So much has transpired since the last serious entry. It is tough to know where to begin.
Lets just start with this weekend. There were three firsts this weekend and they were very exciting.
First. on Friday Ella started saying ‘Cool’. now this may sound non impressive or trivial to the uninitiated but to us Ella fans, this is a big deal. Till now all the guttural sounds (K,C,G) were out of Ella’s scope, non existent. They were replaced usually by a ‘t’ sound. This made understanding her a very exacting science reserved only to the inner circle. She would be going to the ‘part’ or telling us that a ‘taow’ makes the sound ‘moo’. Anyway. last week she had an appointment with the optometrist who, wanting to strengthen her weak eye recommended an eye patch. A ‘cool’ eye patch. Ella started saying ‘cool’ and was very proud of this constantly repeating it and some other words with a ‘k’ or ‘c’.
Second. On a walk we were taking while camping, we hiked up to a fire tower at the top of a hill. everyone was tired out from the walk and we just lay on the grass below the tower.
Out of the blue Ella pointed at the tower and said ‘Tower’. Now… This is the first time Ella volunteered a word that we didn’t have to drill out of her (Ella. what is that? who is this? what color? etc.). Also, this is a word we didn’t know she knew. maybe she picked it up from a a book or story or school. Encouraging.
Third. While taking a different walk, Ella suddenly asked to ‘I want Run’. we thought we hadn’t understood so we tried all kinds of permutations (want gum? gun? rug?) no. She really wanted to run. holding her hands we ran with here and she was clearly thrilled. We told her she can say ‘stop’ to stop and for the next half hour we started and stopped running with her.
This independence is a great sign. Ella has been mostly responsive in her communications. It is nice to see her come up with her own ideas and express them.
Looking forward to more of this.
She thoroughly enjoyed camping and didn’t mind sleeping in the tent in a sleeping bag on a hard floor. And it was cold. She was babbling a lot and singing. The fact that there were 4 more kids around really made it fun for her.