Cassidy's vocabulary has been steadily increasing and is obvious in what she understands. Her development over the last couple of months has been amazing ... and SO much FUN!!!! She easily follows instructions without any hand gestures and loves to help with anything we let her. She's also been signing for several months now. I'm really glad we decided to do sign language because she's been a bit behind on her verbal development all along, and the signing has really helped us avoid frustration of her not being able to communicate with us.
Signs she knows (some are technically correct, and others are her own version):
- dog
- cat
- bird
- turtle
- hot
- clock/watch
- bottle/milk
- cup
- shoes
- socks
- thank you
- please
- sorry
- table
- ball
- chair
- tree
- fish
- baby
- teddy bear (she uses the sign for baby for this also)
- lion
- alligator/crocodile
- help
- nap/sleep
- bath
- orange
- banana
- diaper change (which she occasionally correctly tells us she needs)
- book
- color
- monkey
- bunny
- light
- eat/hungry
- more
- car
- water
- yes
- no
- hurt
Body parts she can point to or show us when we name them:
- head
- hair
- ears
- eyes
- eyebrow
- nose
- fingers
- toes
- hands
- feet
- teeth
- tongue
- belly
- bellybutton
- mouth
Words she says (some clearly, and others not so much):
- Mama (though when asked to say it, she still says dada .... grrrr)
- Daddy
- bye-bye
- apple
- cookie
- cracker
- cheese
- king cake (she picked that one up pretty quickly around mardi gras time - perhaps a sign we should be eating less of it)
- beads (another mardi gras hit!)
- ball
- blue
- purple
- bubble
- diaper
- Papa
- Nana
- Baxter
- Sake
- Bilbo
- I love you
I'm sure there are more words and signs but this is all I can think of right now.
When Cassidy asks for something, she looks expectantly at us and waits while we repeat back what we think she wants. We are rewarded with an ear to ear grin and a high pitched shriek when we get it right! We can't help but smile back.
She loves to dance and play music, likes to kick her ball around, loves to play chase and hide and seek, and can't spend enough time outside. She chases the dogs and cat, looks mischievious before pulling the cat's tail and shakes her finger at us when she knows she's doing something she's not supposed to do. She's learned to wait when told and sits down to do so, but whines loudly the entire time (this is usually when I'm getting food for her). Reading is probably her favorite thing to do and she now asks to read books first thing in the morning. She started this because we were reading books during her breathing treatment every morning before getting dressed. She loves to point out things in the books when we ask her to find them.
We've started time outs when needed, which she is figuring out aren't very fun. She throws temper tantrums when she's hungry and tired that are so dramatic it's tough not to laugh at her. She bites me and pulls my hair, only me, but never out of aggression, anger, or frustration. It's always when she's tired and I'm already paying attention to her and is usually accompanied by a mischievious look and grin. I'm not really sure what this is about, but last time after 3 bites in the same spot in the same night, I was bruised for 2 weeks. That's when we started time outs!
We've started sleep training again because with all of her colds, her sleep habits had regressed a bit. She's never gone to bed without us holding her because of the breathing treatments, and her ability to fall asleep on her own steadily decreased with her night wakings while sick and us rubbing her back while she fell back asleep. This was okay when she willingly laid back down to go back to sleep. But last week, she started refusing to lay back down, stubbornly standing in her crib, shaking her head, and screaming if we left the room. We were left sitting in the chair by her crib until she would fall back asleep, three or four times a night. We also noticed a difference in her behavior when she would wake up in the morning. She used to play in her crib, listening to music and babbling. Recently she started crying out for us immediately upon waking in the morning, and fussed if we didn't come in quickly. After a particulary demanding night last week, I decided enough was enough and she was healthy enough to get back to some good sleep habits.
So we let her cry it out again. We let her fuss for 10 minutes, go in briefly and settle her down, and leave without her falling alseep. We repeat this again after 30 minutes (we tried shorter intervals, but everytime we go in, she gets all worked up again when we leave so it was rather counterproductive).
- Night 1: 1 hour 50 minutes
- Night 2: 38 minutes
- Night 3: 20 minutes
- Night 4: 12 minutes
- Night 5: 3-5 minutes
- Night 6: No wakings (some crying out, but none that lasted more than a few seconds and she goes right back to sleep on her own!)
After the second night, her morning behavior changed dramatically. We always leave a couple board books on her crib rail for her to play with in the morning and after naps. After the second night of training, she woke up and spent at least 20 minutes occupying herself in her crib with music and books, and greeted us with a huge smile when we walked in the room. Amazing!
Letting her cry it out is the most painful and difficult thing we've done so far, but so worth it. She is back to 11-12 hours of sleep, usually from 7:30 or 8pm until 7am.
I wish I could record every little thing that she does and makes me feel, but there is not enough time in the day to put it all into words. I love that little girl and my heart skips a beat and does a little flip whenever I look at her and know she's mine.
