November 6: 17 months

 Isla was 17 months old last week, but with Audrey's birthday, Halloween and the girls being sick, it kind of went unnoticed.  It probably is about time for an update on what Isla is doing these days.  I took some pictures of her tonight, all dressed up with two necklaces, two "I voted" stickers, and a spiderman sticker.

 These pictures were taken in her favorite spot--sitting on the bottom step.  We have to keep an eye on her, because sometimes she is sneaky and starts to climb the stairs.  But most of the time, she just likes to sit on the bottom step.  She usually has a small collection of toys  that she will carry around with her and bring to her step.  She will line them up and play with them on the step, and it is just too cute.

 I've already talked about how her gross motor skills have improved drastically since she started walking.  She is still probably a little behind normal for her age, but she is so much closer to being right on track.  I have very few concerns about her gross motor development anymore.  She has a physical therapy appointment on Thursday, and I am hoping that this will be her last one!

 Isla is the most communicative yet non-verbal little girl.  It is amazing how much she understands, how much she observes, how much she responds to us, and how very little she says.  The words that she does use are very simple sounds, and she will rarely do them on command.  Her preferred method of communication is to point and use the sound "huh" in about 1000 different intonations.  She is also exceptionally good at nodding or shaking her head to answer yes and no questions.   Here is the short list of words that she can say:

1. Dad:  "da"
2. Duck:  "Da"
3. Dog:  "Da"
4. Down:  "da"
5. Ball:  "ba"
6. Bubble:  "bubba"
7. Mom:  "ma" or "mom"
8. More:  "Ma"
9. Up:  "bup" (she has only done this once or twice, but it was very purposeful, so I think it's legit)
10. Foofa (the yo gabba gabba character):  fff-fa

Do dad, duck, dog and down count as four words when she makes the same sound for each of them? 

 

 I've heard that animal sounds can also be counted as words, so here are her animal sounds:

1. Sheep:  "ba"
2. Cow:  "Moo"
3. Dog:  "Oo, oo"
4. Duck:  "dak, dak"
5. Lion:  "Grrr" (though she refuses to do this one anymore, but she did it in the past, so I'm counting it!) 
6. Elmo (he's not really an animal, but we are counting everything!):  "la, la, la"

Combining words and animal sounds, that is about 15 words total.  I'm pretty sure that is in the range of normal, though probably a little on the low side.  (Audrey at this age was a little ahead of the game with  almost 40 words).  I sometimes worry that she is behind in her speech, but she is just so aware and communicative that it is hard for me to worry TOO much.

 

The other day she found my deodorant on the floor of our room.  She picked it up, brought it over to whereI was sitting, lifted up my shirt and tried to rub it on me!

Another day, she was playing with my wallet.  She took out a credit card and started swiping it on the ground...just like we do when we use the card at a store!  This girl pays attention to everything that we do, and she most definitely knows what is going on even if she doesn't tell us about it.

One time recently, she wanted to watch Elmo.  But she has no words to express this.  Instead, she found her stuffed Elmo toy and brought it to Daniel.  Then she found the remote and brought it to Daniel.  Then she pointed to Elmo, pointed to the remote, and pointed to the TV.  Why would she need words when she can always find a way to tell us exactly what she wants??

She will also do sounds/actions for different emotions: happy, sad, grumpy, surprised, excited.  I need to get these on video, because they are pretty cute.  But she will only do them when she is in the right mood.

She knows a lot of body parts:  head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, belly button, arm, fingers, leg, toes.

She also knows all the main characters on Mickey Mouse clubhouse.  She won't say their names, but she can point to them all if you ask who is who.  I'm not sure if this is a sign of her smartness or just a sign that we let her watch Mickey Mouse too often!