My baby at 13th month

It’s amazing how babies grow and the speed at which they grow.

My baby has passed his first birthday when I wrote an open letter to him. I hope it will be memorable for him when he grows up reading the letter. It’s a letter full of love, love and love. And it’s also easy to forget such intense love when we go through everyday life in joy, laughter, anger, frustration, tears, disappointment, and back to love again at the end of the day. Hence, documenting the growth of my children on my blog is probably the best place to reminisce on the feelings we had at that time, at that place.

Baby YT is already 13 month old!

Eating

He has 10 teeth right now and on the way to have a couple more out. This is probably the fastest development he has among his siblings. He can take rice, eat almost anything we eat but in bite sizes. He loves to drink water, eat bread and his Gerber puffs. Recently I found out that he loves to taste metal, not sure if that’s for the taste or coolness of the metal. My floor has to be really clean everyday as he loves to crawl, stops when he sees some dirt or tiny things on the floor, puts his fore finger on that “thing”, looks at it and puts into his mouth! So far, he had ate paper off book corners, and loose papers left behind by his siblings. It’s lots of work following a highly mobile baby!

Development

Being a careful baby, he is still carefully cruising around, and not brave enough to strike out the first step independently. His brother and sister could already walk at 13th month. So, I think he needs more encouragement. However, I am quite cool about this and really would prefer to leave him to his own comfortable pace. He is a champion in crawling, no longer the commando crawl on the tummy, but crawling the proper perfect crawl at amazing speed.

He is also good at getting down from my bed or the sofa at a height. He will manoeuvre till his legs touched the edge of the bed, and slide down feet first to the floor. What a clever babe! He loves to open drawers and pull things out too.

In speech, his favourite words right now is “mum mum”. This means more of “eating” than to mean “mum” as in me, his mum. And when he really means calling out for me, he calls “ma ma”. He loves to talk on his own, sometimes making cute sounds, which I think really sounds more like Korean than any of the languages we speak. Perhaps he picks up during the many afternoons of Korean drama playing out on TV when my mother-in-law watches at my house. Still, whatever sounds he makes, they sound super cute!

Sleep

After a few weeks of sleeping through the night, he went back to waking up for one night feed every night. No matter how tired me and Kel are, we have to spring up to pacify him before his cries bring the roof down. That’s something we do not quite understand. Can he get so suddenly hungry that he wakes up crying so loudly and in a demanding manner? One of us has to assure him that the other is off making super quick milk for him. And that is not enough. He has to cry and crawl to the kitchen and continuing crying till he sees the milk bottle with milk in it of course, then he is off crawling back or being carried back to his bed to a satisfying indulgence of his warm milk.

Social

He loves to go out and talks non-stop the moment he enters the lift. He can stretch out his arm and bid goodbye or sometimes hello to people by opening and closing his palms. That’s a big achievement! He attracts many happy smiles back whenever he goes out. Most of the time, the neighbourhood knows him more than knowing who his mum is.

My life at this moment

I am still a busy working mum caring for my dearest children. Life is getting slightly better now that I learnt to let go of many things. I delegate much house chores to Kel, and am now trying to get my XX and YH to share out the house chores too. It’s a happy feeling to see them helping out around the house like responsible kids. I shall be training them to do more soon which I believe is beneficial to them and to the family.

Recently, a depressing event happened, and Kel has been there for me and supporting me emotionally and physically too. Everything happens for a reason, or so I believe. However, I am still not sure why it had to happen to me. But it actually gave me some serious thinking over my life, my children and my family. I hope I emerge stronger and a better mum to my kids.

Happy 13th month Baby YT! Be happy and cute as always! We love you!

14 thoughts on “My baby at 13th month”

  2. I’m happy for you that you have Kel who is there to support you! Sending good energy as you get through whatever struggle you are facing.
    I am a big believer in age-appropriate chores for the kids. Mr. T knows that one of my goals is that when he moves out I have taught him how to care for his home. He started small and has worked his way up to bigger and better chores – and he doesn’t complain, because he has always known responsibility, he knows that what he does helps keep our home together and running smoothly. I know that your kids will grow up better and be thankful that you taught them to be responsible and how to care for their future home!

    1. Kate, your kind words encourage me! Thanks for sharing your experience with Mr T. He is such a mature and responsible man now. You really must have taught him well. I will be exploring what age appropriate chores my kids can handle and hope to make it a routine instead of a one off fun thingy. Will share with you again how it goes!

  3. I’m sorry something has happened which has been difficult for you/your family. I hope you are feeling stronger through it already.

    As for baby YT – well, he’s hardly a baby anymore! This is definitely the most tiring stage in many ways, though. At least you know by now it doesn’t last long.

    1. Thanks Bronwyn! After publishing this post and seeing encouraging comments like yours, I felt like we have known each other so well and feel your and other readers’ sincere well-wishes deep in my heart. I am touched.
      Caring for a toddler now indeed is tiring but love his pure and naive nature. Everything YT does brings smiles to everyone in the family. The tired days don’t last but so do such precious moments. So, many times, the adorable look on his face is enough to make me forget how tired I am.

  4. So sorry to hear that some unexpected things come to you. Glad that you manage to overcome it with support from your hubby. These make your family bonds more stronger. Anything you wish to talk to, pls feel free to call me.

    1. Kelly, so happy to hear from you! Thanks for your concern! I didn’t mean for my life at this moment to take over this post for YT’s progress. But I am certainly feeling better with my readers’ well-wishes. Will try to meet up with you one of these days. Thanks for dropping by!

  5. Our babies are only 23 days apart. Lauren just turned one early October but she has only 4 teeth compared to YT with 10! I suppose every baby grows at their own pace. It is amazing to see how much they’ve grown and learnt from month to month, so documenting those milestones in a blog is a great idea.

    1. All babies grow at different pace indeed! While YT already has 10 teeth before first year, he’s taking his own sweet time in some other developments like walking. I am sure Lauren is faster than my baby in speech and first steps.

    1. Happy Birthday Eszter! Welcome to Singapore! I hope you enjoy your stay here and remember to share your experience in your blog! I wanted to introduce one-ninety restaurant at four seasons hotel, and came across this very good website for expats: http://www.expatliving.sg/article/wine-dine/casual-dining/the-best-child-friendly-restaurants-in-singapore

      Check it out! They seem to list down many kids-friendly restaurants to go. Your baby is still young, but at least he can crawl around in a kids-friendly place and no one will mind 🙂 I personally have not been to any of them, we usually bring our kids to indoor playgrounds where older kids run around in the playground and babies crawl in their play area. One good indoor playground to check out is Fidgets at Turf city: http://www.fidgets.com.sg/ where babies have a play area and parents can relax at the cafe just beside the play area. Enjoy your birthday celebration and stay in Singapore! 🙂

      1. I am looking at your links this very moment! I appreciate you taking the time… Of course I will write a post when we come back… 🙂
        Once again: thank you so much!

  7. Pingback: My Little Toddler at 16th month | Kids "R" Simple

Comments are closed.