Tag Archives: development

Eli at 14 months

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A bit late this time but month 14 for Eli was a long tiring month for me. Sleep was hard to come by but I still had a lovely sunny boy during the day.

So, what is Eli like at 14 months?

  • Weight: Not sure, he’ll probably only get weighed again at 15 months.
  • Clothing Size: 9-12 months and 12-18 months, some of the 9-12 trousers are a little short.
  • Teeth: 2 bottom central incisors, 2 top central incisors and 2 top lateral incisors – 6 altogether.
  • Mobility: walking all the time – definitely a toddler.
  • Communication: lots of ‘der’ (there) and his first word for something ‘di-a’ (digger), definitely able to get his point across even if he doesn’t really use many words.
  • Sleep: lots of lost evenings having to go and settle the boy but at least that tooth finally came through. Sleep was horrendous for a bit but does seem to (please!) be a bit better now on the whole.
  • Playing: ring stackers are still a firm favourite as are musical toys that he can dance along to.
  • Eating: happy to try most foods but will spit them out if not liked. He does seem to dislike pasta – not sure that will be sustainable in this house though!
  • Personality: still just a gorgeous, gentle soul – love him!
Not a great recap as it’s a couple of weeks late but it was a very tiring month…

 

Eli at 13 months

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This last month has been a busy time for Eli – lots of new skills emerging and lots of things to learn.

So, what is Eli like at 13 months?

  • Weight: 20lb 11oz (9.4kg) (in vest and nappy now he no longer needs to be stripped down to get weighed).
  • Clothing Size: 9-12 months
  • Teeth: 2 bottom central incisors, 2 top central incisors and top right lateral incisor.
  • Mobility: crawling very, very fast, able to stand without support for as long as he wants to, able to squat and stand up from a squat (doesn’t need anything to pull up on anymore), walking! – taking up to seven steps at a time and really trying to walk instead of crawl, won’t be long now until he’s a fully fledged toddler.
  • Communication: still screeches for attention but much less now, says ‘dis’ (meaning ‘I want to look at this’, ‘give me this’, ‘what is this?’), ‘der’ (meaning ‘take me there’ – usually pointing to outside) and ‘um, um’ (meaning ‘yum, yum’ which I always say to him whilst he’s eating, can clap and wave but generally prefers not too, still very occasionally signs milk, signs more with one hand, he recently went through a stage of shaking his head most gravely if I said no (now he just ignores me).
  • Sleep: still getting most of an evening to myself – he’s been really unsettled recently with a tooth that just. won’t. erupt. (I am tired!)
  • Playing: ring stackers are his favourite toys and he’ll spend ages taking the rings off and putting them back on, he likes to climb to the top of his toy garage like a mini King Kong, he loves pushing things around – walkers, the aforementioned toy garage, tables, chairs…
  • Eating: doesn’t eat much but generally not bothered by tastes (did spit out an olive which I’m in full agreement with as they are yuck), will mug me for anything I am eating, likes to throw his food on the floor for the cats to eat (he learnt this early on and finds it most entertaining), I’ve just started giving him a spoon or fork for every meal which he thinks is fantastic.
  • Personality: just a wonderful baby, happy to play by himself but likes to come and see me for the occasional cuddle, interested in everything, really enjoying having books read to him (especially those with textures to feel).
We’ve had a busy month, with the two big kids in school most of the time Eli and I have been spending lots of time with friends and at various groups. Eli particularly likes groups with older children he can play with – he enjoyed playing in cardboard boxes with an almost 2-year-old at our ones group yesterday. With all his recent advances I’m looking forward to the next month and even more new skills.

 

Eli at 12 months

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Eli is now 1. It’s amazing how fast this past year has gone and I’m sad (he’s my last baby) and excited to see what kind of toddler he’ll become – with his lovely gentle personality it’s not too unreasonable to hope that it’ll be fun.

