Morning Smile For Mommy: Happy 14th month birthday, Makayla!

Wow time sure does fly! I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog lately. Eric and I have been completely sleep deprived for the past month. We think this sleep regression is a result of teething and walking. It could be anything, though. With so much development occurring at this stage, there are so many factors that can be to blame.

What an exciting month it's been! I can't believe how much she's changed!

Cognitive development:

Cause and Effect- M has been actively exhibiting her ability to understand cause and effect. She loves playing with light switches and remotes. When we let her play on the iPad, she knows which app icon to press in order to get to her favorite "duck duck moose" game.

Understanding of function- M understands that objects have specific functions. She'll pick up a phone and say "hi". She'll pick up a brush and hold it to her head. She'll try on other people's shoes :)

Imitation- M is actively imitating our actions.. It's a total riot! M has a talking/singing Elmo she likes to play with. One day our friend James came over and stuck his finger in Elmo's mouth, pretending Elmo was biting his finger, yelling "ahh ahh". Since then, M will occasionally crawl over to Elmo, stick her finger in Elmo's mouth and yell "ahh ahh".

Another time, Eric was patting her to sleep. M suddenly sits up in her crib and starts to pat her stuffed bear to sleep!

M watches me blow on her warm food before giving it to her. She now blows on her food. No joke. I caught her blowing on her Cheerios this morning.

Language development- Imitation is actually extremely important in facilitating language development for obvious reasons; babies hear what their parents say and copy them. However, babies also have to make the connection between objects being identified and the words to which they correspond. In fact, a baby is not officially talking until he/she both verbalizes and comprehends. M has always been quite the chatterbox but now she is truly talking. Of course a lot of times she's still imitating speech, but occasionally she'll spontaneously point to and correctly identify the item. So far she knows how to say daddy, mommy, hi, banana ("nana"), milk in Chinese ("nyny"), baby, doggy, car in Chinese ("tsutsu"), EIEI (from Old McDonald song), ABCDGET (attempt at singing ABCs). Raissa has also witnessed her saying other things, even full phrases. Sometimes M uses the words she knows to substitute for words she doesn't know or can't say.. For example, yesterday she pointed to a monkey and yelled "daddy"! Hehe

"NANA!"

Of course her receptive language is much better developed. I ask her "where is Mommy's nose?" And she points to my nose. Lately she's been sticking her finger up my nose and giggling :/ she can also identify my belly button.

Sign language has also made a comeback. We were somewhat using sign language about half a year ago, but since she was too young to sign back, we weren't too motivated to keep it going. Now we are trying to sign words we want her to express but know she won't be able to express verbally for awhile such as "please" and "thank you". Once we started signing to her we noticed she was actually picking it up pretty quickly. So far she signs "milk", "more" and "all done".

Socio-emotional development:

M is still very social. Many people are impressed by how easily she'll go to anyone. She rarely complains when being handed to a stranger unless she really wants to be held by somebody else.

M seems to understand that parents have different roles. When M is tired or needs to be comforted, she almost always prefers to be held by me. But when M wants to be protected, usually from the Roomba, she'll immediately make a dive for daddy.

Physical development:

Pigtails! Her hair is now long enough for the long awaited pigtails! One of the fun things mothers of girls look forward to.

I am convinced she has gone through a growth spurt this month. She is now comfortably wearing 18m-24m/2t. Yikes!

Motor development:

M is walking!! Within the span of a month, much of it this week in fact, we have seen her go from comfortably cruising, to standing from sitting, to walking with support under her armpits, to support holding one hand, to spontaneous walking without support and without bait (just today!). Her baby rolls are going to be melting off very soon (sniff sniff).