Noah's one year update
We certainly have our work cut out keeping up with this little mischief maker. Noah turned one last Monday (which I'm still in denial about!) and since my last update for him at nine months, a lot of change has taken place. Noah is much more mobile now, pulling himself up to stand and moving along furniture. He will happily walk too- if you hold his hands. He's not quite balanced enough to strike out on his own yet, but I don't think it will take him long to get to that point at all!
He is really beginning to understand words and phrases too and has a good go a mimicking them back at us. His own vocabulary is small but he can say "DA DA DA" for daddy, "MUMM" for mummy and for some reason he will often exclaim what sounds very like "I did it!" We think this translates to 'I want something' though. Of course, in between his decipherable language there is plenty of garbling and baby noises. He loves to chatter away to us in his own language, telling us all kinds of things I am sure.
I still haven't had him weighed in such a long time, but he sure has put on weight! He is pretty tall and quite a stocky build too. I know it goes without saying, but he really does remind me of that stereotypical boy in his character and features alike, he even looks like a miniature rugby player these days.
I was chatting with mum the other day and from her experience of having four boys and four girls, she definitely noticed the baby boys were a lot more adventurous than the girls. She said that if there was a surface that could be climbed, you could bet the boy would try it over the girl every time! I think this is so amazing that our natural characters can be so instinctive at such a young age. Noah definitely fits the bill in this way too, he will climb anything that has a surface, weather or not it hurt him last time! He is so inquisitive too, often he will crawl into our bedroom and raid my storage boxes, jewellery, shoes, clothes. It's all just endlessly fascinating to him!
In terms of eating, Noah will try anything offered-at least once! He really is a good eater on the whole, he has three solid meals and then warm milk when he goes down for naps and bedtime. At breakfast, lunchtime and dinner, he will also have a beaker of water, though he rarely finishes it! I'm trying to avoid giving him squash or juices if I can and so far so good, he is really content with just water for now- we'll see how long that lasts!
Noah still has two naps a day, one in the morning between 10am and 11am, and one in the afternoon around 2pm. I thought he would probably drop his morning nap by now, but he seems to really need them both and actually wants to lie down when he gets too tired. It's very cute, if he starts getting grumpy and I mention milk and a nap he will crawl to the kitchen to prompt me to make it up for him and then quite happily lie in his cot drinking it. So for the time being, he has two naps and goes down to bed between 7pm and 8pm.
We have noticed that while the weather has been so warm and it's been so light in the evenings, he has struggled to settle into sleep at 7pm, so he has been staying up a bit later till he is more tired. Our house gets quite stuffy and it can be hard to relax into sleep with the sun still giving off plenty of heat, so we are just taking the bedtime routine day by day for the moment.
One other big changes since Noah turned one is that we have moved away from giving him formula milk and he now enjoys full fat cows milk...not that he has noticed in the slightest! I think we tried cows milk about a week before he turned one, just to try it and see really, but he really took to it well and we haven't looked back! It feels a bit like an end of another chapter because those tubs of formula were a Godsend when he was 2 weeks old! They saved him from losing too much weight in the early days and have been part of our daily routine right from the start. It feels like another sign telling me that my baby is no longer a baby in the same way! I keep on thinking to myself, if it's hard to adjust to him growing up now, I can't imagine him actually becoming a fully grown man and leaving our home! Haha!
Anyway, I think I've covered the main areas of development here, I'll probably do an 18 month update next...when I'm really chasing after him everywhere!
Love Bunty
xXx