Growing Leaps and Bounds

A "short" list of AMAZING Brinson Skills: ~ practicing sitting in his bumbo at 4 months ~ rolling over from belly to back at 4 1/2 months ~ rolling over from back to belly at 5 months ~ crawling at 6 months ~ pulling up to stand at 7 months ~ balancing/standing at his play table at 8 months ~ cruising around his table at 8 1/2 months ~ climbing up on furniture at 8 1/2 months ~ breastfeeding from birth ~ using a 2 handled soft spout sippy cup at 5 months ~ eating homemade first solid foods at 5 1/2 months...strategies come from Super Baby Food Book (a food bible!) ~ drinking from mommy's water bottle and cup at 6 months ~ drinking from a built-in Nubby sipper sports cup at 8 1/2 months ~ throwing his sip cup down after he takes a sip ~ self-feeding skills attempted at 6 months with independent spoon to mouth...very messy! progressing to finger foods using a primitive pincer grasp...raking foods at first or palming them after getting it to his mouth as not to miss anything on his hands! ~ saying um um um as he eats something "yummy" ~ BITING at 7 1/2 months...ouch, yikes...yes we are still breastfeeding, it just took him about 3 weeks to learn "mommy is not for biting...bite your teether!" ~ clicking his tongue ~ making sounds by flicking his hands over his lips ~ discovered his tongue 2 weeks ago and now sticks it out and plays with it...too cute ~ puckering his lips like a fish to give air kisses ~ saying mom, mama, dada, num num, bite, uh-oh, byebye, hi, hey, up, pupu (rare), done (new) ~ using syllable strings of babble in vocal play ~ using jargon with true words and short phrases embedded...like your turn and all done...of course its an approximation of them with the appropriate syllables and adult-like intonation patterns ~ signing takes repeated visual cues for eat, drink, more, all done...he only does these within context of daily routines and when he is really wanting something! Other fun things he is doing include: ~ biting and pulling socks with his teeth...like a dog! ~ throwing everything out of his playpen and toy box...then complaining to get help~ holding his breath and blowing or grunting then laughing ~ pulling his hair and mine! ~ pinching mommy...this is new just this week...oh fun ~ rolling balls around and chasing them ~ clapping hands at midline with help to get him going ~ interactive play..lately he likes me to chase/crawl after him and then he does it to me...very fun, his laugh is contagious ~ increasing attention span to items of interest ~ crawling with 2 items, one in each hand Nicknames were given at different stages of growing(1st to current): * Noodle, Munchie, PJ-pooter junior, 5-Oh (like hawaii five o), Lil' Butt, Love, Smiley, Bitey...of course there will be more! I'm sure I am forgetting something because he is doing so much all at the same time but I tried to compile a list since I have been bad at keeping up with the blog site. Enjoy, Shae