Lizzie as a Mummy: Ian at Nine Months Old plus Checkup!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Ian at Nine Months Old plus Checkup!

We brought Ian for his long overdue checkup recently. At nine months, he hasn't been gaining weight as he's too busy losing the baby fat by crawling (exercising) around the house. I am not worried as I know this is perfectly fine for this phase. However, I am certainly going to miss his chunky thighs and chubby cheeks!

The slimmer Ian.

Ian is generally a very quiet baby. He rarely cries or screams. But this month he is always "talking", babbling, humming or squealing! Music to my ears!! Another adorable trait that he cultivated this month was scrunching his face! Soooo adorable! This usually happens whenever he is excited and happy; see the following pictures for his adorable scrunch.

Serious face. Loving the brand new kids play area at Prince Court Medical Centre!

Then we freed him from his brother's clutches and placed him solo on the table. He finally notices the cartoon drawings.

Scrunching his nose!

Nose scrunch and a wide grin.

This month, Ian started showing signs of appreciating the tablet (iPad). Previously he'll just put it straight into his mouth; but now he is starting to smack his palm on it. I introduced him to the Elmo's song and a couple of other YouTube Sesame Street videos and surprisingly he was able to focus (albeit for a short span of time before the tablet ends up in his mouth again)!

He is also able to show irritation and objection (by making angry sounds or pulling his hands away, sometimes even smacking his brother) whenever Aiden tries to force him to do something - like guiding his hand to put blocks into a toy, or pushing him away from the tablet. This means he is starting to become more assertive, in line with his expected development for the month.

Loves to purposely drop things off from his baby chair and then look down to see the landing. He can play this game over and over again! And when he runs out of things to throw, he would given an irritated squeal so we have to pick everything up from the floor for him to start again. *sigh* Try picking things up for him again and again - even you'll give an irritated squeal!!

8.7kg at nine months old. Just for the record, he was 8kg at six months. See how much fat he has shed? *sigh*

Ian can now crawl super fast! Sometimes he even lifts one knee up, usually his left, to crawl faster (which is so funny to look at). I seriously doubt that it helps him crawl faster, but the fact that he loves doing it must mean that it is helping him boost his crawling speed! Of course when he's excited, he'll crawl even faster and show the same face scrunch. *too cute*

"How tall am I?"

The next one is my favourite. When we're washing his poop, he knows how to lift one of his legs up to aid us in washing his bum properly! When my maid first told me about this, I was a tad skeptical. Then one fine day I tried washing his bum myself, and it was absolutely true. Why he knows how to do this is beyond my comprehension!

Abang Aiden wanted to measure himself too.

This month, I made him practice standing on his own two feet. Of course, he cannot go into standing position all on his own, so I usually prop him up standing, then let go. Usually he is able to remain standing for one or two seconds, and he would be so excited, even sometimes squealing in delight while looking nervous at the same time. This goes on for a few times, then he would get scared and insist on putting his bum down or extend his hand out to floor in preparation for the drop.

He's such a boy, he loves anything with moving parts and wheels. We bought him a walker for him to practice walking. Poor Ian, the first time he used it, we forgot to put the brakes on the back wheels to slow the walker down, so he had to quickly "walk" to keep up with the speed of the walker! Thankfully he didn't lose his footing. Nowadays he's using the walker to walk all around the house, with a big grin plastered on his face. He still hasn't figured out how to roll the walker away from objects - it's simply a straight walk for him! So if the walker hits, say a wall, he'll keep pushing the walker and wail a loud agitated sound when it refuses to move. When he is tired of the walker, he'll plop down and turn his walker upside down andddddd... start munching on the wheels!