Walking and talking ...14 months

This month has been really fun! 

Nate is walking all over the place and he is hilarious when he walks. He is not a graceful walker, but he sure does walk with purpose. He swings his arms back and forth and pushes out his belly in confidence. He sways and wobbles and falls down, but usually laughs off his tumble, gets back up and carries on. 

He is also starting to put together his first words. He has one phrase that he repeats it over and over ,which is "ohhhh nooooooo!".  He started to use this whenever he dropped things accidentally (I probably use the phrase more than I realised which is how he picked it up). But it has now evolved into him picking something up, immediately throwing it onto the ground, looking at me and shouting "ohhh noooooo!". I of course laugh at how cute it is and therefore he repeats the cycle to get another reaction from me. 

This past month my husband and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Nate gain confidence in just about everything. Now that he is walking he is like a new person! We have also enjoyed going on little trips on the weekend and exploring new parks and playgrounds near us. We especially have been loving our visits to Jimmy's Farm where we get to play in the massive sandpit and pretend to drive tractors and race cars. 

In other news, we have decided to trade in our 3 story townhouse for a bungalow! The 2 flights of stairs were really getting on our nerves, so we sold our house a couple weeks ago and have decided to explore the other extreme and try single-story living. It will be a little while yet before the move, but we hope to be in our new place before Christmas. 

 

nathan - 10 months old

Nathan is now 10 months and this month flew by! We were away in France and Spain for 2 weeks and now I am back at work 2 days a week, so the weeks really have sped along at a rapid pace. 

Nathan's tenth month has been tons of fun. He is now properly pulling himself up to standing and does it with ease. He prefers to be standing above all other positions and can walk along holding onto the edge of the sofa. He hasn't mastered crawling yet but can now get onto his hands and knees. He also somehow manages to maneuver his way around the room by shuffling and wiggling his body. I have to be extra careful not to take my eyes off him for even a second because of how much he gets around. He has fallen down a lot these past weeks as he learns how to balance on his feet, but the falls don't seem to bother him too much.

Nate now raises his hands into the air when we ask him "how big are you!?" and he is starting to point at random things from time to time. He loves to put things inside containers and then dump them out again. He also has started putting objects into people's hands. His middle top tooth on the right has popped through his gum this month and I think the left one is close behind. He has been in some discomfort from the teething but nothing too bad.

I think the most exciting thing (for me) this month is that Nate has started sleeping through the night on the odd occasion. He first slept through the night (from 9pm to 7am) when we were in Spain and my husband and I were shocked; we figured it was just a one time thing. But then he did it again a couple nights later! Since we have been back from our holiday, he has slept through the night at least 5 more times. I have no idea why he started sleeping all night; I did nothing differently and I am still nursing him to sleep. Maybe he was just ready?  In any case, I'm extremely happy that we never had to do any sleep training, despite the pressure to do so from Health Visitors. 

Today Nathan had his first settling in session at nursery. I met his key person and she discussed with me all the details about how nursery will work. I feel much happier about nursery in general now that I have met his key person. She is experienced and friendly and seemed to really bond with Nathan even after just an hour. I take him back on Friday to drop him off with her and the other children for an hour without me there! I'm nervous, but feel confident that he will be in goods hands. 

And now for some obligatory photos of Nathan's tenth month :)

conquering the ball pit

This is Nate's first time in a ball pit at our local soft play centre. He was terrified when I started to get near the pit, but all his other baby friends were tumbling around in it with smiles on their little faces, so who was I to deny him of this essential ball-filled experience?

I slowly placed him into the pit, bum first, then his head - gently, gently. His lower lip stretched out, signalling the beginning of a cry. I was perched on top of him, ready to quickly remove him when the inevitable wailing began. 

He slowly looked around, noticing the other babies. They weren't crying. He placed his hands softly on the orange ball resting on his stomach. He looked right at me with his pensive grey eyes. His lower lip retracted and a slight, hardly noticeable smirk, took its place. 

I snapped this photo at the exact moment when I knew Nate had conquered the ball pit! It may seem insignificant, but for me, the way his face transformed from terror to satisfaction is a memory that will stick in my mind for a long time. 

This is Cheryl's entry into the Printerpix Photo competition. 
(category = babies under 2)

See the other entries and find out how to enter yourself here.