I can't believe that I didn't post the entire month of November. Wow time does sure fly by. Lots has happened in the world of Moo.

The most exciting event is that Marley is using her potty consistently. Well at least she is trying to. Those darn diapers. I can't get them off fast enough to get her on her potty in time. November 9th was her first wee-wee and poo-poo in the potty. Prior to that it was only wee-wee. These are "Once upon a Potty" terms. Lately Marley has been letting us know when she has to go by going to the bathroom by herself and moving her potty around. By the time we run back there it is either hit or miss. Why, because those darn diaper tabs stick too well. Or if we have used the same diaper for most of the day, the tab has fallen off and we've resorted to masking tape. I guess that's why they call them disposible diapers. If we follow Marley to the bathroom, we are successful. She pretty much has a potty schedule that we have been following and she uses her potty. It's just those impromptu moments that we fail on. I have ordered pull-ups for her online since I can't find any 7th generation ones on island. I think once we have the pull-ups (no tabs) we'll increase our impromptu potty success.

Marley started daycare last week in order to get more socialization with her peers. Daddy dropped her off the 1st day with no problems. I thought that there would be no separation anxiety and there wasn't. We're happy that we are raising Marley to be so independent. She stays about 2 and 1/2 hours. Monica, her nanny has been picking up.

Just got back Marley's assessments. We changed early intervention providers. The assessment showed that her skills are scattered (15 month to 21 months). Basically the assessment said she was awesone, but we already knew that. The report said that Marley has delays, which she does especially in verbal language. The assessment was done in the middle of November and Marley has already mastered some of the goals that she is supposed to be working for the next 6 months.
I think Marley has just entered her extreme learning phase. She is super alert and is imitating actions like a mad woman. Not to mention her sign language vocabulary is exploding. She is able to use two signs together to communicate. She just began babbling in November. Up until then, we only heard vowel sounds with different intonations. She says DADA, sometimes Mama, and today we were working on cat. She has the "ka" part down. So everything is coming along.
She is walking just fine and is getting faster everyday. We're finally going to break down and get more gates. I think she turned over the cat's water dish at least 3 times today. Mommy just isn't fast enough.

Wow! I can't believe that it has been over a month since my last post. I guess I need to catch up everyone.

Well, we went to Austin and Chicago on vacation in late September to early October. I think we were on the mainland for about 11 or 12 days. Marley had such a good time reacquainting herself with her cousins, aunts, grandma, and uncles. She also met new cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great grandparents. Needless to say it was a whirlwind trip. We didn't get to do 1/2 of what we planned. Marley was in great spirits throughout the trip despite a continuous runny nose. Then to top it off, when we are at the airport leaving Austin we noticed a huge spider bite on her leg.

We want to thank all our family for the graciousness and hospitality that you shared with us on our trip.

Once back in Hawaii, life immediately became chaotic once again. BUSY! Jason and I decided that we were going to change our Early Intervention providers so Marley doesn't have to spend so much time in the car in order to receive therapy. It was a hard decision, but we think it will be better all around. Marley's first speech therapy session is this week with the new therapist. The great thing is now all the therapists will come to our home to administer therapy. No more driving!!!

Marley is up on her feet and going. I'd say she walks 80% of the time and crawls the rest. By next week it will be 90% walking I bet. She is getting fast. Her new game is taking something you don't want her to have and walking quickly away. We just know that running is going to kick in fast. She is definitely keeping us on our toes. Marley has added about 4 more signs to her repertoire. Nanny Monica swears she heard Marley say "Bye" when Daddy left for work on Friday. Jason said he heard it too. Are words finally going to come????

Oh yeah, we found a true Nanny. Nanny Monica came to us with the most outstanding references. Her last job was with 18 month old twins on another island. She is new to the Big Island. We just lucked into her. We feel very blessed to have found her. She is from Poland, a college graduate and speaks 4 languages including sign language. She knows over 3000 signs. Wouldn't you know now that we are leaving Hawaii, we would find the most awesome nanny for Marley. That's life I guess.

A couple of weeks have gone by since I last posted. Life with a toddler is definitely BUSY. She is into everything and boy is she fast. Although she has begun to walk, seven to eight steps at a time. When she wants to get somewhere fast, her crawl goes into high gear. She loves dumping over the dog's water dish.

