Monday, March 21, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Subject Z: 6-Month Developmental Report
The last few weeks have been full of new developments in Zain's world, which probably explains why I haven't made a real blog post in awhile. There's a lot going on here!
It seems like as soon as he hit six months, he turned into a more capable, more grown-up little guy. He's sitting pretty well on his own now. Still quite a few "boofs", as Mummy calls it when he falls over (and if you say "boof!" when he does it, he'll laugh hysterically), but he can stay upright for a long time and will make corrections if he starts to tip.
Rolling is still a work in progress. He's very good at going back-to-front, but has only gone from his tummy to his back a couple times. Those rolls have either occurred when we're not looking or when we entice him by holding a toy overhead and he accidentally boofs right over while trying to see it. (Note this is apparently is the reverse of the way most babies do it - most go tummy to back first.) His new rolling skills have presented some challenges. He's a total squirmy worm now on the change table. He loves to roll side-to-side and onto his tummy while you're changing him. Constantly. While singing. Sometimes when I'm trying to put on a diaper or snap up a sleeper I feel like I'm doing a challenge on Survivor or the Amazing Race. The million-dollar challenge being, of course, trying to get a poopy diaper (and they are massive now that he's on solid food) off his squirming, squealing body without him getting his exploratory little hands in the mess.
So, in addition to the squirming, we have the very beginnings of locomotion. Within the last week, he's started raising his bum sometimes when he's on his tummy and he does a tiny little army crawl at times. He'll usually only do it on the soft bed and only if there's some really awesome toy just out of his reach. But there are definitely signs that he will be crawling sometime soon. Must baby-proof .....
Lots of other signs of the little guy turning into a bigger guy. He has started sort of reaching out for us to pick him up at times. He'll occasionally show a preference when you try to hand him off to someone else. He might reach a little toward the person or pull back and snuggle into your shoulder. He's also starting communicating verbally a bit more. Unfortunately, we've discovered that whining as a childhood communication technique starts really early! He went through a really fussy week a few weeks ago, but he seems back to normal lately.
He's recently started using his first consonants. It started with a slurred B/V delivered with a funny little slurpy overbite. Then, last week, he discovered the M and it is now very popular. Occasionally, we'll get both in the same sentence. Just in the last couple days, he seems to really be trying to communicate with his "words". He'll give us a very intent and serious "mum mum mum mum", usually when he's eating and wants more.
Zain is, in general, very.... how should I say it... verbal. Noisy, loud, and chatterbox might be other words you could use. He is just pretty much the happiest human being I know and he likes to communicate his happiness. He's constantly singing, squealing, or chatting. Often at a very high volume and pitch. He also has a smile for every occasion. The biggest ones are reserved for when a mommy walks into the room, peekaboo, and his favourite books. He also has a big, deep laugh that we can occasionally get out of him. The aforementioned exclamation of "boof!" usually does it, as does a good tickle. If he's in a very silly mood, peekaboo or some other game can get it out of him. Sometimes he just seems to be in the mood to laugh and will start to cackle before you've even fully peekaboo-ed.
He actually does have some quiet time, too. He's very curious, as he has been since Day 1, so he can spend a lot of time by himself exploring a toy. Getting the video monitor has been a real eye-opener, too. There are a lot of times when he's completely quiet and before we would have thought he was asleep, but he's actually in there just staring into space or playing gently with his cuddly toy, sleep sack, or crib.
And besides all this evidence of him getting "bigger", he's also getting bigger literally. He weighs about 18 pounds now. When we get together with other babies from our prenatal class, most of whom are older than him, he looks like a monster baby. He's wearing some 12-month clothes now. And the six-month growth spurt has obviously hit, because he suddenly started chowing down this week. For his solid food meal, we would usually give him one ice-cube sized portion of fruit or vegetable, and maybe a teaspoon or so of cereal. All of a sudden last week, he was eating three cubes of food and few tablespoons of cereal in one sitting.
So our little boy is getting bigger. In some ways, it seems like this six months has flown by and in others it feels like he's been here forever. Other than a few challenges with his sleep and our sleep deprivation a few months ago, it has pretty much been blissful. The little guy is just so much fun. He's happy happy happy and completely adorable. We spend a lot of time each day just staring at him. :-)
A few pics from the last couple weeks:
It seems like as soon as he hit six months, he turned into a more capable, more grown-up little guy. He's sitting pretty well on his own now. Still quite a few "boofs", as Mummy calls it when he falls over (and if you say "boof!" when he does it, he'll laugh hysterically), but he can stay upright for a long time and will make corrections if he starts to tip.
