Our little boy is growing up so fast. Over the past month, he seems to have learned a lot of new tricks, and his daddy and I are still trying to catch up. Oh boy! Here are a few highlights of the past month:
- Sippy vs. Straw?: Although we've started him with the sippy a while back, he seems to have gotten better at it the past month. There are lesser spills (from his mouth) and lesser fluid left in the cup. He must be swallowing it now (where else would it go?!). He also started drinking from a straw. At first we'd let him play with our drinks since we knew he can't suck from it, but we stopped this bad habit after seeing a tapioca pearl inch its way up the straw. (That day, we couldn't figure out which emotion triumphed the moment: being proud of him for his new trick or being stunned by the possibility of him choking because of our carelessness). It's still a toss up which of the two methods he prefers. Lately though, he wants to drink straight from the water bottle (no spout or straw). I guess which ever method mommy uses for herself is what he'll want to do... such a mommy copycat!
- Crawling: After he learned how to get up on his fours, he started crawling shortly. Thanks to his lean physique, he was able to lift his body well and master cross crawling in no time. Now there's no stopping him from crawling (bed, wood, carpet, grass) and he'll get up to "practice" even at 3 in the morning when everyone in the house, including him, is still half asleep!
- Scaling and climbing: I can't remember if he started creeping up the furniture first before he learned to crawl. I just remembered it happened in a flash! I was busy figuring out where the flash setting on my BB was. Before I finished setting the flash, there he was giggling next to my BB. Since then, he'd always force his way up the crib, the couch, his toys, the coffee table, etc. He'd climb over sleeping mommy, daddy and anything that comes in his way. Once, he attempted to climb up the stairs (supervised by mommy and daddy, of course!). He got up a few steps before we had to cut his trip short (we realized we haven't vacuumed the stairs recently!). He has such a brave, adventurous, playful and ultra persistent spirit pushing him to get mobile fast. (Sooner or later, though, he'll get off-balanced and knock himself off to the floor. Poor boy's head is bumped and bruised from all his adventures!)
- Teething: His lower two front teeth came out this month. Boy did he became really irritated and ultra drooly! (as if he wasn't already!) More about this in a story to follow...
- Finger foods: We started feeding him with finger foods the past month. During his doctor's check-up at 7.5 months, our doc asked us if we've started giving him finger foods. I confidently said "No. He doesn't have teeth!" Well I should have kept my mouth shut to spare me from the "dummy mom" embarrassment. Apparently, they do not need teeth for that. So now, he enjoys his o-shaped cereals so much. He dunks his whole hand into the tray/bowl but manages to pick up the o's with his forefinger and thumb most of the time. Now he just has to learn how to get a grip on them long enough until they reach his mouth.
- Word Association: "Where is lolo? Where is lola?" (looks at his portrait with his paternal grandparents on the wall) "Where is grandma's portrait?" (looks at grandma's painting on the wall) "Where is Boogie?" (looks at Uncle Randy's picture with Boogie on the shelf). "Where is Mickey?" (looks at the Mickey Mouse balloon in the room). "Where is Mama Mary?" (looks at the altar). He knows how to identify his favorite people and objects.
- Babbling: Babbling is not new to him but the volume and the expanded range of syllables is new to us! He says a lot of different things now and often they correspond to what we're talking about at the moment ("Chi" for Poochi - grandma's dog, "boo-ie" for Boogie - lolo's dog, "Mama Mey" for Mama Mary, "Bat Ta" for bath tub). We're not sure whether he knows what he's saying or everything is just pure co-incidence, but whatever it is, we find it really cute!
