New Skills

Andrina has been changing by leaps and bounds lately. Here's a summary of her development I've noticed over the past month:

Listening/Paying Attention: I remember months ago watching Andrina at preschool while a book was being read. She paid no attention to it. Today I picked her up from preschool and the teacher was reading a book to the class. So I stayed in the hall and watched (Andrina's back was to me so she didn't know I was there). Andrina paid attention to the book through the end and then even answered a question correctly that the teacher asked about the story!

Emotional Development: I have not seen Andrina suck on her fingers for about a month now. And yesterday when we were together I had something on my mind and I was not paying attention to her because I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts. Andrina came up to me and said, "Mommy, are you ok?"

Physical development: Andrina has much better balance on a balance beam. She can walk several feet and stay on it. She pursues and accomplishes climbing up the ladders and rock walls that are for the "big kids" on playground equipment. They are about 6 feet of climbing. Andrina is also now comfortable to jump off of equipment onto thick mats by herself at Gymboree.

Social Skills: A few months ago various kids that were not much older than her tried playing with her at playgrounds. Some would tell her their names, others would come up to her and try to take her hand to lead her to go play with them. I would tell Andrina that it was ok to play with the kids and that she could say to them, "I'm Andrina. What's your name?" Well two days ago not only did she do this but we were the only people at a playground when I girl about 7 years old came and was playing by herself on the monkey bars. Andrina said to me, "look, there's a girl over there!" and then ran over to her and said, "I'm Andrina!" The girl was not interested in playing with her but I was impressed with Andrina's progress. It was very cute too!

It's still surreal to me to see her grow and develop before my eyes. Just these changes feel like they happened overnight.