parents at teachers - 6 month visit -

we had penelope's six month screening visit this month from the parents as teachers lady in the affton school district - it went great!

She tested her on gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving/cognitive skills, and social/emotional skills..

well - in the gross motor area penelope is on the lower end. she is well within the normal range but not exactly super strong.. need to get her working o her belly more and on rolling over.  for sitting up she is right on track - sooo close to doing ti consistently on her own..

fine motor skills she was right in the middle of the pack - great with following objects, picking things, and engaging with object play...

she is above average on her problem solving/cognitive skills... when she drops something or throws if off the table she knows to look down for it... which apparently is an 8 month sikill.  The out of sight out of mind thing doesn't seem to apply so much anymore!  which is smart for our baby - but hard for mommy and daddy - especially when we take away something she really really wants (but is not penelope safe)

now... the area she really rocks... social/emotional! the lady was SOOO Impressed... said she had not seen a baby display such social skills so young.  penelope engages soo well with people, waits for their reactions, and actively tries to get engagement and reaction which was impressive.  But what really made her shine was actually something we have been worried about for the past month - her new found strange anxiety.  we have been worried about family members getting their feelings hurt since penelope is very cautious with new people in her environment. when the PAT lady walked in penelope looked at her very cautiously then looked back and forth between kris and i several times to gauge our reaction. She saw us smile and eventually gave her a tentative smile. PAT said that was VERY impressive and she didn't remember seeing a baby that young show that caution yet.  apparently it means her brain is learning early to process changes to her environment - so her cognitive skills are developing quickly.  we were of course impressed.  she also said that will early strange anxiety be prepared for early separation anxiety -whihc we just noticed last week when penelope got upset when we left.  again this is something that normally takes more like 9 months or a year to develop -but little bits here has decided to move up that time scale.

so overall for six months... smart but not so strong... looks like we are going to be pushing for an academic scholarship as opposed to an athletic one :)

oh - and hearing and vision are great! :)   we are very proud of the little lady's progress! 

keep up the progress smarty-pants!