Independence

I moved you into your own room today. You don't sleep through yet but we want to "train" you this week and I thought it'd be a good idea to do that in a separate room. Your mum wasn't as keen on the move as I was and is spending the night on the floor next to your cot.
You are becoming more independent in another way. You are standing for longer - you get your balance and then let go of me - and today you took a step without falling straight over. I foresee you walking in a matter of weeks but I'm hardly experienced on these things.

Locomotion

You have become more mobile - the changes at the nine-month mark feel almost as dramatic as at the six-month mark - and can crawl along on your tummy. You can stand up from a seated position (on my chest) and also from a kneeling one (using my chest to push yourself up).

Swing

Clapping

As your manual dexterity improves, you seem to enjoy clapping. It is almost a default action for you, cutie.

Flirty

Your mum says today you met your first love. You were rubbing your hand over Veronika's face at Finley's first birthday party. It's not the first time you've shown good taste.

Multilingual

Your mum and I had a chat about languages tonight. We've both heard that if one person does not consistently speak a single language (ie if I speak to you in English, Spanish and Japanese) you will confuse them all. I've always thought this was a myth and that's exactly what multilingualchildren.org says. As long as you get enough language input, you should be able to pick up 3 or 4 languages and it is better to teach them all together rather than wait and do one after the other.

We agreed we would make sure there were enough books in Spanish and Japanese for you and also that we would only let you watch certain films (animation for kids) in languages other than English (Mandarin, too, of course). In the meantime, I decided I need to step up my own language study as both need polishing up. We'll encourage you to learn other languages at school, too.

200

My son, you are 200 days old today. Your two little front teeth, which caused you a little discomfort but not as much as some babies experience, seem more prominent today - I guess that'll be the case every time we get a good look. You are on three "solid" meals a day; natural yoghurt in the morning and then two others that your mum prepares. Today I fed you a butternut squash & carrot mixture that you enjoyed a lot.

Today you've been "speaking" a lot. "Abba", "Baba" and "Awa" seem to be the extent of your repertoire. Since "baba" means "daddy" in Mandarin and this is how your mum refers to me, I can kid myself that your first word is a reference to me. There's a little more time to go before that happens for real. You seem a little more co-ordinated; you're passing stuff between your hands and getting stuff into your mouth first go more often. Also, your poo is solid now - little nuggets - and smellier. You're 200 days old and we love you so much.