Month 8 Week 1: On the move!

B is officially on the move!  After belly scooting, creeping, butt rocking for weeks, he finally crawled when he turned 8 months.  I've attached a video of his bouncy-butt-jerky-crawl :)

Here's a fun list of the types of baby crawls....  Onwards, B!

Month 7 Week 4: Reading, signing, talking ... and teething!

We started reading and signing to B around 4 months with basic words (milk, eat, drink, sleep, bathe, book, car, plane, etc.), black/white picture and touch books with simple words, rhymes and numbers.   Lately, he likes colourful peek-a-boo books with foldable, pull out tabs/toys and books with real baby photos and different textures. He still loves nursery rhymes and songs that we make up/"bastard"ize and use every day.  Evidently children use familiar words and rhymes in their speaking vocabulary at a more rapid pace as well as contexts and concepts such as counting, time, measurement, position, and weather. B reaches out to pick/grab books when he sees them, and seems to engage and focus quite well when we read to him. Since he can't talk, sing or sign back yet, I take this to mean that he understands more by now....! He does babble a lot at times and experiments with his tongue for pitches and inflections to indicate that he's curious, wants yes/no, sleepy/tired, bored, happy, satisfied, etc.

 

Meanwhile, B now has 6 teeth!  That's a record among his peers who have on average 2 teeth.  He got the 2 lower central incisors at 6 months and then the 4 upper incisors (central and lateral) over the past few weeks.  Ouch! While the teething resulted in plenty of sleepless nights, seeing his pearly whites makes all those groggy pats/cuddles/rocking worth it. I hope there'll be a brief respite so that he can eventually settle back to sleep "through the night" again (i.e. sleep by 8p, may wake briefly 1-2x but settles back on his own, real waking at 6/7a to start the day). Also, he seems to put everything in his mouth these days -- that is, everything BUT his actual teethers.  What irony.

Physically, he's pushing up to stand wherever he can -- cot, sofa, toystool, etc. though he tends to tiptoe still.  He continues to creep, roll, turn, scoot backwards, rock and bounce as he tries to move more than 2 steps forward. We've installed our window grills and bought a play "fence"  - waiting for him to crawl for real!  Guess B's been too busy growing teeth to focus on his crawling this past few weeks :)

Read more:
http://www.parenting.com/article/best-books-for-every-baby-stage
http://www.rwitap.com
http://www.babycenter.com/0_developmental-milestone-talking_6573.bc?
http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-childs-teething-and-tooth-loss-timeline_10356447.bc?
http://www.teethingtips.com/teething-symptoms-and-why-it-hurts/

Month 6 Week 4: Halfway there

This time last year, we were chillaxing in Langkawi for our babymoon/anniversary and I was anticipating my new life with a baby. Not once though did I imagine I'd be a full time mom, let alone enjoy it, most of the time.  This year, we took a staycation at Sentosa - what a strange feeling to be babyfree for 24 hours!  We slept in, ate well and talked about our hopes and dreams for the future including the possibilities ahead of us now that both my parents have long term passes and I've received my in-principle Singapore citizenship, as well as when to start work and/or try for #2! :)   My dad and mom kindly babysat for us -- and sent me regular SMS updates, heh.


B unfortunately caught his first bug which laid the entire household out sick for 2 weeks.  Just when he was sleeping through the night without too much hassle or training, it all went to shambles.  May need to tweak his daily routine to support later morning wake ups (he's up 5/6a and ready to go, argh), him lasting longer in the afternoons and most importantly, learning to sleep on his own again.  At the moment, he still needs 3 naps in the day and sadly, rocking to drift to sleep, else, he'll get quite cranky.  Besides this relapse, there's much to be thankful for.  Feels like he's growing by leaps and bounds every day:

- Proud owner of 2 bottom front teeth! :D  Ironically, his first tooth came the day after his 6 month celeb 

- Sitting steadily upright, rocking back and forth on his tummy, scoots backwards, moves in a circle with his legs and arms, basically can't stay still. Crawling soon?  

- Fascinated with his fingers, loves to touch, enjoys finger rhymes/games, being tickled esp on his feet and tummy.  Also continuing to learn basic baby sign language
- Loves swimming but our condo pool isn't the best for infants. May sign him up for Aquaducks instead

- Goes to weekly playgroups now with similar aged infants from my condo complex and our local meet up groups. We take turns to host at our homes.  I'm looking forward to other parent and child activities for us too, including Reggio Emilia discovery at the Blue House.  Quite keen to expose him to this environment

- Saying consonant combo strings now:  babababa, googaa ... still no mama though :(

- Food purees tried so far: avocado, chicken, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, onions, potatoes, spinach, sweet beans, radish, apple, pear, blueberry, plum, mango, papaya, chickpeas, beetroot (not such a fan on the last two tho!)

- Started weaning.  50% mommy, 50% formula milk now. Ahhh... it's really quite manageable now, though I will still try to gradually decrease (vs cold turkey!)

Month 6 Week 1: Happy Mother's Day