Good Toy!

This is a great toy we got from a woman who lives down the hall from us: you draw on this special cloth with a water pen. It just writes in blue, which is perfect for Noa. Blue is the color that most motivates her. I did start the doodling, but she did most of that blue blob herself. It's hard to tell what she is enjoying the most: the feel of the pen or the color, but she did seem to get that she had to hold it that way to make it "work" - and she signs that it is a "good" toy. Yes, for those of you who actually know ASL, her sign for good is a bit modified. She seems to do this to make it different from the sign for "thank you." The interesting problem is that a lot of ASL has to do with the facial expression and the context of the word... things that are kind of lost of Noa, but her solution: to find her own way to make them different, seems to work right now with her limited vocabulary. Again, this is a totally new toy! In the past, she would have just handed that pen back to me and signed "finished." So this is really a whole different world of behavior for Noa.

NEW Toys!

A lot of people ask how Noa learns signs, well here is a perfect example.

First we have a highly motivating situation: Christmas! Actually this is the first year that Christmas has been such a great motivation. Her resistance to anything new made new toys... a bit overwhelming and not always a great event. But this year, she loved all her new toys and played with most of them right away. She actually also ripped some gift wrap and stuck her hands in her Christmas stocking - both very new activities for her.

This is actually her first Christmas morning gift - some great block from Grammy and Grampy that I think really got her in the right mind-set for the rest of the gifts. I took the opportunity of her realizing that this was a "different" toy, to teach her the sign for "new" - a sign that we'd get to use a lot since there would be a lot of new toys.

As you may notice, she actually says the word "new" when I ask her if she wants to learn the sign. She does a lot of this repeating, but when she wants to express herself she tends to use signs.

As you can see, she really gets that I'm teaching her a sign that she wants to learn. She just keeps putting her hands out for me to repeat the sign again and again. A few days after Christmas, and the sign is pretty well set in so much as she can make the sign if I ask her to. Sometimes her understanding of the concept comes later as she tries using the sign - though she seems to be doing pretty good with this one so far.

She did a lot of verbalizing on our Christmas trip to Grammy and Grampy's - she was trying to say "Christmas" a lot. For the first time I think she really got that it was a big fun event full of toys, and she did great with all the holiday hub-bub of noisy kids and their toys.

She also started doing the sign for "no" - which has been a tricky one. We've been doing it as a sort of song and she likes doing it that way. The trick will be transferring it to situations in which she wants to say "no" since she is usually upset and so doesn't always remember her best communication skills (a problem I think we can all relate to).

No Snowa Noa

Every year we take Noa out after the first big storm of the year, and every year she about the same reaction to the snow... which is essentially not positive. It just takes her a long time to get used to any new thing, and since we get snow so rarely she just has never had the chance to really get used to it. But we keep trying. One of these days we'll get to making snow angels... it just won't be today.

Chillin' Old School

In my ever-continuing efforts to heal my bum shoulder, Noa and I had kind of a hip, mellow day last weekend. After a walk back from the bathroom (Noa did all her own walking with the walker), we made a quick stop by the hat/scarf bin where Noa picked out a velvety blue scarf and then made our way to the beanbag chair to chill out and strum some tunes. So here is Noa in her first ever internet guitar solo.

Sorta Sorting

Okay, so the story of this video goes all the way back to Thanksgiving when we met with Sandy, the woman who has been assessing Noa's vision in terms of her Cortical Vision Impairment and helping us do the kinds of work at home that will help Noa use what vision she has as best she can. As many of you know, we've been working mainly with a light box, but at my parent house we started out our session just using the white table top and actually Noa did great just with that. Better in fact. She'd been getting kind of antsy at the light box.

BUT the big breakthrough was actually mine. I'd been working with Noa on identifying colors, but I was never sure if we were getting anywhere. Working with Sandy, I very quickly discovered my mistake: apparently we learn to match colors before we learn to identify them. SO asking Noa to pick up a red block, or a yellow block, is too much of a challenge. When Sandy gave Noa a colored block and asked her to find the bowl it went into - suddenly it was clear, she knew what to do!

Thanks to my Mom who on the spot insisted that we take the table with us. Noa has been enjoying it.

Of course the fun thing in this video is that she following my directions, but I'm not not being really clear. I do have other video where she gets it right, but this sort of interests me more because it really shows her trying to figure out what I'm asking, and demostrates how specific I have to be in talking to her.

Noa seems to understand what we say more clearly now. For example, the other day, I asked her to take off her shirt and after asking a few times (without any physical cues) she did it. On the other hand, she continues to have problems figuring out how to express herself when she wants to say "no." She'll scream ear-piercingly loudly and then smack herself in the head.

The loud screaming has also come into play with some discomfort she seems to have in her leg... or maybe its her feet... or her bowels. Honestly, its impossible to tell what is bothering her but it is very upsetting and she screams bloody-murder. She did this all the way home from music yesterday and I got numerous comments from friendly people about my lack of mothering skills. That was fun. We have a doctors apt. next week and hopefully we'll learn something. It's very upsetting to see Noa in such distress and not have any idea what is going on.

Slap Happy

Noa's cousin Elektra is in town (oh yeah, her parents too) and they've been having a great time playing with each other. They are both into drums and funny noises so they have a lot in common. It's great when Noa has a chance to just play with other kids - she really likes it and there are not tons of kids who have the patience for her. Noa just reaches over to touch Elektra sometimes, and she is cool with that. A lot of kids pull away. Anyway, there isn't much to say about this video - I think it speaks for itself.

Enjoy.

Walker Fever

More fun with family. After a few more rounds of slapping the table, Noa was ready to show off her walker skills. As you can see, she really is doing all the work herself - we stay close but we don't have to spot her hands-on-the-walker like we used to. We actually stood by herself for a long few seconds yesterday, but ofcourse didn't have a video camera. The great thing was that she was really trying to find her balance and didn't just turn into a plank and fall over like she used to. Sometimes she stands on her own when I'm putting on her coat, or she is pulling up her pants, only she doesn't really realize she is doing it. So I think she is getting close - her body is starting to find this upright thing to be somewhat natural.

In other - though similar news - just sharing some of the hard truth of the Land of Noa, I went to the doctor last week (after weeks of pain in my shoulder, that is frankly not unusual but it has escalated to the point where I knew Alieve wasn't going to do it any more). The doctor believes I have "Thorasic Outlet Syndrome" (I'll have some tests next week to confirm that). This is a condition in which those muscle between your arm socket and your neck become compressed, potentially cutting off nerves and arteries. In fact when he lifted my arm above my head, it completely cut off my pulse and my hand started to go numb immediately. He gave me a couple of meds (one for pain, one for the nerve which I can only take at night as it's quite trippy) and perscribed PT.

