More words!

Kaylee repeats more and more words! Latest are "night-night" and "bubbles" - her versions sounds more like a very nasaly "nai-nai" and "bubush" but she's close. :-) Not much else to report...but more to come soon, I'm sure!

Climber

We have a little climbing monkey here lately... Yesterday Kaylee pushed her activity center up to the coffee table, stepped on the bench, climbed up onto the toy part and then up onto the table. I have since tilted the toy part of the activity center so it is not flat (also pushed it away from the table!). She thought it was great until she realized she couldn't get down, then she signed "help!" (last photo)

(As you can see, Erin was not impressed...she just continued to read books.)

Walking and Talking!

Kaylee's been saying "uh-oh" and "hi" for 2-3 weeks (though she's still stingy with the "hi"), but yesterday she walked up to the coffee table, looked at her "box of mice" (as we call it) and said "ice" - !!! She brought it to me and I asked her to say mice (as in, "say Mmmm-ice, can you say Mmmm-ice?") and she did! This morning she said it a few more times, but of course when I got the camera to take a video she didn't want to say it unless she was walking away. Oh, well.

FYI: the "box of mice" was a gift from my Uncle Dan and Aunt Sharon - it's a little fabric box with finger-puppet mice (all attached, you stick your fingers in through the bottom). Kaylee could play with that thing for hours.

Ear Update

We took Kaylee to the audiologist again this morning for more behavioral testing and she did very well. The audiologist also ran another OAE test on her left ear and it passed again! So that's two passes in a row. She does not think Kaylee needs to see her again based on today's appointment, and was sending her results to the other audiologist, ENT and pediatrician. She told us that Kaylee's hearing is well within the speech banana* so she does not need a hearing aid. Yay!!

The audiologist said it's possible that because Kaylee has small ear canals, that she's just now passing the OAE tests because her ears are finally big enough for the equipment to work properly. Or she could have had some sort of blockage that has sorted itself out in the past couple months. Whatever happened, she was pleased with today's/other recent results, and especially that she passed the OAE test again today.

The audiologist also said Kaylee was so cute and well behaved during the testing (what with all the things stuck in her ears) that she could be an audiology model. Aww, I bet she says that to all the parents... ;-)

*The following is taken from this site: (this link may or may not work...sometimes it does, sometimes not.)
When all the sounds necessary for speech were initially graphed and a line was drawn around them, the shape looked like a banana. The term "speech banana" was coined. This area is the target hearing area for children with hearing loss. If they are able to hear sounds within the speech banana when they are aided with hearing aids, there is a better chance they will understand that sound and be able to reproduce it in their speech.

I found another site with an image of the banana: Click Here

New/Old Stuff

Grampa and Gramma Parker came over yesterday and brought Kaylee some Valentine's goodies, along with a few of my old things they'd dug up. One is an old Raggedy Ann doll that a friend of my dad's mom made for me when I was little, and the rest are in the photos below...




One of my old bonnets. Kaylee grabbed it this morning and held it to her head, so I put it on her and she wore it around for about 30 minutes! Apparently I used to do the same thing, and say, "hat on!" - hmm, taking after Mama??








This is a beach coverup and hat my mom made for me - my "Queen of the Beach" outfit. The coverup comes to the floor, but Kaylee's just tall enough to walk without it tripping her, so it'll be perfect come summer, and probably for a few years to come, as well.

Valentine's Pix

Oops - meant to post these a week ago...Kaylee in her red dress for Valentine's Day.




Started slipping... :-)

Interesting

I get a weekly email from Northside Hospital, customized to Kaylee's age. Here is a blurb from this week's:

Good to know! Most 11-month-olds understand only a handful of simple words, but can understand more than 100 words by the age of 14 months.

That got me wondering how many words Kaylee knows, as I would have guessed it was more than "a handful." So I started listing them and came up with about 60, and I'm sure I am forgetting some, as I keep thinking of more. I would say that's more than a handful! She is only able to sign a handful of words, but picks up new signs very quickly now. She can sign more, all done, milk, down, please, help and no (maybe more?). And things that aren't necessarily signs, but she does when asked are give kisses, hug, clap, wave, dance, shake things, hold things (or give to us when we say "can I hold it?"), brush hair (her hair looks great afterwards, hah), and throw both arms up for "so big!" (as in, "how big are you?"). Plus there are lots of words and phrases she responds to, such as the names of her toys (castle, piano, camera, etc) or book (read a book, turn the page, push the button), etc. So I'm thinking maybe she's smarter than the average bear? I'll have to reevaluate the list at 14 months and see how many new things she knows!

Also, she has gone from 0 to 60 with the walking! Friday she wouldn't take more than a few steps, now she just wants to walk everywhere! She is still crawling a lot, but will pull herself up and walk across the room no problem, I even had her follow me today and she did a U-turn without falling. She does occasionally lose balance, but most of the time corrects for it and keeps going without falling. And a few times now she's stood up on her own from the floor without having to pull up; I think she is just tired of the red knees and ready to be a full-fledged biped.