Abigail's Tricks

Abigail is 8 months old, which boggles my mind. I feel like I was just in the hospital giving birth to our sweet little Girl. Abigail is a well tempered baby who loves to take in her surroundings. She loves to sit, but strongly dislikes to be on her tummy. So I have a feeling it will be awhile before this girl is mobile. Which, to be quite honest, I'm completely fine with. I'm all about children progressing on their own, at their own pace. I think it is healthy for children to grow and learn when they are ready, instead of being pushed into something they aren't ready for. I encourage growth, development, and learning and I try to create an environment in our home that is conducive to such growth. However, you will never catch me fretting about a child who isn't crawling or walking yet, etc. I know that when children are in a healthy environment development will naturally succeed.

For example, we taught Spencer American Sign Language at an early age, well before he could verbally speak. I took ASL at BYU and loved every minute of that time. I knew the benefits of teaching babies ASL before it was "popular" to do so. So before I had children, or even before I was married I knew I wanted to teach my children ASL. The approach I took to teaching him was to sign to him first and he would eventually catch on. And catch on he did, and did well. There were a few people who expressed their concerns about teaching ASL and how it might have an affect on their verbal speech. I knew that teaching him ASL might delay his speech a little, but I also knew it was nothing to worry about. While moms congratulated their children for having a verbal vocab of so many words by such and such age and Spencer didn't have such an extensive vocab, I didn't worry. His "vocabulary" was extensive in ASL, so I wasn't concerned. Basically, what I'm getting at is there is such a broad range for developmental stages, ranges I think many parents forget about. I know that as long as my children fall within these ranges their development is healthy. As soon as Spencer did start verbal speech, (within the healthy range, but later than other children) he caught on quickly. He now has a vast vocabulary and speaks very well for his age (we are often told this is the case).

I shall step off of my soap box now. Sometimes when writing I feel like I'm writing to a larger audience. Hoping my words will be of relevance to somebody. Then I remember that my blog is private and thus my audience is small in size. Oh well, I shall write what I feel and feel what I write...

Back to Abigail, her latest tricks are:

• sitting up all by herself
• blowing raspberries
• saying "da-da" when happy and when asked
• saying "ma-ma" or "nu-nu" when not so happy
• she loves to talk and talk while playing
• bouncing or "dancing", as we call it
• singing when we sing songs. Her version of singing is babbling, bouncing, and smiling while we sing. She loves our bedtime routine with Spencer, which includes songs. It has become her bedtime routine as she is now going to bed right after said routine, on her own.

Here is a video including some of her tricks (more to come shortly, children need tending to):