Perfect 10

10 months old on 2 Aug 2009

So the letter this month is late as usual. Sorry little man. I sure hope you don’t inherit your Mother’s tardy genes. Then again your Father ain’t much better so you might be on your own there.

These days it’s so much fun just being with you, writing has taken a backseat. You’re changing so quickly that it really does feel like each time I come back from a day away from you, you’ve learnt something new. The first year brings tremendous changes and it’s all too apparent these days. And while I am very proud of you and your little achievements, I can feel my little baby slipping away.

You are nearly a toddler now, eager to master the art of walking. Wherever possible, you will choose not to crawl, but instead feel your way around on your feet, using whatever you find for support.

In this way, you’ve become highly proficient at getting around the house with your walker. Just a couple of weeks ago, you would complain loudly when you pushed the walker into the wall so that someome would come rescue you. Maybe it was because our reaction was too slow, or because we didn’t always point you where you wanted to go, but you’ve since learnt to take things in your own hands and walk in front of it and push it backwards when stuck, or sometimes, even turn the walker yourself. Well done on the problem solving.

Oops, Stuck!

Reverse!

Your favourite means to get around however is to grasp our hands and take off. Where earlier in the month you would let us hold both your hands to walk, you now shake one hand free, needing just one hand as you seek to find your own balance.

I’m sure you’ll be shaking off both hands soon and running free. Everyone who has seen you in action has been predicting that you’ll walk soon. And on Thursday while out with Auntie FY and YK, you took your first independent steps! Mummy was so proud. I won’t say more now since it really deserves a post all on it’s own!

With the latest development, your ability to stand without support doesn’t seem quite as exciting but it is significant nonetheless. You’ve unfortunately used this skill to great effect doing things you shouldn’t do, like ransacking my underwear drawer — and using BOTH hands to pick out items to throw on the floor.

“I’ve got the phone! More power to me!”

Your activity knows no bounds and we’ve really got to keep an eye on you as you try to scramble onto every surface, even if it’s out of your reach. You climb the coffee table with ease now, and you’ve even given the dining table a good attempt. You are such a monkey I can’t imagine what you’d be up to when you can walk proper.

You’ve learnt so many tricks recently that I can’t remember them all. I was just marvelling at some of the things you’d picked up 2 weeks ago but since then, you’ve learnt even more. You wave bye-bye consistently, wave hello and wave when we say “wave!” Yes, you like waving, and we never tire of getting you to do it. You slide off the bed and move down stairs at your Kong Kong’s place the correct way, butt first. You are also very proficient at manipulating our sliding doors.

Peekaboo!

You kiss on cue, touching your lips to our faces, though you’re not that fond of being kissed.

In addition to these, you’ve also started to look for aeroplanes and birds outside the window when you hear them and you get excited when you spot one. We think your first real word might be “Bird!”. You’ve been going “Ber!” when we say “bird” or when you’re near the window but maybe we’re just being over enthusiastic parents. We’ll see.

What you’ve taken to saying very clearly is “Papa!” and it no doubt thrills your Daddy a great deal. All I’ve gotten is a “Ma!” and then, only once. Ah well. You love each other and I’m glad. Your Daddy loves you a lot Noey — he’s always rushing back after work to try to hold you or see you smile. He doesn’t make it everyday and I can see his face fall when he realises that you’ve already gone to bed for the night. So he tries to hog you in the weekend, bathing you, playing with you and just recently, rocking you to sleep to Michelle Branch.

And taking copious amounts of photos of you of course. In return you give him some of your best smiles.

I hope you’ll always know how much he loves you Noey, and indeed how much we all do.

One thing I’m particularly happy about this month is that you’ve finally FINALLY started to show some interest in your books. Your current favourites are Brown Bear, Tiny Rocker’s Car and some of the Usborne Touchy Feely titles — Lion, Puppy and Dragon get the nod. Of course most of the time you prefer to do something else rather than sit nicely and look at the page. Like climb on the table for example.

But at least you’ve stopped eating your books and now take an interest in them. I’m not sure if it’s because you’re old enough now to focus or because my efforts to make your books more interesting have worked, but I’m glad. I love books and I hope you will too. Reading will open the world to you, both the real as well as the one in your imagination. Though as you will learn, you should never believe everything you read.

“What rubbish is this?”

In the coming month, I just have one request: please eat your meals. Willingly. This month was a difficult month on the food front, largely due to the fact that your teeth finally chose to make an appearance. I know it must be painful and irritating going from having none to 4 teeth in 2 weeks, but it’s made you so difficult to feed, I dread mealtimes. Breakfast is the only meal we can get you to eat with minimal struggle. After that it takes Mummy’s deft spoon maneuverings and a lot of distraction to get you to finish your porridge. It’s near impossible to keep a bib on you as well since you regularly yank it off with a flourish and imperiously dump it on the floor. Now that your 4 teeth have appeared I’m hoping you’ll eat a bit better till the next phase. Please help me out with this.

First we wash our fingers, then we drink

These days with you are so full of colour, with your ready smiles and excited giggles, as well as your tearful tantrums and quiet concentration. It’s been 10 months and already I can’t imagine life without you. I can see why Mums who take a year off from work find it difficult to go back. This is a great age to be with you and I’m glad I’m having this time to spend with you. If you do learn anything from me, I hope it would be that life shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Never be afraid to have fun, little man. I know I’m having fun just being with you.