Milestones Update

At nine and a half months, M is a handful! He said his first word, "mama," on March 25th, much to Chris' chagrin. My mom laughed; she said she'd never heard of a baby saying "mama" before "dada," but M doesn't really even attempt the "d" sound, so "dada" may be a while away still. Just this morning he said "baba" for bottle, which we've been working on all week--along with "dada," of course. C told me if M says "Yaya" (our name for Miriam) before he says "dada," he's coming to get him and bring him to Maryville.

He pulls up by himself without assistance (he pulled himself up in his crib for the first time on March 28th) and cruises along the furniture, often with only one hand. He loves to go back and forth between the coffee table and the couch, and sometimes he lets go with his hands--although he's definitely not skilled enough to be doing that yet! He wants to walk SO badly, and yesterday he discovered the stairs. So far he has managed to climb up one stair, but that's as far as he made it.

Last week he started waving (which Miriam takes credit for teaching him), and it really sounds like he's saying "hi," but we MIGHT be a little generous in attributing that word to his vocabulary just yet. Miriam is also trying to teach him patty-cake. Last month we were lamenting that he wasn't doing that or waving yet, but then I realized that we really never waved, and I haven't done patty-cake since he was tiny. Furthermore, I always did patty-cake with his feet, so Miriam worries that when they pllay patty-cake in preschool, Mason will take off his shoes. How embarassing.

When you sing or play music, M dances: He bobs his head up and down like a head-banger. It's hysterical! He helps push his arms through or pull his arms out when I'm dressing him, and he gives a hand pulling shirts over his head too (apparently I'm way too slow for his taste). He can drink from a cup, but he's less interested in sippy cups, so we're still working on that. Hmm...what else? He gave up baby food long ago, so he eats table food all the time now. Special favorites: nectarines, green beans, spinach tortellini, and Colby Jack cheese.

Oh, and M twiddles his thumbs! Chris does that, and it drives me crazy, but it's super cute when Mason does it. Chris pointed out that he was doing it about a month ago, and now he does it a lot. All in all, M has been early or right on time with all developmental milestones, which is so incredible considering what he went through. Every time I think about how far he has come, I say a prayer of thanks.