2323After a good month of taking only 7 or 8 steps at a time, Arden is finally walking regularly on her own. It was actually a fairly sudden development, sparked by some special shoes that Arden received on Friday.

Our friend Carissa suggested that Arden might feel more comfortable walking in some shoes with a hard sole, so while she and Gilly were out shopping, Carissa had Arden try on a pair of See Kai Run Melody shoes, just to see what would happen. Arden immediately proceeded to walk around the entire store unaided and refused to take the shoes off. Needless to say, Gilly happily purchased the shoes and Arden walked out of the store with them on.

I’m not sure what was so magical about those particular shoes, but Arden is now walking all over the place with or without her shoes on, so she seems to have finally embraced the idea of walking. Here’s a video clip of her in action (I took it with my phone, so you’ll have to forgive the quality). After losing her balance she reverts to her unique scooting method, but she’s perfectly capable of standing back up when she wants to.

arden_walks

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As many of you know, Arden has been using the potty with variable consistency from the age of 6 weeks. Recently, however, she’s had some pretty major breakthroughs. She has started to give us the potty sign (a shaken fist in the form of the ASL letter ‘T’) and is therefore using fewer and fewer diapers every day (we continue to use the biodegradable and flushable gDiapers). She’s very good about telling us when she needs to poop, and is even starting to tell us when she only needs to pee. She has even used the potty sign successfully at daycare, much to the amazement of Susan, who runs the daycare.

Some people have asked us if elimination communication (EC) is worth the extra time and trouble. Strangely enough, we don’t see it as being any more trouble than conventional diapering. In fact, we much prefer taking her to the potty than having to deal with the mess of a poopy diaper. You should see the firedrill that ensues when I (Penn) have to actually deal with a poopy diaper. Does it take extra time? Yes, I suppose so, but potty time usually involves a lot of talking, signing, and reading with Arden, so it ends up being time well spent.

We really didn’t start trying EC with a goal of early potty training (although we certainly hoped for that as a nice side effect). Our real goal was nuturing early communication with Arden and helping her learn how to control her body, both of which can be very empowering for an infant or toddler.

Anyway, the bottom line is that EC is not the hassle you might expect it to be and I can guarantee that a trip to the potty beats a diaper blowout any day.

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Arden’s signing vocabulary exploded last weekend! She loves to watch a pair of videos by the folks at Signing Time.

Here’s a list of her current signs:

dog
horse
sleep
eat
more
all done
frog
fish
ball (also still used to reference the moon)
apple
cracker
daddy
shoes
hat
coat
phone
car
bird

She’s constantly identifying and labeling things, which is really fun for us. Feel free to try some with her next time you see her.

Her current spoken words include:

dog
thank you
hi
down
mama
all done
meow (when asked what a cat says)

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We joined the Galants over Labor Day weekend to cheer on Grandpa Daniel in the Disney half-marathon and visit with Grandma PJ. Arden, Gilly and Penn set out on Friday morning for a biodiesel-powered road trip to Anaheim. Things were fine until we came down the grapevine and hit 3 hours of L.A. traffic! Arden was an angel and handled the miserable stop-and-go traffic much better than the adults in the car!

We stayed at the Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, which was beautiful and had convenient direct access to Disney’s California Adventure park. Arden loved playing in the lobby with Auntie Kayla and spending lots of quality time sleeping in the stroller with Grandma PJ while we snuck onto a few grown-up rides.

We didn’t run into The Mouse but we did get some one-on-one with Mary Poppins and Grandma got to buy Arden her first pair of ears.

Arden really enjoyed the hotel pools and was finally motivated to start taking some official steps on her own. HALLELUJAH! We’ll try to post some video of her walking if we can catch her in the act. It was extra special that Grandma, Grandpa and Kayla were there to see it.

The road trip home was filled with lots of Elizabeth Mitchell music and a few rest stops, but fun was definitely had by all.

Thanks to the Galants for making the trip possible!

**Check out some Disney photos under the Arden by Month – September 2008 section in the gallery.

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I almost hesitate to put this in writing for fear of jinxing it, but Arden has slept all the way through night for the last two nights in a row and three out of the last four nights. Those of you who know us well are probably aware that night waking is one of the few struggles that we’ve had to endure with Arden. Being able to enjoy a full night’s sleep on a regular basis would be so fantastic, I can’t even put it into words.

So, keep your fingers crossed that sleeping through the night becomes a regular occurrence for her. We’ll all be better for it.

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Arden may have been caught, twice now, saying “thank you”; once to Penn, and once at daycare.

That’s another first for the  month we can get behind!

Now if we can just keep her from throwing her food…

“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others.  If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter which fork you use.”  ~Emily Post

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