The Cleaning Lady

Ella LOVES to clean...the kitchen, bathroom, sweeping, scrubbing, even laundry....if it's a household chore, Ella is by my side to help out. As soon as she sees me head to the washer and dryer she runs over to join me and she gets really excited when it's time to fold the clothes. Break out the dust pan and broom and this girl is in heaven!

I can't complain. I do like to keep things neat, so Ella's affection towards cleaning is far better than the alternative. We like to refer to her as "Tornado Tapp" when she is playing (she loves to empty out the toy bin), but she does help pick up her toys and really prefers things to be neat. She likes drawers and doors closed so much that she is generally trailing behind me in the kitchen to keep me in check.

 Since we are realizing Ella's growing independence and love for "work", Jason and I have started giving her chores. Ella is in charge of feeding Tucker his breakfast and dinner. She proudly scoops his food into his bowl every day. It's become quite the routine. Last week, in a rush to get dinner done and keep our evening on track, I accidentally fed the dog....only to hear Ella from the living room shout "I do it!" as clear as day. Jason and I were floored. Not only did she realize she was missing out on her favorite chore, she also spoke an entire sentence. Her speech is improving every day, but this was like she has been talking forever. More and more we are hearing clear words and even some phrases. It's reassuring and exciting. We still have a long way to go in the speech department, but her progress is steady and that's all we can ask for. She just started a third day at school which will hopefully help her continue to make big strides!

Frequent Flyers

Such a trooper...all smiles even when she isn't feeling good!

If the ENT doctor's office handed out freguent flyer miles per visit, we would be well on our way to our first free trip. Today will mark my third visit in two weeks to Ella's ear specialist. I am 99% sure she has ANOTHER ear infection. The poor girl spent the better part of the last two days pulling at her right ear, she has a low grade fever, stuffy nose, and many of the other symptoms that are all too familiar for us. The tell-tale sign of an ear infection with Ella is that she won't drink anything. If my instincts are correct, this will be Ella's 2nd ear infection this month. She was just cleared last week after battling a double ear infection. This is not good considering she had tubes put in this summer. The tubes are supposed to help with infections and drainage and they are helping, but for some reason she can't shake these infections. The doctor told me last week that there is so much fluid draining from her ears at this point, her ears and the tubes can't keep up. She had a build up of wax and fluid once again which has a serious impact on her hearing. For every step forward Ella is taking in her development, these ear issues set her back. It's an ugly cyle :-(

I need answers. I need to find a way to make Ella feel better. It breaks my heart to see her battling constant ear problems. It effects so much. She doesn't like to drink because its painful to swallow, her balance is thrown off and even riding in the car hurts because of the pressure. Not to mention, it's hard to grow a vocabulary and improve speech when you still can't hear well. Whenever we run into an issue like this I turn into "Crazy Col". I scour the internet for information, I badger friends and colleagues for advice and I bombard the doctors with questions.  Right now I am consumed with finding a way to help Ella. I have a full list of questions for Dr. Scheid today....mostly concerning how diet may effect Ella. I am considering a switch to soy milk to see if that helps curb these ear infections. I also wonder if there is a coralation between the excess fluid and hormones. I am no medical expert, but I am a mom and I will stop at nothing to get answers.

To be continued....

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I just finished filling out a stack of paper work for Ella to start SCHOOL! As of next Thursday, Ella will officially be enrolled in Toddler Group. It's a 2 1/2 hour morning preschool program offered through Early Intervention. The program provides kids an introduction to the school setting, while including services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. It also gives children the chance to be in a social setting which is exactly what Ella is lacking. We don't have any family here in New York and most of our friends have older children, so Ella's chance to play with someone her age is limited.

Ella reading to Lucy

I got a preview of how beneficial toddler group is going to be. We were visiting Woburn this past weekend and Ella had lots of time to play with Lucy (my niece) as well as some of her cousins, Sydney and Caylee. It was wonderful to see her so motivated by her peers. Ella could be considered a copy cat and that's just fine with us. She wanted to crawl just like Lucy...if you know Ella, this was huge. She never cared about crawling and still rarely gets down on all fours. She also wanted to use the "big girl" sippy cup just like her cousin Sydney. Sydney was nice enough to even let us borrow the Dora cup for our walk home! If we can just get her talking like her cousin Caylee, we'll be making big progress. Caylee has a very good vocabulary for an almost 2 year old!!!

Hopefully once school starts Ella will be copying more than Tucker!

These small glimpses of Ella's monkey see, monkey do attitude combined with her determination and an incredible group of family and friends is what makes all the difference. She is going to do so well at school. Stay tuned for the first of many "first day of school" pictures :-)

Kuckerrrrr!



Poor Tucker...he is always so tolerant of Ella!

 For 2 days now all Ella keeps saying is "KUCKERRRR"....it took a bit to figure it out, but now we are pretty sure she is calling the dog (who's name is Tucker!) She shouts KUCKERRRR (drawing out the RRRR) and then butt scoots her way over to him. She loves her dog. She is always trying to kiss him and pet him. She tries to lay on top of him and just a few days ago I caught her sitting on his belly bouncing up and down. Tucker is such a good sport and takes this abuse in stride even though inside Jason and I are pretty sure he hates life!

Ella's new pet name for the pup is pretty cute. I am sure it could be worse given the many different letter she could replace the "T" in Tucker with. It's also pretty significant that Ella is calling for him. This is probably the first time she is using words to get your attention. She says "momma" and "dadda" and will greet you with "hi!" when she sees you, but her speech has been delayed and the words she does say sometimes come out sounding not exactly how they should. Sure this is pretty typical of a toddler to not always repeat things perfectly, but our speech therapist wanted to have Ella's hearing checked out anyway. It's pretty standard to have a hearing test when a child is receiving speech therapy services. I am so glad we took Michelle's advice.

Ella's hearing test came back a little below normal. We met with an ENT to try and find out why. She has only had one ear infection in her 2 years and we know she can hear us (most of the time). It turns out Ella has fluid in her ears that won't drain. The doctor suspects what Ella hears sounds like what we would hear if we were underwater. It's usually more common with kids who have chronic ear infections, but not always. The best news is that it is treatable. Ella is scheduled to have tubes put in her ears on Thursday. It's a relatively routine procedure. The doctor says it should take about 10-15 minutes and the results are pretty instant. She told us that in most cases kids are already hearing better before they even leave the hospital.


Can you hear me now? Ella loves
to pretend to talk on the phone.

Of course there is always a level of anxiety when your child has to have surgery or undergo a medical procedure. Jason and I have been through a few stressful tests and events at this point, and it doesn't ever get easier. However we are so optimistic and excited for Ella to be able to hear us clearly. We can only imagine (and maybe a little nervous) about what will come out of her mouth. Maybe Tucker will actually sound like Tucker...but even if it doesn't, we can live with KUCKERRRR!