New developments:
Maximus has been practicing holding his arms above himself like you would a bench press. The action only lasted a few seconds until the weight of the arms brought them back to solid ground. A couple of times his hands met in the air, locked, and came back down. That was pretty big for him. It was the first time he’d really held on to the other hand and the first time he’d shown that kind of arm movement.
On November 1, I came home from work and he was playing on his activity mat. I heard a bunch of noise so I stepped around the couch to see what was going on. I caught him mid-flight. His right arm was up in the air and his left arm was up in the air frantically batting at a toy dangling above his head. His legs were cruising along with him. I stopped, turned to my husband and said, “Whoa! When did he learn how to do THAT?!” He told me that Maximus had been doing that since they got home. When I talked to the daycare provider, she told me that he was even trying to reach for toys when he was sitting in his swing. When we weren’t looking, he turned that corner away from being a little baby and he hasn’t looked back!
With these new arm developments, he can easily and deliberately bring his hand to his mouth if he wants to suck on it. Last night he woke up from a nap while I was making dinner. He woke up crying and soon I heard the sounds that are so easily known as a baby sucking on his hand (or an arm if the hand won’t cooperate). I peaked around the corner and saw that he was soothing himself as his tongue and hand tried to work together to find a rhythm. Until these coordinated movements, finding his hand was always a surprise.
