Happy 14 months, Hunter!

I first caught Hunter starting to walk by himself about a week after he turned 13 months old. He started taking his first step or two whilst clutching onto a stuffed toy (gives him more confidence I guess), or when he was really distracted and I wasn’t paying much attention to him. And then seemingly overnight, he got more and more confident and started taking more and more steps…. til now he walks by himself from one end of our home to the other steadily, confidently, and repeatedly. He also goes from seated-to-standing without needing to hold on for support (serious thigh muscles going on there!). It is SO COOL to see your child suddenly start toddling away by themselves, it truly tranforms them from a baby into a child 🙂

Earlier this month, Hunter (unprompted) started going up to my belly and staring at it, then stroking or patting it with a smile on his face. It really surprised me, because prior to that, we hadn’t specifically told him I was pregnant or where the baby was. I guess babies have some sort of sixth sense! Some friends did point out though that perhaps he was just observant and spotted me subconsciously stroking my belly, and wanted to do the same. Now, he proactively will reach over and happily *pat pat* my belly looking rather chuffed with himself. We’ll see if that happiness still prevails once baby is out and competes for attention 😉

MONTH 13-14 PROGRESS:

• Eating – Hunter was fully weaned off breastmilk by the start of this month. I want him to forget the boob as much as possible before baby #2 comes, to minimize jealousy. He now does 210ml formula, day and night, and 210ml fresh milk in the afternoon.
  Solids-wise, he is still an average eater. We’re fortunate that he has no problems eating plain steamed veggies, steamed fish, tofu, etc.. so I don’t have to worry about his nutrition/vitamin intake. However, he always needs something to do whilst eating.. like reading a book, or looking at a toy, etc. If not, he’ll simply refuse to open his mouth! But once he’s amused with something, he’ll obediently eat up all his food. He also gets unbelievably excited and frantic when he sees people eating around him, and simply must get his hands on their adult food (always accompanied by frantic “more, please” baby sign language)… I guess this is true of every baby out there and something we parents just have to grit our teeth through, heh. I’m proud that his diet does NOT consist of any lollies, chocolate, chips, cake, deep-fried, etc etc.. which I consider a real achievement considering the terrible junk-food diet Chris and I have. We intend to keep him away from ANY AND ALL junk food until we absolutely have no other choice, ideally when he’s at least 3 yrs old. He doesn’t really come into contact with it that much, to be honest, because my parents are very healthy eaters and also against feeding junk food to babies, and my friends are good with their kids’ diets too. Whew!

• Sleeping – He’s on his 7:30PM – 7:30AM sleep-through-the-night-without-waking thing, so not much to report here. But, early this month, we moved him to his own room. Specifically because we want him used to his own room before I give birth in Aug (baby cot will be in the master bedroom). And OH MY… the difference! Even though he doesn’t wake up at night, he is quite the noisy sleeper and once he went into his own room, I suddenly slept a LOT better. So now I wake up so refreshed 🙂
  Also a revolution – turning the temperature in his room down to 21 celcius. I read that the ideal temperature is around 18-22 celcius, and previously he was at 24 celcius when he slept in the master bedroom. I noticed that he shifted/was less noisy when we dropped the temperature to 21 celcius. To be honest it feels a bit cool for my liking, but he wears a full-length footed onesie and a sleeping bag, so I guess it’s fine. And he sleeps WAAAY more soundly at this cooler temperature! Mums, if your baby fusses or wakes up during the night, you could try this? It worked pretty amazingly for Hunter.

• Motor control – Developed a real interest in playing with screws. He has some toy screws and bolts, and loves screwing the screws in, then unscrewing them, etc. Also really likes putting stuff into boxes/buckets (great cos he can clean up after himself HAHA).
  Now also will come to you and give you a cuddle and kiss proactively, without being prompted. Or, if we ask for a cuddle and kiss, he’ll dish em out too.
  And of course… can now walk all by himself 🙂

Hunter walking around in the play gym
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDjqylKrI8E

He also likes to sing certain words of songs, and do the actions. Hard for me to capture cos when I video him, he gets distracted by the camera! But here is a short video where he is sort of doing it….

httpv://youtu.be/_PqRmoPvHjs
 

• Talking/listening – Too hard to keep track of stuff he understands. He does like pointing to animals and making their appropriate noise – his faves are dog, lion and monkey, the last one accompanied with him scratching his armpits HAHA!
  Repeats a lot of words, and especially likes his game of point-at-something-and-ask-what-it-is.. where he eagerly points at an object, looks at me and goes “uck!!” which basically means “what is it?” in Hunter-speak. This game can go on for AGES, until I get sick of it and distract him with a book 😉
  Some of the words he can say (I only classify them as such if he does so repeatedly over days/weeks, shows understanding of cause-effect of those words etc) are:
• Hunter – but sounds more like ‘haaaahn-tahhh!!’, whilst patting himself on the chest
• Mum mum – when looking for me
• Da da – when looking for Chris
• Kong Kong – what he calls my dad
• Playground – possibly his favourite word
• Park – same as above
• Star – accompanied with hand actions. Will say it whilst singing songs, or point to a picture of one and say it
• Up – to ask to be picked up, or whilst singing songs
• All – whilst singing songs, possibly his favourite word to sing out
• Nan – for milk
• Woau / oohooh / roar / brrmmm – sounds for dog, monkey, lion, motorbike

So I guess from here-on-out, I am the textbook ‘pregnant mum running after her toddler’, with Hunter walking around by himself and me waddling after him 😉

Thankfully even though I’m pregnant, we are blessed with a very good-natured, easy-going and docile little boy.. so he does make my life pretty easy, since he doesn’t cause me any issues (well, so far!). And it also means I can still take him out every day on our daily playdates/outings with friends.. which he is really starting to understanding and appreciate now, because he’s more aware of people around him and enjoys social interaction more. Win-win!

And today, we not only celebrate Hunter’s 14 month birthday, but also Chris’ birthday! We had a lovely lunch yesterday to celebrate, and a quiet dinner date tonight 🙂 Chris always wanted a baby by 30 years old, and another baby 1-2 years after that. Guess he got his wish. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LOVE!

PREVIOUS PROGRESS:

• 13 months
• 12 months
• 11 months
• 10 months
• 9 months
• 8 months
• 7 months
• 6 months
• 5 months
• 4 months
• 3 months
• 2 months