She said "..arry"

Monday morning and I got Mary dressed in her room. Seh was messing about a bit and standing on her bed and not being at all helpful. Anyway after a bit of a struggle we were done and I was readdy to go downstairs. I am trying to encourage her to take herrself up and down the stairs. But as some of you know Mary and energetic ventures are not always compatible so in the interests of speed in teh mornings I usually carry her down the stairs. This MOnday as I turned and signed downstairs, Mary lifted her arms up and said " 'arry" Clear as that. In fact she said it a couple of times. What else could I do. My clever girl. So of course that morning she got her wish and mummy 'arried her downstairs.

New word

'arry - carry

Mary Said Owwwwww

On Thursday 7th January 2010 we were at another friends house and Mary was messing about climbing all over me and throwing herself off the sofa. Both my friend and I tried to warn her about the nearby coffee table but woudl she look, nope. Anyway as predicted she fell off the sofa and stood up shaking her hand signing "oww" while saying "owww" perfectly at the same time. My friend and I jsut looked at each other and confirmed that we were hearing right. We cheered and praised her then thoguht we better check if she was ok but she seemed fine. Spontaneous vocalisation in context. Yay.

She signed Sorry!!

On Wednesday 6 January 2010 we were at our friends house. She has a 13 month old delectable daughter. Anyway MAry was being a bit of a bully towards this girl and ended up pushing her over and making her cry. She was ok but went to mummy for a cuddle after the shock. I told Mary off and had a my very best cross face on, she actually signed "sorry" and "crying". And she looked sorry! Yay my girl said "sorry".

New signs

Sorry
Crying

Extending Mary's Sign vocabulary

In addition to helping Mary focus on speech sounds we are also trying to extend her sign vocabulary. Mary has all her needs well and truly met so does not feel the need to sign more. She uses a lot of gesture and showing people what she wants or just does it herself. She got herself in trouble with Grandpa for shoving a DVD into the video player at Christmas, oops. Still it all turned out alright in the end!

So before Christmas she asked for her Tom and Jerry DVD, she signs "cat". I spent a few minutes with her getting her to sign " cat DVD please". She did this after a fashion.

Today she came to me and asked for "cat mouse". I was so pleased. I have referred to Tom and Jerry as "cat mouse" but she never took that up. Or so I thought. She is such a minx. Wonder what this next year is going to bring!

New Sign
"cat mouse" Tom and Jerry

Mary's cool Uncle Sean

He has made a big effort to learn some signs, like his brother Uncle Justin, but one does not need signs to get these crazzy uncles to hang one upside down!

This is what Santa Got me Alright!

She loves her big pink pony. Clever Father Christmas even managed to deliver it to Granpa and Granny's house.

Snow - So that is what waving your fingers in the air means!

Mary for the first time this winter, 18 December 2009, Friday. Saw and understood snow. She loved it.

Christmas Party at the Deaf Centre

Thanks now I am off. Give her her due she did wait until it was her turn before grabbing the present and running.

Speech and Language Therapy

Mary had a visit from her S&L therapist on the 22 December 2009. Was quite amusing because she chose that day to experiment with the potty and was starkers when the lady arrived. Fortunately we have coem to know her quite well and Mary was soon placed in a nappy. Althoguht hte rest of the clothes stayed off.

Our lovely S&L Therapist is retiring in July and hopes, although given the state of the NHS may not happen, that there will be a person in place as soon as she has gone. We shall wait and see. She hopes that Mary will be saying 10 words fairly clearly by July. This obviously depends on the cooperation of the young child. Hmmm. In an attempt to get Mary interested in sounds, our lady has suggested we emphasise the first letters of words. So Ball, we repeat the word ball a few times when she playing with one and then do " b b b b".

On Christmas Eve 2009, for breakfast I too her a banana. I thought it not a ball but I got her to sign the banana and ask please. Then thought I could do "b b b b" which I did. She copied and OK it came out "p p p" but it is a start and she really enjoyed trying. That is the main thing. Getting her motivated. She is now paying a bit more attention when I do the sounds with her. We will have to see how she goes this next term.

She knows her place! And Mummy's and Daddy's!

Apologies for being so slack. Things have been a little hectic here. Mary's Dad and I separated at the beginning of December. Was rather complicated for a while so these things got left to their own devices.

I was really concerned as to how Mary woudl take it all Daddy living in a separate house. We could explain things to our 5 year old and she had a few questions. But how do we explain such a complex issue to Mary when we still at the basic level of communication.

But never fear Mary is so clever. I dropped her at Daddy's after about two weeks of separation. She had stayed at his on the Wednesday night but he had picked her up from here. Anyway the Saturday morning when I put her inside Daddy's house she took her coat and shoes off and then turned to me... She pointed at me with a determined look on her face and signed "go". I asked her for a kiss and she repeated her signs and turned away and went inside. Of course I was haertbroken, at not getting my kiss. But that told me! The next week when Daddy dropped them off here. She asked to go up into my arms and then turned to Daddy and waved.

Ho she has worked out that Daddy and Mummy live in different houses amazes me. SHe is so intuitive. She is brilliant.

New signs
"Go"
DVD
Cat DVD please
Come
No - and she takes great delight in telling other children "no"
Eat
Downstairs