The past month has been quite amazing in terms of Ju's cognitive development. He seems to understand a lot more because he responds readily now to us whenever we speak to him, usually "NO!" and "STOP!" He had a successful run in Phuket although we had our first experience of a cranky baby in a really full diaper in a small cabin descending onto Changi Airport. I didn't know which was funnier, the fact that we had to prop him upright, stuffing his diaper with tissues for 20 minutes while our pilot found parking, or that half the cabin were strapped in by their seatbelts with nothing else to do but smell Ju's overflowing diaper.
Fine motor skills
Last month, Ju learnt how to clap and wave. The clapping is hilarious and he seems to be associating the Chinese phrase for it, as I make it a point to say 拍拍手 each time he claps. He has learnt how to use his fingers to spin objects like the swirly thing on his walker. The result is he tries to spin everything (including his lips), no matter if they can spin or not. His curiosity has got the better of him. He is attracted to anything that dangles and lately, the power sockets in the house. He can spend minutes on end fiddling with the bit where the telephone wire goes. It's not a good idea, I know, even though our sockets are "safe" in that two out of three holes are always shut with the added security of a switch which Ju has no way of flipping on. He has learnt to point at things too. He can pick up small crumbs and put them in his mouth, and move a cracker from one hand to the other.
Gross motor skills
Ju is now cruising quite steadily. He can walk as long as he is holding on to something. He can pull himself up almost anywhere with support, he can do this with a wall or someone's leg. He crawls so fast that it's actually scrambling than crawling. He is interested in steps now, and even though we live in an apartment without stairs, he likes to go over the one step into the kitchen and the balcony. He has learnt to beat a tambourine and in addition to biting everything, he spends his playtime tossing his toys around. He loves balls big and small, and would happily toss it back and forth with you. He is also obsessed with other children's balls, and would stare incessantly, waiting for them to offer him the ball. He continues to enjoy the water and got a real tan after our holiday in Phuket.
Communication
We've been singing nursery rhymes in 3 languages non stop to Ju. It seems that he not only enjoys them, he claps his hands when he hears his favourite "Backe, backe kuchen" and "Yi Shang Yi Shang Liang Jing Jing" (Twinkle, twinkle in chinese). He doesn't babble much and his verbal abilities are limited to grunting, shrieking, whining, chuckling and yelling. He does understand my sharp commands of "Fang shou!" (let go [of that]) and "Bu ke yi!" (Cannot [do that]). I've taken to using sharp corrections like "Ah!", using my tone to convey to him that he can't do what he's doing (poking and pulling wires) since I did that a lot with dog obedience training. Call it what you will, but it works. The baby at this stage is responding much more to our tone of voice than the content of our speech. Other times, we speak to him as we would to any adult of course. This is so he would get used to the languages being spoken to him.
Multi-lingualism
The funny thing is, our input has been uneven. I speak Mandarin to Ju but the frequency is not as high as the English he gets from my mother, his main caregiver during weekdays. Daniel's parents spent 3 weeks here, during which they spoke exclusively in German to Ju. There are some phrases that Ju understands in German (like "Komme raus!") but not in Mandarin since he likely hears it less frequently. His Oma also taught him phrases like "Wie grosse is der Julien?" (How tall is Julien?) to which he stretches his arm up high above his head. I tried it in Mandarin and got no reaction, but he obligingly raised his arm when I said it in German. So after that, I repeated it in Mandarin as well.
Feeding and Sleep
Ju's 5th tooth is descending steadily and his sleep pattern has only gone from bad to worse. He wakes intermittently and has to be coaxed back to sleep. The 1am waking is the worst, that one usually requires a milk feed before he would go back to bed. We dragged his mattress into our bedroom, next to our bed. We did this for two reasons: first, our bed was getting too small for the three of us and two, he no longer cries or whines when he wakes. Instead, he crawls silently out of bed, which has horrific repercussions in an adult bed. Once, I woke at 5am for some reason, just in time to see Ju at the foot of our bed, about to topple over the edge. I reacted in a split second, it must be these maternal instincts I keep hearing about, and grabbed Ju's foot just before he went over. I gave Daniel the third degree for putting him in bed with us. From then on, Ju slept only on the floor. He is also eating semi solids like porridge, banana, papaya, cereal. He loves rice crackers, the ones that melt in the mouth so it doesn't require chewing. That's our secret weapon as it keeps him busy for a few minutes.
*****
I usually give Ju lots of space to explore as he wishes, I prefer to get him to play independent of my participation. It seems to be working as Ju can play and explore by himself while I sit at my desk writing my blog post, for instance! I shout to him from time to time if I don't see or hear his hands and knees on the floor. He would come scrambling over to me whenever he needs some attention or a drink of water. Then, off he goes again. The 9th month is really a great time, despite all the sleep I am losing.
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