Happy and Talking

This week I've noticed that Stassi is laughing A LOT. It's not just laughing once in a while or laughing because someone makes her laugh. She could just see someone do something or someone stare at her and she'll start doing a soft giggle. There's times when she'll start to giggle but it won't look like it because she'll laugh with a straight face.
Other times she starts babbling thinking that we know what she means to say but in reality we don't have a clue most of time when she's making noises. It became really annoying when we started watching a movie in the living room and she would start screaming at my mom as if she was trying to talk to her and my mom would just say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah baby." I really wish I would know what she says honestly and also so she wouldn't just be shouting during a movie.

Growing Up

Today after having a week of seeing nothing new in Stassi. My sister showed me a video that she took of her saying "Mama." I was amazed seeing her say her first word. In the video you'll notice my sister repeating the word mama, and Stassi will be smiling at her and looking around while repeating mama.

She's grown up so much and it feels as if she was just born a couple of weeks ago, and I feel scared about that. I found this poem by Kayla R. Vandiver titled "Life Can Be Hard." This poem explains my fear of why I'm scared that Stassi is growing up.

"Why didn't they tell me how mean the world can be
Why didn't they tell me how it's suppose to work
If only I would have been thinking I wouldn't be grown?If only I would have been thinking I would have known?Life's not easy any way you go."

This line popped out at me while I was reading abecause this week has been hard on me. I've gone through some very hard family problems and it saddens me that when Stassi and my other nieces and nephew grow up, they'll have to go through all these problems that life throws at them too. I remember all the things that I thought I wouldn't do and notice how much I've changed since I was a child. I hope that my nieces and nephew will do better choices than I have. Even though I can't stop nieces and nephew from growing up and keeping them away from everything that life may throw at them. I can only teach them better and guide them through all their problems that they may encounter in the future. 

Vandiver, Kayla R. "Life Can Be Hard." FamilyFriend Poems. Family Friend Poems, n.d. Web. 2        Nov. 2014

Tasting Something New

This week has been a new taste for Stassi's mouth, she's finally gone from milk diet to solid food. She's not just starting to eat like baby Gerber or apple sauce. She's been starting to chew on bread and also eat grapes or little pieces of food. In the beginning of this milestone I thought that she was still too young to start eating solid food because of her digestive system.
I then found a on Baby Center a topic answering my question. The article's title was, "Introducing Solid Food." It started by giving me signs to look out for to know when my baby is ready to eat solid food.
The signs are:

• Head Control
• Sitting well when supported
• Growing appetite
• Curiosity of what other are eating
• Double birth weight ("Introducing Solid Food")

Stassi has met all these milestones and I guess she's old enough (seven months) to eat solid food. It's cute when she eats fruit. She starts to squint her eyes and smiles while she chews on whatever she's eating.

 "Introducing Solid Food." BabyCenter Expert Advice. BabyCenter, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2014. 

Field Notes: Photo by Orquidea Sautto
10/24/14
"I liked this picture"

Field Notes: Photo by Felipe 10/25/14
"Chewing a piece of bread"

Moving Around

Weekdays it's hard for me to notice any new milestones in Stassi's development. I don't get to be with her 24/7 or even as much time as when my mom babysits her. I was only able to notice that she's started to like to use her baby jumper and walker. I then thought that these toys might help her out on her development on walking, but then after searching up "Will baby walkers and jumpers help my baby learn to walk?" it then took me to a website: Baby Center Experts Advise. Expert David Geller, pediatrician answered, "In fact, studies have shown that babies who use a walker may actually learn to walk about a month later than those who don't. Walkers allow babies to move around before they are physically ready for it, which can cause unusual movement patterns and delayed muscle control." Later on in the article it was advised to let my baby to learn how to walk by herself instead of helping her out or it will discourage her to walk on her own.


This weekend in the morning I had notice that my mom has been helping Stassi to learn that her legs are used for walking and she's starting to stand up and walk with the help of my mom holding her and helping her. Although Baby Center may recommend me to not help her out to walk, it seems to be working out as her legs keep getting stronger and she'll start moving by herself to reach things that she wants.

Control

During my observations this week, I've noticed that Stassi has gained balance and control of her body. She's started to sit down without falling down or leaning too much to one side. She's also started to be able to hold on her bottle and drink from it without the help of someone to hold it for her. For a moment in the beginning of Stassi's milestone, she was only able to sit down supporting herself by leaning forward and extending her arms forward.

Field Notes: Taken by Felipe Cedillo, 12 October, 2014

On parents.com it told me that a baby who is 6 months experiences siting up by herself and a way to help Stassi to become comfortable to sit down is surrounding her with pillows, cushions or use a c-shape pillow for support. I will use this to help her out more and also keep searching through this parents website to help me out with Stassi's milestones.

Chewing

This week through out my observations I've started to notice that Stassi has been chewing a lot of her toys and mainly food. I started notice her chewing when on Monday, my sister gave her a piece of bread to start chewing on. But every time that we would take away that piece of bread and give her a new one because that piece would start to get soggy, she would start crying uncontrollably until we gave her that soggy piece of bread back. I then started thinking it was because she wants to start eating real food instead of baby food. Then I went on the internet to search "why babies chew stuff?" because I started inferring that it was because she might start growing teeth which it's weird for me because she's still a baby.

I then found parents.com a parental website for questions about babies. Then it answered me that most babies start growing baby teeth early 4 months but normally during 6 months. This had answered many of my questions because for some days, Stassi has started to cry very often and it worried me. I will keep this website in my notes if I ever have any more future questions about Stassi.

Why Does She Laugh?

For some time Stassi has started to laugh when someone plays with her or plays peek-a-boo with her. Normally I would try to make her laugh by calling her name, making weird faces, or saying random noises making it look as if I was actually talking to her, but it would become a fail to try to make her laugh. Now for some time when she sees me, she starts to laugh and smile when I start talking to her. It brings to me such a great joy to make her happy and see a baby smile. I took a video to show how she acts when she laughs. 

Field Notes- 9/27

Taken by Felipe Cedillo

Now it may seem normal to see a baby laugh and smile but what I've been thinking while she laughed was, "Why does she laugh? Does she know that I'm trying to make her laugh? Or is she laughing because I'm acting stupid?" I've started on my research on why does Stassi laugh? and I've found a study by Dr. Caspar Addyman, a researcher at London Birkbeck University’s Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development — or the BabyLab as it has been dubbed. He is overseeing one of the biggest studies into what makes babies laugh, and why. He had questioned many parents of what makes their baby laugh, what time do they laugh, and also to send video proof of their babies laughing. He wasn't able to find the answer to why babies laugh, but instead found out that many of them have been reported laugh in the first 2 months. I'm yet to find out through my observations more about Stassi and hopefully through this process I may find out why does she laugh?