running commentary

“Can he walk yet??” said roommate. not even close boi 

Developmental notes:

• When on his tummy, he can lift/hold up his head with ease, but he can’t move except by rolling over. His playpen is a bit small for him: he’ll roll over halfway, then get stuck on his arm and/or the side of the pen and roll back. So he doesn’t get many full rolls in.
• If placed in a sitting position with support (e.g. leaning back against the couch), he can sit nicely (until he leans forward). Without support (e.g. in the middle of his playpen), he can tripod for a bit using his arms, but quickly flops over.
• Apparently, a dexterity milestone from around 7-9 months is to be able to transfer an object from one hand to another. BB doesn’t do this, but he has no interest in doing so—his gameplan for any object is to grab it with both hands and put as much of it as he can in his mouth.
• One of my parents’ Christmas gifts to him was a toy turtle. He loves it, but it’s a bit challenging for him—the head, wheels, and light-up module on top are all too big for little hands to grab effectively, and definitely too big to fit in his mouth. (He tried hard though.) The only grabbable/chewable parts are the fins, which he enjoyed immensely. Driving it around is out of the question for now; during tummy time, he uses his arms for balance and can’t manipulate a toy.
• He exists entirely in the moment. He recognizes toys/objects when he sees them, but once something is out of sight, it’s out of mind. It’s convenient: if he reaches for something he’s not supposed to have, you just carry him elsewhere and he forgets about it two seconds later. Eventually he’s going to develop object permanence/working memory and life is going to get more complicated.
• Although he reaches for objects to grab them, he doesn’t use gesture to communicate—e.g., reaching for an object out of reach to communicate “Give that to me,” or lifting his arms to be picked up. Right now you just have to guess when he wants to be picked up. (He arches his back, but he also does that for fun. Or he looks annoyed, but that could be for any number of reasons.)

Bonus fact: His new thing is “air chewing”—he just moves his mouth without blowing bubbles or making sound. Apparently this is something he picked up just this weekend (but was doing it constantly). Mom’s theory is that he sees us talking all the time and is trying to imitate it.