From birth, Austen focused on physical development. Kicking legs, using hands, pulling up, cruising, walking, running, climbing and now jumping.
At around a year, she started focusing on speech, first understanding it and then using it. She now constructs new sentences every day. Currently, her focus is on behavior and what she is and isn’t supposed to do. As she lies down to sleep, she alternates between singing current Music Together songs and talking to herself about stuff she’s learned that day: “Don’t kick Mama,” “Don’t pull Guss’ tale,” “Say hi to your friends,” “Go pee pee in the potty,” “Don’t eat the soap. It doesn’t taste good” …