Tabitha may not yet be able to speak, but she has plenty of other ways to show us her personality. Yesterday, she was sitting in her chair at the dinner table, and making a fuss while we were all trying to eat. One of the things she was doing was pushing herself up using the footplate on her chair, so she was standing in it, not a very safe way to be at all. I told her a few times, in a stern voice to sit down. I then figured, actually, she is responding to sign, I’d better sign it too as I say it, so about 4 times, I told her again in the stern voice, to sit down, and I used the sign.

Not only did my daughter not sit down, she looked me straight in the eyes, and signed “sit down” back to me. It put me in a difficult position. She was being defiant, which needs to be watched and challenged, but she had also just used a new sign, which she should be praised for. I honestly didn’t know how to react. In the end, I put my hands on her shoulders and sat her down, then praised her for signing. I hope that was right.

Today, she has learned to cross her eyes. She was again in her chair at the meal table, when she just started crossing her eyes and giggling to herself. It is actually very funny to watch, I should get her doing it on video. It does have us in fits watching her, and Tabs being Tabs, when she gets a reaction like that, she will keep doing it.

Two very positive aspects of my childs personality. Not the only two, but two good ones. She is determined and funny.

Tabitha’s signing is improving rapidly. She can now sign “Mummy”, “Daddy”, “Dog”, “Cat” and the old favourite “please”. She beeps her nose during the rhyme “The wheels on the Bus”, and claps her hands during “Wind the Bobbin up”. I now need to make sure I can remember all the signs I learned when I did the Communication course a year ago…..and I’m sure a lot of them have gone from my mind.

I am getting better in the new car now, not so nervous. Of course, that’s when things get dangerous and you are most likely to do something silly like reversing into a tree or something. Fingers crossed I don’t do anything like that.

We are currently waiting for Tabitha to develop her sickness again. It is likely to be any day now. She showed signs of getting it last Thursday, but it hasn’t yet developed fully. Unfortunately, I have no doubt that it will. In fact, thats 2 new signs I need to teach her, ill and pain, so she can tell me when she is getting poorly. That will help her no end with her frustration during her sick times.

Anyway, time to get on with the evening routine now, making feed up, getting it ready for tomorrow, so I’ll sign off now. Bye!

The last 2 weeks have been full of ups and downs, all to do with Tabitha. The major up is that Tabitha has finally made the connection between signing and communicating at last. This means she is now learning new signs and what they mean and she is is beginning to use them independantly, ie, if she wants something and you ask her “what do you say?”, she will sign please. It’s a major step.

On the down side of things, we have begun to find exostoses on her. These are bony growths that her genetic condition causes to grow on her skeleton. Whether the surgeons remove them or not is dependant on how much they are bothering her, and where they are. I’ve heard of babies having them found by the age of 7 months, so for Tabs to get to nearly 4 before we found any is a good thing I think. But it is just a bit of a downer, because I was hoping (stupidly I know when they are a defining feature of her syndrome) that she’d be spared them.

We have finally been in to get her eyes checked too. The eye checking process actually took no more than 5 minutes, but because Tabs needed to be sedated for it, we were in hospital for 6.5 hours. Ayway, her eyes were checked and are fine thank goodness. Another box checked. The funniest thing about the procedure was seeing Tabs response to the sedative. Within 5 minutes of having it, she was unable to sit up, and she was giggling away to herself like a lunatic! I laid her on the bed, and she just lay there, laughing and staring at her hands. I did ask if I could have some too, but noone seemed to want to give me any…..:(

So that’s all the news for now, I’ll be back on again soon. Bye for now.