THE NEXT DAY, because my stomach had been acting funny, I went to my GP. I had actually already googled enough to suspect I had an ulcer and as it turns out I was right. Probably from all those Alieve (he did yet another test to see if it was the Alieve or something else). And then of course had to change all the med's that the other doctor had given me because they were all aggrevating the ulcer.

SO, getting Noa walking would be grand, just grand. I actually think the stress on my shoulder on neck is less about the carrying, and more about the way she sometimes pulls on me when she is walking while holding my hands. But I'm sure it's a combination of both. You have to get in some pretty crummy positions to lug her around and she's closing in on 38 or 40 pounds at this point.

And the Trouble Begins...

Okay, so I'm posting a series of three videos again - this time to demonstrate not only Noa's choice of "toys," but the variety as well! Recently Noa has started to really enjoy scooting around on the wood floor and exploring whatever she happens to find: the wall, a corner, a door hinge (which is a little terrifying), a rolling stool. This is very new behavior and she really takes a lot of time with each new object and tries to figure out everything she can. She especially seems to like big things she can move.

There are a couple of nice bonus moments in this clip: one in which I tell her to put my shoe down, and she does (of course when it gets in her way later, she just throws it), and right after that she does one of her new signs: "thank you." While Noa continues to try to make new sounds verbally, she also continues to learn new signs and enjoys using both of them. She tends to make verbal sounds when she is echoing something we've asked her to say, rather than thinking of them herself (though she likes to sing e-o-e-o on her own). When she wants to tell us something she tends to sign.

Later Noa figured out how to spin the seat on the stool, and make a great clanking noise with base of the stool that sits on the wheels.

Notice the big box and the shoe rack in the background... they figure into the next two clips.

Boxing Day

This is a short clip. She actually spent a lot of time with the box, but most of it was sitting inside the box and hitting it and then laughing... which makes some great noise, doesn't make for great video. As always, the box is the most interesting part of any toy (the box was actually for her new big-girl car seat for the trip down to DC for Thanksgiving)

shoe me, shoe me, show me how you do that trick...

Finally, Noa goes for my shoe rack which, by the time this clip was taken, she had already pulled away from the wall and into the middle of the room. She has already taken all the shoes and tossed them out (you can see some of them in the foreground).

Tink Takes Manhattan

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Noa made a big splash the annual Halloween Parade in our building but actually walking the whole thing in her walker! Noa's favorite part was when we were right in the heart of it all, with all the other kids around her. Everyone in our building pretty much knows Noa so she got lots of cheers and compliments (she makes a pretty cute Tinkerbell). One of the kids in the building would come by every once in a while and straighten out her wings for her. It was probably the longest walk she's done yet --her own NY Marathon Weekend, I guess. You may have noticed that we have a handy rolling stool that we got so that we didn't break our backs trying to spot her in the walker.

Last year we tried Trick or Treating, but Noa didn't like having to stand at various doors and doesn't eat candy, so instead we decided to give out candy this year thinking that might be more to her taste. Although all our candy was gone by the time she finished dinner, she did enjoy all the kids coming to the door and everybody said hello to her.

Then we went to a Halloween Party down the hall from us: these folks do terrific party every year and usually Noa doesn't go for it too much, but this year she had a great time. She played with the toys that were there on the floor - then she found a chair and sat in it fanning herself (with a fan she'd made in school) and playing with some blocks until finally she said she had to potty... I picked her up and he immediately wet herself (I think she must have been trying to hold it, but I was grateful that I managed to get her off the couch in time). All-in-all, the most fun Halloween ever.

Little Drummer Girls

Noa's cousin Elektra came to visit last week - here is a little clip of them playing together.

Noa has only recently started to truly relate to other kids and engage in interactive play. In this clip, her chief form of interaction is of the bossy kind (which is kind of her M.O.). She seems to think that by making Elektra trade drumsticks with her, she can avoid being hit on the hand... of course that doesn't turn out to be the case (as she found out shortly after I stopped filming). Ultimately, we convinced her to put her hand on the side of the drum to feel its vibrations, but by that time I think Elektra had had her fill. Still they had a few nice play-time exchanges and Noa really loved hanging out with her.

Now Repeat After Me...

A lot of new stuff here: 2 posts from yesterday and 3 today!!!!

But I had to post all three of these today - I think that taken together these videos demonstrate why we're so excited about Noa's progress. The clip above includes a lot of repeating of sounds and things that sounds sort of like words. Sometimes she seems to say whole words pretty clearly, but those are rare - almost otherworldly moments, like when Jess thought Noa said "applesauce" yesterday. Or Saturday when she told Ben that she wanted to "go" clear as bell (he was pushing her around in a shopping cart - highly motivating).

In this particular video (and the one follow) when I ask Noa to say her name she says something that at the time sounded like her "yes" to me. But watching the video, I think she was trying to say "Noa" and it came out something like "oya."

I don't know that I much to say about these, except: watch them. I think they speak for themselves... pun intended.

Noa Knows Nose

I love this video for a couple of reasons - both of which have to do with Noa not just repeating stuff, but taking stuff in her own direction.

Not only does she try to say "nose" she also points to her nose - so she is not just repeating the sound back, she is getting what the sound is referring to.

Then she points at her chin and mouth, which comes from a song we do which has to do with touching your ears, eyes, nose, chin, mouth -- the last words of the song are "that's Noa," and she pats herself on the chest for that. But here, not only does she go through the whole rest of the song (which she started in the first place, not me) - she uses the sign for "Noa" that they taught her at school: tapping her chest with 2-fingers (the "n" sign).

So, yeah, this is pretty cool.

Ben and I went to visit a potential school for Noa last week (she has to "transition" next year which is a whole other story of evals, mtgs, trying to figure out where she might fit - I won't get into it now) - all the students were visually impaired, cognitively and usually multiply disabled as well. When we told the staff that Noa signed, they asked is she initiates signs. We kind of laughed and said, "yeah, she's really bossy." And they were so impressed and surprised. I realized later that this may indicate that this isn't the best place for her - it's really hard to evaluate the cognitive ability of a kid who can't see or speak or walk, etc... but it made me realize that the fact that she initiates communication to this degree is probably very meaningful in assessing that. Just something we'll be keeping in mind as we look around...

Mmmmmm Ma

What is amazing about this one is that Noa gets that I'm trying tell her the difference between Na and Mmm by putting her hand on my mouth. She gets it right after I do the Mmmm on her hand, but then goes back to Na and REALIZES it! When she puts her hand on her own mouth she is doing it just the way that I do it. It doesn't quite work so she reaches out so I that I'll do it again - and she gets it.

I mean wow. Really. This is some kind of thinking and reaching and struggling with how sounds are made that we just have not seen until now.

