Nine Months Part 2

To keep with the form of 6 months, I'm breaking this post up a little, and to give you time to read part one, while I'm pecking away at part two. A Note about food lately, if he doesn’t like what you are feeding him, he closes his eyes, wrinkles his nose and looks down.  After a moment or two he peeks up to see if the spoon is still there.  He is such a turkey.

Milestones checklist From CDC website –

Social and Emotional

May be afraid of Strangers – we have been working on this not happening for a long time.  If anyone (within reason) wants to hold him they can.  He gets to visit with a lot of people when at church, provided he is awake.  He still has a bit of a hard time with men however, especially if they don’t have facial hair, as most of the men he has been exposed to have beards.

May be clingy with familiar adults -  Spencer has his moments, when he wants to be with someone, or he gets upset if you leave the room.  We are trying to not encourage this too much. 

Has favorite toys – He definitely has a couple favorites.  Still he loves this soft red ball/rattle, we have this toy we call “Spin a Letter” shown below, and now he is liking ride on toys that make noise, he doesn’t quite know how to push them along yet, but likes to be pushed around or just sit on them and play with the levers and steering wheel etc.

Language/Communication

Understands “no” – The biggest time we use that word is when he sticks something in his mouth to the point he chokes on it.  He does this repeatedly, and it is showing a hard habit to break.  Lately I’ve just been taking whatever it was away.  This also gets used when he is reaching for the quilt we have hung above his change table, or when he is reaching for the outlet (which does have safety covers) in the bathroom after his shower.   When he hears “no” he stops what he is doing and then decides if he wants to continue to do it anyway, which involves further action from us.

Makes a lot of different sounds like “mamamam” and “bababa”- The Maaamaaa happened a long time ago, Spencer kind of took a break from babbling in general for a little while around 7-8 months, but he is starting up again with a vengeance.  He now does mamama, yayaya, sometimes da, and ba.  Ah and Eh are common sounds as well.   

Copies sounds and gestures of others – He has been working on sounds copied.  It usually starts with him making a sound and I’ll copy and then he copies back, and we do this repeatedly.  He doesn’t seem to copy gestures yet though.  Hopefully that is going to start soon enough. 

Cognitive (Learning, thinking, problem-solving)

Watches the path of something as it falls – Yes, he has been following objects for a while now.  The got it, drop it game with actual purpose has started recently.  We try not to perpetuate that too much, usually if he drops it, we put it away, and then he doesn’t have the toy, thus this hasn’t been too much of a game so far.

Looks for things he see you hide – He is starting to understand the inside things concept.  About a week ago he noticed where I put the toys, in bins on the shelves.  He has started to try and pull the bins out and pull out toys, as well as toys that fit things inside them he now knows to look inside for the letters or blocks etc.

Plays Peek a Boo - He loves this game.  He will sometimes put things over his face and pull it off for you to say peek a boo.  He also knows to lean over to peek around a corner or over a chair to see your face to play peek a boo.

Puts things into his mouth – This has been happening from the day he grabbed things.  They went directly into his mouth. 

Moves things smoothly from one hand to the other – This has also been happening for a long time.  He is probably going to have better coordination than I do. 

Picks up things like cereal o’s between thumb and index finger – He can pick up cheerios/puffed wheat and reasonably get it into his mouth to eat.  The pincer grasp still needs some work, but is coming along. 

Movement/Phisical Development

Stands, holding on – He has been one to stand for a long time.  He pulled himself up to standing with our fingers at 13 weeks.  His stance is definitely getting better though. 

Can get into sitting position – This is still a work in progress.  I’m not sure what I can do to help along though.  He can sit very well, but can’t go from laying down to sitting without assistance. 

Sits without support – Spencer is a good sitter.  He started sitting unassisted around 6 months and has been improving since.

Pulls to stand – This happened today (09/15/14).  He was sitting in his “zoo” enclosure and he used the door portion to pull himself up.  (The door is thinner for his hands to grasp).

Crawls – So far he has been a roll and pivot little boy.  He can now get onto all fours pretty well and wants to crawl so bad, but isn’t quite there.  He can also get into the teepee position, but usually falls over pretty quickly.