Month 8 update...

This is the first developmental update about Duddu from me. I would love to post pictures, but still in dilemma whether to make them public or not.

Vocabulary : He can clearly say amma,anna,ambbaa,imbbaa, and can babble a lot. I mean a lotttttttttt. Sometimes I ask him to shutup, he is that talkative. He also makes sounds that we make when we talk to him. When we show a passing vehicle, or ask him if he wants to go out, we say "durru(a) polama?" (can we go out, "durr" in our car?). He keeps saying "turrrrrraa" when he sees a car, and most of the times just by himself. He also makes "pppprrrrr" sound that we make by pursing our lips and let them kind of vibrate.

Communication: He can clearly communicate his frustration, anger, and want by beautiful expressions and the tone of his wails. It is very funny when he expresses frustration. It is not just wailing, he starts saying "ammam mammam mammma ammam mammam mammma" like somebody has beat him. Or sometimes it is "yayayayyya yayya". All of us burst into laughter when he does this. He has been very stingy with smiling (like DH) until about 6 months. I don't know how he found his funny bone, these days he bursts into laughter often. When we say rhyming words, mostly words with thud sound(what we call as "vallinam" in Tamil) he laughs. Funny sounds and funny faces make him laugh. He can wave bye-bye, though he doesn't know what it means yet(I think so). I used to wave "bye" to him when I left for work in the morning, and a couple of weeks later, he started waving hands whenever he saw me. I did not understand it first, later when I understood, it really made me sad.

Eating: He is still on cereals with occasional fruits. Mom has got some ragi from India, got to try it in the coming weeks. We have also started him on pulses from the past 10 days. Making him drink milk is the hardest thing, the first 1 -2 ounces go in fast(5 mins), and to make him have the rest takes an hour. I make it a point to have my breakfast & dinner with him by my side and he evinces lot of interest in what we eat. He picks up food from our plate and does NOT put into his mouth immediately(unlike other stuff that he puts straight into his mouth). He holds it for a while, looks at it from all sides, smells it(he takes it close to his mouth and keeps it there, I think he is smelling) and takes very few food items to his mouth(potato chips, apples). I love the expression on his face when he makes faces when tasting a new food item. Mom is looking for a auspicious day to start him on rice. Hopefully in another week or so.

Gross motor: He can sit up on his own close to half-hour. He still does not crawl, not even make attempts to crawl. He can pull himself upto a stand with very little support. Stands on his own holding the sofa for support and makes a couple of steps. He loves walking. He makes us help him walk, we have to hold him under his hands and he will walk around the home, wherever he likes he will bend his knees to pick up his object of interest. He used to roll around a month back, but he has stopped doing it now.

Fine motor: He has mastered crude pincer grasp. He can pick up small things and is trying to hold very small things. He researches intricate designs on chains and ear-rings.

Sleeping: He still needs to be rocked and sung to sleep. Always needs someone by his side to continue sleeping. If he wakes during sleep and sees no one by his side, he lets out a scream like somebody is strangling him. Wakes up 2-3 times in the night for feeding.

Misc:
He is very scared by the whistle sound from the cooker.
He stands up while bathing and these days gets bathed like adults.
He loves playing with empty cartons.

It is like someone transformed my baby overnight with a magic wand, from a tiny being that eats,sleeps and cries to a interactive,expressive,fun-loving explorer. Hope he does not grow very fast. Rather I have enough time to absorb and freeze all that is happening into sweet memories that I can enjoy later in my life, when my baby ventures out to have his own life. When he does not need his mommy anymore.