Making Progress

This past month has brought a lot of development for June. She changes before our eyes each day and it's a lot of fun to watch her discover the world around her and learn how to communicate more.

Here's a list of some things June is doing now.

• Walking.  On June's birthday she took several deliberate steps to Justin.  She had been standing quite a bit before that and would try to walk but had no balance and would fall down.  She's still working on balance but each day she walks more and more.  Just last week, if she walked and fell down she would immediately crawl to her destination.  Now she will usually stand back up and start walking again.  
• Signing.  We have been signing to June since she was about six months old.  Mostly "all done" and "more."  In the past couple of weeks she has learned how to do the signs.  And she is SO proud of herself!  She usually smiles and claps after she does them.  She usually has to be prompted to sign "more" instead of just grunting or whining when she wants more food, haha! We plan to teach her the signs for "please" and "help" next. 
• Tantrums.  June has mastered the art of the tantrum.  There are specific things we know will set her off: taking away her sippy cup of water at the end of a meal, closing the pantry door before she can take out the box of quinoa she likes to shake, taking her away from the books she has pulled from the shelf in her room.  This is by no means a comprehensive list but they are almost guaranteed to cause her to shriek and arch backward, or bang her head into the floor. We try to ignore her as much as possible (as long as she is safe) or will try to distract her or use humor to diffuse the situation.  I anticipate the next few years will be very interesting as far as tantrums are concerned!
• Naming.  June knows the names of at least 6 of her toys.  She will go find them if asked and hold them up for us to see. She will also bring them to us if we ask her to.  Justin has given many of June's toys funny names.  The stuffed, pull-apart sandwich she loves is "Captain Sandwich."  Her pig toy is "Kevin Bacon."  Her cow is "Moo-Chacho."  The lion she sleeps with is "Garfunkel."  She knows them by those names and it will be interesting as she learns to talk to see if she sees a cow on TV or outside and calls in Moo-Chacho :)
• Books.  June LOVES books.  I will admit we did not read to her much when she was little.  I've heard of a couple who are reading Harry Potter to their newborn twins...and good for them...but that wasn't us.  As she got to around 6 months old and we set more of a bedtime routine we would read her 2-3 books each night.  She has one book that has flaps that open and before she was coordinated enough to lift the flaps herself she would turn her head to try to see inside the flap.  Now she loves to open the flaps herself.  Just in the past few weeks she has become obsessed with her books.  She will find a book and scoot across the floor to hand it to Justin, or hold it up and stare at him waiting for him to take it, and now she will pick them up and carry them to us so we can read to her.  Then she will either sit next to us waiting, or will climb onto our laps.  It's the most precious thing  One of her favorites is "Each Peach Pear Plum."  We both have it memorized.