A kid playing with playdoh... no biggie, right?

Wrong!

Here's the thing, until a few weeks ago if you handed Noa a chunk of playdoh, she'd push it right back to you and sign finished. She didn't think to play with - or even touch - things that were slimly or sticky or wet or in any way challenging. So this is a big deal for Noa.

Last week at the open house at her school, they had a pumpkin and all the students were playing with the squishy, slimy pumpkin seeds and pulling out the insides of the pumpkin and much to my surprise, after just a bit of resistance Noa was picking up the slimy seeds and handing them to me one-by-one. She even stuck her hand in the pumpkin and pulled some out and handed them to me. It was a real first!

Noa continues to make great progress with sounds. I'll try to get some video of that. A lot of "singing." Yesterday she sang for nearly an hour straight while we were out running errands. It was a little like a cross between a battle cry and a memorial to Ed McMahon (the song pretty much went: heeey - ooohhhhhh... heeey - ooohhhhh).

She will try to say almost anything you ask her to say. She mixes up a lot of sounds: P and D, or B and T, or N and M. I don't know if its a matter of what she is hearing or just her unfamilarity with how to arrange her mouth for the sounds. But she'll keep trying and sometimes will mysteriously say something like "I did it" or "applesauce" or "go" so clearly that you think you're losing your mind.

More Toy Doggie Binky Piano

Haven't shared any video of Noa at the piano for a while, so I thought I'd share this one. As you can see, she still enjoys playing her songs - and she's trying out all kinds of new moves. One of the nice things in this video is at the end she asks for "more toy doggie binky"... then a sign she made up (the thing where she twists her finger). This is a habit right now - lists. We haven't quite figured out how to get her stop making everything into a list yet, but we're going to have a meeting at her school this week and we'll talk to them about it.

Also, as you will see at the end of the video, I ask her if she wants more piano and she immediately signs "more piano" - which means that I should change the sound the piano makes. The important thing to notice here is that she hears me and understands me and responds appropriately. This is one of those things that is wonderful... and always causes some trouble - it's one of the reasons we've had such a hard time getting sign language services: she clearly hears and understands us.

Say It Proud!

You may need to turn the volume way up to hear this one... but it's really really REALLY exciting for us. Just in the past couple of weeks, Noa has started to say things that approximate words (see our recent post with her saying "lunch") but now she's had a real explosion of - not just sounds - but also the desire to imitate sounds. This is really huge for a number of ways:

1. Noa has always loved it when we imitated her, but she has only rarely imitated us - and only when we make a sound that sounds like it might feel fun to make (spitting, vibrating sounds). But now she is trying nearly every sound we ask her to try - with varying success. For example in this clip she tries "drink" which she really hasn't gotten the hang of yet, but she makes a few attempts trying to find the right way to make some of the sounds.

2. Noa has never been able to really combine two sounds. In the past we've had "e-e-e-e" and "b-b-b-b" and even "shhhhhhh" but nothing with two distinct sounds like lunch which come out as "L-ch" or yes which comes out "ja-shh." Apparently she got "ha ha ha" from a book at school that has a vampire who says ha ha ha.

3. She seems to really understand some of these sounds and trying to use them as words, for example: yes and no (she says "na na na") and lunch (which she always does with the sign for food, so she clearly associates the two).

4. This one is soooo hard to quantify but there is a big difference between the sounds she made previously and these sounds because she is playing with the sounds, rather than the sensation. Her old "D" sound which sounded like d-d-d-d-d seemed to be about the feeling of her tongue on the roof of her mouth. But tonight we were working on drink (which she really doesn't have hear) and she was really trying to figure out how to make the sound "da" with her full voice.

The change has been so dramatic that her teachers at school and her music therapist have all be contacting us just amazed at this new, exciting development. It really has been, for us, quite a spectacular couple of weeks!

Swing Me Like I Wanna Be Swung!

What follows is a video diary of a trip to the playground in three posts (one per video-clip) - showing some of the work we're doing with Noa with the walker but starting out (above) with an example of what Noa likes to do for fun.

As you can see, Noa likes to fly! She loves big swings and lots of motion. She is very good at hanging on (she knows we take the holding on tight rule is very seriously). Sometimes people are surprised by Noa's love of the big swings, and all this spinning and turning in unpredictable ways. But she loves it! If you think about it most kids this age love to run and jump and skip and explore new ways of moving in space - it's exciting! - but Noa can't do this for herself. Still, she has to get her ya-ya's out like any energized 4 year old who can run in circles until you get dizzy just watching!

We do try to get her to play with more things on the playground, but really the swings are her fav. I think everything else feels like therapy - though there is a plastic playhouse in the garden of our building that she seems to sort of like. And she likes pounding on the "playground rules" sign in the garden: it's kind of loose in its frame and it makes a huge noise which scares the other kids (and then they want to try it) and annoys nearby parents and care-givers who would never let their kid do something like that... so... yeah, I try to not let her go crazy on that during prime playground hours.

In this series, we track Noa from the tire swing to the regular swing on the other side of the park.

And we're walking, we're walking, we're walking...

As I always tell my playwriting students, the middle is the longest part of the journey and so it is with getting from one side of the playground to the other.

I've started bringing the walker to the playground - rather than having her walk holding my hands, and it's much better for all of us. As you can see, when she is using the walker she must stand with her weight in her feet. When she is holding our hands, she tends to collapse and use our arms as her support as much as possible (which can really do a number a person's back, not to their thumbs). It is a bit of a pain to bring the walker... but the pay off is worth it for all of us.

One of the things we're working on now is getting Noa to initiate walking. She tends to just stand there and wait for someone to pull the walker. Frankly, she doesn't know why she should move, or what direction to go in (i.e., she doesn't see something she wants to go to). So we need to help her learn to even WANT to explore.

Let me take a moment to answer a possible question here: What if you made a sound and she heard something she wanted to go to? We're working on that too - but her sense of direction, as related to where a sound comes from and how far away that sound might be, is still something she is learning. We sighted people actually learn how to follow a sound by looking and seeing where the sound came from first. For example, if we make noise with a toy that is nearby, she knows she can get it. But if it is more than a foot away, it might as well be on the moon: all she knows is she can't get there. So, this is all a part of learning that she can.

Noa does know that if she keeps going with this walking she will get to the other swing: that is our routine and that is the key motivation here. Still, she doesn't always seem to get that she can move the walker without us. So we've been making deals with her (she likes deals) - we pull for 10 steps, then Noa does it herself for 10 steps. In this video, you can see she does her 10 steps and then Ben just waits. After some fussing she does keep going further than 10 (and this is some of the best walking we've seen her do: smooth and controlled).

The Finish Line!

Having walked all the way across St. Vartan's Park, Noa arrives at the finish line. The prize: ANOTHER SWING!!! We let her find it herself (with her head) and the sign she is making at the end is her telling us "more swing."

Doggie!

Since it's hard to put two videos in the same posting I'm doing this one by itself, but if you haven't already read the post previous to this one... that's where most of the recent info is. I just had two great videos and I wanted to share them both.

The video above shows her using one of her new signs - Doggie - which we are using for a family of stuffed animals that includes dogs, ducks and a horse. They are her favorites and I've been wanting to find a way for her to ask for some of her toys specifically. Often it's just kind of a guessing game: she asks for a toy,then just keeps pushing them away until you hand her the one she wants. As you can see, she is very excited about being able to ask for the Doggie. But as often happens with signs that make her happy, she has already started generalizing it - using it for nearly every toy, then adding "different" to the end. So... we'll have to work on that.

Luckily we also worked this weekend on "more toy zuzee" (which is basically an electric toothbrush she likes to stick behind her ear) so hopefully I'll be able to use that to help her get the idea that she doesn't have to sign different or doggie every time she asks for a toy. But it's difficult. She REALLY loves to sign - I think she just enjoys stringing words together and building long sentences and who can blame her?

Lunch!

Wow! It has been a busy few weeks - school starting up (for both me and Noa), the G20 Summit and the U.N. (both messing up Noa's commute to/from school) and the general poor condition of her school bus which broke down twice last week. But in the midst of it all, Noa has been making some terrific progress!

The video above shows something really amazing - this weekend when I asked her if she wanted lunch, she did the sign for food and said something like "unch." We were both very excited and she realized that I understood he and since then she has really loved trying to say it along with the sign. She has been doing a TON of vocalizing, most of it just kind of experimenting and babbling like an infant might do -- but this is totally new for her. Sometimes she will try to repeat something back, but usually it is something that goes with a sign she already has. We had noticed this tendency before and it is part of the reason we were pushing so hard for the sign language because we knew that for her sounds came with signs. But gee, Board of Ed, why listen to us - we're just the parents!

You can also see the nodding at the beginning of the video. She seems to be starting to get the connection between shaking her head and "no" but I'm not sure she totally gets nodding for "yes." Here I'm working on this by just saying "yes" every time she nods - sort of re-enforcing the idea for her.

She also does another great thing at the very end of this video - my fav new trick - she screams really loud and then Shhhhh's herself. It's pretty cute.

In other news, Noa also discovered spitting yesterday which - needless to say - is great fun and it's all I can to not laugh at her when she spits a mouthful of water at me (luckily she hasn't done this at the table yet with Pediasure which is sticky and stinks). I don't want to just shut down the spitting because I think its important that she knows how to (it's something she really had to discover by herself and beng able to spit something out is a good skill to have when you need it!)

Noa is growing by leaps and bounds. It is really now not possible for me to just carry her on my hip while I get her lunch ready... in fact I tried to do this the other day and my arm was so lacking for blood flow that it fell asleep! We continue to work on standing and walking - and she does quite well with her walker (when she is in the mood), but standing is just really tough. She has devised a new game in which is stands for a moment or two and then falls into your arms, which is just loves - and she likes that moment of standing... but the ultimate goal is the falling into your arms part so it doesn't last too long. Still, I'm trying to use the opportunity to help her find her center and get some bounce in the hip and knees (thank God for all my movement classes!)

Nature... and the Call of Nature

Well, is there anything more fun than discovering a roll of toilet paper? Apparently not for Noa! In fact, she loved the toilet paper SO much that she insisted on kissing it good-bye.

But our stay in Windham offered other wonderful adventures as well (though sadly it did not offer internet access). The zip-line the back yard was a bit of a stretch for Noa, but she made it work. Noa also enjoyed pushing a wheel barrel across the lawn with Daddy, the reward (for both of them) being a long ride in the hammock. In short, Noa wore us out!

Noa did a ton of walking around in Windham. The house we were in had a sunken living room so there were some great stair opportunities. We were only in Windham for a short time, but after the grueling pace of the Zoom Flume, it was a nice change of pace. On the way back to NYC we stopped a giagantic Wal-Mart where Noa enjoyed another favorite ride: the shopping cart!

All-in-all, this was a great trip for Noa. She really enjoyed all the new adventures: the amusement park rides, zoom flume, hayride, zip-line - while she has always liked things that move she hasn't always been keen to touch new things, but we didn't see any of that on this trip. She really reached out for new things, and when she was walking was always interested in exploring the world around her.

Noa picked up some new signs on the trip (I'll post photos of those soon). She quickly learned the sign for "shush" - otherwise known in the parenting world as "inside voice, please." She liked it so much that she would make a big noise, and then cut herself off by signing "shush."

She also learned the sign for "same" - as in, Mommy can only hold one food at a time in the car, so even though you asked for different food, I'm giving you the SAME food."

For all the fun we had on our journeys, Noa was also very glad to be home: her own bed, her regular toys, the swing the garden, all big thrills.

Weeding and Riding

Another busy day in the Land of Noa. We noticed today that there were a number of other special needs kids at the Waterpark, and a whole group of special needs adults staying at the resort - guess it is true what they say: Water Good.

I got a water proof camera today but in charming old timely Catskill fashion, it takes photos on FILM of all things! So we'll have to wait and see what, if anything come out. We had a great water park morning - and the afternoon went okay... until she got overly cold and couldn't warm up and hadn't had her snack and well, it was totally tragic meltdown time, which was too bad because until then it had been really really great. The water was freezing though and Noa just keeps going until she can't anymore - she just loves it that much. And, because she doesn't walk, she doesn't move her feet much and so they get icey cold and it can be hard to warm them up.

So until I get more waterpark photos... here are some photos of Noa, including one of her weeding the front entry way to the resort: picking the top off a tall piece of grass and then handing it to Daddy. She loves handing things to us (usually invisible things, or when she has a bug bite, she'll try to hand the itchy part to us). Noa is hanging out here waiting for a Hay Ride which was the event of the night here at the resort. Noa went on the Hay Ride with Daddy and I followed in the car so I could bring them back. The ride didn't start until after 7pm (which is late for Noa) and we didn't think she'd have patience for the part where the Farmer takes everyone into the field to feed the cows and then talks to them about cows and farming and does some demos. It was kind of hard to explain to them that at this point in the day she really wouldn't even want to touch a cow's nose. That kind of new thing is just too overwhelming when she is tired - it's far better to do the ride and leave it at that --- and she LOVED the ride!

We're gonna Zooma Zooma Zooma Flume!

