Reflections of Weeks 45-48

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote a reflection! Things have been busy. I feel like Jack has developed quite a bit since I last blogged. Jack is 11 months now.

Is is Teething?
In my last reflection I wrote, "I thought he was getting sick as he was really temperamental and crying a lot, he wasn't eating very much, he was having longer sleeps...". Well, it turned out it was teething after all. So, to answer my own question, "Is it Teething?". Yes, it most certainly was. After what felt like a very long week and a very bad day, I couldn't tolerate his delicate state so I went to the chemist and bought some bonjela to see if that helped. It seemed to settle him. So, now, any time he seems out of sorts and upset for no apparent reason (like at 2am), I whip out the Bonjela! Jack opens his mouth ready to receive the Bonjela every time he sees it in my hands. He has 3 teeth now. The top two came down first, followed by one of his bottom ones. I think the second bottom one is close to coming through.

Mobility
Nothing much has changed. He seems to becoming more and more active and more and more mobile. He's forever crawling around, chasing balls, exploring, and going where we don't want him to go! He's very good at cruising the furniture and he seems to be more confident with it. He loves to hold our hands and walk. He's getting really good at this. Occasionally, he'll walk holding only one hand, but he's usually not confident enough to do it.

He's now worked out how to stand up along the kitchen cupboards, which has meant that he's learnt how to open the cupboards. But, luckily (for us!), he hasn't figured out how to move out of the way so that the cupboard can open properly. I don't think I'll be encouraging that little development.

Sleeping
This is going well and things are pretty settled, except for last night when he woke up a few times. His day naps have gone back to being quite long after a period of having short naps.

Playing
During his wake time, Jack has moments where he's really good at playing by himself and he'll happily play with his toys on his play mat. But there are also other times when he just won't stay on his play mat and he'll constantly crawl over to areas where's he's not allowed to go. I get so tired having to chase him around all the time.

Jack has some little wooden cars that he loves to play with. He enjoys putting them in his mouth, looking at them, holding them in his hands, fiddling with them, crawling around with them, dropping them and even using them on their car track.

Fine Motor Skills and Hand-Eye Co-ordination
This has been a big development recently. Jack loves to drop things, especially off his high chair! Usually when he doesn't want to eat something he'll pick it up and deliberately drop it and then look for it. This can be very frustrating. I'm trying to encourage him to put it in my hand rather than on the floor. He'll also spend a lot of time dropping his toys: into a box or a container or just drop them for the sake or dropping them! When he's standing on the edge of the bath I'll give him his bath toys and he'll happily drop his toys into the water (he'll also do this when he's not having a bath and there is no water!).

Jack also spends a lot of time playing with things that have lids. He's fascinated with putting lids on things. His co-ordination isn't yet good enough for him to put most lids on properly, but he still enjoys putting them on and taking them off. If he sees his water bottle and its lid, he'll put the lid on and take it off, again and again.

We thought that Jack was a prodigy the other day. We have a shapes box. Dave gave Jack a shape to put in its hole. Each time Jack was given a shape he chose the correct hole. We were amazed! We thought he was so clever. Until the next time we did it. This time, Jack was choosing the wrong holes. Ha ha! We realised the first time was a big fluke.

One thing that Jack does enjoy doing that hasn't been, funnily enough, encouraged by us is kicking a ball. One day he was watching his Grandad (Dave's father) kick a ball and then when we stood him up he started to kick the ball too. He really likes walking along (holding onto our hands, of course!) and kicking a ball. He's quite good at it too.

Eating
Jack has gone back to eating well again (must have been the teeth). At the moment he's not eating much for breakfast. He'll eat about half of what we give him (and if it's toast, he'll attempt to throw the rest of it on to the floor!). But he eats really well for the rest of the day, especially at dinner.

Babbling
Jack is a real babbler now. I could listen to his babbles all day; they're delightful. He's making so many sounds now. Our favourite is when he says "a-book-a-book-a-book-a". He must be my child! It's really nice when he says "dadda", even though he doesn't really know what it means, and he usually says it when he's playing or talking with us. He says "mumma" a lot as well, but usually when he's upset, tired or hungry.

Signing
I'm trying to teach him some sign language. I'm starting with 'please'. But I keep forgetting to do it. He just looks at my like I'm a mad woman. But, I have to keep persevering with it and be more consistent. I'm also signing 'finished', but I have no idea if the sign is correct. He seems to understand it when we say 'finished' to him when he's finished a bowl of food. Over the last month or so he's been good at letting us know when he's had enough of something or doesn't want it anymore. Usually, it involves pushing our hands away or moving his head away. Pretty clear communication there! He's now started to shake his head when he pushes our hands away. I thought this was interesting as he has only ever shaken his head previously as a game, but now he's connected it with 'no'.

Bath Time
I keep forgetting to mention this, so I'm going to do it now. As I've mentioned before, Jack loves his bath time. He is always really happy and content when he's having a bath. He sits (well, most of the time!) and plays really well. As soon as he sees Dave go into the bathroom to run his bath, he doesn't want anymore food or drink. He wants to hop down and get into the bathroom. As soon as I take him out of his high chair and put him onto the floor, he's off! Crawling as quickly as he can to get into the bathroom. It's really cute. He'll then stand at the edge of the bath and watch it fill up with water, very keen to get in.

He has a few favourite toys. He'll usually have a small green ball in one hand and a washer in the other. He tries to grab other things but then he realises that he has to let go of the ball or the washer, so he goes back to holding his ball and washer. After a while he remembers his little "friend" and that will take preference over the ball :-)

Routine
I've dropped the midday feed, so now Jack's only having two milk feeds. He coped really well when I dropped that feed. I didn't notice any response from him at all. I'll be dropping the morning feed soon. Hopefully that will go as well as the last one.

Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, breakfast, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed