Elmo's World

While we were in Disney, my mom introduced Hope to Sesame street. Hope fell in love with Elmo. We've seen Sesame Street before, but not on a schedule. While I do much "by the seat of my pants", my mom -- enviably -- does almost everything in a routine. I sense that her stay here with Hope was no different. Within days of our return, I was changing Hope's diaper, and began to sing the Elmo's World theme song, "La, la, la-la", and Hope finished, "Eh-oh wirrl".

When we found out about her diagnosis in utero, I totally geeked out and was reading all these scholarly articles about TGA kids and their prognoses and outcomes. Several studies pointed out high correlation between kids who'd been on heart-lung bypass machine and a difficultly in speech and/or language development. Given her level of verbal expression and understanding, I think she's going to be fine. We don't read to her as much as we vowed to after reading that article, but we do talk to her almost all the time; describing diapering, dressing, eating, cooking, laundering, playing, etc. I think she's going to be fine -- in the speech department, anyway.

At 14 months:
Her sixth tooth just broke through, and the seventh is not far behind. She enjoys coloring, singing, and dancing. As I write this, she's sitting next to me making funny noises with her mouth. She sings the ABC song -- it's far from perfect, but certain segments are right on. She says MORE and PLEASE using sign language. Says "CHEEEESE" whenever the camera comes out. And, oh yeah, LOVES to climb. I often have to put the kitchen chairs down on the floor sideways or upside down so that she won't climb up on the kitchen table. One night, while making dinner and chopping vegetables, I turned around to find her on top of the table, sitting inches from the edge. Scary! She climbs the ladder on our swingset, and goes down the slide by herself. She has her brother's sense of adventure, which he likely got from his dad.