Signs of the Times (to Come)

And just like that, Leon said he was "all done" :). We we've been showing him the sign for a while, Dari most adamantly, and he mostly ignored us or thought it was funny. Until some cooked parsnip pieces found their way onto Leon's tray. He looked at Mommy to see if she was serious in giving him something else than broccoli florets (which he happens to be obsessed with) and slowly, but firmly, gave us a little "no no, not having this" with his right hand. Too funny. We know it was not a coincidence because RIGHT after that he made the sign for "more" when some rice chex came into view. So he had been watching us all along, just waiting for the right moment to say it all. This is him with the broccoli.

There are signs he is making mental strides (in addition to the cruising ones) at school too. The teachers regularly send us a chart with what he is currently doing and "what is next" - and although much of the time he will be doing the "nexts" at home already, it is nice to have someone track his progress in this way. Sometimes the details of those reports get pretty funny. Most recently we were informed that

Leon enjoys social play. He enjoys playing next to his friends.

That sounds about right, although measuring babies' levels of enjoyment is probably a challenging task. But let's just say they are eyeballing it. Now, the corresponding "next step" was this:

Show awareness of other children.

Is this just me, or do you generally have to be aware of something before someone can say that you (consciously) enjoy it? Poor Leon, school is hard already! You'd also be surprised what they come up with to detect cognitive leaps - his teachers now slotted him to master the skill of: "Leon turns his head away from his caregiver when he sees a tissue in her hand" (as in he does not want his nose wiped). That is supposed to show his understanding of regularities in life and memory of what happened recently. He'll get all As here, because he has definitely figured this particular one out, even if the school chart does not show it. We're all ready for an end to the sniffles season!

Time and Space

 Baby Leon is nine months old now and in this picture he is wearing jammies that I thought he would never grow into, when he got them after he was born. Ha. It is also getting increasingly difficult to take his book picture because he refuses to stay still. This is the best we could do :)

Mommy is not the only one having trouble comprehending Leon's recent growth (in terms of stats, he is still on the smaller side compared to other kids, except for his head, which holds steady at the 95% percentile - I wonder where he could have gotten that from...). He himself is trying to figure out how big he actually is by attempting to squeeze himself into variously-sized spaces, as in the picture below. Leon really honestly totally thought he could pass under the chair to say hi to Bimba. Except he kept bumping the side with his head. It was pretty funny :)

He still fits into the bathroom sink for his nightly rinse-off to help him fall asleep easier, however now he can reach all the surrounding items and loves to use the toothpaste as a chew toy. I guess that's appropriate...

Another trick we have been using (successfully) to help him develop a solid daily sleep schedule has been regular afternoon walks with Bimba through the neighborhood. Except it has been very cold and Bimba cannot possibly stay outside the whole time he sleeps. So, we decided to convert Leon into a "Swedish" baby and we bundle him up a LOT and after their lap through the neighborhood, which inevitably puts him to sleep, we just park him outside the living room window and someone watches him from the couch. He'll sleep for 2-3 hours like that, easily. And when he wakes up he is rose-cheeked and super content.

Rounding out Leon's outside time with some wakeful experiences as well, we went to the ZOO this weekend and he actually expressed some interest in what he was seeing. Now, the priority order in his mind appeared to be 1. the means of confining the animals - he was absorbed by checking out the cages, large windows and different light sources that we could see, 2. the people visiting the ZOO, and 3. the animals, of which he still only noticed the biggest ones :). Here he is, checking out the elephant house: