Help Please...Need Advice/Ideas

Ok everyone, I need your advice...Elena has been in music class for the last year & it has been an amazing experience for her. She loved the classes so much & it was so amazing to see her little personality shine. She now has just 2 music classes left & I want to get something nice as a thank you for her teacher. This woman has a passion for music & passes that on to the children. I'm so glad Elena got to know her...It makes me so sad that Elena can't continue but come September the classes available conflict with her preschool & gymnastics. I have no clue what to get for this amazing & inspiring woman...Advice? Please?

All By Myself...Again!

It was exactly one year ago today that I spent my 1st night away from Elena...and now here I am at my yearly conference spending my 3rd night apart from Elena...I'm in a much better mindset this year...but I miss her like freakin' crazy!! This year I explained to her that I wouldn't be home tonight...she took it well & we showed Gramma our bedtime routine...I can't wait to hear how she made out...I hope she missed me as much as I miss her!!

 

Now I am going to luxuriate in a bed all to myself!! Nighty-night!!

Bloglovin'

Upon hearing about the demise of Google Reader three months ago I have been in denial…I’d Google alternatives, become overwhelmed & crawl back under my denial rock. Blissful Mama posted recently about it which prompted me to look at the calendar & realize I was running out of time…so I logged on last night & checked out Bloglovin’ upon Blissful Mama’s suggestion…& OMG! I love it!! So easy to set up, they have an app for my phone, which was a must for whatever I choose…the layout was great. Plus my quick perusal of their terms & conditions seemed pretty straight forward & I wouldn’t be signing over all my rights to them. So thank you to Blissful Mama for making my transition from Google Reader so painless!!

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And now some blog lovin’ of a different kind…I received a lovely comment on my last post from a reader who is a regular but hadn’t ever commented before…not only were her words so kind, she also nominated me for a Blog Award! Thank you so much, Laura…both for your kind words & for the award nomination!

 

The following apply when accepting this award:

·         Link back to the blog that nominated you (thank you again, Laura)

·         Nominate 5 - 11 new bloggers who have 200 or less followers

·         Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator

·         Share 11 random facts about yourself

·         Create 11 questions for your nominees to answer

·         Contact your nominees and let them know that you have nominated them

 

The Blogs I am Nominating:

A Blissful Life
Perpetual Ambition
Chasing the Gerber Dragon
A Planned Life
B is for Baby 

11 Questions from Laura:

1.    Why did you start blogging? After deciding to become a SMC, I gained so much from the blogs I found about other women who had made the same choice. Since then I have been so very grateful for the support & sense of community I have gained from the blogosphere!

2.    Mountain hideaway or a beach house? Tough one…I think I’d have to go with Mountain Hideaway though

3.    McDonalds or pizza? As much as I love McDonald’s, I’ll take pizza any day!!

4.    Summer or winter? As much as I love my summers with Elena, I am still a winter lover at heart…the warm clothes, the smell of snow, the crunch under my boots, hot chocolate with marshmallows…love it!

5.    Hot chocolate or coffee? I think I just answered this, lol. Hot Chocolate for sure…never been a coffee drinker, not even in college

6.    Strength training or cardio? Huh? This sounds like exercise…I avoid that as much as possible, lol!! But if I had to choose, it’d be cardio.

7.    Computer or television? Television for sure…I am a MASSIVE TV-aholic!!!

8.    Rolling Stones or Beatles? The Beatles for sure…but I do sing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” to Elena all the time!

9.    Sidney or Paris? Sydney…mostly because I’ve never been there & I have been to Paris.

10.  Alaska or Hawaii? Another tough one!! I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska since watching Men in Trees…but I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii since watching Elvis’ Blue Hawaii…I don’t know how to choose!!

11.  Early bird or night owl? Definitely Early Bird! Always have been…I am usually awake before Elena, even on the weekends!

11 Random Facts about me:

It was hard enough coming up with 7 things for the Versatile Blogger Award…now I have to come up with 11? Well here goes…

1.       I’m a Dog Person…I don’t hate cats or anything…but I LOVE dogs! I can’t wait until Elena is a bit older so we can get one…though I did ask her recently if she wanted a puppy & she said no…I’ll have to work on her…

2.      My middle name is Darlene…so is my Mom’s…& Elena’s

3.      I was named after Tara Martin, a character from All My Children…

4.      Currently my favourite TV show is The Vampire Diaries…guess where Elena got her name?

5.      I had a GINORMOUS crush on Kirk Cameron when I was a kid…my bedroom walls were covered in posters of him.

6.      I broke by left wrist when I was 10 by falling from a play structure…I broke my left ankle when I was 32 by slipping on some ice in front of my apartment building…after spending the entire afternoon on a ski hill!

7.      I’ve never had sex in a car…not that anyone ever wanted to know that…

8.      The most famous person I’ve ever met is Ed Asner…my aunt took a photo of us together & he insisted his companion take a photo of us too…so possibly somewhere in all his belongings there’s a photo of me…

9.      There was a bully who tormented me from Grade 4 through most of high school for being overweight…in college, after losing a bunch of weight, I ran into him at a bar & he had the nerve to hit on me & ask me on a date!

10.   One of my all time favourite movies is Clue…when it premiered on TMN when I was a kid, then ran it 3 consecutive Saturdays, each week playing one of the alternate endings…I had nightmares for weeks! BTW this movie is a hilarious comedy based on the board game Clue starring Tim Curry…

11.    Finally!! #11! & speaking of  nightmares…the final random fact I’ll share with you is that I have very vivid dreams & nightmares & slept walk all the time when I was a child…one night, after hearing the front door open, my Dad found me half way down the driveway!!

11 Questions for my Nominees:

1.       Do you believe in ghosts?

2.      Which celebrity or public figure would you most like to meet?

3.      Have you ever shop lifted?

4.      Do you have a tattoo? If so, where/what?

5.      Facebook or Twitter?

6.      Nick has 8 cups. He gave Sam 5 cups. How many cups does Nick have left?

7.      What is your favourite childhood birthday memory?

8.      Are you more like your Mother or Father…or neither?

9.      What is your Dream Job?

10.   Other than this current one, what era would you have most liked to live?

11.    What is your proudest moment?

Conception-versary

It was three years ago today that my heart’s deepest wish started to become my dream come true. I can’t believe it’s actually been 3 years! As I mentioned last year, Father’s Day kinda sucks for me in a big way, this year being no different…but it’s also easier to bear when I have Elena to distract me…I do have to come up with a better label than “conception-versary” tho…I really like SurlyMama’s calling it their anniversary…any other suggestions?

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We do seem to be developing a tradition as we went to the Teddy Bear Picnic again…& had even more fun!! Just a really great day!

 

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I mentioned recently that Elena is calling my Mom “Daddy”…She says it, “Da-DEE”…we are trying to get her to say “Gramma” & we never say Daddy…well almost never, it’s hard sometimes when we’re distracted…it really is hilarious. I believe Elena senses the irony & feeds off our reactions…it’s made for some comical situations, like in the parking lot at Wal-Mart one day, it was raining & I was rushing us into the store & Elena calls out, “Daddy!!” As my Mom was lagging behind at the car & I responded, “Yes, yes, she’s coming!!” & got the craziest look from a woman loading her trunk! It really was funny! Anyway, I found this card & gave it to my Mom this morning for “Father’s” Day…

 

 

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

 

GRAB(ook) Club - Measure of Love

In Rachel's blog post in Chapter Sixteen she writes, "We should never sit idly by and say nothing. That isn't how we act with people we love; that's how we act with people we're indifferent about. For people we love, we hold them accountable, we push them to be their best selves."

 

Do you agree? Is it possible to meddle too much, even if it's for the right reason?

 

After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for Measure of Love.  You can get your own copy of Measure of Love by Melissa Ford at bookstores including Amazon.

Easy for You to Say

I have been waiting for Elena to talk for so long…remember her alien voice? I thought for sure back then she’d be “talking” so soon…now here we are & she’s not talking how I expected she would be at this age…

This is a list of her vocabulary that we’ve been able to interpret:

Momma – Mami – Ma

Da-dee or Dada = Grandma – yes, she calls my Mom “Daddy”!

Gaw-cor = Doctor

Geesh = Cookie plus uses a very similar sound for cheese, cheek…& light, go figure

Boowa = Bubble & very similar sound for balloon

Boo = boots – both the Dora character & the foot wear

Eesh = teeth

Do-or = Dora

Do-or while shaking her head = she wants to watch Toopy & Binoo

Bwu = Blue

Bwu while shaking her head = any other colour other than blue

Buppy = up, which is strange since we never say “uppy”!