Rolling is still a work in progress. He's very good at going back-to-front, but has only gone from his tummy to his back a couple times. Those rolls have either occurred when we're not looking or when we entice him by holding a toy overhead and he accidentally boofs right over while trying to see it. (Note this is apparently is the reverse of the way most babies do it - most go tummy to back first.) His new rolling skills have presented some challenges. He's a total squirmy worm now on the change table. He loves to roll side-to-side and onto his tummy while you're changing him. Constantly. While singing. Sometimes when I'm trying to put on a diaper or snap up a sleeper I feel like I'm doing a challenge on Survivor or the Amazing Race. The million-dollar challenge being, of course, trying to get a poopy diaper (and they are massive now that he's on solid food) off his squirming, squealing body without him getting his exploratory little hands in the mess.
So, in addition to the squirming, we have the very beginnings of locomotion. Within the last week, he's started raising his bum sometimes when he's on his tummy and he does a tiny little army crawl at times. He'll usually only do it on the soft bed and only if there's some really awesome toy just out of his reach. But there are definitely signs that he will be crawling sometime soon. Must baby-proof .....
Lots of other signs of the little guy turning into a bigger guy. He has started sort of reaching out for us to pick him up at times. He'll occasionally show a preference when you try to hand him off to someone else. He might reach a little toward the person or pull back and snuggle into your shoulder. He's also starting communicating verbally a bit more. Unfortunately, we've discovered that whining as a childhood communication technique starts really early! He went through a really fussy week a few weeks ago, but he seems back to normal lately.
He's recently started using his first consonants. It started with a slurred B/V delivered with a funny little slurpy overbite. Then, last week, he discovered the M and it is now very popular. Occasionally, we'll get both in the same sentence. Just in the last couple days, he seems to really be trying to communicate with his "words". He'll give us a very intent and serious "mum mum mum mum", usually when he's eating and wants more.
Zain is, in general, very.... how should I say it... verbal. Noisy, loud, and chatterbox might be other words you could use. He is just pretty much the happiest human being I know and he likes to communicate his happiness. He's constantly singing, squealing, or chatting. Often at a very high volume and pitch. He also has a smile for every occasion. The biggest ones are reserved for when a mommy walks into the room, peekaboo, and his favourite books. He also has a big, deep laugh that we can occasionally get out of him. The aforementioned exclamation of "boof!" usually does it, as does a good tickle. If he's in a very silly mood, peekaboo or some other game can get it out of him. Sometimes he just seems to be in the mood to laugh and will start to cackle before you've even fully peekaboo-ed.
He actually does have some quiet time, too. He's very curious, as he has been since Day 1, so he can spend a lot of time by himself exploring a toy. Getting the video monitor has been a real eye-opener, too. There are a lot of times when he's completely quiet and before we would have thought he was asleep, but he's actually in there just staring into space or playing gently with his cuddly toy, sleep sack, or crib.
And besides all this evidence of him getting "bigger", he's also getting bigger literally. He weighs about 18 pounds now. When we get together with other babies from our prenatal class, most of whom are older than him, he looks like a monster baby. He's wearing some 12-month clothes now. And the six-month growth spurt has obviously hit, because he suddenly started chowing down this week. For his solid food meal, we would usually give him one ice-cube sized portion of fruit or vegetable, and maybe a teaspoon or so of cereal. All of a sudden last week, he was eating three cubes of food and few tablespoons of cereal in one sitting.
So our little boy is getting bigger. In some ways, it seems like this six months has flown by and in others it feels like he's been here forever. Other than a few challenges with his sleep and our sleep deprivation a few months ago, it has pretty much been blissful. The little guy is just so much fun. He's happy happy happy and completely adorable. We spend a lot of time each day just staring at him. :-)
A few pics from the last couple weeks:
 |
| This toy can keep him busy for a long time |
 |
| Serious investigation |
 |
| Trying to induce the army crawl |
 |
| Learning about snow (don't worry, we were only out there for like 10 seconds) |
 |
| Loving the snow! |
 |
| Testing out the snowsuit |
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)