Happy 17 months, Hunter!

 

Hunter’s been super-fun the past month! Lots of smiles, lots of cuddles, and lots of proactive kisses without being asked. We’ve been going on lots of play dates together and he’s generally been treating me well, LOL. It’s tiring running after a toddler, especially whilst pregnant, but it’s so much fun being with him that it’s worth it.

To be honest, by around this age, it’s pretty hard to track a child’s progress. It’s because their Physical Milestones are largely all over and done with.. and the focus is more on the Mental Milestones. But, those really flood in and may not be as ‘obvious’ sometimes, so it’s hard to keep track and write about them.

For this reason, this may be the last month’s update on Hunter’s progress.. or if I do continue, it’ll be way shorter and maybe just a few bullet points. Moving forward, I play to focus more on stuff that Hunter and I get up to, and obviously also on #2 once he is born (not long to go now!)..

 

 

 

 

MONTH 16-17 PROGRESS:

• Eating – He really likes pureed food, for some inexplicable reason! Most kids his age are basically eating adult-textured food, but Hunter eats best when it’s all blended up (ie. he’ll spit or ignore ‘normal’ food). He also largely loves to be like the king and sit back and be fed. It’s only the past 2-3 days that he’s been reaching out to touch his food and self-feed.. specifically spaghetti which he seems to love.

 

 

 

 

• Sleeping – A good sleeper… falls asleep by himself and clocks in 12-13hrs before waking. Naps 1.5hrs in stroller during the day after his lunch. Nothing else to report here….

• Motor control – I don’t even know how to update this section anymore.. he’s just like a regular kid now, instead of a baby. He adores music so he bops away the instant he hears music playing, and likes playing all his musical instruments.

He’s good with shape-sorting (ie. fitting those blocks through their appropriate-shaped holes), and loves intricate stuff. Not a fan of stacking toys though.

He’s getting pretty good at swimming.. and can hold on with both or just one hand and kick to swim (without the use of any floaties etc). Loves going down the pool slide by himself 😛  Good at dunking his head underwater and blowing bubbles underwater.

 

 

 

Still going well with using his potty for poo time. But, bizzarely, won’t say “poo” and rather makes grunting noises and crouches down in a weird way, so at least we can tell he wants to poo and can whip out his potty (he’ll only poop at home).

 

 

• Talking/listening – His list of words (existing, with new words in italics at the bottom):
  • Hunter – but sounds more like ‘haaaahn-tahhh!!’, whilst patting himself on the chest
  • Ma ma – 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, when lifting this up, going up the escalator, etc
  • All – whilst singing songs, possibly his favourite word to sing out
  • Nan – for milk
  • Woau / oohooh / roar / brrmmm – sounds for dog, monkey, lion, motorbike
  • Por Por – what he calls my mum
  • No – one of his favourite words, sadly!
  • Row – part of the song and when he wants us to rock him
  • Hiiii – greeting people or when playing with a phone
  • Ball – for his favourite toy
  • Teddy – his security toy
  • There – to tell us where an object/person is
  • Whoaaaa – hilarious! His reaction when he spots something interesting that he wants to go check out
  • Uh oh – when something drops or goes wrong
  • Car – one of his favourite toys
  • Nose/Mouth/Eyes/Ears – he just loves pointing to facial features and saying their names
  • Down – when he wants to be put down and go walking
  • Moon – for anything moon-shaped or for the actual moon
  • Blue – likes to identify any and everything blue coloured
  • Banana – one of his favourite fruits
  • Door – when he wants me to open the door for him to walk through
  • More – when he wants more food, or his toy, etc (kind of like his version of “I want, give me!”
  • Yeaaaahhhhh – my favourite word of Hunter’s 😛 He doesn’t say “yes”, but goes “yeaaahhhhh” instead. Mum says it’s cos I do that!

 

Hunter’s top-right molars have also broken through (1-2 weeks ago), which we discovered during his 1st dentist visit this month. He was, thankfully, very well-behaved during the visit, and lay back calmly whilst the dentist poked around with a mirror inside his mouth and discovered the molars. Also had a very proud-mummy moment when the dentist gave me a big thumbs-up, because we don’t commit any of the ‘crimes’ (ie. feed lollies/chocolates/cakes, diet high in fruits/veg, little/no snacks, no added sugar/salt in cooking, doesn’t drink from teat, doesn’t drink milk to fall asleep, no drinking during the night, brushes teeth daily, etc). We’ve worked really hard on all this ‘good parenting’ stuff, and frankly, it ain’t easy, so it was nice to get a bit of a pat on the back! 😛

 

PREVIOUS PROGRESS:

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