Nayna = Raina, my aunt

Na-nee = catch all sound that can mean many different thinks

Bwa – another catch all sound that can mean different things

Meh = can mean “what’s that” but is also a catch all sound with a myriad of meanings

For animals, she’ll often make the animal sound rather than attempt the name…and the rest of her communication is made up of grunts, gestures & jibberish. I’m not sure if she’s stringing words together, likely she is but I only understand a word or two. She will say a word while shaking her head meaning “not that” & she'll get frustrated if you’ve missed the head shake & give her the thing she didn’t want. She is trying to sing which is absolutely precious but loves most when we sing songs with actions like Wheels on the Bus, Zoom Zoom, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc to which she participates animatedly. I’ve even been spared the dreaded toddler habit (so far) of “NO!” If you recall, she use to say, “Nien!” then, “Niet” but for the most part she’ll just shake her head. What breaks my heart is when she’ll hold my face in her hands, looking at me pleadingly as she repeats the same sound that obviously means something to her but I just don’t understand. Often we get by with me asking her to show me what she means but sometimes what she’s saying isn’t showable & she gets so frustrated…but worse than that, sometimes she gets this look of abject defeat...it guts me!

And that’s the thing! She is SO expressive, even with her lack of language. I can only imagine what it’ll be like when she adds words to all that expression! Her preschool teacher said it perfectly, her emotions are written all over her face!

I know in my heart that Elena will come around to talking but there was that part of me that wondered, “what if?” What if there is some issue? What if I’m hindering her in any way?

We have a wonderful program in my province, Early Words…at Elena’s age, I was able to self refer & have Elena assessed by a Speech Pathologist, all covered under our healthcare.

We were sent a package of assessment forms to fill out prior to our meeting with the Speech Pathologist. The form had a number of lists of words & we needed to mark if Elena understood them or understood & spoke them…seeing it all out on paper like that was interesting…she understood pretty much every word on each list…& the ones she didn’t had more to do with not being exposed to that item than not knowing it, words like babysitter’s name, playpen, coffee…or words we just don’t use, like bad (I’ve avoided using that term feeling it is too negative) & owie/boo boo, we just say hurt, cut, bump, etc…

The first thing the SP mentioned was how surprised she was to see how expressive Elena was. Based on the paperwork, she expected a child that would be a lot more reserved & quiet…& the longer we were there, the more Elena became comfortable & opened up. The SP was impressed with how well Elena had adapted to express her wants, needs & opinions while lacking the language skills to do so.

The SP got right down on the floor to play & interact with Elena & observed that she didn’t try to mimic in any way which generally kids do a great deal. She also found it interesting that instead of pointing at things & labeling them, she brings them to me & has me identify them…basically Elena would make little to no effort to venture out of the small cluster of sounds & words she knows to try new & different ones…but she wants to know, Elena definitely has a thirst for knowledge.

Basically the SP diagnosed that it was entirely fault, I was hindering her! Oh, it’s not as bad as that sounds, lol! You see, I had decided that I would never talk baby talk to Elena…I would always use proper words & language, plus, until very recently, Elena was rarely with children her own age. She was left with nothing to emulate & mimic. My language was too difficult & she just didn’t have the ability to form the sounds needed to speak like me…

The SP explained that I (& my Mom) needed to speak more simply to Elena. She’s not suggesting using baby talk in any way, instead just simplifying how we speak. For example, when Elena would bring me something, like a ball, asking what’s this (Elena knows what a ball is, this is just an example) I would respond with a full sentence, “That’s a ball” & that is too many sounds for Elena to try to mimic so she just doesn’t. Instead I just need to say, “Ball” pause & say it again, “Ball” & pause again then say it a third time…there’s no need to ask her, “Can you say Ball?” or tell her, “Say Ball”…the pause is when she can try & she will in her own time.

Another example is when we play, I would have a running dialogue going…"Okay, let’s go play bubbles! This is so much fun! Look at them all! Pop them! There you go! Now you blow! Wow, great blowing…” Elena of course would understand all of this & participate excitedly…but it left her no room to try to learn the words! The SP suggested that I dial it way back…say, “Bubbles! Pop! Blow!” leaving lots of pauses & chances for Elena to mimic me.

In the week since our appointment, I have become hyper aware of how I speak to Elena & really realize that I talk to her like I would anyone else…& I’m now making a concerted effort to speak more simply. Already I’ve noticed a difference!! She is trying to mimic me more & her sound repertoire seems to be expanding quickly!

Having her in preschool in September will make a world of difference too, I am sure. She has been going to the school Fridays with my Mom for a drop in group. I had last Friday off so got to take her & see her interact with her friend, who talks quite a bit. It was amazing seeing Elena attempting the words this little girl was saying!

I really just can't wait to hear what Elena has got to say! I swear, I will never complain that she is talking too much! If I do, you have my permission to slap me!

Baby Wearing

So I'd always wished I'd explored baby wearing more when Elena was born. I think it would have been good for us.

It looks like she's way ahead of me, lol!