Well in spite of the fact that Noa was up half the night (passing gas and then laughing at herself mostly) and didn't take a nap (a car ride is too much fun to miss) she had a great time in our first trip to the Zoom Flume, and even made it through dinner afterward without a major meltdown. I'm sorry we don't have more photos from the waterpark - trying to figure out how to manage, what with all the water. But if you're curious about the zoom flume water park you can check it out at: http://zoomflume.com/ It really looks like the photos. And we're staying The Country Place which is attached to the water park so we can come an go all day just by crossing a cool bridge across a gorge.

From the moment we arrived Noa realized that there was fun and water in the works. She could hear the water splashing and was signing over and over for "bath" and "drink."

Our first stop was the Wild River Ride: a giant inner tube flume - very much like a roller coaster (except that you're sitting in ice-cold water). Noa loved it and screamed happily all the way down. Then we moved onto the giant pool with all kinds of fountains and waterfalls to splash in, and wrapped up visit number one with the Lazy River Ride (pictured) and a short splash in the kiddie pool with it's in-pool water slide that shoots water in your face on the ride down.

We had about an hour to wait before dinner and so took a paddle boat out in the pond. Noa nearly fell asleep and I thought we wouldn't make it through dinner, but she managed to pull it together.

Below are couple of photos from dinner (and pre-dinner on the porch). In one of the photos you can see Noa doing the sign for "I Love You" for Daddy. Noa of course ate all her own food at dinner. It was pretty funny - they asked if she wanted any desert (ice cream) but of course she didn't. She tried a bit, but didn't like it, so while every other kid was happily eating ice cream, Noa was having her favorite desert: Beef Baby-food. Yum.

The Big Swing

Today we took Noa to what is billed as "the biggest swing" in the world, and though in many ways it falls comically short - it was a great swing and probably provided the longest horizonital swing time that Noa has experienced. She loved it so why split hairs. And it really did go high - at it's highest point it was above Ben's head! And Noa, as you can see is a real champ on this big girl swing set up - holding on and steadying herself (which is some work - the thing was bit wobbly).

The other big draw - for Mommy and Daddy's entertainment - it was located at the nearby Moonie compound which which looked a bit like the setting for a horror movie about an abandoned seminary. So, that's fun.

Also included is Noa swinging out at the keyboard. Melissa took this photo - she popped up for a few days for the Rhinebeck stretch and Noa has really been keeping busy with her BFF along for the fun!

Just a few fun photos from our first full day of vacation - including the Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck. Noa is finally big enough to ride some of the rides... so Mommy and Daddy had to step up the plate and take her on some. Noa had a terrific time! The first two photos are from the Wacky Worm roller coaster which was by far the favorite. She could have stayed on that all day. It was kind of a tweener coaster - more rollicking then the toddler stuff, but not too wild. The perfect starter coaster (and frankly just about Mommy's speed). She also loved the Spider ride - we went on the toddler version of that and that was plenty for Mommy. That thing can really spin!!!

Daddy took Noa on the Merry-go-round - which was a big thrill (and the first ride) but I think after having experienced the roller coaster she would find it a bit lame. And he took her on the Bumper Cars - we have some photos but because Noa is so short and always looking down, he just appears to be on the ride with a hairy melon under this arm.

We have some video which I'll post later (not really able to do that from vacaction land).

Noa has been very vocal on this trip and did a lot of singing along with the radio in the car (the untrained ear it may just sound like screaming for some terrible vocal warm-up - but it was singing). She loves being the car - and we took her to the market for the shopping cart ride (and she allowed us to buy groceries) - so we all get a little something from it all.

On Wednesday we take Noa on the next big new adventure: Zoom Flume! But for now, I don't think she can imagine it getting any better.

And Away We Go!

It has been an exciting month for Ms. Noa... and promises to get more exciting next week when we go on our official family vacation which will include 3-days and 2-nights at Zoom Flume Water Park in East Durham, New York!!!

I wish had more video to post, but this gives you an into to Noa's new turn as "Ms. Independent." She wants to do everything herself (which frankly can be a lot of work for the rest of us!) She pulls up her diaper, and then her pants, after using the potty. She wants to get into bed and out of bed herself, and pull herself up out of her chair. She wants to walk everywhere - and no touching please! Gosh, Mommy what are you an Octopus? Then of course when she realizes that she can't stand, then Mommy is okay... as long as she knows her place.

She is also very interested in who initiated an action. For example - if she wants to get out of her chair, she will fuss and whine if try to hold her hand - she wants me to wait until she reaches out her hand for me. And she can be very stubborn about it. Yesterday she sat in her stroller for 15 minutes just considering whether or not she should give me permission to unbuckle her and pick her up. We also have had some rather long stand-offs over putting on pants or diapers.

Noa has been on break from school for the past two weeks and we've been doing a lot of walking at home - and realizing that she probably doesn't do as much walking at school as she does when she is home. This makes sense - they only have some much time to take kids from one activity to another at school, but we're actually noticed for the first time that she is building up some calf muscles! The bike of course helps - she loves riding it around the garden and just the action (even if she isn't initiating the pedaling) is a good work out for her.

Fun with Water

Well... someone just figured out how to make washing hands just a bit more fun... and my bathroom will never be dry again!

As you can see, the little muchkin has pretty much recovered from the trauma of her trip to the ER earlier this week. Aside from a bit of black and blue on the chin, there isn't a trace of it. And after a couple of cautious days, she seems to be back to her reckless, throw-me-in-the-air self, let-me-hit-my-head-on-that-wall self which is good to see.

Her newest trick is taking off and pulling on her clothes. The other night, she heard us running the bath and boy was she out of those clothes fast: shirt, pants, shoes, socks, everything! And she loves helping us pull up her pull-up diaper and her pants. After every successful pull she stops, applauds and yells "yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" as loud as she can.

After the Fall

Here's the little champ the morning after. You can't really see the impressive black and blue-ness under the chin but I think you get the idea. And her expression kind of says it all.

She got a pretty good night's sleep and woke up pretty happy... until she realized that, yes, she was going to school. But I explained to her that she had to be brave and face that silly bully and show him that he didn't slow her down. She kinda, sorta bought it.

Hopefully her confidence will bounce back pretty quickly. I'd hate to see her slowed down just when she was making so many great advances. In fact, I was at the school less than a week ago talking to her speech/feeding team and it was great.

After almost a year of us insisting that Noa was further ahead than they thought she was, that the "goals" they set for her were too low, that she is ready and hungry for more... I find myself sitting across from a sign language teacher who - after three weeks of working with her - is informing me that Noa is ahead of where "everyone" thought she was, the goals she set for her were too low, Noa is ready and hungry for more. Yes! Thank You! Finally!!!!

