Warning: in this post I rave shamelessly about my child.
Just because I haven't been diligent in reporting little one's progress it doesn't mean that he has been quiet, on the contrary! In the last month and a half we have witnessed truly amazing changes - you have to be there day after day with a baby to appreciate how incredible it all is.
I wanted to post this for the seven month birthday, but I am late as usual. Still, you can sort of consider this as a seven month update.
- Rajiv started crawling around his six month birthday and in a few days he was already moving quite fast, especially towards sharp corners, hard obstacles and such. After about two weeks he was able to get off the bed on his own (I remind you once more that we are taking about a height of the order of ten centimeters here, but also consider that he is not much taller than that when he crawls...). He attracted lots of comments at the office for his early skills - good moments of motherly and fatherly pride! ;)
- But of course his real dream is standing and walking, we have an ambitious kid! He pulled up to stand once in his early crawling days, but he only started doing it consistently after we came to India. Now when he is in the playpen he spends most of the time standing against the walls and looking mischievously at us - and biting the edges of the playpen, of course.
When we put him on the floor he practices pulling himself up using every piece of furniture he can find or the walls. He used to be quite unstable at first, but now he doesn't fall down very much - although it is painful when he does, so we follow him closely.
If you take his hands he immediately stands up and enjoys being walk around. - The next step in baby development should be "cruising", i.e. walking sideways holding on to something like a bed or a table. He attempted a couple of steps this way only once with some success. Sometimes he looks like he is trying to do it, but when he releases one hand he falls backwards. Fortunately he attempts this only when he is in the playpen, so his falls are well cushioned...
- I mentioned in my six month report that he seemed to be taking his time with "speaking". Well, about a week after I wrote that he started babbling, saying "BABABA" and even "BLABLABLA"! (Kelly interpreted it as a bored reaction to her chatter...) His favourite sound is still "G" though and you can tell he is happy if he says "GHIIIIII!".
- He definitely distinguishes between different songs now. If I sing something he hasn't heard before usually he will look puzzled, but if I sing one of his favorites almost invariably he smiles. We also have different songs for different purposes: "La gatta" to relax at feeding time, a counting elephants song for sleep, "Volare" for playtime and, for some reason, an over the top version of "La paloma" seems to have become the toilet song...
- I kept for last what is to me the most amazing fact.
In the playpen there is a music box that has a plastic fish hanging from each side. If you pull one of the fish, two similar fish start swimming in a circle inside the box (you can see them through the transparent plastic screen) with a funny music accompanied by laughing sounds (the fish are having fun and so they laugh).
Anyway, the point is that I thought this toy was way too advanced for a child his age, but instead about a month ago I saw that he was trying to pull the fish himself. At the beginning it was frustrating for him, because he knew what he wanted to do but it was hard for him to reach the fish and he wasn't very precise with his movements yet. Soon enough though he got it and even in the middle of the night if I put it in the playpen to take a break he would "jump" towards the fish and pull them to start the "fish dance" inside the box.
In short, this is called understanding cause and effect. Now isn't it amazing?
No comments:
Post a Comment