Can't hold me back

I usually don't do monthly updates on what Madie is doing every month but in the past month she has sky rocketed in so many areas I thought I should write it down.

Verbal Development:
She sings all of the following:
Dad, Mom, Thank you, Please, Food, More, Car, Hat, Shoes, Hot (which pretty much looks like Thank You and like blowing kisses but we will take it) Rain, Sun, Bath, Washing hands, 'Oh No!' and I am pretty sure there are a few more in there that I can't think of at the moment.

Blowing a kiss while James plays peek-a-boo

Some she is better at than others. Some I can just say the word and she does it and others I do the actions and she will do them with me. 'Dad' is still her best and she signs it whenever I say Dad or when she sees him. She is a pro at that one.

She does all the actions to four songs 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', 'Patty Cake', 'Slippery Fish', and 'I'm a Gonna Drive My Car' (A song from Library time). The only thing is don't ask her to do them on the spot. The only time she will do ALL the actions is sitting in front of the mirror while I sing then she miraculously does all the actions with no prompting from me. I guess she likes to watch herself. Like so:

And the biggest one yet!!! She said her first word "up"! She has been really clingy lately, mostly I think do to some crazy amounts of teething including molars and is always wanting me to pick her up. Usually before I will pick her up I sign 'up' and then pick her up. I guess she decided it would be easier to say 'up' than sign it. She will say 'mama' and 'dada' however we can't really get those on demand or really in context. The only time she says 'mama' is when she wants more food and I am too slow getting it to her.

Motor Skills:
Well from the previous post you can see that she is walking and even since then she is taking off. I can't turn my back with out her climbing up on some furniture and heading across the living room. It terrifies me because I never know when she is going to take off and she falls A LOT. However, I don't think I have ever heard her cry from falling, she usually just laughs and takes off some where new.

She is also getting much better at climbing. This may not seem like a big deal to some but is a huge deal around here. One of the reasons we got her braces that goes all the way up to her knee is because she was very stiff legged and even when we were manually trying to get her to lift her leg, or bend her knees, she would fight like crazy against us. I guess the braces are doing their job because she is climbing into everything. I have to move her crib down again because I went in and she was trying to swing her leg over the bar. Unsuccessfully fortunately. I couldn't decided if I should be mad or super excited. Instead I just moved her crib a down a notch.

Showing off her climbing skill which often includes climbing completely inside the cupboard and emptying from the inside out. 

Social Skills:
I don't know that this is an area that Madie ever lacked in seeing as she pretty much the friendliest child ever and still tries to go and see every store clerk we see just because she wants to say hi to anyone who will look her way. But she is interacting more with other kids her age instead of just crawling around after them every where they went, or trying to maul them with love.

There is another little girl in our apartment complex that just LOVES Madie. When ever we go to the apartment playground and she is there she doesn't leave Madie's side. She sits down and hugs her like crazy and then tries to get her to stand up and walk around with her. Instead I take Madie's hand and help her walk while her new friend takes hold of her other hand and walks with her. Madie now loves holding hands with other kids, especially her special friend. A month ago she would only ever hold my hand. She wouldn't even hold her Dad's or James although he sure tried. I want to get a picture sometime but usually I am so busy trying to keep the girls from face planting on the cement that pictures don't really happen.

Madie has certainly taught me about true determination if any body ever has. She is constantly proving to me that you can do anything you put your mind to no matter what. According to nearly every book or stat that we get about Down Syndrome Madie ignores and proves wrong. It makes me wonder what I am could truly accomplish if I didn't worry about what the world says I can and can't do.