Our (not so) little one is officially 1.5 years old today 🙂

And, I’ll no longer be blogging his monthly Progress stuff in detail. For 2 reasons – one being that it’s much harder to articulate mental development (ie. I have to explain it in a big paragraph and it’s just too much of a hassle), and the other being that they develop so rapidly at this age it’s really really hard to keep track of. So I guess from now on, I’ll talk about him here and there as per usual, but no more official monthly updates.

I’d say the biggest and most obvious development in the past few months would be speech. It’s kind of amazing to see how quickly a child can absorb language, and spit it right back out. He’s gone from a few simple words to a symphony, LOL. It’s really delightful hearing him pick up and say so many multi-syllable words and mini sentences that get his point across… but can also be, uh, a bit of a headache because he expects his demands to be met ASAP since he knows we can understand him. What we are most proud about is that earlier this month, he’s mastered the art of saying “please” and “thank you”. This is something that’s super important to us, because there’s nothing WORSE than seeing our child(ren) flatly demand an object/food and then just grab it. So rude! Thus, I really do think that hearing Hunter say his “please” and “thank you” is one of my defining proud-parent moments 🙂

The other defining proud-parent moment I have is his eating habits. This is most definitely going to end at some point when he spirals into the I-hate-fruit-and-veg phase that his dentist has warned me every child goes through, but for now, I am very grateful that he still(!) happily eats all his steamed veggies, and considers fruit the ultimate sweet treat. He has a ridiculously healthy diet – which is actually rather HILARIOUS because of the contrast with what Chris and I eat 😛 I guess it’s why I’m so super incredibly fussy about what goes into his mouth, he’s kind of my solace and ‘make good’ moment among the horrors of Chris and my diets 😉 He is generally not a fussy eater (guess I can’t label a child that loves his steamed-veggie and fish wholemeal pasta ‘fussy’), but boy he can be s-l-o-w. He specifically needs to touch/fiddle/play with a toy with his hands before he’ll open his mouth, and he’ll take a few mins to chew. So strange, considering he largely eats only very soft or pureed stuff. Yep, he still eats like an 8 month old would! Very very very hard getting any form of textures into his mouth, unless it’s plain white rice or plain noodles/pasta. And still not keen on self-feeding either with a utensil or hands – mainly because he is SUPER CLEAN and doesn’t like having dirty hands or any form of dirt/stains on his entire body, to be honest. I am being zen about this super relatively late development of self-feeding, since there’s nothing we can do about it.

He still by and large has a careful and mellow disposition. He’s very good at self-play and can be left alone for quite awhile quietly playing with his toys, or I can take him into the kitchen with me whilst I cook and he’ll just mimic my actions or sit down playing with his own toys. That said, when he spirals into a bad mood – WATCH OUT!! He can really do our heads in with his whining (always debating with my gfs on whether it’s worse having a screaming toddler or whining toddler, lol). Also, sometimes he gets SO frustrated because he’s trying to tell us something that he wants but can’t find the word for it, and goes into meltdown mode 🙁

One negative thing I’ve noticed about him recently is selfishness. I am hoping this is a normal thing for a child his age, but not sure. He will NOT let other kids touch his toys! And not just that, he sometimes won’t even let them have their toy! And, incredibly, he TAUNTS other kids too – many many times I’ve caught him dangling the toy right in front of them so they reach for it, and when they take the toy he has a meltdown so all the adults think he’s been bullied and he gets the toy back, and then he’s all smug. Embarrassing 🙁 I am chalking this up to him being an only-child that doesn’t go to school yet, so praying this will change pronto once he has a little brother and when he starts school (next week). Because otherwise, I don’t really know how to teach him it’s wrong, as he shares with us adults perfectly fine, happily giving us all his favourite toys and food!

Well, I guess this update went longer than expected 😛 I guess that’s fair, because after this, I’ll be giving birth to #2 within the next 2 weeks… so my time and attention is going to be very divided. He’s had a great run of being an only-child with maximum attention for the past 18 months of his life. We’ll see how he goes once he becomes a big brother 😉

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