Bookworms

Anyone who knows me will know I have a deep and abiding love of books and reading. It's something my parents instilled in me as a child and even now there's not much I'd rather be doing than reading a good book with a cup of tea. Rock and roll.

I want Bee to enjoy books as I have, to get the same pleasure from them and have her world opened by a love of reading. She owns a lot of books but for the last few months I've been taking Bee to the big library in Warrington town center. It's something I used to do as a child and always loved spending time there, reading and choosing books to take home. She's been very much enjoying it although I think is still getting her head around the concept.

Me: "So are these the books you want to take home?"

Bee: "Me pay"

Me: "No honey, we don't need to pay, we can borrow them for free"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Because the library will let us take the books home to read for free but then we have to bring them back for someone else to borrow"

Bee: "Why?"....

This is a conversation we've had more than once at the library so far. I suppose for a child who's so used to shopping, visiting a library can seem an awful lot like a bookshop and understanding the differences can be a little challenging. She loves the whole experience though.

My only challenge during our visits is keeping Bee calm in the pram while I browse for myself. She has a habit of shouting "out Mama! Me out!" over and over until I release her. Of course then there's lots of running around and squealing loudly in excitement, to which I follow trying to shush her and explain about our "quiet voices" (yeah right!) 

This week we came home with (amongst others) a Peppa Pig christmas book and an In the Night Garden christmas book. It doesn't matter to Bee, if she sees Peppa or Makka Pakka she's sold! We brought another handful home too as well as all of the ones Mama chose!

Why?

One of Bee's main challenges is her lack of language skills. A little while back when I collected Bee from nursery a member of staff mentioned they were really pleased as Bee had used a couple of words they hadn't heard from her. They then went on to say that she was now up to a handful of words she was regularly using. Which was great, except at home she was using dozens...

So over the Christmas break, while she was with me all day, every day I decided to make a list of the words she was using and how she was pronouncing them. I'd lost track of my old lists when she hit 50 words and it concerned me that, although we knew she could use a lot, nursery wasn't hearing them from her. By the time nursery started again in January my list had over 90 distinct words, yet within nursery she was only using 5/6. Of course, nursery isn't unique: Bee doesn't talk much at all outside of home, regardless of where she is. She especially doesn't do well if put on the spot. I decided to keep on with my list, adding to it whenever I heard a new word from Bee. We're now up to 143. Compared to the average toddler milestones (a 2-year-old should be at around 200-300 words) Bee is still quite a way behind but she's progressing and her language seems to be on a steep learning curve at the moment. The words can still take a little deciphering though: "ba" could be bath or bag and we rely a lot on context.

My favourite at the moment is "pi pi dee dee" for Peppa Pig DVD and I'll always love the way she calls Mr Tumble "beebul".

In the last two weeks she's found a new word which was thrilling at first and now I just want to gag her. This was a conversation earlier today:

Bee: "Mama, Pi pi dee dee"

Me: "Not at the moment"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Because we're going to get Daddy from work soon

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Because he's been working all day and now it's time for home"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Because Daddy needs to go to work to earn pennies"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "So we can pay our bills and buy nice things for Bee"

Bee: "Why?"......

.......and on it goes. And on and on and on. I don't really have any experience of it (Bee being our first) but I feel most kids would reach a natural stopping point when there's no longer a reason to ask why. We don't get that with Bee. We get to a point where we go round in a question/answer circle as there's sometimes just no answer for "why".

It's a wonderful development, we're genuinely thrilled that Bee has reached a level of curiosity about the world and the things going on around her, enough to ask about them. However she does have a habit of being very, very repetitive. We often have the same conversations and the same seems to be true of "why", it comes after every single statement/comment/answer we give. Earlier today we had a conversation that went like this:

Bee: "Mama, play doll"

Me: "Of course we can play dolls honey"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Well, because you asked to"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Well I think because you want to play dolls"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Because you like your dolls"

Bee: "Why?"....

....And so on. Sometimes I think she asks as a matter of routine, rather than a genuine curiosity as to the answer. The above conversation doesn't seem to make much sense as she's asking me to explain why she wants to do a certain thing. Still, Bee asking "why" all the time is opening up more conversational opportunities with her and we don't seem to be stuck as much in the same topics that she will normally stick to. Which can only be a good thing!

Aaaand I'm Back...

