Advancements

In the last couple of weeks, Ruby has made some pretty significant advancements in mobility and language. The most exciting of these is that she has finally started cruising! Although Ruby has had no trouble standing with support for quite some time, she did not dare to take a step for a long, long time.

Ruby at 7.5 months:


Ruby at 11.5 months:


Even though I could tell that she had the physical ability to cruise, Ruby is such a cautious baby that she had a lot of anxiety about moving her little feet. In fact, she would get so nervous while standing that her hands would sweat PROFUSELY, leaving little wet handprints on the furniture.

The first steps Ruby took were while holding onto our hands.



She then began to "cruise" along the railing of her crib, but only at the rate of about 1 inch per minute.



Just like watching a ferry in the distance, we could not tell she was moving by watching her, but if we turned away and looked back some time later, we could see she had moved closer to some other landmark.

Just in the last week, Ruby finally started cruising along furniture and also walking with her walker (a lion on wheels). As she has never rolled or crawled, this marks the first time in her life that she has been able to get from point A to point B.




In addition to this newfound mobility, Ruby is also becoming much more communicative. Here is a rundown of her progress:

Signs Ruby Can Do
All done
More
Milk

Words Ruby Can Say
Ma-ma
Ba-ba
Hi
Xie-xie (Thank you in Chinese)



So far she is bilingual and also able to communicate with the hearing-impaired!