SIX MONTHS!!

Today marks SIX MONTHS that Veronika and Gavyn have been home!!
It is amazing how much they have grown and how much they are now able to accomplish.

Where does the time go? This is what they looked like when they first got home six months ago....

 Six Months Later...

They have SO much personality!

So what has Veronika done since getting home?

• Learn to sit up
• Learn to army crawl
• Crawl
• Pull to a Stand
• Cruise holding onto furniture
• Sign More, All done, Eat
• Clap
• Bang pots and pans with spoons
• Self feed with pincher grasp
• Roll a ball
• Eat all solids
• Chew
• Go from sitting to standing without holding on
• Stand unaided for 5-10 seconds
• Walks holding onto someone's hands
• Splashes in water
• Drinks from a straw
• Follow simple directions such as "put the ball in the cup", "put the block in the bucket" 
• Learn to jump in the Johnny Jumper
• Turn pages in a book
• Get into everything she should not get into
• Gives kisses and hugs
• Wave, she is famous for her "thumb" wave but will also do a hand wave at times
• Babbles "dada, "eh?" (I think someone forgot to tell her we aren't Canadians), "ahh"

Veronika is bold and likes to discover everything. She has a great sense of wonder, but is VERY sensitive to others. If Gavyn is upset or crying she will also become upset. There are times when we put lotion on Gavyn to help with dry skin and if he gets upset and cries she will also become upset and sometimes even snub us for making him upset. She is serious and a thinker. She has the greatest belly laugh when tickled and loves to clap when she does something good. She is normally pretty quiet and can be sneaky about getting into things. She likes to get into EVERYTHING!

What has Gavyn done since getting home?

• Learn to sit up
• Learn to crawl
• Pull to a stand
• Sign More
• Eat all solids
• Self feed with pincher grasp
• Chew
• Walks holding onto someone's hands
• Splash in water
• Drink from a straw
• Turn pages of a book
• Follow simple directions such as "Gavyn, do NOT eat the furniture"
• Rock forwards and backwards in the Johnny Jumper
• Learn to hold on when someone is holding him
• Gives kisses and hugs
• Babbles "mama, dada, baba, bubu, eeeeee"

 Gavyn is very smiley and happy. He loves to be held and cuddled. He is also VERY strong. We have had to put industrial strength velcro onto most of their toys because he was picking them up and flipping them all over. Sometimes that would accidentally hit him or Veronika, but now with the velcro on them he is no longer able to pick them up and he can play with them appropriately.  He is very sensory seeking and wants to be tossed up in the air, swing high, or rock fast. He is going to LOVE roller coasters when he grows up. He is almost always either laughing or crying. He loves to make noises and can get quite loud. He is calm most of the time and is usually more patient than Veronika.

We are so proud of them! Happy Six Month Home Anniversary Veronika and Gavyn!!

 What are WE doing to help them reach these goals??
Before we adopted I started researching everything I could to find out how we could help them reach their fullest potential. I found books and youtube videos by Glenn Doman.
I came across this video

So we started working on teaching the to read, we started working hard on crawling. In fact once they started crawling, we followed  Glenn Doman's program and started having the crawl 1/4 mile PER DAY!!! We measured our living room and discovered if they crawled across the living room 90 times it would equal 1/4 mile. Armed with gluten free pretzels and Signing Time videos, we got them to crawl 30 times in the morning, 30 times at noon, and 30 times in the evening.
We have seen so much growth faster than we could have ever imagined!!
The greatest thing is I found his books at our library! So it didn't even cost me anything. Just time to watch the videos and time to read the books that I checked out from the library.