Play date @ Shelly's

It's amazing how fast babies grow! They've grown so much each time we get together. We have a fun gathering at Shelly's this Sunday afternoon. The babies range from 8 to 15 months. Shelly's 13 months old Sophie was the most mobile one. She walks around steadily and gives hugs and big smiles to each guest, very adorable. She shows Andy her favorite Piggy bank toy and they play piano duet together.

12 Months Observations

Time flies, especially for babies! They grow so much so fast in their first year.
- Tooth #5 has peeked through.
- He learns to clap, and responds to the verbal cue of it! Just say "pai1 pai1 shou3" and he'll happily clap and smile for you.
- He waves back and smile sweet on bye-bye.
- He discovers new plays all the time. Digging through the recycling box is one of his favorites. One day Joe finds him moved one side of the large empty toy bin to the couch. And shortly after he gets Joe to help him onto the couch, he pulls the entire bin onto the couch on his own! The other day he starts out standing by the toy bin, and then I hear the TV a couple of minutes later while doing dishes. He manages to maneuver to the TV nearby and turns it on, and then he tries all the other buttons and starts to channel surfing. He then turns it off and repeats.

"Let me show you how to work the TV"

- His new morning play routine often involves banging on the electronic keyboard for a while (he would even shake his body in rhythm when he's in a groove) and standing by the toy bin and picking out toys one by one. He is fascinated by buttons. He learns which pocket Joe keeps his cell phone and as soon as he gets Joe pick him up, he goes for the phone. He has managed to dial Joe's brother Brad several times.
- Bad sleeping habit. It's been a tough month. Just when mom seems to have it under control the first week, he starts to protest the crib greatly. He no longer sleeps in the crib at night. One person goes to accompany him until he falls asleep. This ritual starts with more than an hour gradually reduces to 20-30minutes. He doesn't fall asleep until way past 9 at first, but it's been moved up to around 8:40 lately. His night time routine has totally regressed. He wakes up 3-4 times a night, nursing puts him back down (but sometimes he is more difficult). I miss mom now after she leaves last weekend. I hope he grows out of this phase soon.

"I'm taking over the big bed now"

Month 10, 11 Observations

- More mobility. He often stands in the crib now! He loves to be held by both hands and walks around the house. Sometimes he even let go of one hand. He crawls much faster too. He picks up any speck from the floor and stuffs into his mouth. He loves grass. Taking him onto the lawn is like herding a sheep. He keeps pulling grass and putting into the mouth.

- Night routine. This has totally changed since his newly gained mobility a couple of weeks ago. He stands up repeatedly after being put in the crib. He doesn't know how to sit down yet so he gets scared standing. Mom devises a new scheme of accompanying him to sleep in the big bed in his room. His favorite bedtime toy is no stuffed animal but magazines or the "First Baby Words" book. He sometimes exhausts himself shredding the magazine. It also takes a long longer to get him back to sleep when he wakes up at night now. He would roll around and squeak for play time for a while after nursing. He skips naps a lot and doesn't go to sleep until 10-11 the first few days when he learns to stand easily. But mom adapts to him quickly and worked out the new way of putting him to sleep so he's back on the good 2-naps ritual.

- Talking. He speaks a lot more now, dadada is his favorite word.

- He starts to wave back to people more the last few days.

- He becomes more aware of music. When something starts playing, he would quietly listens to it for a good few minutes before shifting focus to something else.

- It's interesting to observation his problem solving process. He is very persistent at trying. Tonight, he finds a new toy -- the toilet. He stands by the bowl, one hand supporting himself by holding onto the seat, the other trying to pull the fulsh level (this one is a pull up). He tries many times, but he is just a tad short to be able to lift it all the way up for a full flush. He kees pulling and then looking into the bowl, He keeps this up for at least 10 times, sometimes makes small flushes. More reasons to keep the place clean.

Crawling Forward

Andy makes a motor skill developmental break through this past week. Joe notices he is able to crawl forward late in the week. A jar of lip gloss rolls out of my pocket as I do one of the balancing yoga movements on Friday. So I get to see Andy racing towards the rolling jar! Previously he only moves backwards as he pushes his arms against the floor and makes turning maneuvers in circles. Now he learns to pull himself in quick small increments and inches forward.

He also manages to lean forward enough from a sitting position to a crawl position this weekend. So he is more mobile now.

Early Childhood Cognition Lab Volunteer

Andy is volunteered to be a study participant at ECCL at UW last Monday (7/28). The study asks infants to watch adults playing with objects and tries to understand how infants learn actions.

He sits in my lap in front of a desk that has two toys, a red car and a green frog. He watches an adult repeatedly acting out a scene of picking up the red car. He focuses intensely for the first couple of times. Then his focus time drops drastically and he squirms and moves around quickly when the same act is repeated; this indicates that he has learned the event.

He is then moved to a new environment and watches the similar act of the same adult picking up a toy, except this time the adult picks up the green frog some of the times. The camera again tracks his eye focus time. In this series, the first act holds his attention long again (18 seconds), indicating it is viewed as a new event. Then the focus time quickly drops to about 5 seconds in the succeeding acts indicating he understands the act.

The last part of the experiment takes him back to the initial setting and he is placed in front of the two toys. The study poses the question of whether watching someone having preference influences baby's choice of action. And guess what is Andy's response?

At ECCL waiting room. So many toys...

Earns a Jack-in-the-box toy for devoting himself to a scientific experiment.

He picks up the green frog. And then he picks up the red car too with the other hand. So I guess he has his own mind at this age already.

After I write all this, I discover an official description here under the "Understanding Others' Preference" study.

The First Tooth is Coming!

Finally, after 9.5 months! A tiny bony part has peeked out of the lower left front part of the gum. Joe notices it when he hears this funny noise of his teeth clenching on the metal spoon today. Andy has been good, no crankiness during this teething phrase so far. He only drools more profusely in the last couple weeks. That's probably the sign for the tooth coming. If feels like a gardener waiting for the flowers to bloom. We watch him grow stronger by day, and finally see a flower bud.
He also starts this bottle strike since I return to work a couple of weeks ago, but finally ends the strike and takes the bottle more in the last couple days.

He makes a bunch of speech like sounds this morning (must have been a good dream); his sound vocabulary has grown a lot.

This apple will be easier soon eh?

9 mo Observations and Checkup Stats

* Emotional development: he starts to show likes and dislikes since a few weeks ago. For example, his attempts to share food with baby Tristan, his holding a hand out when Grandma Wang holds hers out to shake.

* Motor Skill: he can roll from back to tummy now. When he woke up at 4am on Friday (7/11), I found him propped up on his belly, laying widthwise in the crib! He turns easily when propped up on his arms now that he has more arm strength. He crawls backwards a little.

* He is taking a break from formula and becoming more interested in solids. He eats a whole bowl of food for both lunch and dinner now. It usually has an egg, mushy grains and veggies, tofu, meat or fish bits. He only takes some formula after both naps and before the second nap but loves nursing. I nurse him 3-4 times a day now: morning, lunch, and a couple times in the evening.

He has his 9 mo checkup on Thursday 7/17. He is now 18 lb 12 oz, 27 in, and 49.5 cm head circumference. The doctor says at his age, he should be taking about 20 oz of formula and breast milk combined, so I feel more relieved that he's getting that much ok.