A little more than 2 weeks ago, Mommy noticed Hannah sitting at the edge of the sofa, stretching her arms down to see if she could reach the ground. When neither of her arms could touch the ground, she reached out to Mommy for help getting off of the sofa.
It was Mommy’s first confirmation that Hannah really understood the dangers of falling ( we have been suspecting it for a while now – since Hannah would play on our bed for a long time without going near the edges).
On a hunch, mommy turned her around and showed her how to get off of the couch feet first. We practiced a couple of times until her interest drift to other toys in the room.
A week later, Mommy caught Hannah attempting to get off of the couch feet first. Mom and Dad were so excited and taped the following video. The last part of the video was taped on the night of the same day at Grandma’s place – when our kiddo was already quite agile at the sport.
Hannah attempted to interact with all the babies and was very alert to the happenings in the room. When one mom took out a cookie for her own baby, Hannah quickly crawled over and cling onto the mom until she gave her some of the cookie (notice that the mom had to sign "finished" to Hannah to try to get her to go away at the end).
This month, she can say "mamamama" and "yayayaya" and make lots of other noises.
She can also complain and whine at length if she is upset. Mommy wanted to tape her whines - but Grandma couldn't stand letting the kid be upset. So we only captured a very short clip of what would otherwise be at least a minute-long performance.
She can also pull herself up to a standing position and let go of one hand. She topples over when she does not hold onto anything at all when she's standing - but that doesn't deter her from trying all day long.
Hannah started eating her first baby food (a mix of various root vegetables - since Hannah showed no signs of allergies on her previous mini food adventures, lazy mommy gave up on the idea of letting her try one food at a time).
She is more interested in spoon feeding herself than the food itself.
At first, she'd let mommy hold the spoon with her (see video 1) but, later, insisted on holding the spoon herself (see pictures above and video 2).
Her table manners are a disaster though - she plays with her food and would even dig out the food in her mouth to study it.
Hannah turned 6 months old two weeks ago. Mom is so over-occupied that she barely had time to update this blog.
Some major developments this month:
1.She sprouted her first tooth (lower right, 9/27/11), and the second one (lower left) popped its head last week.
2. She is now a super active baby - capable of moving herself (crawling + creeping) to anywhere she really wants to go in a room. She'd lay her hands on anything she is able to reach - a very curious little one.
3. Perhaps due to the hyperactivity - no weight gain this month - and depends on when you weight her during the day, sometimes we even see a sight weight loss. They are not joking when they say exercise helps maintain one's figure.
4. She can say "Baba" now - mandarin for Daddy. But Daddy is a bit dissatisfied because she basically calls anything Baba. Mommy insists that this is proof that Mama is more of a special word! :P
She now really expresses her enjoyment when watching her DVDs.
She'll laugh, scream, flap her arms and even topple over to express her delight.
As an ophthalmologist, Daddy was once determined to not let Hannah watch any TV.
But that quickly changed after he had the chance to babysit the kid for 2 hours and experience for himself how difficult it is to keep the girl entertained CONSTANTLY.
Mommy and Daddy still make an effort to limit Hannah's TV time but relented on letting her watch Baby Sign Language DVDs (we really couldn't muster the energy to teach her ourselves).
The video below seems to indicate that, after watching the DVD for the 3rd time, our baby now thinks the sign for everything is either flapping her arms or laugh.
Up until the past few days, Mom and Dad found it impossible to eat together when Hannah is around.
The girl needed to be entertained - so Mom and Dad had to take turns to eat.
If we eat out with Hannah (which only happened once for good reason) - we would have to take turns touring her highness around while the other person wolf down his/her meal.
Now, that's no more!
Hannah can eat with us now!
Just give her some of your food and she will give you some peace and quiet and let you enjoy your meal!
Although her barbaric table manners necessitate a bath after every meal, mom and dad still celebrate the change.
So long as I get enough sleep the night before, I am everyone's morning sunshine.
Using my own words (or lack of words - since I can't really speak yet), I'll passionately tell you how very convinced I am that this day is going to be perfectly wonderful, happy, and full of hope.
(but my performance tamed down as soon as mommy got out her video camera)
I had long suspected that the adults around me have been consuming something better tasting than breast milk.
When Grand Auntie resisted my attempt to steal her cup of green bean soup (she let me grab her cup but wouldn't tilt it to let me drink its content), I had to really stretch my tongue to investigate.