Wednesday, August 24, 2011

43 weeks


(check out those top teeth, he looks like such a big boy now)

Here is what is going on with Noah this week according to babycenter.com;

Your baby may now assert herself among her siblings and begin to engage in parallel play — contentedly playing alongside (but not with) another baby. Informal baby playdates can be a great way to encourage your little one to develop social skills. Just remember that babies this age are still too young to understand the idea of making friends.  Think of these playdates as helping your baby build a foundation for learning how to interact with others. And she may get new play ideas from these first buddies. A bonus: You'll have some help and support from the other babies' parents.

Your baby now understands simple instructions, though she may purposely choose to ignore you when you say "no." (To help the word carry a little more weight, use it sparingly, for setting important limits.)  Even though your baby may not always remember tomorrow what you've said today, it's not too soon to set certain boundaries and start teaching her some important distinctions, like right from wrong and safe from unsafe.  Use your best judgment as a guideline. You're not being mean if you don't let her devour a second cupcake, for example — you're setting a healthy limit. If she pulls the cat's tail, move her hand, look her in the eye, and say, "No, that hurts the cat." Then guide your baby's hand to pet the animal gently.  Her desire to explore is stronger than her desire to listen to your warnings, so it's up to you to protect and teach her. What seems to be defiance is just her natural curiosity to see how the world works.


Noah has 6 teeth now.  His hair is getting more and more curly as it continues to get longer, and the New Orleans humidity probably plays a role in that as well.  I'm trying to start feeding him mostly finger foods that he can feed himself, and working him off of the purees.  He's been doing great, and is eating chunks of tofu, fruits, vegetables, and Cheerios.  It takes a lot longer, and is a lot more messy, but has been fun for all of us so far.  He doesn't get the concept of swallowing before he shoves more food in his mouth though, and just keeps stuffing more and more in his mouth and sloshing it around.  So as of now we're keeping an eye on how much he has in there and limiting how much is on his tray until he has actually swallowed what is in his mouth.

He is getting a lot better about listening to us when we say "no no", but he has developed a little bit of a bratty attitude this week and most of the time that we say "no no" he stops what he's doing, but he screeches at us in frustration.  So we are definitely glad that he is obeying most of the time, but now we need to work on the attitude of yelling at us.  It also seems pretty clear that he knows what he can and can't touch, because when he goes to touch items that we tell him "no no" for he stops and looks at us before he touches them, kinda like he's wondering if he's going to get away with it.  He is definitely testing and learning his boundaries right now.

Noah is really enjoying music now and will start bouncing and "dancing" when he hears something he likes.  As far as we can tell his favorite is 90's rock, especially anything with lots of electric guitar.  He is also getting more and more into books, and will happily sit on my lap while I read to him.  Sometimes he'll even laugh at, or point to the pictures.  He especially loves textures books with furry and scratchy surfaces to rub.


 


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