Posterity

Consulting with a psychologist, social worker, paediatrician and other groups has found us filling out several forms regarding Ethan. Just yesterday, we received a new packet, containing a questionnaire with A LOT of items to fill out covering physical, social, communication, and other aspects of his development.

Some items I am having a bit of a hard time filling out because I have to remember when he first waved goodbye, or smiled, or became aware of himself in the mirror. Some stuff like when he first walked or talked are easier because those are major milestones that are ingrained in a mom's brain. But the other stuff, I had to back read my entries here. Good thing that I was able to record some of his minor milestones like when he started to stand on his own, or waved goodbye.

So, the saying that being OTT in covering your child's development is never true because you wouldn't know when you'd need it. Which now comes to Ianna's records, because to be honest and too bad of me, but I haven't been as diligent :( Good thing I was awakened by the forms, so I'm now taking time to record stuff for her :)

DEVELOPMENT

She started playing with toys around 4 months, when she can sit with assistance and able to play with toys while reclining. Her first toy was a rag doll, aptly named Dolly, a gift from her Lola Betty. She also had Filfy, another stuffed doll, a gift from kuya Ethan. She recognizes who Dolly is because grandma would usually ask her where Dolly was and she'd turn her head to look at Dolly's corner of the bed.

She can play peek a boo or games like that around 7 or 8 months. Around last month, 19 months she started make-believe games like putting her dolls to sleep or letting them eat. She learned to play with other children, in a way, when she learned to use the small slide in Westfield Plaza Mt. Druitt around July 2013. She knows how to take turns, waiting for her turn on the slide, and not sliding down unless the slide was clear of children. I was quite amazed with that because it was her first time to play in a play area, climb the stairs to the slide by herself and slid down - and she did it well her first time!

She doesn't have any sense of danger yet, poking at and around the bench outside kuya Ethan's classroom, despite the repeated warnings that I have on the possibility of spiders hiding in the grooves. Although she does know what will happen if she's not careful climbing onto stuff and fall and bump her head. But it does not stop her from doing what she wants. Hehe.

COMMUNICATION-SOCIAL

The first time we noticed that she responded and became aware of her world was when she learned how to focus her sight - around 2 months. She learned to look at you and not just anywhere near you. She responds and smiles sometimes. She learned to identify herself in the mirror around 6 or 7 months, I remember our bedroom closet back home had a mirror and when we lull her to sleep sometimes she tries to sit up to look at the mirror.

She has always been confident about us leaving for work because she stays with her grandpa and grandma usually, or lola (when they are back in Davao) when we go to work. Of course, kuya Ethan is also at home with them. So we didn't experience any separation anxiety from her unless we're outside and she sees strangers. She even waves goodbye from the window, around 9 months old.

That's actually one thing that we noticed, Ethan never shied away from strangers (aka madaling ma-kidnap) while Ianna does. She started to be aware that some people are more familiar than others around 8 months when we go to Sampaloc and A's cousins or titas would try to carry her. But note that there are some like tita Lani, tita Cookie, Lola Mila who she seems comfortable to be with.

Now that she's 19 months old, she still "chooses" who to get comfortable with. She's quite comfortable with Tita Neri (Ethan's classmate's mom, who's also Pinay), and usually uncle Abet can sit with her for a while at home.

LANGUAGE

She just started to get noisy and babbling only around 1 1/2 yrs old. Before that, you cannot really call it active babbling. It was mostly grunts or shrieks. But now, she sometimes lets out a whole string of babbles.

She can now understand simple commands - I can get her to throw stuff into the rubbish bin, or put something on the table, or pick something up. She responds when we ask her if she wants to eat, sleep, take a bath by nodding her head for Yes or shaking it for No. She can also communicate what she wants by placing a book on my hands for example if she wants me to read to her.

Another thing that I recently noticed was that she has a distinct wave for Hello and Goodbye. Her Hello wave is to wave her hand side to side, without flexing her fingers. But her Goodbye wave is hand steady, with her fingers flexing to make the wave...like open-close motion. I was surprised to discover it and honestly, amazed that she is able to make that distinction. I asked her to repeat several times just to see if it was not just a glitch, and she really does it like that!

She already knows some body parts like her head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, chin, hands, feet - around 1 1/2 year old. Since she doesn't talk yet, she points to what she wants and makes noises to make us aware and thus start asking questions to which she responds with either a nod or shake of her head.

About two weeks ago, I taught her about her age.
Me: Ianna, when someone asks you how old are you, you stick out your pointer finger because you're one year old!
She just looked at me and after a couple of samples, she got it and we proceeded to show her papa, kuya, uncle, grandpa/grandma/uncles (thru Skype).

MANIPULATION, MOBILITY AND COORDINATION

She started sitting alone around 7 months, crawled around 9 months, and walked around 14 months. Now she's climbing up chairs or sofa then sits down. She learned how to go down the bed around 15 months. I had to teach her how to do it (feet first) for her own good. Hehe.

Whenever her kuya's working on his drawings she loves to get in there and put in a few scribbles of her own. She's always going after his crayons and pencils!

When she hears a tune she likes, she dances to it, mostly jiggling her puwet from left to right or bobbing her head then looking at us and waiting for acknowledgment. When she gets that, she smiles her mischievous smile :)

SELF CARE SKILLS

Around this time, 19 months, she started learning to feed herself using a spoon. She also wants to play with the fork but we don't really let her. I am scared she'd get her eyes poked. But she's starting to push for her independence, wanting to feed herself or drink on her own.

Along with this independence thing, she chooses which clothes she wants to wear - and she has her favorites. Around 14 months, she knows how to get her arms into the sleeves as soon as her head pokes out from the shirt.

We've not started toilet training, opting as like with Ethan, to wait for her to be ready. She doesn't seem to be aware yet that she's wet unless she's wearing cloth diapers and it's soaking wet.

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