Happy 13 month birthday, Carter!!!

Squishy squish squish baby wombat is a proper TODDLER now! He talks! He walks!! 

A couple of days after his 1st birthday, he decided he was just gonna walk. And walk he did. He now toddles everywhere… looking like a cross between a drunk and a zombie – arms outstretched and lurching everywhere. But he manages to stay upright and walking, and with very few tumbles now. He is so EPIC-ly pleased with himself that he can walk.. and does so with a humongous grin plastered on his face, looking around for his claps and cheers. Hunter gets really excited about having Carter walking with him, and keeps cheering him on!

 

 

 
Carter is now, much to my relief, much friendlier with strangers. He’s can still be a little iffy from time to time, but he is in general back to his cheery self with people, quick to dish out his big sloppy grins, and will have fun playing with them.

 

 

He also (finally) got his 1st haircut! My kids have very little/slow growing hair.. and with Carter, he never needed a haircut til recently. The sides got really long and straggly and were tickling his ears, so he kept rubbing at them. It’s just a small trim and nothing dramatic, and fortunately it was very uneventful.

 

• EATING – WE HAVE TEETH!! His 1st tooth erupted on the day of his birthday party (hence why he was also irritable then), and the 2nd tooth came out a few days afterwards. He’s been ultra drooly and went a few days with low appetite, but apart from that it’s been OK.
  With his 2 nubs of teeth, he eats straight off my plate with no problem, and I have to feed him my food anyway because he’ll refuse his own baby food. Both Hunter and Carter will eat outside-food at lunch (and I’m pretty relaxed about what they eat), but homecooked food at dinner, which is almost always a rice congee with veg puree and tofu and fish. 
  Carter is also officially weaned. I’m really really emo about this and feel really sad when I think about it.. since he’s my last baby and it’s weird thinking I’ll never breastfeed again. I miss it dreadfully!!! But, he’s happy with his bottle and prefers that anyway now.
  Thus, now he eats solids 3x a day, and drinks 210ml of milk 4x a day.

 

 

• SLEEPING – Carter descended into some sort of teething/sleep hell or sleep regression earlier this month, which nearly killed Chris and I. He would wake up every 1-2 hours (!!!). That’s worse than a newborn! Thankfully, he’s now pretty much sleeping straight through and putting himself back to sleep again.. errrr… fingers crossed.
  He naps easily in his stroller (usually takes perhaps all of 2 mins to fall asleep) and falls asleep by himself at night with zero patting or milk or whatever nonsense that I have no patience for. I guess the secret is never ever pat a baby to sleep or give them milk randomly in the middle of the night.. because I figure if you do, they realise it IS an option. If you never do in their life, they have no idea that it’s even possible, so won’t ask for it! 😛

 

• PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT – He walks! I’m nostalgic that my baby is now gone, but it’s very cute to see a fat lil thing waddling around like a drunk penguin. And, of course, the absurd obsession with pushing mini strollers, mini shopping carts, etc etc has started (and from experience, doesn’t end until they turn 2.5 yrs old! Hunter has only JUST started to lose interest..)
  He’s an absolute daredevil and will launch himself everywhere, trying to RUN. He’ll go down slides at top speed, with nary a care for his own safety. He likes to dig through all my cupboards (NOW I realise why people have child-locks, because I used to think they were redundant as Hunter not once has opened a cupboard). He likes to throw everything off the table. He likes to be thrown up in the air, and dumped down on the bed. He likes everything that Hunter DISLIKED! It astounds me how different they are. 

Hunter, ummm, stating the obvious
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8HAuxBJiuk

 

 

 

 

• SPEECH DEVELOPMENT – Favourite new word, “star”! Loves spotting them around, and especially when I draw a star for him. Will also say “row row” when I sing Row Row Row Your Boat. And now, if we ask him what sound an elephant makes, he makes a.. errmm.. particular sound that I don’t know how to type down in words, but it’s hilarious to hear!! (previously spoken words: dada, mama, there).

 

Hunter’s suddenly very warm to Carter, now that he’s started walking. I thought he’d get really competitive, but maybe he sees Carter as a proper playmate now? He will dish out cuddles and hugs to Carter, and is much friendlier to him. Don’t get me wrong, he still gets selfish and won’t pass up an opportunity to antagonise his lil bro, but he is heaappps better and the positive-attitude behaviour is increasing. Yay!

 

 

 

I’m still feeling all… funny.. about the fact that my baby is now walking, is now starting to talk, and no longer breastfeeds. It’s only been a year! WAIL!!!! I don’t know where the time goes and why they grow up so quickly. I miss my wee baby. But I’m so proud of my toddler, all ready to take on the world.

Just stay little! 

 

 

 

I cannot watch this video without smiling 🙂
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnkHuxb7Qug

Compare with Hunter at Month 12-13 here.

 

PREVIOUS PROGRESS:

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