So, what is Eli like at 12 months?

  • Weight: 19lb 12oz (8.98kg)
  • Clothing Size: 6-9 months (but about to move into 9-12 months)
  • Teeth: 2 bottom central incisors and  2 top central incisors (4th tooth came through about a week and a half ago)
  • Mobility: crawling, cruising, can stand by himself for a few seconds if he doesn’t realise he’s doing it because then he panics and sits down, has walked one or two steps unaided a couple of times
  • Communication: if you ignore Eli (or he thinks he’s being ignored) he has a scream that pierces your skull, I guess as a thirdling you have to be loud to be noticed sometimes. He now points to things he would like or that he would like us to take him to. No ‘real’ words yet but he’s started saying something that sounds a lot like ‘bye bye’ (‘buh buh’) when he or someone else is leaving. He still chatters a lot as he moves around the place. Signing is not something he is particularly interested in – although he does very, very occasionally sign for milk.
  • Sleep: he is now (knocking on wood furiously) going to sleep around 7.30/8pm and not waking until I come to bed after 10pm – I have my evenings back!
  • Playing: still loves toy cars and balls, also enjoys shape sorters a lot
  • Eating: still enjoying his food, certain textures will get spat out but flavours don’t seem to be an issue
  • Personality: still my easy-going little monkey – can throw impressive tantrums if something he wants is taken away from him (like inappropriate toys belonging to his older siblings…)
Having both the big kids in school means that Eli and I will be spending a lot of time together – I can’t wait.

 

Guiding hands and growing up

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Eli is currently putting shapes in his shape sorter for the 5th time in a row. Each time all the shapes are in the sorter he complains until they have once more been released. It’s a bit of work for his helper – he’s still too little to find the correct hole for each shape and needs some help at points to orientate the shapes to fit them through – but the shouts of glee once the shape is in definitely make you smile.

Other than shapes, Eli most likes to play with balls. He’ll play by himself, throwing the ball and then chasing it, or with someone else, throwing the ball to them and waiting for it to be rolled back to him.

It’s in these games that his growing understanding and ability to communicate shine through. He was playing with a little toy golf ball the other day and when he threw it, it rolled under the side table next to the sofa I was sitting on. Unable to retrieve it himself Eli decided a big person should help and so he pulled himself up on the sofa, grabbed my hand and pulled it down gently willing me to get the ball for him. As we then passed the ball between each other it became my job to find the ball as it got stuck under the sofa. He’d have a good attempt at getting it himself but when that didn’t work my hand would be grabbed once more and I would be directed to do my part.

Moments like these remind me that whilst he is still my baby, it won’t be long before Eli is no longer an actual baby – toddlerhood is almost here.

Why is a developmental milestone so often followed by a parenting fail?

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Yesterday Eli figured out how to climb stairs for the first time. He has been trying to figure out how to climb – mainly into the shower cubicle to access toys he’s thrown in there – for a little while but yesterday it clicked and off he went.

It probably helped that one of Tilly’s toys was sitting there, tantalisingly out of reach, providing a great target for an almost one year old to try to reach.

Of course, no good developmental leap is finished without a bit of parenting fail attached. I didn’t move the toy. I just left it there, sat on the stairs, and then we fast forward to today. Today Eli had the most epically awful pooey nappy – it was one of the reasons why cloth nappies are both perfect and horrible. It was in his night nappy and thankfully contained by the wrap so not many of his day nappies would have coped and a disposable, no chance. I mention this not in the way that parents feel they need to talk about the contents of their baby’s nappies but to explain why I might have been a little distracted.

Eli was playing with Tilly in the lounge (or so I thought), I was finishing sorting out the dirty nappy and then I heard the – in hindsight inevitable – bump, BUMP, WAAAH! I gathered up Eli from the foot of the stairs, cursed my shoddy parenting, despatched Tilly to her bedroom with the offending toy and was thankful that said toy was only a few steps up. The boy had given himself a fright but had no injuries. We now have a policy that nothing is to be left on the stairs and I’ve had a reminder that new skills will be practised, preferably supervised and regardless of pootastrophies.

