I am trying to have a conversation here

This morning Addy was in her highchair, getting ready for breakfast. Daddy sat down near her to put on his shoes and get ready to leave for work. Addy looked over the tray, pointed at Daddy's shoes and said, "Shoes!" "That's right, Sweetie. Daddad is putting on his shoes." I said. She looked at me, quite serious, and I swear she said, "I tellin' Daddad" with a total attitude of "You're kind of interrupting here, Mom. Go away."

She also has a new favorite word/phrase: "Seriously?"

Yay, language development.

Whole lotta nothin' goin' on

Addy continues to be scary fast at climbing up the sofa, and asks to do climbin' at least a couple of times per day. Honestly, I'm pretty sure she thinks we're bordering on stupid for putting the cushion back on the couch when we declare climbing time to be over. Mostly because, why would climbing ever need to be over? Climbing is awesome! We're trying to work on climbing down from the "high" level (cushion where a cushion ought to be) by scooting to the edge backwards and dropping her feet down to the floor first. That's as opposed to the swan-dive head-first approach that Addy tends to prefer...

She has also been doing really well with her food things. I need to work on her with meat-type textures. So far, highly pureed is the only form she will take her meat in. It's a texture thing, but it's also the last texture thing (I think), so it would be nice to be able to graduate from the feeding therapy.

Figuring everything out

Addy is all about keys lately. Fortunately, I have a keyring with "spare" keys (i.e., keys to cars that are 3 states away and may or may not still be owned by anyone I know). Since she knows that keys are for unlocking and opening doors, Addy thought she might try her hand at getting out the back door this evening.

The little mountain climber

Addy climbed all the way from the floor up to the couch cushions, chanting "I climbin'. I do it. Self!"


She also did so so so good with eating big kid food this weekend (quesadilla, grilled cheese sandwich, even a few small bites of cheese pizza). At the advice of the OT, we also gave her some carbonated beverage. (It's supposed to help prepare her for surprise textures.) She made a face like she'd sucked on a lemon. Next up is PopRocks. Seriously. Same theory as the soda.

Climbin' up the mountain, Addy...

Addy's PT wants her to work on climbing. Unfortunately, PT is not able to also prescribe anti-anxiety meds (for me, not Addy). Call me crazy, but there's something about a kiddo who knows no fear + shunt + stairs that sets my nerves on edge.

As a compromise to climbing the stairs, we're working on having her climb the sofa cushions. This morning, Addy's nanny took the middle cushion off the sofa and put it on the floor right in front of where it would be on the sofa. Addy climbed from the floor to the cushion, from there to the sofa frame (where the cushion should have been), and then did laps back and forth across the length of the sofa. It all went well until she got just a little too confident and decided she would try to get down using the "swan dive" method. Fortunately, she did not succeed, but she didn't take kindly to the advice that she should be careful and not face plant her way off the sofa.

Yay, progress?

Word associations

Addy has a red elephant bath toy that she calls "Emmay." I usually pretend that's what she's named it (as opposed to being her word for "elephant") and she talks about it a lot at bath time. Over the weekend I was drinking some red juice and Addy pointed at my cup and said "Emmay" because the juice is pretty much the exact same shade of scary red that the bath toy is. So now I wonder if it's actually her word for "red" and has nothing to do with pachyderms.