Hey, everyone! That’s right, it’s yet another baby post. Sorry? No, I’m not sorry. Sorry… not.
My little guy is 7 months and 6 days old today, and I thought now would be a good time to update you on all of his developmental progress and baby milestones. I mostly use the websites BabyCenter and BabyCentre UK to track all of Li’s milestones by month, as well as when I should be changing up our routine. They were also REALLY helpful during my pregnancy. Lots of great information! Maybe these sites will help some of your new moms as well.
I probably should have been blogging about this on a monthly basis as he grew, but I haven’t been doing that. Oops. So, instead of making a massive list of all the things he’s learned to do since birth, I’ll just list the things relevant to his current stage in life, since he’s already mastered all the younger milestones. Like. A. Boss.
Here are a few charts that I found from the BabyCentre UK site, telling you what skills your baby should be learning by now, and skills that they may be learning very soon (sorry if they’re a bit small, you can click to make them larger). This first one is skills for babies at 7 months old:
Li has always been pretty on-track/ahead with his development, and we practice and do exercises to make sure it stays that way. He has been babbling “words” for nearly two months (it really helps if you narrate and talk a lot, I swear, I talk to this kid every waking moment of every day), and sitting up completely on his own for just over a month and a half now, however, he can not sit himself up on his own from a lying position, unless he has something to pull himself up with, such as crib bars. I lost track of when his raking for objects turned into sweeping, but he has been sweeping for objects for a short period of time as well. We started practicing with pieces of Cheerios in his highchair while eating meals around 6 months old to help with his fine motor skills.
He is also already crawling short distances, and has been actually crawling for a few weeks. He has been able to get into a crawling position and kind of hop and bounce forward for almost two months. Along with his babbling, he’s also started forming word-like sounds, like “mama” and “baba”, which he repeats loudly all day long, haha.
Li can also stand himself up, both in his crib and his pack ‘n play. He also does this on the couch, or when he’s on the ground, using me or my chair to pull himself up. He can also free-stand without holding onto anything for a short time, but then he gets excited and bouncy, and falls. He just recently started being able to hold onto his crib or his pack ‘n play with one hand, either leaving his other hand down, or waving a toy around. He can also bend down while standing to pick up objects. That’s some advanced stuff!
He bangs his toys against EVERYTHING. He loves making noise. I say that it’s him “singing”, because he also babbles and coos VERY loudly while banging things, haha.
I wouldn’t say that he waves goodbye necessarily, because he’s never really done it when someone is leaving (mostly because it’s just him and I all day together), but he does definitely open and close his hands in a waving manner, and also moves his hand from side to side.
One thing that isn’t mentioned on this chart that I want to bring up, is that starting at 6 months, we transitioned from a baby bottle to a sippy cup with removable handles. He got the hang of it on the first day, and we’ve been using just the sippy cup ever since. We started with a spout top, but went back to a nipple top when he started waving the cup around and spilling it everywhere. He’s been able to hold it firmly, and drink from it with and without the handles, for over a month.
This next chart is skills for babies at 8 months old, some of which my son has already learned. Others, not so much.
As I said previously, he is already making word-like noises. He says “mama” the most, and it most certainly seems to be directed towards me. It’s what he whines in his crib when he wakes up, or when he doesn’t want to sleep. Or when he’s in his pack ‘n play and wants to sit on my lap. Or when his dad gets home and wants to hold him, but he just wants me (sorry, honey). He also says “baba”, though not necessarily when I’m giving him his sippy. No “dada” yet. He also doesn’t really respond to his name… probably because we have 100 nicknames for him. Oops.
He is already crawling short distances, standing on his own, standing while holding onto objects and toys, picking up objects, passing them around (he can also throw, which is awesome), etc. One thing we haven’t even tried to do is cruising. I have yet to baby-proof our apartment (I have all the equipment, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet), so his time outside of his pack ‘n play or his crib is limited to sitting on my lap, sitting with me on the couch, in his high chair, or when we play on the floor together. I have noticed that when he’s in his crib, he can kind of move himself side-to-side slightly. Not really cruising though.
Li can make a pointing motion, but doesn’t point at anything. Just points at the world. So, not quite there with that one. He also doesn’t gesture yet. Around 4 months old, when we started with baby foods, I started to teach him the signs for mommy, daddy, eat, milk, more, and sleep. We haven’t been doing it as much as I would like, but recently got back into it. Hopefully I stick with it better this time.
One thing I am very proud of is his fine motor skills. At his 6 month checkup, we were told that we should start letting him practice picking up tiny foods, like Cheerios or peas, to help him with his pinching, so that he can start eating finger foods in a few months. Well! Just the other day, he was able to pick up not just one, but two Cheerio halves. And put them in his mouth. TWO! So, that’s cool. We’re getting there! As I mentioned in my previous post, we have already started finger foods, so I’m hoping this skill develops quickly!
Thank you all for reading! How are your little ones doing with their development?
Jan
My Life as Jan 
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