Couldn't Come Up With a Clever Title

This week so far is full of all sort of progress.  Baby steps actually, but progress nonetheless.

Ellie has been spending a lot of time in the minimal support sit--either the tripod sit or in the IKEA bin.  I have also been working with her in bringing her knees up under her--sort of like a crawling stance.  Ellie's determination and perseverance have paid off for twice today she has gotten onto her hands and knees and rocked back-&-forth.  Granted, she only lasted for about 2 rocks, but she did it!  The other motor skill that she is practicing--moving backwards. I still have not quite figured out how she is able to do this.

Tripod Sit

Yes, there is a dog in the background.

The Baby Bear-Bear is still signing, but she thinks that everything is "eat".  When I ask her if she wants the elephant or the ball she signs "eat".  Oh goodness, I can just picture Jan having a conniption fit over this.  Ellie still thinks that she must have my finger in her hand as she signs, but now she occasionally signs "eat" with just her hand during meal times. I am attempting to sign just about everything to her (ie ball, elephant, sleep, bear, milk, mama, dada, cat, dog), but I have only taught her how to sign back "eat" and "more".  Most of the other signs require too many fine motor skills and dexterity.   I believe that she is starting to recognize the signs for "water" and "bath".  Of course this is just my perception as a mother and I have no scientific proof to tell me otherwise.

Speaking of fine motor skills, a few weeks ago I decided it was time for Ellie to practice self-finger feeding.  Now I do not expect her to have the "pincer grasp" down yet, but I thought that "raking" of the fingers to grasp objects would be a great skill.  All of my friends get these little puff things from the baby section.  All of these puffs are wheat.  Ellie cannot have wheat or oats.  After searching high and low at various food places, I was able to find some rice husks that will easily dissolve in the mouth.  Ellie Bellie loves these things but she still needs a lot of help.  Most importantly, she understands that it is food.  She understands that she must grab it and bring her hand to her mouth.  There are two issues though. 1) She had the food in her hand and does not realize it. 2) She does not know how to release the food to the mouth.  Jan recommended wetting the rice husk and sticking it to the bath of the fingers.  This has helped her to get the food into her mouth but it sort of defeats the whole "raking" part.

Oh and, Ellie is a stripper.  This is what I found the other day after a full night of sleep.

Ellie likes to dance an Irish Jig.  Apparently she kicked so hard she got her legs out of the feet of her jammies.  She managed to get one arm out during her gymnastics.

Note: The pincer grasp is where you bring your thumb and index finger together to grasp objects.  Infants around 9 months usually start to perform an inferior pincer grasp.  Raking is using your index finger through the pinky to "rake" in objects.  This is typically seen in infants 6 to 7 months-old.  The tripod sit--sitting while leaning on the hands is seen in 6 month-olds