Theodore is 11 months! In a few short week’s our lovely Theodore will be one. All you first time pregnant Mama’s out there, trust me, time FLIES. With an awful labour and recovery, and a tough first few months I never thought we would reach this point. This point of no longer having a baby but having a toddler. The point of absolute happiness, all those awful newborn blue’s days are long in the past. Those days are actually just one big baby blur. If you’re in that newborn blur, don’t worry I promise it gets better. And please don’t be afraid to reach out for help from loved ones or professionals, it does not make you a bad mother.
Being a Mum to this sweet little boy feels like magic. Trust me, you’ll have no greater feeling in life than bringing your child into the world. People have told us plenty of times that we ‘got lucky’ with Theodore with how good, smiley and happy he is. It wasn’t luck, luck played no part. It was all us, every bit of him was built up from us and how we’ve been with him since day one. We have always been so calm and relaxed around him, enough love but not too much fuss (does that make sense?) and I think that might be what has helped create such a gentle happy soul.
What a wild month it’s been. Full of up’s and plenty of downs. We had our first trip to a&e with Theodore when he fell and injured his head on the fire surround and was sick because of it. We then had a week trapped inside because of hand foot and mouth disease. And we’ve had our up’s like Theodore’s first steps!
Size
This little boy has suddenly become a big boy. The past month he’s filled out massively including his face and body. You can definitely feel he’s packed on the pounds, he’s so heavy to hold now he has actually started to make my arms hurt whenever he’s in them. He’s still in his little dot clothes of 3-6, 6-9 or 9-12… depends what part of the body they are for! This is all very well because it means he can get more wear out of clothes but its also difficult because people don’t know what to buy for him. He has no 12-18month clothes yet which I’m a little worried about but hopefully I’ll be able to get some money together to get some in the January sales. He started looking uncomfortable and big in his infant car seat so we’ve purchased the Joie Every Stage one which lasts until 12 which I’m super happy with.
Development
We no longer have a baby, we have a toddler, because he’s toddling… just. We’ve had first steps which is all very exciting but also very scary because soon nothing will stop him. He needs to become a bit more stable on his feet first then he will grow in confidence. Pointing has advanced even more so since he points at everything so that I tell him what it is. His favourite game is walking in the living room with me pointing at all the Christmas decorations and ornaments with me naming every single one. We also have 2 full teeth at the bottom, and one slowly appearing at the top! Just these few teeth have helped him massively with eating as he can now rip things apart and chew better. He’s certainly been eating bigger portions now as well so his stomach must be expanding a lot.
We’re still behind on his speech as he rarely makes much noise at all apart from screaming and the very occasional ‘mama/dada’. Our health visitor did say he was behind but he does have tight gums (his inner cheeks are attached to his gums above his top teeth) so this could be holding him back. It has begun to annoy me though because people keep mentioning and questioning why he doesn’t speak or why he just doesn’t make much noise at all. People seem to forget that he’s so far advanced in other things, he could crawl from 6 months and has now started taking steps at 11 months. I keep telling myself he can’t possibly learn it all at once it would be too much for such a little soul to understand. I just wish people would stop making me out to be a bad mother because he isn’t speaking.
Character
Cheekier by the day I must say! He is now in the stage where he is testing us. Doing things what we receptively tell him no for, like climbing in the fireplace, pulling the Christmas tree and opening doors. He loves to do it and watch our reaction. We’re not too sure where to go with this, do we keep saying no? Or do we ignore it in hope that he won’t find it fun anymore? We’ve tried both methods but neither seem to work. We feel we can’t just let him do some things because they are a danger to him.
He’s becoming more confident with ‘actions’ now. So things like waving, clapping, peak-a-boo, high 5’s and tapping. He love’s to do them all and grab everyones attention. Waving is a definite favourite of his as he gets the larger reward, people waving back! If he’s been pushed in the pram he’s waving, in a supermarket trolley he’s waving and walking along he’s waving! We get to talk to lots of strangers which actually makes going out more enjoyable now as he gets lots of questions. Although mostly he gets called a girl… bless!
I’m beyond shocked how fast this year has gone. The next update I’ll be writing is his 1 year old one. Look out for birthday posts and photographs on Instagram on the 31st as well. I’m wishing he has the most wonderful day.
