Emily shot this video yesterday and e-mailed it to me this morning. This is Charlotte leaving the house for the day. She has a work bag the same way Emily or I do, some keys somewhere, and then to do her own thing she is carrying a toy kennel with a stuffed dog inside.
This is a sad week for me because I go back to work Friday. But it was another great summer thanks to Charlotte. Last night I went for a run with a couple teachers from the school I worked at two years ago (I hang out with those folks way more than I do the staff at my present school, part of the reason I'm bummed to be going to back to work).
At the end of the run my friend and I were talking about how fortunate we are to have such a family-friendly job. He is probably the least sentimental person I know and he said, "I love my daughter so much it hurts sometimes."
I watch this video and I know exactly what he means.
Edit: Hey, this is Emily. I was planning to blog that video, but Mike beat me to it. Dang it! I was going to post it with the picture below. This is what I look like when we leave in the morning. I am a bag lady, which is story in itself. Anyway, this might be how Charlotte got the idea that dragging a big bag around means, "bye bye."
We haven't posted in awhile. No pictures today. Just words. Lots of them at that, because that's what I do. Life is busy for both Emily and me. Yet as busy as it is, it is very linear. Our days are full, but not hectic, and I do get to spend a lot of time with Charlotte. I soak it up and sense that she does too.
Here's what she has been up to since Halloween.
1. At Charlotte's one year check-up the pediatrician recommended we contact the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) because of Charlotte's lack of interest or ability in doing anything with her legs. Muscle tone and coordination were fine, said the doctor, but maybe a visit from ECSE (specifically the physical therapist) would help spur things along.
ECSE did a home visit and the physical therapist said that thanks to a perfect storm of Charlotte's gigantic size, mellow disposition, and lack of tummy time (that last one is on me) she doesn't hasn't developed the ability to go from lying to sitting. Once she gets that ability, she should progress quickly from crawling to walking. They gave us some tips to speed the process up. We followed the tips and two days ago Charlotte went from lying to sitting for the first time. She's done it once with me but I was cooking and I missed it. I saw her on her tummy, turned to chop an onion or something, and turned around and she was sitting. She thinks she's a freaking magician or something.
Kind of interesting: her fine motor and play skills are advanced for her age. Makes sense, given that she spends most of her day in one place and can hold her interest with one toy or object for a long time. My hunch is once she gets to walking, all development in the attention, play, and fine motor areas will subside and her gross motor will catch up. Meanwhile some little bugger her age is tearing around the house running like crazy, but will soon catch up with the things Charlotte can do. It all evens out by kindergarten, but these individual variances at such a young age always interest me.
2. Language is taking off. She signs "more" appropriately and independently by pointing with her right finger into her left palm (not an accurate sign... so much for her fine motor skills). But when she signs "more" she is actually saying "feed me something I like." She can have a plate of peas in front of her and she will sign "more" in hopes of getting something different. Or one time Emily and I were at the hot food bar at our local co-op and Charlotte started signing "more" when she saw all the food. And every night right around 6 p.m. if we haven't started feeding her, she will stop what she is doing and sign "more." Good stuff.
Last night I started feeding her yogurt and she loved it, but as per usual did not want to be spoon fed. So I gave her the spoon and it was messy as can be (again with the fine motor skills), but she fed herself just fine. Problem is she isn't ready to scoop the yogurt onto the spoon by herself because the cup offers no propioceptive feedback of course. So I need to take the spoon back from her and re-load it with yogurt for her. Last night she refused to give up the spoon. And that was that. I'll be damned if I'm going to get in a power struggle with a one year-old. But tonight I started signing "me" consistently for the first time (I've signed it here and there in the past), and she gave up her spoon. I put more yogurt on it, had her sign "me" (a little hand-over-hand modeling). After that one time, she didn't fuss once and was using her new sign. She signed "me" and "more" totally appropriately and on her own, fed herself on her own, and hardly fussed.
None of this is new to me nor should it be new to anyone. I did this for ten years at my old job with all sorts of nonverbal kids of all abilities and temperament. I don't miss any of that, but I do love seeing Charlotte do it. Old boy Chomsky knew what he was talking about when he said we come equipped with a black box for language. But I've never seen it unfold in a baby with absolutely normal language skills and it stuns me how fast humans pick language up. And it is all the more powerful and suddenly more emotional when that little human is your own child. She is doing exactly what she is supposed to do and what billions of babies have done before her and will do after. But now that it is my own child, it is a sight to behold. Like my mom once said, "Your child is special to you and your family, but may not be special to the rest of the world." Yet here I am writing an essay about Charlotte.
Charlotte has a few words too: kitty, hi, birdie, moo, and it seems to me like daddy is emerging (Emily agrees) but that could be wishful thinking. It's too early to call that one. She also waves hi and bye. And loves to imitate all sorts of things: laughing, coughing, kissing, and sighing.
Totally normal stuff but totally awesome for us.
3. She still loves music and dancing. She enjoys listening to Throwback Jamz with Emily. For the uninformed, Throwback Jamz is a music station I stumbled upon for my two favorite ladies on our Comcast cable. It is a radio station on your TV that plays "all your favorite R&B and hip-hop jams from back in the day to the 90s."
4. Her favorite toys are pots and pans (real original Charlotte) and my face in the cat door. I lie prone on the basement stairs, with the basement door closed,and stick my head through the cat door. Yesterday when I was washing dishes, she went over to the cat door and pushed it open and said, "Hi!" I was like, "Ummm, hey genius, I'm over here standing by the sink, Charlotte." It was pretty funny.
5. She also likes to open and close books over and over again (again, way to be a cliche, Charlotte) and she does love a farm that Emily got from her mom's after she died. So it is always nice to see her play with those farm animal toys and the barn. Unfortunately she also really loves my smart phone as much as I do and is absolutely giddy when she sees it. She can't wait to push all the buttons on it, just like I do. It's a little unsettling. So the phone now goes straight into hiding when I get home.
6. Charlottes LOVES to be outside. Again, how unique. Winter is going to suck for the both of us. She will learn to hate the indoors as much as I hate the cold. Misery loves company.
7. Her disposition never ceases to amaze me. I don't know how to articulate it beyond this: Charlotte guided us and continues to guide us through the pain of losing her Bubbe. And as fall colors turn to dark mornings, early nights, and stark months of ice and snow brought in by the winds from the west, there is no one I want by my side more than Charlotte.
The doctor yesterday stated she wanted a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) to do a consult with Charlotte. Hey that's me! I let the doctor know not only was I an SLP, but I specialized in fluency disorders, language disorders in adolescents, and metalinguistic skills for receptive language. I couldn't wait to help!
Unfortunately Charlotte's problems are more basic. They are a little concerned with the speed with which she is picking up oral feeding. Some of you may know, SLPs also specialize in swallowing and feeding issues. Well other SLPs do. I don't, especially in newborns.
Anyway, by Monday we will have an SLP visit and hopefully she will have some tips for us and the staff to help out Charlotte. Bottom line is Charlotte continues to grow and get stronger. Last night Emily noted how much stronger Charlotte's neck is. Charlotte has some really good feeding sessions but not on a consistent basis, and that is the biggest road block we face to getting her home. So hopefully the SLP will be able to help.
