Then on Wednesday, I discovered that she was bending over and standing back up without needing to grab onto anything to get up all the way. I wasn't quite sure if she was doing it totally on her own at first because my view of her was obstructed, but she did it again and sure enough, not grabbing anything! Amazing! I found a toy she was really interested in to get her to do it again and again so I could get it on video. It takes so many skills for her to be able to stop walking in a controlled manner, bend down, pick something up and stand back up on her own and then start walking again - sometimes even turning around in the process. Again . . . Amazing!
On Thursday, she finally decided to share her skills with her teachers and walk at school. Normally we have the opposite problem that she'll do things at school that she won't do at home. But apparently she decided to take off at school and then they couldn't get her to sit back down! It's kind of like that at home too - once she gets started, she doesn't sit down for a long time. One afternoon she walked around the house for 45 minutes, occasionally stopping at furniture for a minute. This is a long 5-minute video of just part of that time.
She's not deterred by falling down either . . . if she loses her balance and can't regain it, she sits down on her butt or bends and catches herself with her hands. She doesn't get upset or cry. Yesterday she fell down in the kitchen and was unsuccessful at getting back up on the first try, but she tried again and got up all the way and took off again. She's not scared of falling now and I think that has made ALL the difference! The teachers were worried about that too - apparently one of her classmates bumped into her yesterday and they thought she would quit walking after that, but she got right back up. She even walked on the playground, which is that recycled rubber tire material. Amazing!
Today we were at an event with lots of other kids and adults in a pretty tight space (more on that below) and she decided to walk around for a while. At one point she navigated through a crowd of about 5 people without any problems. She also walked through a doorway, over a rug, etc. Amazing!
And yesterday we decided to see if she could walk outside. Our gravel driveway is packed down well, but it's still not as smooth as the floor inside the house or other buildings or even the playground. We have a few larger rocks and some weeds the closer you get to the barns and it's even slightly slopped. But she walked pretty much all the way from the house to the barn, which is quite a distance. And she walked back again too (after playing with the goats and chickens, of course). Here's a video. Again . . . Amazing!
Most of the time, she starts walking because we stand her up and get her started, but sometimes she starts on her own too. One day I was in the other room and I heard her moving around - I wasn't sure if she was scooting or walking, but she was walking around the living room! She can get up from the floor or even stand up from her chair or climb up the couch or something to get to a standing position and take off. I have a feeling my days of productivity are gone - I'm going to have to spend all my time following her around pretty soon!
As if all the walking news wasn't enough, we've also had a busy, fun week.
It was a dreary, wintery day on Sunday (just Sunday, been beautiful since) so we decided to do an indoor activity we've been talking about for a while . . . bowling! Kinsey was really excited from the moment we walked in the door and she was really into it! She didn't want to wait her turn or even wait for the ball to be returned after her first throw. We put up the bumpers for her and used the ramp and she did a great job. At first we were helping her push the ball, but after a little while, we started just getting her set up and let her do it all herself . . . and she got a Spare! And even better was that I actually caught the whole thing on video. And here are some pictures.
Jamie recently bought some chicken scratch so Kinsey could throw it on the ground for the chickens to come around and eat it. She really enjoys it, so I took her outside one afternoon to do that (and take some pictures of the cowgirl hat that my friend Aliy just made her for Halloween). I'm so glad I had the camera with me, because I caught a crazy event . . . Kinsey picked one one of the chickens all by herself! I couldn't believe she could actually pick it up ...and that it let her! Our red chickens "freeze" when you get close to them and since they were also preoccupied eating the scratch, she was able to grab one and sit in her chair and hold it. She's done this a few more times since then and actually gets really upset if you won't let her do it anymore!
Finally, today we went to a pumpkin patch with our MOPS friends. We picked out a small, white pumpkin and took it to the painting place for a Pumpkin Painting class. I wasn't sure how Kinsey was going to do with it, but she was really into it. She was painting the pumpkin with the brush before she had any paint then she painted the whole thing all by herself. After she was done, and spent quite a while walking around the place, I painted Boo on top of the background that Kinsey did and it was done. We went with Aliy and her boys and they all had a great time.
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