Another Development Spurt

Jamie and I agree that Kinsey is going through another development spurt! She's been doing really well with walking while holding onto something or someone. The teachers tell me she flies down the hallway at school in her walker and she likes pushing the toy shopping cart around. She's been playing with the shopping cart at home too as well as her baby stroller. She was actually turning the shopping cart around when she ran into something or got stuck too - She does this by walking around to the side of the cart then pushing it sideways then walking back to the handles of the cart to push it again. Not the easy way, but it's her way. And she has good control of the cart or stroller - she doesn't let it get away from her, even when going from the carpet to the hardwood floors when it starts moving faster. Today when we were leaving school she was wiggling around too much for me to hold her so I put her down and held her hand (just her left hand - she does better with that hand than the other for some reason) and she walked all the way from her classroom out the front of the school (which is a pretty long walk). She's still fairly slow and looses her balance sometimes, but this was definitely the longest walk we've gone on together with her maintaining her balance, taking good steps and moving at a decent pace!

She's also been doing well with transitioning from standing to sitting when she wants to sit down. The odd thing is that she absolutely will not let you let go of her hand right now. For the past week or so every time I try to let go to get her to walk on her own, she immediately tries to sit down instead! Stinker! She's still walking short distances between pieces of furniture on her own, but only if it's her idea. If you try to get her to do it she won't, just like when I try to let go of her hand.

This week she has fallen forward from standing a couple of times. But the excellent news is that every time she's done that, she's bent at the waist and put her hands out in front of her to brace her fall!!!! That's HUGE news! Last summer the geneticist told me that's a reflex and if she doesn't have that reflex, it can't be taught. And that was a big concern to us because she could really get hurt if she isn't able to brace her fall. So we're really excited to see that she does have those reflexes, it just took a little longer for them to develop. (This really doesn't surprise me because we watched the same thing happen when she learned to sit up and would fall backwards, but eventually learned to put her arms out behind her when she fell. It's just good to know for sure that she can do it!)

She also continues to try to stand up from being on the floor. She's still getting up on all fours and crawling a lot and will get over to a piece of furniture and get up on just her knees and she really tries to figure out how to stand up from there, but just can't do it . . . yet!

Another interesting thing is that she's been trying lately to get into her little pink chair to sit in it. She gets up on her knees and leans into it, but can't figure out how to turn around to pull herself into it. She'll figure that out too eventually. Here's a little video of her trying it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rydMr7SReoI

She's really been enjoying sitting in her chair to watch TV lately. We put her in it quite often, especially in the morning to drink her milk while she watches Disney JR before going to school. That's why she's trying to sit in it on her own - to watch TV. And she's really been enjoying the TV lately too - actually laughing at the shows! I think I mentioned that she was laughing at The Polar Express when we were watching that before Christmas and that was the first time I ever heard her laugh at the TV, besides squealing at it, but she's been laughing at it quite a bit this week. So cute! And she's also been really talkative in general lately. The teachers have even commented on how talkative she is at school, especially with the other kids.

Finally, Kinsey is making some big improvements in feeding herself lately. It's almost a frustrating improvement because she wants to feed herself so much that she won't let you feed her at all sometimes! She's been eating a lot of the pouches because she can suck the food out of them totally on her own and we've been trying to find more things she can pick up to eat on her own too. She's decided she likes the baby ravioli now (tried them a while back and she didn't like them) and she really likes all kinds of bread (definitely my child!). She was picking up small chucks of avocado off her tray (or my hand) and eating that well - we've always mashed it before. We tried a little doughnut, which she also liked and she's even eaten some small pieces of actual chicken this week! I've seen her chewing it, not just sucking on it, so that's good. Today we tried rotini pasta with a little white sauce and she didn't do too well with that though so it's still hit or miss. But at least she's improving and we're challenging her with new things.

This week Kinsey's cough is much better, although it is still lingering around. Today it seems to have gotten a little worse again, but hopefully that's just a fluke and she's going to continue to get better. It's not getting her down at all, so that's good.

I think that's it for this week. Sorry no pictures, but I do have a couple more videos of her on the ladybug scooter, getting into trouble:

Scooting Around (long, but cute): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJFQ-Ac9gg
Standing Up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhEI3G-ZmAA