If you would have asked me last August (2009) when we would see Josephine in this position, I would have looked at you like you had 5 heads…
But see for yourself. Our Principessa is standing during a PT session using basic MEDEK skills. More on MEDEK later.
HI!!! I’ll take this for a Christmas present any day!
And here’s Josephine waving and having fun with Daddy…
It seems our little principessa is quite the chatterbox lately! Read below…
New words and signs are in bold green.
SPEAK: brown bear, bird, ball, fish, woof, go, round, book, bye bye, hi, down, all done, purple, mama, dada, more, milk, cookie, tickle, again, apple, bus, open, up, stop, kick, yeah, watch, cat, shh, eye, boo, quack, bubble, pop, shirt, shoes, pants, touchdown, sock, box, two, row, hi
SIGN: all done, ball, fish, book, sleep, bye bye, dada, sheep, music, hug, kiss, bird, bear, read, eat, more, milk, cookie, change, diaper, again, apple, up, Grammy, hungry, stop, shh, bubble, block, shoes, hi
Lauren (our amazing DI) and Daddy had a surpisingly easy time with Josephine and finger painting today.
Because of her hypersensitivity issues, Josephine typically gags at the sight of anything she dislikes or doesn’t know. It could be food, dolls, crayons or paint.
Taking a chance, Lauren broke out the finger paint and Josephine dove right in! No hesitation at all. But both Lauren and Daddy noticed Josephine drooling quite a bit and it seemed to get a bit worse as time went on.
Lauren found out from Kim (the OT goddess) that the drooling is a sensory defense and would soon be followed by gagging or vomiting. Fortunately for Lauren and Daddy, the gag came soon after the drooling.
But what is so impressive is that Josephine not only dove right in; she tolerated the paint for more than a couple of minutes.
And made Mama the best rainbow ever!
The most beautiful kiss and the most beautiful feeling to be on the other side of this moment.
Josephine has added more words and signs to her vocabulary…every day amazes me.
New words, signs and directives are in bold green.
SPEAK: brown bear, bird, ball, fish, woof, go, round, book, bye bye, hi, down, all done, purple, mama, dada, more, milk, cookie, tickle, again, apple, bus, open, up, stop, kick, yeah, watch, cat, shh, eye, boo, quack, bubble, pop
SIGN: all done, ball, fish, book, sleep, bye bye, dada, sheep, music, hug, kiss, bird, bear, read, eat, more, milk, cookie, change, diaper, again, apple, up, Grammy, hungry, stop, shh, bubble
Directives: Give Me, Turn Page, Give Kiss
Watch the video for a glimpse of her language development. You should be able to catch “up” and “down” in there somewhere.
She is perfect! Enough said.
Josephine just said APPLE! 2 syllables. 2 COMPLETE SYLLABLES!
Sheldon Daddy was feeding her applesauce and Josephine wanted more. She pointed to the applesauce and said, “app-a”.
WOW! Josephine continues to amaze.
OK. So maybe that’s wishful thinking, but…
I am proud to say Josephine has started toward a new milestone with a vengeance – TALKING!
Yep. You read it right. Our little gal is saying words, signing words, communicating needs and making jokes (no joke!). In fact, she’s got quite a little personality!
Granted, most of these words are hard to hear because the speech is just emerging, but each one is recognizable to the Josephine-trained ear.
Here’s a list of words, both signed and spoken, as of October 4, 2010:
SPEAK: brown bear, bird, ball, fish, woof, book, bye bye, hi, down, all done, purple, mama, dada, more, milk, cookie, tickle, again, apple, bus
SIGN: all done, ball, fish, book, sleep, bye bye, dada, mama, sheep, music, hug, kiss, cat, bird, bear, read, eat, more, milk, cookie, change, diaper, again, apple
Keep an eye out for the speech updates. I am certain I will be adding many more words soon enough.
When Josephine was first introduced to the world of Crayola, she would have preferred to remain unaware. The sight of crayons made her gag and she would scream and hurl them as far away from her as she could get them.
As you can see in this video, Josephine is now able to hold crayons, play with them and even draw with them. I attribute this progress to the brushing protocol we have been doing daily. Josephine is less hypersensitive to the texture of the crayon. She is more aware of herself and her surroundings and the fear of the unknown is slowly dwindling.
After crawling to her toys, Josephine revels in the joy of playing with her car. She loves these Disney/Pixar Cars movie cars. Can’t get enough.
Josephine is starting to cognitively associate a sound and movement to an object.
Keep an ear out for “beep beep” at :14 and “vroom vroom” at :17. You may need to turn the volume to hear, but it’s there!
This little gal is determined to get her toys and musters up all she can to crawl across the floor to get them.
This is a great milestone because Josephine is able to get there without any assistance.
Way to go, Principessa!