Standing without support and admiring himself- 15 months old

Today Richie stood from the sitting position without holding onto support. He touched the ground and stood on his feet. Seeing his achievement, he started smiling and clapping for himself. He he he. Isn't that cute? He loves to admire and reward himself on his accomplishments.

He then squatted and retrieved a toy from the ground and stood again. He was practicing it over and over again. And like I said earlier, it is difficult to put him to sleep when he is trying to achieve a new milestone. That is the height of practice.

It is time for new vocabulary

Richie is gaining his strength back after some tough days. He was down with gastrointestinal problems and high fever for 5 days continuously. But I am happy he is trying his best to be back to his normal health. He feels hungry most of the time and demands for food by crying loudly.
Nowadays, he goes "koati-koati, bu-bu for aeroplanes, ba-ba for sheep, hey dada (calling out to dada),pa-pa, wa-wa for water" etc.

Dancing his heart out

Richie loves music and he shows liking for pop,jazz,country and Japanese songs too. I have also seen his taste varying over the months gone by. The songs which he did not like some months back becomes dear to him. So there is no hard and fast rule. The more we expose him to music the more choice he has.
Richie also loves to dance his heart out. Earlier (when Richie was 9 months old), he used to sit and bounce up and down while listening to music. Nowadays he has changed his style. He sways sideways and also moves his feet. He also waves his hands and takes them above his head and down. The best part is, he dances to the rhythm and only for certain parts of the song which he likes. Current favorites are "Backyardigans music, Disney's 'hot dog, hot dog diggety dog',Que sera, Kenny Rogers songs to name a few.

Richie played a lot today

Richie seemed all happy today and was playing a lot. He started a new game. The game was about collecting all the multicolored small balls in one place. Then he would take 2 balls in his hands and crawl in "Commando" position i.e on his elbows and meticulously keep them on the chair, so that they don't slip down. He didn't stop till he finished placing all the balls on the chair. Inspite of all the care, some balls would give him a slip. But Richie was quick to get them back, scolding them for their bad behaviour. Thinking that he may be tired, Richie's dada tried to help him. But what do you think Richie did? He didn't accept the balls and threw them at the place from where it came from. Richie's dada exclaimed "He has his his own rules. We better not mess around.".;)

Acquiring new skills -13.5 months old

Richie is walking holding onto furniture. He cruises everywhere and specially checks out things on the dining table. When it is time for dinner (he senses it somehow), he comes near his high chair and indicates that he wants to sit on it. When we tell him, go and get your cushion, he crawls and gets the cushion with dada's help.

Recently he has acquired a new skill. His dada taught him to get down from the bed. He started getting down from the bed all by himself, after a little practice. Climbing was a little difficult, but he mastered it fast.

When we tell him "it is bedtime Richie" and try switching off the lights, he leaves his toys behind and comes running (rather crawling thud,thud thud) and sleeps on his pillow.

Richie feeding mama and dada

Richie is 13.5 months old. These days we are experiencing a lot of give and take. He uses the spoon and feeds dada and me. He feeds us biscuit and bread too with his tiny little hands. While feeding he goes "haap, haaap, haap", which means "open your mouth, open your mouth". If we are not around, he feeds pooh and pooh becomes happy and smiles.;)