Tooth Number Four and Five

On Monday November 29th, Max's fourth tooth finally broke through. It was his first top tooth; the front right one. I think this one had been bothering him as he has constantly been chewing on something.

Then this morning, Max's second front tooth broke through. There is another hard knot beside this one, so we may be seeing tooth number six soon!

Milestones

Just as a check, I wanted to compare M against expected milestones for 12 months. I am not one to put too much value on these lists, but I do think they do provide a good guide for kids and can be a good way to make sure your kids are at least on the right track.

So here are expected milestones which I took from (http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/devmile.htm) If you're interested they have lists for multiple ages.

Movement Milestones

• Gets to sitting position without assistance
• Crawls forward on belly by pulling with arms and pushing with legs
• Assumes hands-and-knees position
• Creeps on hands and knees supporting trunk on hands and knees
• Gets from sitting to crawling or prone (lying on stomach) position
• Pulls self up to stand
• Walks holding on to furniture
• Stands momentarily without support
• May walk two or three steps without support

Milestones In Hand and Finger Skills

• Uses pincer grasp
• Bangs two cubes together
• Puts objects into container
• Takes objects out of container
• Lets objects go voluntarily
• Pokes with index finger
• Tries to imitate scribbling

Language Milestones

• Pays increasing attention to speech
• Responds to simple verbal requests
• Responds to “no”
• Uses simple gestures, such as shaking head for “no”
• Babbles with inflection
• Says “dada” and “mama”
• Uses exclamations, such as “oh-oh!”
• Tries to imitate words

Cognitive Milestones

• Explores objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing, dropping)
• Finds hidden objects easily
• Looks at correct picture when the image is named
• Imitates gestures
• Begins to use objects correctly (drinking from cup, brushing hair, dialing phone, listening to receiver)

Social and Emotional Milestones

• Shy or anxious with strangers
• Cries when mother or father leaves
• Enjoys imitating people in play
• Shows specific preferences for certain people and toys
• Tests parental responses to his actions during feedings (What do you do when he refuses a food?)
• Tests parental responses to his behavior (What do you do if he cries after you leave the room?)
• May be fearful in some situations
• Prefers mother and/or regular caregiver over all others
• Repeats sounds or gestures for attention
• Finger-feeds himself
• Extends arm or leg to help when being dressed

The items highlighted in red, he does not do. It's not surprising that all the items in which he doesn't meet have to do with speech. I already knew he was behind. The twins didn't say their first word until after 12 months (which is considered delayed) and of course S is currently in speech therapy. For awhile I really thought M would talk on time because he was much more verbal as a young baby. He constantly 'talks', just never says an actual word.

Maybe he will be more like K, who was speech delayed until two and then took off!!!

Mr McClingy

I love my little man but he is seriously driving me crazy :oP

M is super clingy. All day he wants to be in my lap, in my arms, right next to me. If he is sleeping he expects me to be next to him. I can't leave the room without him flipping out. As far as M is concerned, we are one person.

I assume that this is normal. He breastfeeds and we do co-sleep fairly frequently, and I know both these activities do create a more intimate and co-dependant bond. He is just about to turn one and I know others have said that this age does have some clingy features. It's just tiring. I can't get much of anything done. I can't do anything for more than a few minutes without M having a complete meltdown. I have mentioned before that he does not nap unless it's on me or beside me, so I don't even have that time to do things.

You know, the twins were not like this. They obviously did like me being in the room with them, and did have anxiety if I left them, but they didn't require 100% of my attention every waking minute. They were happy to play and entertain themselves and each other. Now, maybe it was their personality, but if they were like this because they were twins, and had each other, I am starting to re-think the idea that one baby is easier than two.

Now M was a very happy laid back baby and didn't give me any of the hassles of colic, reflux or poor night sleeping so he definitely gets points for being the easier baby. But I have a sneaking suspicion that he will be the more difficult toddler, not because he is more difficult per say, but because he doesn't have that special little built in buddy that the twins had.

Maybe twins again wouldn't have been so bad...

Mookie is Walking!

Finally! The kid who I swore would be walking by the end of September is finally deciding to use his ability and try the walking thing. Of course he was walking all over the house 5 or 6 steps at a time, but when I tried to film the event, he was more interested in crawling.

Here is today's attempt at documenting his huge milestone!

Tooth Number Two and Three

This morning tooth number two and three popped through. They are on the bottom, the two to the left of the first tooth.

So he now has his two front bottom teeth, and one more to the left :0)

My boy is growing up.