My Big Little Man, 11 Months On

11 months old on 2 Sep 2009

It’s been 11 months with you, my little man. 11 months of being your Mummy. And what an eventful 11 months it has been! You now stand at the cusp of toddlerhood and every time I think about it, I always squeeze you that bit tighter and kiss your chubby cheek, trying to hold on to my sweet baby for that much longer.

You, on the other hand, are too much in a hurry trying to grow up. This month was a particularly busy month. The most obvious development is your walking. Since taking your first steps, your confidence has grown by leaps and bounds, particularly over the last 3 weeks. On last count, you can easily walk 30-40 steps on your own. You can walk all the way from our hall into our bedroom and I wish I could post the video on that but it’s in our video cam and it’s all a bit too complicated. You can stop short and change directions at will too. You still walk with your arms outstretched for balance though, which is really awfully cute. And because you usually prefer us to hold your right hand, your right hand is usually raised higher when you walk on your own. I’m still not used to seeing you toddle off on your own so I still get a real kick out of watching you do this.

Steady…

… and off you go!

Even though you are getting increasingly independent, you nonetheless still seek out our fingers when you need to walk. I think it’s mostly because you feel free to run since we’re holding on to you! You would come up to me, grab my hand, pry out my finger, and when you’ve got it in your vice-like grip (believe me, you are a strong one), you’ll use all your body weight to try to drag me where you want to go. Yelps of protest and complaint are added if I refuse to budge. It is annoying yet endearing in a way that only parents who have gone through the same experience can relate to. I go with you anyway cos I know that before long, you’ll be busy shaking me off while I try to hold your hand. I’m hoping that time won’t be for a while.

Have finger, will travel

By the way this walking that you’re doing? It’s the BEST THING EVER. I’ve come to the conclusion that other parents who have all warned me that the early walking stage is tiring did not have wriggly babbies who struggled to break free of their arms all the time. Holding your hand and walking around is dead easy compared with trying to hold on to you while you try to plunge to the ground to crawl around on inappropriate surfaces. The best thing is that all the walking tires you out for a good nap thereafter!

Cognitively, you’re also progressing well. I’m constantly amazed by how much you now understand. Like that day when your Kong Kong told you it was time to play the piano, you walked straight to it and started banging on the stool.

Dancing to Kong Kong’s music, one of your favourite activities, besides getting your itchy fingers into everything

Every parent goes through the same thing but it’s still a wonder to me, seeing it happen before my eyes.

You seem to understand many words and often respond with gestures that get us laughing. There are too many to recount, but here are just a few: You recognise the phone and would put it to your ear when we ask you to say “hello”. You do the same thing with the TV remote though. You try to yank off your diaper when you realise it’s bath time and also when we say “diaper”. You also like to take the powder puff and pat it on your groin area just like we do after a diaper change. You would drag me to the front door in the afternoons when you think it’s time to go out and bang on it while looking at me expectantly. Once out the door, you do the same thing to the lift door. You’ve also learnt to give things to me or your Papa when asked, even without an outstretched hand, provided you don’t really just want to hang on to the item yourself of course.

Encouraged by your obvious comprehension, I recently tried and managed to teach you to raise up your hand if you want to be carried. This was borne out of weariness at being whined at by you otherwise. “Say “UP!””, I said, lifting you hand straight up and standing up, each time. It took a few weeks but you got it. Now you lift your hand when I say “Up” and also when you want me to carry you up. Mama’s real proud of you. Best of all, no more whining! Except when I don’t comply…

“UP Mummy!”

We’re now working on “Please”, with some success, but only when you’re being bribed with fruit/snacks.

Language wise, you have been talking a lot, but the only words we understand are “Papa”, “Bird” (Ber) and “Book” (Boo). It makes your Papa so happy when you call him as he steps through the door when he returns from work. “Ber” is your favourite, used to refer to birds, aeroplanes, helicopters, butterflies and generally everything you see flying in the sky. And you really do love looking for birds and have spent many a merry morning surveying the sky for these with everyone.

Out looking for birds with Papa

You’ve been trying hard to say Mama as well, and while it still comes out “Mapa” most of the time, I give you points for effort. It did feel a bit thankless to be told “Papa!” every time I asked you to say Mama!

With understanding comes the issue of discipline which we are thinking more about now. We want to bring you up right, little Noey, even as we are struggling to do it right. One thing your Papa has started is to read the Bible to you every morning and try to teach you to be still and pray. We realised that the evening wasn’t suitable as your Papa gets home late on some days and you are also sometimes tired and cranky. You are however, a consistently early riser (goodness knows where you got that from), bright and chirpy and receptive. So even though your Papa is someone who can always do with more sleep, he’s decided to try to be up when you’re up to spend some time with you. We’ve all been enjoying it so far and we hope we can continue with this.

Reading the Bible with Papa in the morning is a good way to start the day

Feeding you continues to be a challenge. You would eat well for a few days, then turn difficult for a while before becoming amenable to food again. One thing’s for sure, you always have to be distracted during mealtimes, or else you’d scream to be taken out of your highchair. We had the Ikea catalogue to thank for many successful meals this month. I’m so stocking up on more of these!

Needless to say, there’s no way you’re feeding yourself since the last thing you want to do with a loaded spoon is put it in your mouth. I’ve tried varying your diet to see if this would address the issue, without success. You rejected the avocado sandwiches (I tried these since you LOVE bread) and mee sua out right, and took a few mouthfuls of chicken macaroni soup (you spat out all the chicken) and tomato pasta before losing interest. We’ve therefore reverted back to porridge for your regular meals since you haven’t started spitting that out YET.

I’m at my wits end in this respect and it really annoys me when your well-meaning grandparents tell me that you are not eating cos your food has no taste. Yes, we don’t add salt, but your food’s nice ok? I should know — I frequently finish your leftovers. We add homemade chicken stock to your porridge most times and it’s not bland. We’ll see how it goes this month. I’m also trying to give you a little table food also to broaden your palate. You can’t just eat plain bread all day you know.

In contrast, you LOVE fruits. Which is why I think you have a sweet tooth. Oh dear. Besides your staples of apple and banana, your favourites are oranges, strawberries and the latest, kiwi fruit. I think you like tangy fruits and you’re so Mummy’s boy in this respect.

Going for Papa’s watermelon. Papa is hoping you’ll join his camp on this one! (Yes, Mummy is one of those oddballs who does not like watermelon. I think it’s a diluted fruit.)

With all those sweet fruits, and given that you finally have some teeth, I’ve started you on toothbrushing.

Seeing how Mummy does it…

… and giving it a go!

Of course what I’m trying to do is more to get you used to the idea of brushing your teeth in the morning — I don’t think you actually manage to do any cleaning! You’ve been fairly cooperative thus far though I can see from your face that you really want to get some of that toothpaste. Not for a while, little man.

One more thing I have to add before I end off: we’ve finally figured out how to manage you in your car seat, and the answer lay in your Kindermusik CDs. I thought any music would do but the radio wasn’t working for you so in desperation I turned to these and they worked like a charm! It’s not always effective of course, but generally we’ve been getting more cry-free drives, which I’m really thankful for. Your Papa and I are utterly brainwashed by now and sometimes break into song singing these tunes but I guess it can’t be helped.

There is more I could say, but I think I’ve rambled on for long enough. Like I said, it’s been a full month. We’ve had our trying days, but also our amazing ones. Having you has been a journey, one of discovery for me as much as it has been for you. There’ve been days when I’ve been incredibly tired but I know when I look at you, I won’t have it any other way if it meant that I wouldn’t have you.

Happy 11 Months, my baby. May you never lose that joy.