I've been meaning to post for awhile, but haven't had the time or had the pictures ready, so this is somewhat old news. The first bit of news is that Alex can now sit on his own without accidentally falling over. He will fall to his belly if he's reaching for something out of reach to the side of him, but other than that he stays sitting. This was a revelation a few weeks ago when I put him down in a sitting position and a half hour later he was still there. Yay! I'm really happy about this because it makes putting him down easier and he can just sit and play.
The second bit of news is Alex said his first word--well, you be the judge. He babbles a lot, as they do at this age, and most of it is mamamama mamam amama, etc. Well, there have been a few times where he has said mama, and I know it could just be babbling, but at times it has seemed like he knew what he was saying. For example, I came home once and he and Aaron were in the living room. Aaron was holding Alex standing and when Alex saw me, he said mama. Then another day, I came in the room and said, "Hi baby." Then he says, "Mama." And there are other times where he says, "Mama" looking right at me. When I searched online, it said that children at this age don't comprehend the meaning to words, but deaf children taught to sign from birth can sign back as early as 6 months. Don't tell me they don't know what they're signing (although interestingly, deaf children will babble with their hands). I think it's more that it's harder to form words with your mouth than signs with your hands. I think Alex understands a lot, but can't control his mouth and voice enough to say a lot of words. If this is true, then Alex has said his first word! If you want to see a video of Alex babbling, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nPEtsIrlrA.
And finally, Alex has decided to do a very annoying thing: he rolls onto his tummy while in the crib. I wouldn't mind so much if he would just sleep on his tummy, or if he knew how to roll onto his back from his tummy (he's done it a few times, but can't do it when he wants to). He actually has slept on his tummy at times, but for whatever reason, doesn't do it all the time. This morning I heard him at 5 a.m. So I went in and he was pushing up on his arms fussing about being on his tummy. So I turned him over and went back to bed, 15 minutes later, he's on his tummy and fussing about it again. Then during his morning nap, instead of sleeping his usually 2 hours, he's up and fussing because he's on his tummy. I turned him over to see if that would help, but I don't know if he'llgo back to sleep. So frustrating! And I don't know how to teach him to roll to his back. He learned how to get to his tummy by going on to his side, reaching for something he wanted that was out of reach, and the basically falling forward onto his tummy because he lost his balance. But how do you teach a baby to go from his tummy to his back. He's not going to fall onto it because he's reaching for something, and he doesn't seem to get how to shift his weight to do it. Ugh, I don't know what to do. I think most babies just do it (I mean, he rolled over to his back the first time at 4 months. Don't ask me why he can't do it now).