The part of the meeting was when the teacher said of Noa, she is telling me where she wants to go. The teacher is keeping a complete record of the work she is doing with Noa. Her understanding from the Bd of Ed's audiologist is that that what they need to do is prove that sign is an issue of expressive language for Noa (not a hearing issue) - if there was any doubt before, and I'm sensing from the meeting that I had at school that there was some doubt, there is no doubt now that this is the way Noa needs to learn.

In fact, as I pointed out at the meeting, the few words that Noa seems to be approximating with any sense of meaning are words for which she has signs. The signs come first.

But for today, we're on a mission to help our little big-lip regain her confidence and get that infectious smile back!

Rough Day in The Land of Noa

Well, a rough day in the Land of Noa: Noa's first trip to the emergency room. Considering the fact that she is 4 1/2, I think that's not so bad really!


She got pushed off a chair at school by another child and hit her mouth & chin on the floor - her teeth cut the inside of her mouth (and tore that little bit between the top of the gums and the lips - you can feel it with your tongue on the top of your own gums, yeah right there). There was a lot of blood at first, and a lot of crying and a trip in an ambulance - which I think she was too upset and finally exhausted to enjoy.

The little red mark on the bridge of her nose isn't from the fall, but she does seem to have a bump just below it which is from the fall. We'll be seeing some black and blue, no doubt.

Noa was a champ at the hosptial. She cried when the doctor looked in her mouth, but I told her it would only be for 10 seconds, and so she put up with it as well as could be expected.

So apparently, this kid in her class likes pushing kids. Normally he picks on a different kid but his M.O. seems to be pushing kids that are easy push and if he gets a big reaction... all the better. So I'm guessing that Noa is now on the top of this kid's list. Luckily, the there was already a plan to meet with the kid's parents about his behavior - so that's already going to happen. I could tell you all more, but for privacy reasons I'll just leave it there. That particular kid aside, we were concerned about Noa being in chairs without arms because of her lack of balance... and this incident just exemplifies why.

So, Noa is home and fine - pensive, but fine. Fat-lipped, but fine. Exhausted, subdued, but glad to be out of the hospital. These photos are from the trip home. Looking at her face it's almost as if you can see that's she had one of those "growing up" experiences where suddenly the world feels just a bit less innocent and care-free.

Hands

Okay, trying again to upload the video of Noa playing with Grampy's hands... and success!

You can see how she really takes her time exploring every aspect of his hands. And she'd already been doing this for some time before my mom started taking the video.

I've been reading Helen Keller's autobiography, which is a great read by the by - that woman had the MOST amazing memory, and it's been very help for me just in terms of understanding how important these moments of connection are for her, and how thrilling!

Noa feels things that we don't notice. She gets more from feeling someone's hand than we can probably imagine: she knows people by the veins on their hands, and boy she can find a nerve and push on it (in fact she finds this very amusing as it always gets a reaction). Of course it's not just hands. You can take nearly any toy of her's and touch it to any part of her body - and she knows which toy it is. You can tap nearly toy of hers on a table and she knows which one it is.

Long story short, once she gets to know someone's hand, she gets the same thrill from that hand that we might get from seeing a favorite person walk into the room. So learning grampy's hand is a great investment in future happiness!

Biker Babe!

Okay, okay - a lot of posts in one day, but so much to report! Check out Noa on her fabulous new bike which she got thanks so a special program through Rusk Institute to get bikes to special needs kids (thanks Julie for making it happen!)

As you can see Noa LOVES her bike! In fact, she learned the sign for bike in about 1 minute flat!

The pedals move when the bike moves (unlike the tricycles we've tried in the past) so that she learns that moving her feet makes the bike go - and it's great exercise for her legs. There is a bar in the back that lets us steer it.

She loves the little tiger's head which squeaks when you squeeze it - and there is a little purple bell on the side of the handle bars that she is getting the hang of. The only problem with the bike is that it is soooo cool that all the other kids on the playground want to ride it - and it's tough to explain that we can't let other kids ride it. I'm sure we could do it with one kid or two, but the playground is packed with kids and this bike is too expensive and frankly, not for climbing on... so tough to be cool and popular.

In other signing news -- Noa has been signing up a storm!

She learned the sign for different in the matter of a few days. She uses it when she wants a different flavor of food - we'll start trying to use it soon for different toys, or different music, whatever.

She's also been very interested in signing letters - not that she knows what they mean, but she gets that they are meaningful. In Arizona Ben was doing some letters into her hand and she would feel the letter very intently and then try it with her own hand. I've been singing the alphabet song to her while signing the alphabet for her and she really enjoys that - and spelling her name into her hand.

If you think about it - we all learned the alphabet song without really getting what all the letters are for (which kind of explains the "El-eh-meno-pee" section which eventually learn is L-M-N-O-P) so her trying it out is just like any other kid trying out sounds or fun songs without worrying about the meaning.

Though in Arizona she did learn the sign for swim - until we'd just used the bath sign, but as I learn more, I try to help her learn more as well.

Today, Melissa signed "I Love You" to Noa and Noa did the sign back. It was pretty darn cute!!!

Noa is VERY clearly interested in more signs -

AND as she becomes more interested in signs, she is making more sounds as well. She continues with the "j-yes" and this week we got a lot of "nice" and "in-dee." But rather than making us feel like we should focus more on speech, it makes us feel like we should continue to focus on the signs - because those are what gets her attention, and the sounds, if they do come, come after and seemingly as a result of having learned a sign.

Arizona Dreaming...

In the last post, I mentioned being on an airplane with Noa - Ben had a play in a festival in Arizona so we packed up the family and headed south for a few days. As it turns out we picked the hotest week of the summer: 115 degrees on Saturday!!! If you're wondering if Noa sweated in Arizona... we really didn't have a chance to find out because when it's that hot out, you're just not outside long enough to find out. And we certainly didn't want to chance it by over-heating her in that kind of weather as an "experiment."

But we had a great time - as you can see from the video. This is the swimming pool at the condo the theater put us up in. Yes, we're outside. It's 7:00am in the morning (and already about 94 degrees).

This clip shows one of Noa's favorite pool games: toss Noa! You can see that she makes the sign for "drink" - if she does this in the pool, it means that she wants to be tossed. Somehow Noa came up with way to convert her signs into pool games - and taught Jes - and Jes taught us. "Drink" makes sense for this game, as she gets to dunk her head all the way underwater.

Noa also really enjoyed the Children's Museum in Phoenix which is hands down the BEST Children's Museum I've been to. A lot of sensory stuff (like things that blast air in your face, or the entire forrest of pool noodles you can walk through). Noa loved that! And of course, Noa loved the plane ride.

