Chinipie's Milestones

It's been almost 3 months now that I have given updates on Chinipie's milestones and believe me there have been so many that am sure I will not be able to recollect now. All of them are so important and have filled my heart with equal joy that I want to cherish those memories forever and to write down all of them. With each milestone she achieved, I made a mental note to myself to blog about it but, somehow, could never get down to it. Then, I assured myself that it's okay if I am not able to blog them for the most important thing is to enjoy the time with her and celebrate those milestones. And, i knew that I still have my memory buds alive and thriving so if I try hard, I will be able to remember them and write many a posts. So, here I make an attempt to write them all.. one by one may be.. and am sure if I am not able to cover all of them in this post, I will do that in the subsequent ones.

Mobility

Chinipie is surely growing confident and her hands and feet are putting a wider range of things (read all the things) in her grasps. She is surely mastering her motor skills and her mom and dad, I must add!

She has become a expert in pulling herself to a stand position and can take 4 to 5 steps with support. Though she is motivated to take this steps only on the occasions like
1. dad encourages her to walk towards mom sitting a few baby-steps away and then back to dad 2. she is standing in her crib and an object of her interest (mostly mom) is a little towards the side
3. she badly wants something which is in mom's arms exactly opposite to the side she is standing.
I am sure, it's only a matter of few more days and she would make me run around her throughout the day. I am really looking forward for that as I hope to shed some pounds consequently (I have lots of the pregnancy(?) weight on me, so to say). Yep, I have very high hopes.

Somewhere in her 7th month, when she had already perfected rolling over, she used to get on her fours but after that, she couldn't figure out what to do next and would cry until she was rescued from that position. Watching her do that, always reminded me of those Hum-Tum strips where Tum couldn't un-yoga himself from the difficult yoga poses. And, how much I tried to avoid, I couldn't stop myself from chuckling. Towards her 8th month, she was more comfortable on her fours and used to enjoy being on fours, though she could not move yet but she compensated by staying put on her knees and palms and rocking forwards and backwards with a smile. It seemed like she was enjoying this new-found activity of hers. Then on 11th of December, her efforts did bear fruits and she could move her hands and knees one by one and move ahead! This had happened after our routine morning massage, when I had left her sitting on the floor and went to the bathroom to prepare her bath. I came back to pick her up and as soon as I bent down I noticed that she was moving forward. Instantly, I moved back and encouraged her by stretching my arms and asking her to come to momma. She found this lucrative and with a chirp started crawling. It was a mix of creeping and crawling. Nevertheless, she made it to momma's waiting arms. I was so jubilant!! Now at ten and a half months, her crawl is no longer awkward but she has perfected it to match the speed of light.

She can deftly pull herself to stand grabbing hold of anything withing her arms reach. Usually it is my neck when I am squatting on the ground, sending a clear message to be lifted or my pajamas, and when she does that I have to think for a second whether the ones I am wearing had strong elastic or not before letting her do so..

Reaching Out

Chinipie is developing fine motor skills in her hands and her grasp is becoming evermore precise and her vision microscopic. She can easily beat any vacuum manufactured. Throughout the day, I have to be extra vigilant as her super microscopic eyes and fast fingers can pick the minutest of objects and find their way to her mouth. There are times when she makes momma jump with joy by using the sippy-cups and spoons for their intended use. And then, there are times when she insists on self-feeding and eats the pieces of fruits/boiled vegetables/crackers/cheese bites herself. I clearly remember the first time she had done this was just a couple of days before we had to leave for India. I was so excited that I had started boiling lots of bite size veggies for her and used to give them as an after-dinner dessert. And then, after I returned and she was starting to get better, she would open her mouth to eat only if there was something for her to self feed. I used to grab this chance to shove a few spoonfuls of cereal in her mouth. She, in fact, tried feeding herself water by putting her hands in a glass of water and was surprised when she could not grasp anything. Later she enjoyed playing with water and I had to take the glass away to minimize the mess.

Her combined use of hands and legs have made my days busier than ever as she rummages through my kitchen cabinets, shelves and refrigerator. I let her do so, even though it means extra work for me, for two reasons: one, I made sure there's nothing in those places that poses potential danger for her (and from her too, if you count out the merciless squeezing of tomatoes :) ) and two, I feel this satiates her natural curiosity and contributes to her development.
Her favourite play-things in kitchen are the colanders, baskets and empty yogurt containers. She loves putting things in and out of the colanders and baskets. Sometimes, they are used as hat and sometimes used for playing peek-a-boo. Yogurt containers keep her busy by rolling over and making her chase them. Speaking of empty containers, we can open a waste material recycling unit for my princess hates the sight of throwing them in the waste basket. They empty cereal boxes, juice bottles, jars are her favourite toys. If you have any of these you want to dispose, you can send them to us. We promise to make a good use of them by either rolling them, tasting them or eating their labels. We also love using them as drums or banging them together and always are happy to hear the various musical notes we compose.


Will be back with more updates on my little monkey.. till then have a wonderful time!