RECENT PROGRESS

Alice's progress:

• Walking - is improving daily, she's still inclined to look a bit like John Wayne with the horse shot out from underneath him, but she's getting steadier and faster all the time. Her dancing is now moving round the room with a strange stomp walking to it too!
• Talking - intonation and syllable patterns are very accurate and she's making more sounds too, sounds are increasingly recognisable. B tends to be D in Alice's world. Cows ('ows' for Alice) go 'Boo' not moo! Cats (no word yet) say 'Ow' as in 'Me-ow'! If in doubt somethings are 'Ducks' but mostly 'Dogs' - it's a great complement from Alice to be called 'Dog' as they're her favourite things! Beware of horse though - Alice says horse but it sounds like '@rse'!!
  

• Signing - her sign language is exploding. She signs for milk all the time, with determination and cheekiness - difficult to describe how she does this but she's definitely got attitude first thing in the morning!! She's also using 'All Done', 'More', 'Home' and 'Bird' (?) with great accuracy and no prompting. We watch the first signing DVD and I've just bought the next one with high hopes, even if we make no further progress with signing we've already felt the benefits with these few words making life more peaceful and the pride Alice has when being understood is so satisfying for both of us.
• Playing - she's very fond of pushing her baby buggy - but without a passenger! She continues to adore books and demands 'Up!' to be read to many times a day. She loves playing with anything if you'll join her in the game. Anything becomes a game if repeated more than twice and a great giggle will come too. She continues to be an adrenalin junky and will undoubtedly be the source of many grey hairs in the years to come with her love of adventure and risk taking. She loves to bounce anywhere, but when in the playroom and bouncing on the sofa, she will tell me 'No-no,' and point to the trampoline! Cuddlies are still great favourites, giving them kisses and cuddles, giving them to Mummy for Mummy to give them kisses and cuddles, making 2 of them give each other kisses - she's very affectionate with cuddlies, friends, dogs and especially Mummy!

• Teeth - the final of the 1st set of 4 molars (bottom left) is coming through - causing lots of finger chewing and dribbling but luckily (so far) she's been quite jolly with this one - at least it's coming through on it's own, this will make 16 altogether.
• Attitude - she's determined and demanding but compliant (usually)! She's now transferring rules between different scenarios - while we were away last week I told her not to touch a fig tree in my GM's kitchen, when we got to GFW's she indicated to me that she wasn't allowed to touch their weeping fig - she went close to it, almost touched a leaf and told me 'No-no!'
  

Other people have told me that she's smart and beautiful.

• Smart? I don't know, I know that I continue to be amazed by what she does but I don't know how clever she is in relation to other children and with such different life experiences in her first year comparisons are difficult and besides - what do they achieve?
  
• Beautiful - I think so, but then I'm her Mum, her No1 fan, I'm biased. I don't know if she's a true beauty on the outside, but I know that she has a remarkable spirit and a happy nature - that's important and a lot more important than the lovely packaging that it comes in!