Milestones
January 8th, 2009
Every week now Maddox is changing and growing more into a little boy. Recently added to his repertoire are grabbing, laughing out loud, holding toys, putting things in his mouth, and being distracted while nursing.
The behaviors begin slowly, then all of a sudden something clicks and he does it all the time. Like grabbing. Only recently did he start reaching for things and sort of, kind of, holding them (if you helped get his fingers around the toy), but he didn’t seem to understand what he was doing. At the early stages of reaching he wouldn’t even open his fist, just sort of hit the intended object. Now, only a week later he is reaching for, and picking up his plastic ring toys [Thanks Juniper!], and whapping them around. He is also more deliberate when hitting the bears on his chair.
Yesterday in the car he accidently dropped/threw his rings. He started complaining (and loudly). Eventually I figured out what the problem was, and handed him a new toy (since I was driving and could not reach the rings from under my seat). He was again happy. To me, that was a milestone! Him enjoying a toy, and noticing when he no longer had it, and wanting it back. It was him being aware of his surroundings. My little worm baby is officially gone. I love where Maddox is at now, but I already miss him being a little baby. They really do grow up so fast!
He is a very distracted nurser theses days. Like many things to come, it is both funny and annoying at the same time. He stares at my new CC Skye necklace, tugs at my shirt, kicks his legs, and looks at me and giggles. Every distraction results in him un-latching. Gotta say my nipples are really taking a beating! but whatever…
Today Maddox was in a great mood and full of energy. He likes to sit. A lot.
It’s pretty much his favorite thing to do. He likes to be pulled up by his hands into the sitting position. Now he’ll sort of reach out and grab on to my fingers when I hold them out for him, then he immediately tries to sit up. When lying on his back or in his car seat he leans forward pulling himself up from his chest and his neck and head. He doesn’t get very far on his own, but he works really hard at it and will be a great sitter some day. At this stage he is considered a “pre-sitter”.
It was funny the first time several weeks ago when he first tried to sit up in his car seat. He and I were driving, and I looked back in the mirror and saw him slunched over and crooked in his seat. I thought “uh-oh, the baby fell over”, and I reached back and tried to push his body up in his seat. I was met with resistance! I soon realized he was doing it on purpose and using his tiny little muscles to try to sit up!
These photos were from today when we were reading books. I had him sort of sitting up with a pillow on the far side in case he started to teeter over. I like to be able to see his facial expressions when I read to him, so now I have him sit next to me instead of on me. It’s difficult to tell sometimes if he is excited or totally over stimulated and cranky. Turns out it is always excited, but its hard to tell without looking.
He sort of, kind of turned a page all by himself! I was very excited. 😎
He was totally into the book Peek-A Who? that our neighbor gave him when he was born. I think it will be a hit for a while to come.
