Happy 11 month Birthday, Hunter!

Our little one is 11 months old today, right smack on Christmas 🙂 Hard to believe that in just a month, he’ll be 1 year old! Also a bit surreal to think that, this time last year, I was heavily pregnant and we were having a quiet Christmas with friends in Shanghai. Now Hunter is out and Christmas is aaaaallll about him, LOL! He’s only young, so he gets to enjoy all the gift-giving of Christmas. When he’s older, he will learn about what the true meaning of Christmas really is, which will be even more special 🙂

He really seems more like a little boy than just a baby now, especially when he walks/toddles around and shows his distinct personality. We also realised, earlier on in the month, that he really can understand us and respond to simple instructions etc. Super fun, because it really does make him seem like a proper person instead of a baby that lies around doing nothing 😛

He’s still easy-going and really placid, but does show separation anxiety from time to time. Particularly in places where there are heaps of people, and he’s passed to someone that he’s not particularly close to. To be honest, we actually like seeing him like this.. as before, he wouldn’t give a damn if someone else carried him. Now, we feel really loved when his face changes and he starts looking for and reaching out for us. Ahhhh…. I love baby cuddles 🙂

MONTH 10-11 PROGRESS:

• Eating – Going really well, whew! He now has 3x solids a day and eats just about everything. In particular, he likes the very food we’re eating, so I feed him before the food arrives or he’ll insist on eating off our plates instead. He also refuses canned baby food (he can someone figure it out) but is OK if I mix it in with homecooked food. His favourite foods? Fish (will open his mouth eagerly if we tell him “this is fish!”), tofu, bananas, avocado, yogurt/fruit.
  He has formula milk 1x a day in the afternoon, and now finally is OK with it. Huge progress!! Breastfeeding 2x/day now, first thing when he wakes up and just before bedtime. Very happy with this as this was my ideal setup. It’s an incredible feeling, both of us drowsy in the morning, lying in bed together and him having a long-and-lazy breastfeed. It’s my favourite way to wake up 🙂
  He’s also almost fully potty-trained. By his choice! He actually started at around 6 months old, but now more completely so, because he tries to vocalise it to us. It all started when he was 6 months and couldn’t stand having poo in his diaper. So he started only pooing on his changing station when we had his diaper off – specifically after his afternoon nap every day. He’s had 2-3 accidents (ie. pooped in his diaper) in the past 4-5 months or so, and went HYSTERICAL. Now, if he reaaalllyyy needs to poo, he’ll get really agitated and whine, but obviously can’t actually say the words yet. On the downside, I worry that he’ll get constipated if, for whatever reason, he’s not home in the morning and ends up holding it all in :X On the upside, everyone reckons it’ll be easy to train him to use the toilet later. I guess we’ll see!

• Motor control – really quite the expert at going from lying down to standing up, and cruising around the house. Still far from walking though, in my opinion. That said, he loves walking when we hold his hand, and simply adores pushing his walker around the house.
  He’s incredibly meticulous when it comes to inspecting and touching stuff, which is where I see how he differs from other babies. Instead of grabbing at things or shaking them, he’ll inspect them very carefully first then gingerly touch it with a finger. He’s obsessed with wheels, and will flip all toy vehicles over to inspect the wheels – but I think many baby boys do this too?

• Talking/listening – very vocal and likes to ‘sing’ when we sing, or when he hears music 😛 Very fun to see! Yabbers a whole lot, especially in the morning. He also frantically does the “milk” hand-sign in the morning since he sleeps 12-hours straight with no feed. We probably should teach him other baby sign-language but haven’t gotten round to doing it yet 😛
  He understands simple instructions and sentences, such as:
• “Where’s teddy?”, “Where’s Mummy/Daddy?”, “Where are your shoes?”, “Where’s your nose?”, etc – looks around for specific object or person
• “Give me the ____” – will get the object and pass it to us. And then take the object when we give it back to him.
• “Dog” – his favourite animal and he looks around, perks up and grins if he spots one
• “Lift one leg up” – we do this every night during bath time, so he’ll lift a leg for me to clean his bits 😉
• “1, 2, 3” – we always do something that he thinks is funny after “3”, so by “2”, he starts squealing in happiness 😛

httpv://youtu.be/n297Inau21k

Hunter has also lengthened out so much more in the past few weeks. He no longer has multiple fat rolls on his legs, and his thighs are leaner and not as fatty. His whole torso has also elongated. It’s fantastic! I personally think he looks so much better now that he’s starting to get leaner, since he looks so much healthier and fitter IMHO.

We’re gearing up to celebrate is 1st birthday next month. EPIC! It’s going to be a pool party, but catered for children – because so often, I see kid birthday parties seem to be far more catered for adult stomachs and adult fun, and I want a really kid-centered birthday party for Hunter.

PREVIOUS PROGRESS:

• 10 months
• 9 months
• 8 months
• 7 months
• 6 months
• 5 months
• 4 months
• 3 months
• 2 months