January 21-28: Milestones

Bean's almost a year old. This week he'll be 11 months, and secretly I'm surprised he's still alive. In the beginning I wondered how anyone ever made it past the first few weeks of life. We start off needing a small team of assistants to manage everything for us. But every day little Bean learns how to do little things for himself. Once and a while the little things add up to bigger things, and we call those milestones. Then his assistants are relegated to measuring, tracking and recording the milestones. We can observe, but really, our role in making these events happen is quite limited.

So this week, I'll quickly sum the events, and then I'll hit the milestones.

Liam has a redesigned play area. We have reorganized the furniture, so now Liam has a giant space for play. He can run laps with his car, which he likes to do.

Liam also had a breakfast of tea and toast with marmite (with Daddy, of course!). Liam most certainly has British blood in him, because he devoured both. A real treat for him now is a sippy cup of chamomile.

We also discovered that Liam now loves being read to. He'll sit quietly and pay attention through multiple stories. He also has preference for certain books. He really likes Doggies, Mr. Brown Can Moo, and the ones that have textured pages.

Also in the news... we found out one of our good friends is expecting a baby in August. However, we're not sure if this is our news to share yet, so we'll leave you guessing for now.

Milestones...
• Becomes increasingly shy or anxious with strangers (8 - 13 months) Not yet
• Begins to show the emotion of fear (8 - 12 months) Still laughs at ROAR!; Gets scared sometimes though
• Begins to test parental responses to behavior (8 - 15 months) December & January
• Develops stronger preferences for people/toys (8 - 12 months) January – Blankie, Mommy
• Prefers primary caregiver above all others (8 - 15 months) December & January
• Separation anxiety increases (12 - 18 months) only with Mommy
• Acquires the notion of object permanence January, especially with remote controls and dog
• Attempts to use objects "correctly" (8 - 15 months) December & January; phone, cup, spoon
• Explores objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing, dropping) (8 - 16 months) October
• Babbling appears less random; inflections apparent (8 - 14 months) Ah-tah
• Begins to use gestures and sounds to communicate (8 - 11 months) December; pointing
• Can respond to simple verbal requests January; no, more, eat, wave
• Begins to understand that words can refer to physical objects (9 - 12 months) November
• Begins to imitate spoken words (10 - 14 months) December; ma, da, ba, ta
• Taste: ability to taste salt improves, and babies prefer it (4 - 8 months) December; LOVES pickles
• Touch: can perceive different textures with hands (6 - 10 months) December; likes the texture parts of some of his books
• Capable of poking with index finger (8 - 11 months) November – especially likes faces
• Crawls forward on belly (8 - 10 months) October
• Lets objects go voluntarily (8 - 11 months) October
• Puts objects in and out of containers (8 - 11 months) December
• Uses pincer grasp (8 - 11 months) November/December
• Walks holding on to furniture (8 - 11 months) December

Mommy's Milestones:
• First steps on the beach - December
• Met Great Grandparents - December
• Gives hugs - January
• Listens to stories - January
• Plays by himself - December/January
• Says Mama ?????

As of January 28th Liam weighed 20.5 pounds.