Teething – here comes tooth number 3

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Teething must be one of those topics that sends a shudder through all but the luckiest parent. It seems that all unexplained fussy/cranky behaviour after the first couple of months is generally assumed to be the ‘T’ word, of course whether it is or not is never proven except for the odd occasion when the screaming does in fact yield a tooth the next day.

Eli has been a little slow in gathering teeth – although strangely aside from one notable exception this seems to be true for most of his baby group peers. For the last few weeks though I have been suffering with screaming at night (sometimes this is not only from Eli) that only abates with pain relief and today, finally, I can feel a new tooth! This will be Eli’s third, he has the two bottom central incisors and this is the top left central incisor (thank you Google for the names of the teeth!).

I am hopeful that this means I will be getting less interrupted sleep soon – a girl can dream can’t she?

Eli at 11 months

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It’s hard to believe that Eli is only one month away from his first birthday. My baby is moving steadily towards toddlerdom – at a coffee meetup in a local café he was not at all content to sit on my lap or in the high chair, he wanted to be down on the floor exploring. I really hope he learns how to walk soon – crawling on café floors makes me feel somewhat queasy but currently it’s that or a lot of screaming sadly. Handily this particular café is in an old church and has the space (and general tolerance of babies and small children) to allow him some freedom but my quiet coffees with friends are certainly going to be a thing of the past soon.

So, what is Eli like at 11 months?

  • Weight: 19lb 2oz
  • Length: 75cm
  • Clothing Size: 6-9 months
  • Teeth: 2 bottom central incisors and top left central incisor (this one only came through today)
  • Mobility: crawling, cruising, able to stand by himself but is generally too cautious to do it and sits down without support, can walk holding onto 1 hand
  • Communication: babbles and coos, screeches if he feels ignored, says something that sounds like ‘wow’ when he’s looking at something interesting (e.g. the cats), makes a ‘heh, heh, heh’ sound if I ask him if he wants milk and he’s hungry, waves sometimes, gives high 5s if asked and he wants to, holds his arms out for cuddles, responds to his name and has started stopping what he’s doing if you tell him ‘no’
  • Sleep: he just cut a new tooth so it’s been a bit lacking recently, can now put him to bed in the evening and get an hour or more before needing to settle him again
  • Playing: likes cars and balls, can make either go around the ramp on his toy garage, loves rolling a ball between himself and another person
  • Eating: generally only interested in feeding himself, loves most food especially peas, throws food on the floor or onto the table when he’s done
  • Personality: easy going, likes cuddles and being around other people, will happily pootle about the lounge playing with his toys, when he’s tired or hungry he crawls up to one of his grown-ups and head butts their shins until he gets a cuddle

All in all he is a gorgeous ball of scrummy cuddles – I can’t wait to see what kind of toddler he’ll be.

Signing times and rolling off

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Today Eli waved bye bye to Nana repeatedly for the first time. It was very cute and he was very proud of himself. He’s also started to sign ‘milk’ although not each time he wants to eat. I’m looking forward to the next phase, where he starts to be able to let us know what he wants and needs with more than a cry, scream or shout. Both Lex and Tilly did some signing before they started to talk and it was both cute and useful. Lex even made up some of his own signs – a fist in the air was thank you – and he could ask for another biscuit even as the first was still in his mouth…

Parenting fail this evening for me – Eli ‘forgot’ how to roll when he learnt how to crawl but this skill has now returned. I shouldn’t have trusted him to stay where I left him on the bed this evening as I sorted out the curtains but I did and a thump was my reminder that he’s fast, mobile and too young not to fling himself off things. He was ok, just shocked – I hate it when things like that happen, I was just that fraction too slow sorting things out.