I've been a little lax with my blogging since December. It's always such a busy month and we've had lots going on since then so it sadly had to take a backseat. But I'm back with a vengeance and intend to keep it updated as often as possible. Much has changed since I last blogged yet in some ways things stay exactly the same. Maybe that's an indicator of having a special needs child.

 

 Our biggest change is Bee is that walking confidently without the aid of her walker. She's still a little wobbly sometimes and especially clumsy when she's tired but in the main she walks everywhere now. I can't tell you how thrilled we were. More than thrilled. Even now, months later, I watch her toddling round the living room or down the aisle at the supermarket and marvel at how far she's come. Bee revels in her new freedom and it's created some challenges for us in how to deal with a very strong-willed toddler who wants to go left when you need to go right. We've invested in a LittleLife Daysack (the bumblebee design of course!) and I highly recommend them. Even if it did take Bee some time to realise that the handle is for us to hold, not her!

We've always considered ourselves very lucky when it comes to Bee's behaviour and thanked our lucky stars when the 'terrible twos' never materialised. She's always in a good mood and very rarely cries, unless there's a good reason. She says 'please' and 'thank you', most of the time without needing to be prompted and is generally charming and sweet with everyone. Or so we thought. We've recently seemed to hit the terrible threes. On top of this Bee has learnt how to be devious, highlighted in a recent trip to my Grandparents. We change her nappy on the bed there and she also likes to bounce on it when supervised. Whilst sitting in the living room chatting and drinking cups of tea Bee came over to me and asked:

"Mama ba" (mama bed)

"No Bethany, we can bounce on the bed when the drinks are finished"

And with that she toddles off so I rejoin the conversation. Minutes later I felt a small hand on my knee and looked down to see Bee, with a nappy in her hand and patting her bum. "Mama ba". You devious little minx! But clever at the same time, very clever!

So now we're having to become requainted with our toddler. Her likes and dislikes have changed, she's tolerant of and aversive to things she wasn't before. It's been a challenge as through all this her speech delay is still causing us some communication problems. She gets very frustrated when she can't express to us what she means or wants.

Something that hasn't changed a great deal is Bee's compulsion habits. We still have to close doors behind us, sit in the same seats in the living room, read the same book over and over again...the list goes on. Sometimes it can be difficult finding the line between accomodating her obsessions and not reinforcing them. It's hard to know where one ends and the other begins, especially when we know it's something she can't help.

Health-wise Bee has been doing very well, with just the one nasty bug over Christmas which landed us in the emergency GP's on Boxing Day. She seems to be much stronger these days, although with a constantly snotty nose (thanks nursery!)

Talking of nursery: Bee loves it. She is now asking to go every day using the Makaton sign for 'nursery'. We're really happy about it as she struggled to settle at first and would scream and cling. Her confidence has soared since starting there and we're really hopeful that Bee will be able to attend mainstream school.

Overall our girl is coming on really well, exceeding everything we were told to expect for her. The fact that we're even able to think about mainstream school is testament to what a clever, strong, beautiful daughter we have. Love you Bethany May xx

Bee's Dictionary Updated

Bee is gaining new words slowly but surely and we have some new ones to add to the pile...

*NEW*

Me                                  Me
Pram                               Bam

Word                                Sounds Like

Yes                                  Yeah

No                                    Naow

Ta                                    Gaa

Thank you                         Guy-or / Guy-oo

Car                                  Bum bum

Ball                                  A-bawl

Monkey                             Ooo ooo

All gone                            Uh gnnn

Baby                                Ba ba

Hello                                Hey-yo / Hiya

Bye bye                            G-bye / Be bye

Dog                                  Uff uff
Food                                Num nums
More                                Moh

Bubbles                            Bu-bull

Door                                Dior

Up                                   Up

Keys                                Daa

Bag                                 Ba

Play-Doh                          Bawl

Bed                                 Ba

Chair                               Ka

Book                               Booo

Outside                           A-hide

Boat                               Ba

People                             Sounds Like

Mummy                            Mama

Daddy                              Da-de / de-de

Grandma                          Gam-ma / Gram

Great-Grandma                  Noo noo
Clare                               A-Ka
Gem                                Dem


Makaton Signs
Yes
No
More
Book
Finished
Bubbles
Bed
Please
Thank you
Mr Tumble