Cute Cousins and Sweating the Big Stuff

Okay, so just had to share this great video of Noa with her oh-so-cutie cousin Elecktra who came to visit about a week ago. Notice how Noa rubs her arm! There is something so gentle and grown-up about the way she explores other kids... a lot of the time is sort of freaks other kids out, but Elecktra is as patient as one can expect a kid to be, especially when surrounded by the Land of Noa noisy toy collection!

It was at about the time this video that something quick strange began to happen... Noa began to SWEAT! What's the big deal about that, you ask? Well, until now, she didn't sweat at all - yeah, yeah, at first is sounds great, except that sweating is how our body cools down so NOT being able to sweat is a dangerous condition and even more so for a kid who doesn't talk and can't tell you that she is hot. Of course it's easy to tell - if you're looking at her - because she turns bright, bright pink. But if you're not looking (for example when its 90 degrees and she is on a school bus full of kids), it can be a bad scene.

We were told that not being able to sweat is a condition caused by some glitch in which the sweat glands are "turned off" in some way. There is no cure or fix for it, so if you have this condition you just have to stay cool.

SOOOOOO about a week and a half ago, I went to check on the sleeping Noa (something which we do on warm evenings because she tends to get overheated and isn't able to regulate her body temp --- so sometimes she's pretty pink). I looked at her and she looked fine. Then I touched her forehead and it was damp. I felt the back of her neck... also damp. It felt like sweat and I can't tell you how shocking that was. I called Ben and he felt her head and neck and then we were both perplexed.

It seemed so unbelievable to us, that we told ourselves it was some kind of mistake. Maybe she drooled on herself? Or maybe she was still wet from her bath (even though it had been well over an hour). The next night - it happened again. When I mentioned to our sitter, she reported having had the same experience - and like us - thinking she must have been mistaken.

On the flight to Arizona earlier this week, Noa fell asleep with her head on my lap and when she got up the sweat from the back her head left a wet spot on my pants -- since we'd been watching her the whole time, we knew it was the real deal.

So. What does this mean? That those glands suddenly turned on? And how? Or why? Does that happen sometimes? Could the stem cell infusion have contributed to this? We don't know at this point. And so far we've only noticed it happening in her sleep.

It's hard to explain how exciting it is to think that she may be able to sweat. But it indeed BIG stuff!

Jee-yea!

I've been trying for a few weeks now to upload this great video that my mom took of Noa playing with my dad's hands out in Idaho... but for whatever reason I can't get it to work. SO instead I'm sharing more of Talya's great photos of Noa, cuz hey, they're great!

Noa has been been busy since our return from Idaho. She just returned to school for the summer session and I think she's grown about a foot! Seriously.


One of the most exciting new things Noa has been doing is saying "yes." It's kind of a game right now and she only will play it with a few select people (mostly women for some reason). She'll sign for "drink" - then I ask "Noa, do you want your drink?" She will say that something that approximates the word "yes."

Sometimes it is clear as a bell, other times it's more like "jeyea" or "yessse" but it is clearly a vocal response in the affirmative and that is HUGE.

Overall she has been doing a lot more vocalizing and occassionally will astonish us with something that sounds quite clear, but is often also totally random such as: "sludge," "Hezzbulah," or "Hindi." I guess she hears the news a lot...

Another fabulous new trick is walking while holding just one hand - she is big on this now. She's not very stable so it often involves falling or swinging rather wildly into someone's legs, but she is determined. She also likes holding one hand and pushing the stroller with the other - we've done some rather long walks this way.

The big recent event for Mommy and Daddy was taking the 4th rail of Noa's crib so she is now in a big girl bed (with a lower rail). While it was a bit nerve wrecking for us the first few nights, it's overall great because now we don't have to pick Noa up out of the crib which was becoming... back breaking. In fact, with help, Noa can get out of bed and walk to her potty or to breakfast (of course she doesn't always want to... but who does?)

And she had fun, fun, fun ---

So here is just a small selection from the many wonderful photos that Jes took of Noa in Idaho. As you can see, she's loving it all.

In the top left photo, at the hotsprings, it's actually raining and she has her mouth open to catch the cool raindrops. Cool rain in a hot spring... that's a nice combo! It's especially nice because as you can see she is getting a bit red. Here's a little known fact - Noa doesn't sweat. Apparently some folks don't and she is one of them. Yeah, it sounds nice until you consider the fact that sweating is what cools your body down when you're hot, so we have to be careful about her not getting overheated, so this rain really came just at the right moment for us!

The next photo (on the right) shows Noa playing with her water table in our back yard (not bad for a back yard).

Below we have the hip rock star by the lake with her walker. You know, just chillin' - and next to that Noa enjoying a relaxing shower back at the cabin. I'll post more Idaho photos in the coming days, and hopefully some video too.

Good Kitty!

Okay, so Jess didn't get around to posting photos. It's not her fault. She and Noa were busy busy and Noa didn't have the patience for long stays in the blogisphere. BUT Jess did get some great photos and I will post some soon soon. You will all be amazed. Noa really had a great time and has been doing some wonderful new stuff including some great new sounds.

This somewhat blurry video (taken with my phone at the Fogg Lifter Coffee Shop in McCall) shows a strange new thing Noa started doing towards the end of the Conference... cleaning herself like a cat! As you will see, she licks her hand and then cleans her face and hair. Where did she get this idea? Beats me!! But it sure is cute. Or terribly strange. Or both.

coming soon....

Noa is doing great out here in Idaho - and having a great time playin' with Jes and anyone else who will play, spit, tickle or swing! Mommy, on the other hand, is busy as a bee. Jes has been taking some terrific photos of Noa and so I'm going to try to hook her up to post some of them here for everyone. So stay tuned....

Hat!

This video actually demonstrates something new that has been (mostly) wonderful - which is a real leap in Noa's receptive language. As you'll see in this video, I ask Noa where her hat (hoodie) is - she answers with the sign for "hat" a couple of times, then I ask her to show me her hat and she pulls up her hood. This is really much more complicated and specific than the kind of stuff she has done in the past. And we've noticed it in other areas as well - asking her to lift her leg, or walk a few steps, she just seems to get it more quickly and more specifically.

It's just mostly wonderful because she also has a better understanding of when we don't want her to do something. It used to be that we'd have to sign "no" when we said in order to get the point across. Now she gets it with just the word. She also gets it when we tell her something like "no kicking" - which as you can imagine, if you read the last post, is hugely disappointing. So this causes some regular ol' toddler meltdowns... which is good. Unless of course you're Noa and you want to kick stuff.

don't fence me in!

A couple more quick videos and notes before we shuffle off to Idaho. Here is a video of Noa walkin' the fence in the garden of our building. The video is a bit funky because when I shifted the orientation it got all weird. She really isn't this squat and lumpy.

