babysitting we would have had play dates together and she would get to know them, you can’t really do that with a regular babysitter. It’s not like they come over for free for several hours to get to know your kid before you will be willing to leave them alone. Also, since I am home all day with holly I would welcome another baby over anytime to play with her, so I think it will be easy for me to rack up babysitting points to spend.



So back to my update. I don’t remember much more from Monday. I think Holly went to bed around 11:30 and I was exhausted and followed suit. Tuesday she woke up really early at like 8:30 so she ended up being very tired by 10:45 and fell asleep for a long nap until 1:00. I tried to feed her before her nap but she refused the bananas looking at me like, “Mom – Where is my Yogurt” well mom hasn’t had time to go to the store, so she had none. She did however eat the bananas and some Squash for lunch after her nap. I opened a jar of Peaches the other day and I have been giving her a bite every meal like 6 times now I think and she pretty much hates them.


I tasted them, which is a rarity for me, I usually make Joel do that, and I liked them, but Holly, she is apparently not a southern girl, and didn’t want anything to do with them. In fact now I am giving them to her towards the end of the meal as the few times I started with them she was so suspecting that each bite would be peaches it was a bit of a battle to get her to eat more than a few bites. She has caught on that I trick her and after a few bites of something she likes I sneak in something else. Now she is catching on and checks the color of the spoon, as I usually use a different spoon, or in some cases the color of the food, or makes me put it against her lips to get the flavor before she opens wide. I guess I should be pleased she has the cognitive ability to figure out what I am doing and creatively working against me, but that doesn’t make feeding her any easier.

Tuesday night was baby Brigade and we went to see Gran Torino (more on this later) and during the film she was getting fussy so I gave her my pizza crust and she spent several minutes happily nibbling on it. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

So after lunch I was torn between going to Studio Grow or Costco. In the end playing won out, really because I wanted to selfishly tire the child out so she would be complicit during the film later that night. We had a wonderful time though, except when she was hurting herself. She is fine, but has a little scratch on her forehead. She was standing against a plastic child’s table playing with some magnetic triangle blocks and she pushed the table and it slide under her weight and she scratched her head on her way down on the edge of the table. It took off some skin and that little spot was very red but she didn’t “bleed” I rushed her to the front and got an icepack but that just pissed her off more, I don’t know if she didn’t like the cold, or if the pressure was sore but she didn’t want the icepack on her forehead. I kept it on a few minutes and then intermittently put it on again when she was calm, but that would immediately upset her again. I knew she was ok though, I used the “Cell Phone Test” and upon handing her my phone to play with she immediately stopped crying, so I knew it could not be that bad.


She ended up bumping that spot a second time, a tiny bump that she would never have noticed and has done hundreds of times standing up using the top of a bench to pull herself up, but I guess because she was sore in that spot she cried immediately, but again the cell phone calmed those tears right away.

Other then this minor incident we had a wonderful time. We ran into Kareem and his mom again, he was the little boy born exactly 24 hours before her in the same hospital. We were talking about birthday parties. I am inviting 7 new baby families to Holly’s and I realize it is a party more for her mommy and Daddy then for her, and that I am breaking the Guest per Age rule, but I am OK with that.


Kareem’s mom is inviting 60 people though, so I don’t feel like I went overboard. Her party is outside and right now she doesn’t have a back-up plan, so I hope it isn’t rainy. My back-up is moving inside from the backyard. It might be tight, but if people sit on the floor with their babies we will have room for everyone.

At Studio Grow Holly did the cutest thing. There were older kids playing in the ball pit and they were throwing the balls out. She was very intrigued with this and crawled all the way across the room to stand outside the pit and watch them. Then she decided to crawl after the ball’s and put them “In” the pit. I was so proud. I pointed at one and I said “Holly do you want to put the red ball in” and pointed to the pit and she took a scoot to pick it up then went to the pit and put it in. I was amazed. She only did this like 3 times, and I am sure it was quite by accident that her desire to throw the balls “in” lined up with me telling her to do it, but it did impress the other mamas.

Today at studio grow we played with the 2-D magnetic wall blocks and the 3-d magnetic building blocks, we played in the climbing structure. There was a mini ball pit inside one of the tubes that she had fun with. We rode the “roller coaster” and cruised around all of the climbing cushions and watched the other babies and kids play. Later we were playing with Kareem and she was very intrigued by the older kids dancing in the next room and she crawled over to the doorway and watched them. When they were done she tried to get one of the pom-poms they were using but Mommy took it away. Then Kareem came and joined her and they played with all of the musical instruments. They were very intrigued with that bin, as it was new to them and filled with toys they had not explored before, so they had a good time with that, lots of shakers and bells, a triangle and xylophone and tambourine.

Time goes pretty quickly at Studio Grow, and with Holly’s head bump I ended up feeding her two bottles, one because she was hungry and later a second to sooth her from being tired and hurt, so by 6:00 she was exhausted and ready to go. I was able to sing to her and keep her awake until we got to Daddy’s work and we went inside to visit his co-workers while picking him up, and then on the way to Baby brigade she fell asleep.


It alas was a short nap, maybe 30 minutes as she woke just before the movie started. But since she had a long day she was much more subdued then last time, and I think she quite liked eating my pizza crusts. They were soft and bready and I took off the pieces that had sauce on them so it wasn’t acidic. I was mad because we got there 30 minutes early so we could ensure a couch seat but there was a new mother’s group there and all of the couches were already taken which is pretty amazing. Our seats were ok, comfy chairs, but not as much room to let Holly climb all over us when not in the couch. The mom’s I think had gotten free passes from the same new mom’s group I am a member of, but they are in the “baby” group, the one Holly and I have “graduated” from, and they were all so so so cute. There was a 2 week old and an 8 week old, many many very little babies.

Apparently they have family night on Sunday where we can bring toddlers, so in about a month… WOW yes Exactly a Month, since today Holly is 11 months old; we will “graduate” into that group. The movie was much better than I expected. Clint Eastwood’s character was so offensive, but in a very real, I know there are people like that way and his character arch through the movie is amazing, he changes but doesn’t really, it was good. I really enjoyed it even though it wasn’t on my list of movies to see and I recommend it. After the movie it was raining, and Holly really enjoyed that. Even though it was cold cold cold, she was so intrigued by the rain on the car while we drove home. We got home at 9:30 but she was wide awake and played on her own till about 10:30 and then got clingy and was hungry and by 11:00 I was able to feed her and coax her to sleep.

This is street sweeping week. “My” car was dead. I tried to take it to the movies this past weekend and it didn’t start, so last night we jumped it, and it started as soon as the cables were connected so it wasn’t too dead that Joel told me to only drive it around the part rather then run it for 30 minutes like I wanted too. So when I parked it on the other side of the street I tested it and it didn’t start. We were supposed to jump it again tonight so I could move it back for street sweeping on the other side tomorrow but because of the rain we didn’t so it is Joel’s job to wake up in the morning and jump and move it. Let’s hope all goes well. I guess then this weekend we can jump it again and I can take a drive to let it charge up. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the battery, we just haven’t driven it since before Christmas because we forgot to move it during street sweeping last month and it is very cold, so I think it should be fine, but I am thinking about selling it again, which I don’t want to, I don’t think I will get nearly as much as I paid for it, and I am attached, but I am contemplating. I think I will decided in the next two months once I see if I can get a car seat to fit in the back.

Well this is a long post I better get off to bed now.