Z’s Milestones…

As you all know, my son has Down Syndrome. And given his medical journey from the time of his birth and his condition, his development is said to be delayed. So with that said, I have been trying to keep track of all his milestones and development to compare that to the milestone range that I have up on one of my bedroom walls.

However, to be honest, even if I have the chart up at eye level and at somewhere really easy to find, I haven’t been paying attention to it. Every time my son is here with me in the big metro, I just enjoy every moment that I get to spend with him and not really make him “take an exam”, so to speak, to check where he is in the milestones chart.

Although I have documented a few – first time to roll at 3.5 months, first solids at 6 months, etc. – in Z’s FB page (and yes, he’s got an FB page 😀 ), there are a still a lot of those little milestones that I haven’t really been paying attention to. A few of those would be: the first time he started reaching out and grabbing what caught his interest, the syllable uttered after all those ooohs and aaaahs that babies tend to say at their early stages, the first time he started head banging on anything that will let him make the “wawawa” sound, and all those other small things that will eventually help him do the big things.

Last month I have posted a video of him standing up against the wall. Little Z was at about 8.5 months that time. Now, whenever you let him stand against the wall, he will stand for longer periods of time (compared to last month). At 9 months, here are a few of the things that I have noticed little Z has perfected and has been working on:

• Rotating from one side to the other (or even the whole 360 degree turn) while lying on his tummy. He does this too fast now, especially if there is something that caught his attention and is being moved away from him.
• Two-syllable to three-syllable combinations during talkative time. More often than not, every morning before bath time, expect my son to be talkative. From wa-wa-wa to ta-ta-ta to da-da-da, he can now combine ta-da or wa-ta or sometimes even say ba-da. Other times, he says all three syllables: wa-da-ta-ta-ta-ta or a-wa-na-da then raspberry. LOL! I am still waiting for him to say Ma or Mum. Whenever I try to teach him to say that, he laughs, though. LOL!
• Sitting on his own. Well, he doesn’t know how to prop himself up in a sitting position yet but when you prop him in a sitting position, he can now hold himself straight. He also knows how to use his arms to balance himself (although there are still times that he misses using his arms to hold his balance that he just let himself drop on the bed Hahaha!).

• He can hold his bottle now. 🙂 Before, if you let him hold his bottle, he would lift his arms up and would just let you hold his bottle for him while he feeds. Now, when you show him his bottle, he would reach out to get it. He still doesn’t know how to totally lift it up and put the teat in his mouth but you let him hold his bottle while feeding, he will now hold it. Not only with one hand (unlike before), he now holds it with both hands. 🙂

• He also knows how to put his eyeglasses back on. LOL! Not in the right position though since he still doesn’t know how to pull the frame up his ears but whenever he takes his glasses off, he will prop it back up on his nose. More often that not, the glasses is askew because he only uses one hand to fix it but when he notices that one lens is up on his eye but the other one is way below the other eye, he would pull it off again and start over. So cute to watch, actually. 🙂

• During his play time and lying on his tummy, he would start pushing himself up using his arms and bends his knees in a crawling position. He still doesn’t know what to do once he’s on all fours but he is already working on it, too. One thing I noticed with Z is that, when he is unsure of what to do next, he would drop it and lie down on the bed and play instead. LOL!

So those are the a few of the things that I have noticed my little boy has achieved to this date. Regardless if he’s delayed in the development department, the thing is, I can see my son exploring and thinking on how to do things. He has been starting to discover quite a few things that he can do (like trying to cry when he wants attention, he knows how to do that now) and I know that there will still be a lot of things that he will find out.

There are times that I do envy the other infants who’s already starting to walk at Z’s age but then what can I say? My son loves taking his own sweet time in trying to learn what needs to be learned. 🙂

I am so looking forward to the other things that my little Z will be able to do in the next coming months. Who knows? This kid might just stand up and run instead of walk. LOL!