We have an almost new kid. I know I’ve said before that Mallory is a pretty happy and agreeable child; but if it’s possible, I think she’s even happier and more agreeable after getting the fluid pressure relieved from her ears. She had a sort of rough first night on Tuesday (probably partly due to the fact that she had a 4 hour nap so she didn’t want to sleep at night) but last night and tonight she has been awesome.
Last night she played for about an hour while I made dinner…
yes, that is a bikini top she’s wearing…
…and then she helped me make dinner…
…and then she ate dinner & dessert…
eating pudding with a fork
I had so much fun watching her be a goofball on Wednesday night, all I could do was laugh. She was a little clingy tonight – it seems like the only word she wanted to practice was mama mama mama mama mama mama mama mama. New moms – be careful what you wish for…you may *think* you can’t wait for your kids to start saying “mama”, but it gets old real quick. LOL!
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Mallory’s sign language vocabulary is growing by the week. Her favorite is “eat” – this is really the only one she does unprovoked. Tonight I asked her “do you want to eat?” and she said out loud “eeeeeeeet”, and then grinned like she knew she had just done something I should be proud of.
She is a big fan of nodding and shaking her head and I think she’s finally starting to mean it when she answers with a nod or a shake. Usually when she signs, it is so that she can answer us or reinforce what we think she needs – like we say “do you need help?” and she’ll do the sign for help. Here are newer the signs she does use:
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More – which can be in response to food or an activity (like the water slide on Guam or singing Ring Around the Rosie). She’ll do this one on her own too but sometimes when she grunts we ask “more?” and then she’ll sign it.
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Please – this is tied with “help” for the funniest sign she does. When she does it, it turns out more like her patting her chest. But the funny part comes in when I ask her to do something and I say please at the end. She looks at me and signs “please”.
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Help – this ends up with her having two fists banging together, one on top of the other. She is sort of starting to do this one on her own, and will say “ULP” when she signs it.
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I am trying to work on thank you – she says something that I think she thinks is thank you but it doesn’t really sound like it.
Anyway – because most of the time she signs back in response to us asking her a question, she gets the signs mixed up. So, me asking “do you want help?” may result her in doing the sign for “more” before she corrects and does the sign for “help”. Or “do you want water?” may find her nodding yes and tapping her mouth (eat) before she finds her cheek. She is her mother’s daughter if she is trying to talk so fast her words get all mixed up ;-)
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Mallory returned to school today after an almost week-long absence. The daycare ladies said that Alli was so excited to see Mallory – she gave her a big hug when Mallory got there. And they said Mallory had a pretty good day and ate a TON – I guess she’s feeling better.
That’s all I’ve got for now. G’night.