Last week we talked about Jude starting to really want to feed himself, well this week he took it a step further. Last night we were feeding Jude dinner and he kept on gesturing at the bowl we were feeding him from. So we put the bowl down in front of him and he tried digging in his spoon and then reaching the spoon to his mouth. He had watched the way we do it and he wanted to give it a try. Today at lunch he had almost the whole meal this way. As you can see in the photo above, it was a lot messier than normal, particularly when it was time for yogurt. The whole meal also took a lot longer than usual, almost 45 minutes, but he fed himself most of it with only a little assistance from me.
Speaking of food, Jude's tastes are expanding. This week for the first time he had chili, Indian food (chicken bhuna and saag paneer), and chicken soup all from our plates because he wants to eat what we eat.
Jude is understanding more and more words. Marcy made the comment this week that she thinks he gets about 30 percent of what we say. He definitely knows the words for car, plant, walking, bath, wash clothes, Jude's room, gentle, and many others. I think most of the time he can get the general gist of what we are saying even if he doesn't know all the words yet.
About a month ago Jude started to get a little restless and feisty while we were changing his diaper. So we would have to say "I am not done yet" and force him back down. Now, he understands this concept but he is trying to push us a little bit. We will be halfway through changing his diaper and he will give a half smile and start to move. It is like he knows he shouldn't do it but he wants to test us. This is a new development in the past week or so, and we have seen it in other areas as well.
We have been teaching Jude sign language now for a few months and it is just this week that we have noticed him starting to sign back. When Charlotte, our regular baby sitter on Mondays and Thursdays was giving him dinner she said that he did the "more" sign to indicate he wanted more food. We have been doing this sign to him during every meal for the last three months or more and this is the first time he has done it back. We also noticed the "all done" sign today when he had finished his meal. So we are hoping that all the teaching (done mainly by Marcy) is starting to bear fruit.




