Morgan Week 13

Morgan continued to expand his repertoire as he enjoyed his first Christmas. It was spent at home and on Christmas Eve there was a family dinner with Sumei, Kelvin, Johanna, Siva and Keeran and all of us. The following day saw a late Christmas lunch with the arrival of three couples, Joelle& Huw’s friends. Each couple contributed and it was a very cosmopolitan meal – salad, spaghetti, shepherd’s pie, meat balls, shrimps & nut roast, and all. Morgan coped well with all the attention and charmed everybody when he smiled and started his ‘talking’. He generally reacts well to company and settles easily.
He now burbles and babbles on at some length using quite a mixture of sounds. Occasionally there is a loud and distinctive yelp but it does not seem to signify anything in particular. He coos quite a lot and seemed intent at times on using his tongue to explore his mouth, make kissing and clicking sounds and generally try out little noises. He does not say a lot when shown his cot mates each morning but when on his own he does ‘dialogue’ with them through smiling, laughing and assorted quiet noses. He now reacts positively to a wider range of books. He takes in and concentrates on the pictures silently but still gets quite excitable at seeing what he likes (the gosling series and the night and day monkey book.). He continues to respond very vocally and with interest to the mobiles.
He enjoys the morning walk which has become an established routine. When something ‘new’ crops up, such as a child playing on a swing or an adult talking to him on the concourse, his concentration is total. The traffic also grabs his attention and not just the buses. On one occasion he was smiling at his reflection in the mirror in the lift. At what age, I wonder, do children become knowingly aware of their reflection? Music continues to engage him, especially when we join in by using spoons and other rhythmic sound producers. He appears to be noticing the different objects in the mural by his cot and gets satisfaction through lying there looking at them. In short, he manages without being given attention and seems to be developing the capacity to amuse himself.He enjoys the gym and is happy to spend time in it. He is now making some effort to touch the objects dangling from the cross pieces and was knocking them on one occasion. His firm grip on my finger enabled him to hold on when I was pulling him in his chair and this gave impetus so that the chair started rocking through his effort. He now grasps the jumbo rattle much more easily and grasps the assorted plastic coloured rings and pulls against the pressure when you tug at them. He made more sustained efforts to lift himself when on his stomach than he did the previous week. He understandably finds such effort tiring and frustrating, but he does persist a little more now. It is amusing to see him balancing the ball on his feet and even manipulating it with them. This is his performing seal act!