Stranger anxiety

(Photo: I don't know if you can see it but Lara's doing the "peace symbol" with her fingers here.)

I went to the toy library a couple of days ago to pick up new toys for Lara and thought I would also stop by to see a few people I used to work with . Lara was always sociable and very interested in other people on our outings together. Since those work colleagues have not seen her and one of them just had a baby, I thought it would be nice to take Lara with me.

She wasn't fussed in the car. However, she cried twice during this trip! There were lots of tears! She cried in a colleague's arms while I was talking to the colleague who just had the baby and looking through the cute newborn photos. She cried again when she was held by a lady in the toy library so I could load toys into the car. How fast things change! She was SO easy-going only two weeks ago at a friend's baby shower!

And it happened again yesterday! We had some of friends over for dinner. I was feeding Lara on the high chair when they arrived. Lara burst out crying (she was at home with me sitting next to her!). She did get better as the night went on.

Anyway, I remembered a book we borrowed from the library mentioned something about this so I got the book out again. The book is called 'Raising a Happy, Unspoiled Child". Husband initially borrowed it when we had disagreements about raising Lara. The book said this "Stranger Anxiety", normally happens between seven to nine months, is the start of a baby's development of "interest in people". So is the closely related 'Separation Anxiety" which happens after 9 months and can persist into the second year of the child's life. It was amazing that this 'stranger anxiety' seemed to happen overnight for Lara. It's almost as if Lara has read the book and decided that "I'm 7 months old so I should have this stranger anxiety they talk about"!

The book discussed the mental and social development of a child from birth to 3 years and the behaviours associated with each stage. According to the book, the special social abilities coming up (for 7-14 months old) are: (1) Using an adult as a resource (2) Expressing both positive and negative feelings toward an adult (3) Showing pride in achievement and (4) Engaging in make-believe or pretend play. It'll be interesting to see how these abilities develop.

P.S. I had no laptop for a few days. New software was being installed so I could do some work from home. I had to use/share husband's PC, which he was not too happy about.