U Can't Touch Anju!

Friday night, at our friends' house, Anju jumped for the first time.  She's twirled around and danced around, but never had both feet leave the ground before.  Today she's been jumping like M.C. Hammer (gotta get her some parachute pants) and laughing hysterically, as if she's never known that kind of fun before.

Since beginning to walk without help at around 21 months, her motor skills have been progressing at a slow yet steady rate.  She can climb the stairs well now as long as she has one hand free to follow the wall.  Sometimes the heavy fleece blanket she carries with her does impede this, however.  She rides her Little Tikes "bike" (no pedals) by pushing with both legs now and makes tracks outside.  She loves to help set the table even though she can't see the top of the table from her vantage point.  She just kind of tosses everything toward the center of the table, making sure the Dora silverware is at her spot.  She grabs the towels as I fold them and carries them upstairs and leaves them on the floor of the bathroom--not quite the right spot--but almost.  She sweeps imaginary (and sometimes not) dirt with her tiny broom into her tiny toy dustpan and dumps them in the garbage.  She is your average 2-year old- and I am so happy to see that.

So, I think we're making progress.  Her gait is still not right, but she gets where she needs to go.  I can't tell if the orthotics are doing anything.  Her walk does look a bit better, I guess, but when she walks quickly or runs, it seems like she's running from her hips instead of her legs.  Hopefully time will help with this.

Her language skills are also blossoming.  She is getting good at copying things that we say.  She loves to be read to, and can say and identify many colors and shapes, and for some reason the letter "A".  This is a vast improvement over previously just being able to point to things if we said "Where is the _____?".   She is still pretty difficult to decipher if you don't understand signs or her way of saying things, but she can string 4 or 5 sounds/signs together to have a complete thought--so we know that her mind is capable of great things.  She is saying new words every day.

Her ECSE teacher comes 2ce a month, and she has library story time on Fridays which I think is helping with the motor and language skills.  She also is picking up a lot from watching Dora.  I didn't think a bilingual program would be a great idea for her, but the repetative nature of the show has really helped her speech/language skills.  When Dora asks her a question, she'll answer her.  I guess Dora has turned out to have been just the medicine the doctor ordered.  However, I am very sick of Dora and am requesting all kinds of Dora DVDs from the library so that I don't have to watch Dora's Pirate Adventure one more time.

She still requires a lot of "baby" time in my lap with her thumb and blanket- always with lots of conversation about how she is a baby and I am her mama- and lots of kisses and snuggles.  I really enjoy it, but sometimes she wants to do it all day, and unfortunately I have other responsibilities. 

Anju is now a few ounces over 20 pounds and is transitioning completely out of 12 months into 18 months clothes (with the exception of pants where she still has some 6-9 months that she wears due to lack of posterior).  She is using the potty maybe half the time, which is much better than either of my other two did at this age.  Often she tells me she has to go potty and I can tell by her diaper that she just went, but we go through the process anyway.  Kids with her kind of spina bifida often can't toilet train at all--they don't get the signals that they have to go--and many I have read about on an online group I'm in don't have any success until about age 5.   I'm very pleased and surprised by her progress.

There's the latest installment of the periodic Anju progress report.  We look forward to many more months of growth and changes to come!