Play Ball!

Imogene had a speech/language evaluation today. It's not worth getting too into the details at this point, but it's possible she'll just need a monthly check-in to see how she's progressing. Receptively she's doing great, Kristen, the SLP said. (speech pathologist) Imogene clearly understands most commands/cues and is very engaging and smart - her words, not the bragging mommy's. But she may have a delay as far as communicative language goes. Once Kristen can really process what she saw in the evaluation she'll let us know what she thinks our plan of action should be. The real reason that I bring it up to our loyal readers is to tell you that Imogene played her first game of catch. It was precious. Imogene would 'toss' the ball about two inches in front of her and then Kristen would pass it back, after we "manipulated" her hand to say please in signing. Imogene would just reach her arm out and do her little grunt and when she got the ball back she would almost give it a kiss and then throw it and laugh. She could have played for an hour. It was her little version of perfect - I'm not sure I've seen her that engaged in anything before in terms of a real "game." Of course she refused to do the 'please' sign and got very frustrated when you did it for her. She also did a great job with a stacking toy. (Remember the old plastic round stacking rings on a stand that every kid had growing up? The updated version is stars with a big star on the top and it sings a little tune. See here.) Imogene even moved the star that goes on the top around to get it to stay on. She was so tickled with herself when we clapped and cheered for her! At the end we played with bubbles. The idea was to see if Imogene would try and blow too, but she was way more interested in putting the stick in the tub of liquid. After a few times she would blink her eyes in anticipation of the bubbles coming her way. She would dip the stick in and then just hold it in the air. I really think she thought the bubbles just came out the stick on their own. Sobbed her little eyes out when it was time for the bubbles to go away! We must have told her "last time" about 5 times! She was also just adorable playing with my sunglasses. Trying so hard to get them to stay on top of her head like I wear them most of the time. And she would just laugh and laugh at how cute we thought she was. Smart girl indeed!