Saturday, March 20, 2010

Little hands, big world

The 3rd month of Logan's life is full of exciting changes. But if I were to use one word to describe his biggest achievements, it would be "exploration": exploring his little hands, and the big outside world!

Babies' little hands are their best friends! Logan loved to stare at his hands, studying them very carefully. Then he tried to put them into his mouth, which took a little while for Logan to gain a fairly good aim. And of course, you would believe they are so yummy if you have seen the way Logan sucks on them -- not just one finger, it's the whole fist shuffled into the mouth, sometimes even two hands at once! As Logan was discovering his yummy hands, he also discovered that they are useful hands too. First, I taught Logan to hold on to his toys by putting them in his hands. At the beginning, he held for a little while and threw them away. Then a few days later, Logan could hold for a longer while. And then one day he accidentally grabbed onto the toys himself! And soon he could lift them up, wave aimlessly in the air, and even attempt to tear them apart! Finally, Logan learned that his little hands can be yummy and useful at the same time! There goes his toy or bib or whatever he grabbed onto being pushed into his mouth along with the hand -- delicious!!!

Logan also continued to become more content as he became more comfortable being in his little world. This has made it possible for us to go out and explore the big outside world! We started going to the library "baby story time" program once a week; we also went to the early year center a few times to play; we went to the grocery stores, on errands and walked around in parks too. Logan is much more quiet when he is out in public, observing what is going on; when he is overwhelmed, he would look away from the actions. At all these places we went to, Logan has been the youngest always. While other babies happily playing with the toys, he could only lie on the floor or sit against me, and watch. He doesn't have the skills to "play" yet at this age, but I like the idea of having him seeing more people. I can tell he is a little bored with me at home, so I took him out to the public programs so that he could look at other babies. The infant stage is so short, I know, in no time he will be running around with other kids already!

Logan didn't have a three month checkup with the doctor, the next one is at four month, so I don't have an accurate weight measurement. But I took out the tape and measured his height, 25 inches! The other day, daddy dressed Logan after this bedtime bath, and was all of a sudden sentimental, "he is no longer a baby any more, he looks so big, I am gonna miss him!" Indeed Logan looks big, so I have to remind myself, "Logan is bigger than many of the 5, 6 month old we see; even though he is bigger, he doesn't have their skills yet. Logan is still a baby!"

And I think ... Logan will be my baby forever.

-Yang

p.s. Logan's 3rd month album is up.