Tag Archives: milestones

New blog goal: mini milestones

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I asked 80 to smile for the picture. My aunt Sharon politely dubbed this her “chipmunk face”.

It seems there are these very consistent benchmarks for babies of the same age, and other milestones that can be very different (new teeth, walking). I make a lot of parenting decisions based on other’s experiences, taking the same/different factor into consideration. I’ve decided to try and blog more of these small observations. On a personal level, they’re really only fun for 80’s family, but this data could be interesting to other new parents.

An observation for today: while playing on the front steps of C+A’s house, 80 discovered hauling both herself and her water bottle up an down. She’d be on one step, and put the bottle on the step above or below. It’s a small thing, but it’s related to manipulating both herself and another object on a multi-level surface.

Ma-ma po-poker face

I’d read that if you want your child to start saying mama and dada as some of their early words, you need to refer to yourself in the third person (lest they think your name is “I”). Yesterday afternoon, 80 began saying mama like a switch had been flipped. Personally, I think it’s because we were hanging out with Tanya Donnelly, and she inspires awesomeness.

I’ve also read that you child has to say a word three times in a reasonable context (not saying “mama” while pointing at the cat) for it to be a word. 80’s been saying ma-ma more than any other sound in the last 24 hours, and I’m encouraging her of course.

80: “Ma-ma! Ma-ma. Ma-MA.”

Me: “Yes! Yes! Yup, that’s me. That’s right.”

We’ll see if it sticks. Next up: dada. She’s been able to say the “ma” and “da” sounds for a while, so hopefully she picks it up soon.

I mention it in the video, but I swear she said “gesundheit”. Please don’t leave a comment saying it’s unlikely. I realize it’s unlikely, and I also want to mention again that I swear that’s what I heard.

I’m also now singing all the songs I can think of with ma-ma in them. Bohemian Rhapsody (“mama, just killed a man”), Poker Face (ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma ma-ma poker face). Any others I should add to my repertoire?

Crawling!

Lots has been going on, not the least of which is 80’s increase in awesomeness.

Nearly every day, I take a little video with my phone, and email it to my parents. Last night, 80 started crawling (belly off the ground and all) while I filmed. Turn down the sound if you don’t want to hear my increasingly high-pitched squeals.