This week our church is doing Vacation Bible School "VBS". Therefore, we will be "flashing back" to some recent days in May of this year (2013), that I was unable to post about but that are totally post worthy -because our family will be taking full advantage of VBS!
In the month of June Vada's therapy center held a really fun weekly track meet. We attending all of them.
They had the children work on stretching.
Group participation games.
Multiple task and gross motor skill building games.
And just pure exercise!
Since then, we have been taking Vada back to the track to practice running on it. This coming Friday is the Jr. Bix and her and I will be running it together! Its going to be her first year, well, mine too and I am so excited and already SO proud I could burst already!
I love her so much! I already have high hopes of her loving this racing stuff and us doing it together. (Not that I am a racer but she could be my motivation!)
We will do it for sure while she is young and then when and if she ever protests, we will stop... I guess only time will tell! More to come on this post!
It's interesting to me how much Vada must have been focusing on learning how to walk because for awhile all other activities seemed to almost come to a stop, that is until she finally mastered the fine art of walking, now I couldn't get her to crawl even if I bribed her with candy (which I wouldn't . Don't get me wrong, she still played and learned but I noticed especially with her therapies that nothing seemed to hold her attention for any real length of time. Now that she is an expert walker, she seems to be doing something new everyday and I couldn't be more proud of her or more excited of her daily accomplishments and let me tell you, everyday if filled with them!
Saturday at GiGi's, while we were waiting for Vada's friends to arrive, Jasmine decided to put on a puppet show. While introducing the puppet that she had named "Bob" (who by the way resembled a killer doll from the eighties movie Dolls),
Vada eagerly stood up and said "Hi Bob!" and then quietly sat back down as if she hadn't done something both shocking and amazing. She had never said that before. She does say "Hi Mom" and "Hi Papa" but never before had she said Bob and so quickly after Jasmine had introduced him. Its random, I know but it is also new and it is speech.
During breakfast this morning Vada signed "more cereal please", that was the first time that she has ever signed a three word sentence before. And then tonight as Justin was heading off to work she said "Bye Papa". And then Kiliegh was saying that she was cold so Vada got up and walked away, only to return to Kiliegh with her coat! She's blowing our minds, this girl of ours! Tonight, before dinner I said something about someone turning off the t.v., guess who did it.., yep, Little Miss, she went right to the t.v. and turned it off then walked t the dinner table!
Oh! One more. I almost forgot! V shakes her head for "no" now. So this Saturday when the DT came for the very first time she was surprised by Vada because when she would ask Vada if she would like to do this or that Vada would shake her head for no. Ha! It took the therapist three times before V said yes to something. I guess the third time really is a charm.
I love this age and stage. I feel like I have waited a long time to see all of these things come from Vada but the wait has been well worth it! So much has come in this last month but especially after walking. I cant wait to see whats next!
I realize that kicking a ball come pretty naturally to most youngsters but this has just made me so excited. Today for her very first time Vada kicked the ball, while standing and all on her own!
Jasmine is such a good sport. She is always willing to be photographed doing the things that I am doing with Vada, so that I am able to share it through the blog. I personally don't care to have my pictures taken (especially since I have gained fifteen pounds but who's counting). Luckily for me, I don't have to be in all to the pictures because as of now Jasmine says that she would like to be a therapist, so she is constantly asking to try what V and I are working on and I am constantly letting her while clicking away with the camera!
I had Jasmine work with Vada on kicking a ball. Using her right foot came naturally to Vada. She has always favored her right side. Kicking came pretty naturally as well. I was surprised at how well she did! Our reading program that we use has the sight word 'kick' and while we were reading that word, the other day, I kept showing Vada what 'kick' was and she began doing it herself, which in return gave me this idea.
Vada does lean against her sister while kicking and since was the first try we let her do it anyway that felt natural to her. She didn't need much support either by leaning or by bearing her weight on her sisters arm.
We took her jeans off because without shoes they are so baggie and they kept getting in the way.
On a side note for those who may be curious about how potty training is going... At home, the majority of the time V is in underwear verses being in pull-ups and besides the night time diapers that she sleeps in overnight we have done away with diapers altogether. We are doing a timed schedule of taking her to the bathroom every forty-five to sixty minutes and that seems to be making al of the difference! Potty training is in my opinion rather successful right now.
In the picture below Vada is standing on her own and only slightly touching her sister as she kicks! Rather impressive, if I do say so myself!
Working on Vada's left side was a bit more tricky than working on her right side but V is really easy going and really gives 100%, so she was up for trying this out.
P.S. Don't even get me started on the fact that V ends up getting kneed down! --You'll unfortunately see what i'm talking about in the video because I couldn't figure out how to edit it out. Take note however, that I did tell Jasmine's friend to watch out for Vada. With that being said.. err.. wrote, check out V's sick moves and pay no attention to the pants being pulled up to her chest... therapy may be needed later in life for this one...
Motor skills are motions carried out when the brain, nervous system, and muscles work together. Fine motor skills are small movements – such as grabbing something with your thumb and forefinger – that use the small muscles of the fingers, toes, wrists, lips, and tongue. Gross motor skills are the bigger movements – such as running and jumping – that use the large muscles in the arms, legs, torso, and feet.
We try to work on both fine and gross motor skills with Vada at least once everyday. Practically every activity done throughout our day gives us opportunities to work on both. Picking up before bed time requires all kinds of fine motor skill. V needs to concentrate on the tasks that are giving to her, like "Put this in", "Bring this to Mama.", and so on. That last one could actually be considered her also working on her gross motor skills as well.
Vada really likes these Melissa and Doug Animal Magnets and I do too. They are wooden cut outs in the shapes of animals with a corresponding sticker to each shape. Seems simple enough and it is.
With these magnets we can work on speech sounds and signing..,
Vada's pincer grasp (with both her right and left hands) and she works on standing as well.
We work on identification of each animal and the personal sounds that they each make.
We work on Vada's skills to follow directions,
Someday's we bring out Vada's balance board (this day was not one of those days.) and Vada will either sit on it or step onto it and then go into a standing position, this is actually not as easy as it may sound.
I never knew the potential of toys until Vada, before her they were just plain old toys. Now toys have a whole new meaning to our family and I look at them for their leaning value. It's kind of cool that the potential of toys is like the potential of our children --never ending.