Marley now has a mouth full of teeth. It seems as though it was just yesterday when we only had two bottom teeth and a molar. Now we have both upper molars, 4 front upper teeth, two bottom molars and two front bottom teeth. They all seemed to come in one after another. Needless to say she is biting everyone and everything. Teaching her to not bite has become a challenge for Jay and I.

She started a toddler play group last week. She seems to enjoy it. She receives her therapy during group since there are only 3 children right now. It's a start.

Marley has finally learned to sign "mommy" and "all done". I think she has about 6 or 7 signs in her repertoire. Jay and I are excited because she can communicate with us other than grabbing. I would say in terms of receptive language (comprehension) she is bilingual. She responds to both English and French.

We are anticipating our trip to Austin to see Great Grandma and Grandpa, as well as new cousin Wills. We also look forward to seeing Grandma, Aunties, Uncles, and cousins. Perhaps we'll even see McKenna, Darah, and Connor. Then we're off to Chicago to see Marley's other Grandma and Grandpa.

It's been a long time since I last posted, but this post definitely has to be a highlight of Moo's blog. Usually I miss new things that Marley does. It always seems that when Marley does something that I think is new, Dad has already seen her do it. Well today was not one of those days.

MARLEY TOOK 3 INDEPENDENT STEPS ON HER OWN! I tried to coax her to take more steps when I had the camera ready to go with no luck. Once I put the camera away, guess what happened? You guessed it, she took more steps. I am so proud of my little girl!

Then when Jay left for work she signed, "Bye Daddy". That is a 2 word utterance! Yippee! She communicating!!!

So today was momentous. I've been holding my breath not to push her and let her progress in her own timeframe. I have to keep reminding myself that she was born premature and to top it off at 9 weeks, she spent about a month in the hospital intubated with RSV. I am so proud of her. She has worked really hard to get to where she is at.

I just have to smile when I think of my awesome little girl. That's it for now.

Well we have our first sign. On August 1st, Marley signed "Daddy" for the first time and has been doing it since. I should have known that her first word would be "Daddy."

Marley has been chewing everything in sight. The poor little one had 4 teeth cut through about the same time. She has new molar, a new front tooth and two side teeth that have emerged. Her mouth is quickly becoming full of teeth. I've noticed that she is more willing to chew her food now that she has some molars.

We've been trying to work on the 1 nap per day in the afternoon, but it is not going that well. She ends up napping right after her morning snack and is up all afternoon. Needless to say that by 6pm she has hit her wall and becomes Miss Cranky. I am trying to find a happy medium so it is not such a struggle for her bedtime routine.

Marley is progressing in her walking. In PT she climbed the stairs to the slide on her own. She absolutely LOVES sliding. I think water, sliding, and swinging are her most favorite things to do. We're hoping that she'll start taking some independent steps soon.

I can't believe that it has been over 2 weeks since I last posted. Marley continues to "WOW" us on a daily basis. It is amazing how subtle she changes from day to day. She is growing up too fast.
Marley surprised me the other day by pushing a step stool across the kitchen floor. She is aching to be mobile on her own two feet. Standing now is a piece of cake for her. Her favorite thing to do is stand and squat when playing with her toys. She loves to squat down and pick up things off the floor and put them on tables, sofa, and chairs.

We're finally going to put Marley into a daycare program so that she can interact with other children her age. She'll be going 3 days a week. What is cool about this program that it is based in art and music. It is exactly the type of program that we have been waiting for. Unfortunately Marley had to get a TB test in order to attend. Another poke. Jason said she was a trooper. The good news is that at the visit we got her current height and weight. She is 32 inches in length and 23lbs 8 oz. Since her activity level has increased, her weight has dropped. All is good in the Williams household.

Marley is just full of suprises. I was playing with her today when out of the blue she stood up. I mean stood up in the middle of the room. I called Jason to come see. When he got there she was still standing. She stayed up long enough for Daddy to see her. I come to find out that she had done the same thing with him earlier in the day. Marley looked so proud of herself standing there. We tried to get it on camera with no luck. Today was a great day. Yeah Marley!!!