Development Tracker Time:
This post is for my own personal reference (and your viewing pleasure) as a guide for me to know where Ellie is at these days developmentally. So for a list of things Ellie can do:
1. Lots and LOTS of words. She recognizes lots of things including: foods, animals, books, toys and other common household objects. She is now saying little phrases as well like: "hold the railing," "xiao xin" (that's her only Chinese phrase), "calling mama" and "big owies". Ellie seems to understand even more than she can say. I'm impressed with her ability to follow commands. She seems to understand too that there are multiple words sometimes for the same thing (that's probably completely normal but it never ceases to amaze me).
1-a Ellie also understands many pronouns like I, You, Me, Her, Him etc.
2. She is singing lots! She started this sometime at the beginning of this summer and has gotten lots better. Her favorite songs (that she will sing along with) include: "Great is Thy Faithfulness", "You are my sunshine", "Abc's (which she knows up until P as evidenced by the
video--sorta)", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Jesus Loves Me", "It is Well with My Soul" and "God is So Good" (her first song she sang).
3. Climbing! Ellie has gotten quite good at getting onto couches and chairs by herself. She is still very cautious, however and knows fairly well her limitations. She can go up stairs by herself using the stair above her as support; it's a little more sophisticated than a crawl up the stairs. She can actually go down stairs holding a railing quite well, though I don't let her do it alone and she doesn't always have the confidence to do it alone either. She can tell the difference between little and big steps. She will go down little ones without holding anything, but won't attempt big ones by herself.
4. Eating by herself, kind of. I have begun to give her full reign of her breakfast in the morning. She eats a banana all by herself (she's been doing that since she was 6 mths) but she has also begun to eat with a spoon. So I now give her her oatmeal and spoon and she devours it alone. Though if I don't sit and watch her, she reverts to using her hands only (which does work with oatmeal). So I usually have to guide her a little in order to use a spoon. Side note: She also prefers to pray before she eats:
5. Colors. Ok Ellie doesn't really know her colors extremely well and if any of you were to come over and have me prove her colors ability, I would probably look dumb. I guess all I can say in this area is on occasion she can pick something out and call it by the right color. She has a ring of plastic keys on it and she is getting pretty good at knowing which key is which color, but she can't seem to extend her color abilities to other objects, except her purple shoes!
6. Counting. Ellie can count to three. Joey has been working very hard with Ellie on this one. He is trying to get her to understand "how many" things there are (from 1-3). She usually comes up with the same answer, "two". I can say however, she will often have two things and say unsolicited, "moma, two", but won't say it unless there are only two. It's only when we ask her how many that she gets it wrong.
7. Time outs. This July we've begun using time-outs with Ellie and she has really responded to them. When she is being disobedient usually the threat of a time-out is now enough. Though on occasion she still will need a time-out. We usually put her in the hallway and make her sit for about 2 minutes and it seems to do the trick. We then talk to her and she has to say, "sorry" and then go and do whatever she was doing properly (for example to clean up the toy).
8. Dress. Ellie has begun attempting to take her clothes off and put shoes on and off (though she's been taking shoes off for a LONG time). She is very helpful with getting dressed and often tries to do it herself, though is a ways away from actually being successful in getting dressed or undressed.
Here's a video.
9. Naps. Ellie is now officially down to one nap a day. This began sometime mid-August. She now goes down for a nap after lunch somewhere between 12:30 and 1:30. She then sleeps for at least two hours (today she's finishing hour number 3). She then usually goes to bed at about 7p and wakes about 8am. She's still a great sleeper!
10. Social Skills. Ellie is still extremely self-centered and desires things for herself only! Though she has begun to understand the concept of share, but doesn't want to do it. She is also becoming sensitive to other people/babies crying. She usually will come up to a crying person she knows and at least look at them sympathetically. When Joey or I pretend to cry she usually comes up to comfort us. When she herself is crying, she will often stop mid-cry and announce that she is crying and that her eyes are wet. It's actually quite humorous. She also recognizes and calls by name lots of her friends and family.
11. Teeth. Ellie has grown three molars this summer but has not added to the 6 in front. She still has 4 teeth on top and two on bottom in addition to one new molar on the bottom right and one new molar on the top left and top right.
12. Coloring. Ellie can hold a crayon/pencil fairly well and likes to color/scribble.
13. Books. Ellie has begun showing and increased interest in books. She still prefers to look at them herself, but is beginning to let us read her stories. (She had been through a phase where she has no patience for us reading to her.)
I guess that's it for now! Thanks for reading (if you made it this far).
Siri Ann Torgerson was born on September 22, 2009, at 10:16AM. She was 7 lbs and 20.5 inches. Kim is doing very well, and Siri is great at nursing! We're very happy, to say the least, about our new little girl, and we can't wait to go home from the hospital on Saturday! Thanks for all of your prayers. Here are some pictures:
