At the beginning of April, my Darling Doubles club had a parent-to-parent educator come talk about activities we could do at home with things often found around the house. We tried out putting poker chips through the slot in the top of a container right away.
Emily loved the activity. It was right up her fine-motor-skills alley, and she concentrated hard, putting the chips in until the container filled up, and then she'd want to do it again and again.
Addison, on the other hand, found that the poker chips fit perfectly in her mouth.
These pictures were taken on April 5th, and at that point, Addison was much more focused on learning to walk.
Later in the month, Addie mastered walking independently.
Here she is walking to Chris on his birthday
And then, when the poker chips came back out on the 23rd, Addison was ready to focus on her fine motor skills.
Here's a little video of Emily putting clothespins in a container (another riveting game) and Addie putting poker chips through the slot. Addie is shirtless because she's also learned how to take off her own shirt, and for a little while she was doing it constantly.
Oh, and here's what happens with Addie's shirts when she's taken them off. (Emily must see us doing this often as there's a lot of spilled milk in this house!
Last night when I was cleaning up toys, I picked up our wooden disk stacking toy and asked Chris if he did this:
He swore he hadn't. Emily has been getting the hang of getting the little hole to line up with the peg, but neither of us had ever seen her stack them according to size. She must have done this while I was making dinner. Tonight, we tested her to see if we could watch her repeat this amazing feat. She mixed up the red and dark orange, but she does seem to be getting the pattern down.
Moments like these fill us with such pride! Watching Emily stack the disks, deliberately choosing which one would come next, was so exciting. I think Chris and I were both ready to climb to the top of the roof to tell the world what a smart little girl we have.
But wait...there's more!
This morning, Addison was in the living room while I was in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast. A suspicious quiet, followed by the crunching of leaves brought me in to find this:
She had used a push toy to climb up onto the table so that she could reach the plant. When I walked in and she saw the surprise on my face, the biggest grin spread out on hers.
Addison has been taking one step away from furniture for quite some time, but on Friday, April 6th, she took four steps from a chair to me. We had spent the afternoon with Enslea, and after Bree came to pick her up, Addie was standing by the front window, saying goodbye to her friend. Then she turned around, and took four steps away from the door. I was so excited I grabbed her up and rushed out to the driveway, where Bree was loading Enslea into the car. I had to share the big news! Then, two days later on Easter Sunday, Addison became a true walker. She was walking 4, 5, and 6 steps all over the place (and receiving lots of cheers from the Nicolls, which probably helped keep her going!) After Easter, though, it was back to crawling and single steps away from safe handholds.
But this morning, that table climb must have boosted her confidence, because the rest of the day she walked in little bursts all day long. We managed to get a little of it on tape this evening.
Emily and Addison are changing, growing, and learning so much and so quickly. They amaze us every day and fill our lives with so much joy.
