Ella’s development like all things Ella has two very different sides to it. On the one hand Ella’s gross motor skills are moving ahead at a glacial pace. Excruciating. We see nearly no progress in that respect. Ella can not bring herself to a sitting position on her own (except when propped up in a very special way), She cannot crawl (and in fact tolerates very little time on her stomach) and of course standing and walking are still in some nearly unimaginable, distant era. The use of her right hand has become more refined, but her left has made no progress whatsoever. In fact I think that as she has improved the use of her right hand, her left hand utilization as actually deteriorated somewhat. On the other hand Ella has made tons of progress in several very important directions. The first is communications. Here she has moved ahead dramatically. The discovery that she can signal ‘more’ by putting her hands together has opened a channel for her to express herself and for us to understand what she wants. She uses it constantly. It is her one all purpose word. It means More, Now, Yes. Basically anything affirmative and is a wonderful thing to have. We can ask her ‘do you want a bottle?’ and she will signal yes (if she does). She tells us to stop standing around and start pushing her around in the supermarket cart and to sing the same song again. It is amazing what one little gesture can do. Her connection to everything that is happening around her as increased. She is aware and she responds more. She finds things interesting and some funny.

I think she is developing a sense of humor. There as specific things that make her laugh consistently. She just finds them funny. There are also a few that it seems like she does because she thinks they are funny for others. One is a particular joke she tells with the bottle nipple. I would tell you that joke but it doesn’t translate well. Another is the head bopping thing. We bring our heads close to her and she will bop it with hers getting a reaction from us and being very amused. She tends to be amused by things she knows are coming. The anticipation is funny and the release (when the thing happens) is hilarious. A new discovery is the swing at the park. She loves being on it. The part she loves best is when you pull her back and she knows that she is going to be swinging in a moment. The anticipation is completely amusing. When you release her, she screeches with glee. A lot of progress has been happening in the feeding department. We have been trying these past few weeks to have Ella feed herself. We placed solid foods in front of her and had her put them in her mouth. Progress there wasn’t linear since we were sucked into helping her (she is very difficult to refuse). But just these past few days as a part of a new regime where we let her do it all, she made huge strides and ate vigorously. The use of the patch on her right eye has borne fruit. In the last ophthalmology exam the doctor found that Ella’s vision is in the normal range and that the wandering of the left eye has been reduced. We still need to continue with the patch to reduce the effects of ‘lazy eye’ for which she has a natural tendency . Her love of music is very much there. There is nothing that gets a reaction from her like music. She has preferences and can recognize her favorites every time. The best parts are the beginnings and ends of songs, not all songs just the really good ones.

Beth had the flu for most of last week so we got to spend more time with Ella than usual. Other than missing out on some work it is great fun being with her. She enjoys most things you do with her (Supermarket, walk with stroller, park, TV) and is unabashedly positive. A true wonder.