Arden Turns One! An Update

So, the big day has finally arrived and our little miss has turned one year old. It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by. But, at the same time it is amazing how much she has accomplished.

For mobility she has graduated to Stage V on the Institutes Mobility Development Scale. About one month prior to her first birthday we went to a swim meet. While there we spent most of the weekend between races in a large gymnasium, and Arden spent the whole weekend walking back and forth across the gym trying to be like all the big kids. By the end of the weekend she had graduated to a full time walker.

This video is from shortly after that weekend, in it her arms have been freed from the primary balance role and she is free to bend down and pick up toys:

Since that time we have been trying to walk as much as possible. Several times a week we will go to a playground where we park about 100 yards away. Arden will walk the entire 100 yards through the grass uninterrupted. Once at the playground she enjoys climbing up the steps, walking over to the slide, sliding down and then sprinting back and doing it again. We also practice walking on a variety of terrains including a long paved hill and rugged ungroomed terrain. Our next step is to aim for 30 minutes of non-top walking at a time.

She continues to enjoy hanging on the pull-up bar. For fine motor skills we have been using a shape sorter as well as a circle stacking toy. She is improving at both of these.

She continues to use the toilet consistently and I can't remember the last time she had a bowel movement in her diaper. She will urinate consistently on the toilet, but still frequently has wet diapers. She will indicate to us she wants to use the toilet, but only if we are already in the bathroom at this point. 

Verbally her her expressive vocabulary as well as her ability to follow directions continues to expand rapidly. We continue to use Little Reader on a daily basis. We also started showing her "Your Baby Can Read" almost daily for the past week and a half. She was bored with the videos a few months ago, but now is very engaged with them. Especially, She loves to point at body parts when you ask her where they are. She reliably will point to her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, belly button and toes. When looking at her flash cards/"Your Baby Can Read" cards consisting of the word with the picture she will respond to clap, mouth, toes, arms up, wave, hi and dog. She will say clap, hi and dog after seeing those cards, the others she will point to that part of the body. I think she actually knows the word, but likes to pull out the card before responding. I might have to make some less exciting cards, to see. Also, she may recognize more of the words, but as she hasn't yet said those words, and as they aren't body parts I don't think she can indicate it.

She likes to kick the soccer ball while walking and will say "kick, kick, kick". She also likes to throw the ball back and forth and will yell "catch" at the same time.

She is also beginning to have a longer attention span for books and appears to be enjoying them more. She will sometimes sit and flip through the pages on her own or bring a favorite to us to read.