Anyway, Chillin' at the fence is a new favorite activity and she is so secure on her feet now that I can actually get far enough back to take a bit of video. She likes to kick the bars - kicking is a fun, new thing overall. When you kick things they make noise. Sometimes they even rattle or fall over completely. It's really fun. We're working on getting her to walk toward us, and I think she is starting to get the idea. The other day she walked to Daddy to get a drink of water.

Gonna Fly Now...

More wonderful photos from Talya - or Noa's personal paparazzi as I like to call her. This photo catches Noa and Ben in the midst of one of their favorite activities... and right at the moment were I usually look away.

Noa and I are off to Idaho on Sunday, leaving poor Ben behind to work. Noa LOVES airplanes, they are giant jiggly chairs and I nearly always get comments from people about what a good traveler she is. She is the only kid not crying... until the plane parks at the gate of course. Noa is also a big fan of turbulance. Ben and I were once on a very bumpy ride once and after every huge, rocking, gut punching plunge, rising above all the gasps of terrified grown-ups was Noa's bright laugh. And then she'd sign for "more."


The big new for Noa is that she is finally drinking plain water! Although she's been glad to drink water out of swimming pools and bathtubs (much to my dismay at times), she wouldn't drink it out of a bottle. Suddenly, out of a straw cup, it's a-okay which is fantastic because McCall is hot and dry and keeping hydrated is important.

As you can see from the photo to the left, she gettin' tall! (and heavy) Much more confident on her feet, sometimes taking a step or two just holding one hand. But she still really lacks the balance to stand on her own - or to even make sense of what finding that balance on her own would mean. Occassionally she'll balance for a few seconds, but when she loses it she either collapses straight down or falls flat like a plank.

In other news, she has also had some success using the potty at school - which is a real miniature potty (not a plastic toddler potty like we have at home). We're very proud. And she is starting to get the idea that she can tell when she needs to use the potty. She is also learning the signs for "mommy" and "daddy" - which is nice for us. We didn't really have names before.

she oughta be in pictures...

Check it out! Who is this kid??? Can you believe it?

So, long story short, we were very fortunate to have a great photographer walk into our lives. Talya is working on a project - which I will share more about later as it all comes together - but she has been taking some photos and they are... well, obviously, spectacular and I'm very grateful that she's allowing us to share some of them with Noa's fan club. She is doing an amazing job of capturing the many moods of Noa.

So in addition to her life as a super model, Noa continues to be a rock star on the potty. We're getting a routine going so she knows when to expect potty time and since she enjoys it so much, she's getting the hang of it quickly.

As for me, I've just finished my level 1 Sign Language class, which I loved (I'll have to wait until July to take the next level), and am starting to use some of the signs I learned with Noa - just conversationally. Most of them are words like "nice" or "tell" -- words that don't relate directly to an object or a game. These are sort of tough concepts for her, so I figure I'll just keep using them for now without putting too much pressure on her to "learn" them. She really does play closer attention with she gets both verbal and sign language together - so hopefully it will start to sink in. She seems to be learning the signs for Mommy and Daddy - which is nice... especially for Mommy and Daddy...

Now that we've done away with the bottle, we're also working on getting rid of the binky. Noa has always had a particular attachment to these binkys that have stuffed animals on the end of them, so I cut off the stuffed animals - making the one toy into two. She still loves them both, but hopefully over time we'll be able to get rid of the binky part and just keep the stuffed animal.

So in closing this week, and with thanks to Talya, check out this great family photo: Ben and I as Noa's humble servants, as I'm sure it should be.

The Big Sip

As you may recall, Noa took very quickly to drinking from the straw, but picking up the cup was just too much. But here she is picking up the cup and taking a sip like a big girl! She still will sometimes resist picking up the cup - I've seen her practically bend herself in half trying to find the cup on the floor with her mouth rather then just touch the dang thing.

Today she really got me. She wanted a drink and I was trying to get her to pick up the cup, but she would have none of it so instead she starts this game of "Noa says." This is one of Noa's favorite games: she taps her knee - then you tap her knee, she squeezes her finger - you squeeze her finger, etc... This game can get quite elaborate including multiple props, body parts and various kinds of taps, pinches, squeezes and rubs. She got me going with the cup: tap the cup here, rub the cup there, then with a giant smile... stuck her finger in her mouth (i.e., put the straw in my mouth). Man, she is one tricky monkey!

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know...

While I update you on our progress in the area of toilet-training, I hope you'll enjoy this short video of Noa walking. As you can see she is feeling very confident in her walker. You'll see that about half-way through she starts just swinging her foot back and forth - sort of like a ballet dancer at the bar. She gets caught in this movement sometimes - she knows it's the right movement for walking but doesn't always get that you also gave to alternate feet and keep some forward motion going in order to get somewhere.

(warning: the following material may not be suitable for people of taste and breeding)

So in the wonderful world of potty training, we've had 2 banner days! Friday night just was we were getting ready for bed time I put Noa on her little training potty and I had this idea. Generally she.... does her business... just during or after her bedtime story (we try not to take it as a comment). For the past few weeks, I've been using bedtime to work on memorizing "The Cremation of Sam McGee" (watch Idaho/campfire folks!) so I figured she'd recognize it as the signal that bedtime was near. I got about a verse and a half in and sure enough.... #1! (we'd caught a few lucky #2's in the past because, well, she makes a face which is kind of a clue.)

Just as I suspected, Noa thought this was the funniest thing in the world - the sound in the little plastic potty, the feeling of freedom and a few other things I won't mention and you can all imagine (or not). We both laughed our heads off and clapped and had a great time. Last night - same time - took a bit longer but the same thing. Again, hysterically funny. Very exciting stuff.

In other bathroom news, Noa has taken to helping us out during changing times by trying to grab her (ahem) used diaper and fling it across the room. And she's fast. Sadly... Daddy was not aware of this when he tried to change her yesterday afternoon. And this was followed by a bath for everyone. Again, I'll let your imaginations take you where they will (or not).

So that's it for the bathroom update. I hope you enjoyed it.

Finally, the proof!!!

I have to tell you all that this video is already old news... but one step at a time. This is from sometime during spring break when, with absolutely no ceremony or screams, she left the bottle behind.

And I figured I ought to post this before I jump ahead to the most recent news. Noa is in one of those learning leaps that is oh-so-exciting (and exhausting) for us and this is really just the beginning. But it's also been a very busy time with Daddy starting a new job, Mommy trying to wrap up the semester at school and get things launched for Idaho in June and... sadly, the passing away of our 13-year-old cat Shekhina last weekend. People have asked me if Noa gets that Shekky is gone and to tell the truth I'm not really sure. She always seemed to think he was a giant stuff animal - every time he'd brush by her she'd make the sign for "make that toy kiss me."

More video and news coming...