Today it was a big cup of chai that made me happy

Last night sucked. Adriana was obviously sleepy but determined to stay awake, which she managed until about 11:15. She crashed then and I hoped that being up so late would help her to sleep well.

Ha.

Let me repeat that: HA.

She was up every two hours, crying and wanting to nurse, and with the added bonus of a leaky diaper necessitating a costume change at three. She was up for the day at seven, and I groggily got up with her, dreading spending the morning with a toddler running on so little sleep. I was sure gymnastics class was going to be a disaster. With so little sleep, she would surely be clumsy and cranky and screechy.

But she had a fantastic time. The teacher had set up a tall staircase with a steep slide and Adriana clambered quickly up the steps, slid down on her belly, squealed with delight, signed "more," and ran around to do it again. Over and over and over. And over. She took intermittent breaks from the slide to jump on the trampoline, but she was always back to that slide before too long. At the end of class, she had her first fussy moment because she didn't want to stop, not even for the stamp the teacher gives the kids at the end (which sometimes I think is the highlight of gymnastics for her). But finally she followed me out, ate a good lunch, and fell asleep before the car was even out of the parking lot.

I'm blaming the horrible sleep on all the talking she is doing now. She babbles constantly, often mimics the last word we say, and will usually make an attempt at a word we ask her to say. So as much as this sleep regression sucks? It's totally worth it when I ask her to say please and instead of signing, she grins and says "Pweesh."

Forget the trike, the girl can have a pony if she wants it

Adriana signed "mama". . . . and said it out loud at the same time.

Slowly but surely

Last weekend, I was feeding Adriana a bowl of Cheerios, and as she signed "more," she said "moh." I took me a moment to realize what had happened. Wondering if I was right, I fed her another bite, and then she did it again, combining the sign with the spoken words. I gleefully pointed it out to Brian and his dad who were sitting there at the table reading the newspaper. For the rest of the time we were down in South Pasadena, we would ask Adriana to say "more" and she would oblige.

I started thinking it was a coincidence that she had combined that noise with the sign for "more," though, because she was so willing to mimic us, and because she stopped using it in context and in combination with the sign. But then she screeched at me for more green beans the other night while I was cooking dinner, and I told her, "No screeching, please. If you need more food, I need you to say 'more please.'" I meant for her to sign the phrase, but she looked at me thoughtfully for a moment and slowly said, "moh."

***

Yesterday as I was pulling one load of clothes out of the dryer and moving another one in, Adriana ran into the bathroom, yelled "bye," and closed the door most of the way. She opened it, squealed, yelled "bye-bye" this time, and closed the door again. 

***

I count the steps up from our car (12) and then up to our apartment (16), as it somehow seems to keep Adriana focused on moving forward. This afternoon when we reached the front door, I finished counting and said, "And now we're home. Yay!"

"Yay!" she echoed.

Tested

One of the first things Adriana's speech therapist suggested was visiting an audiologist. At our initial evaluation with the county office of education, they thought her hearing seemed fine, but the therapist wanted to be certain that Adriana really had her full range of hearing. The test was today, and I was nervous about how it would go. Would they require her to wear headphones? Would she cooperate? What if there were problems with her hearing? Wouldn't a good mother have noticed the problems and done something sooner? What if there was no problem with her hearing? At least a problem would give us some explanation for what was going on with her speech. Because seriously, the mom anxiety can pull me in every direction at once. Good results? Bad results? No results? ALL ARE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS.

The hearing test was today and it went fine. There were no headphones involved and Adriana was very cooperative. She and I went into a sound booth, and the audiologist sat just outside. Noises would come out of speakers on either side of the booth, and when Adriana turned toward the sound, a little box above the speaker would light up to show her the stuffed animal inside. Next the doctor spoke to Adriana quietly, asking her to point to one animal or another, and Adriana obliged nicely. Next, Adriana sat perfectly still while the doctor used some sort of tool to take measurements of her ears, though she usually struggles when the doctor wants to take a look inside her hears at checkups. Finally, we sat on the couch outside the sound booth, and Adriana was very still and quiet while a little tiny device was put into each ear, one after the other, to send some sort of vibrations to the cochlea that would be echoed back to the device, showing that everything was okay with Adriana's inner ear. 

My only real concern about the whole audiologist experience now that it's over with? A couple of times Adriana would turn toward one of the speakers and be rewarded with the teddy bear playing the drum or dancing pink rabbit--and I hadn't heard any sound at all.