12 Months

Spud officially turns 1 this month, and, cliche as it sounds, I cannot believe that a whole year has passed since she was born. When I watch her fast asleep in her cot, I cannot help but be constantly amazed that this little person had actually come out of me. Suddenly, those memories of sleepless nights seemed quite so far away now, and indeed, Spud has added another dimension to our lives.

From the world of babydom to that of a toddler, Spud is becoming quite the clown with her antics; often curious about the things around her and sometimes thinking that she is one of the cats.

She walks like a champ and is fast fine-tuning her sprinting skills in a matter of weeks. When she gets really tired at the end of the day, she hardly ever want to stay still and often walks around like a drunkard who is about to walk herself into a wall  (or whatever that is in her way)

She is speaking a whole lot of words now, too …words in a language which we don’t quite understand and a bunch of gobbledygook. We can, however, decipher a few words when she says “A-go” (i.e “Let’s Go” or at least we think so!) or “Wadah” (i.e. “water” or at least we imagined so!).

She laughs, smiles, babbles and dances around (out of sync like her Papa!) quite a bit and generally a very happy baby; quite a far cry from how she was in her first 6 months of life! .

I’ve never mentioned this before, but when she was born, Spud has this bright sparkle in her eyes…a sparkle so bright that it elicited comments from some, and including a few pediatricians. She still has those sparkles in her eyes, and, I’d love to say that when she smiles, she lights up the whole room (okay. She does! Just like every baby). But, what I actually wanted to say was, when she smiles, the sparkles and along with her eyes disappears because she has such small, almost squinty eyes! (Guess where she gets that from.)

Until yesterday, Spud has been eating her solids okay as compared to a month ago, and, for some reason, eats better as long as she is not being fed by her parents. Sometimes she eats so much that when her stomach bulges, her innie belly-button becomes an outie. Until yesterday, she is all about variety of food – as long as they are new to her, she will willingly eat it.

But the entire eating-well streak seems to have ended. As of yesterday, Spud simply refused to eat any of her solids at breakfast, lunch and dinner; refusing to even open her mouth to new food and rejected some of her favourites.

By the end of the day yesterday, both Silver Bullet and I ran out of steam after spending the entire day trying to get her to down her food. All the tricks which had worked before failed to work this time round. It was frustratingly tiring to feed her as she adamantly refused to even open her mouth, let alone to even take a little bite.

We were at the end of the tether by 6pm yesterday, and out of the blue, Silver Bullet had it in him to give her a piece of saltine cracker which we have lying around. Much to our surprise, Spud actually took to it and eventually polished off all but half of those saltines; the very last pack of saltines we have at home!

Just as we thought she has made some improvements with solids, she threw us a curve ball again. I don’t think we ever have it easy with Spud, and I don’t think she will make an exception to this. In fact, when Silver Bullet asked me if I could think of just one thing when Spud cut us some slack and made it easy for us, I could not think of anything. Actually, we both struggle to think of just one thing as everything with her did require some huge effort!

We have come a long way all three of us. It is hard to imagine that once upon a time, I toyed with the idea of returning her to The Bum and picking her up 10 years later…I still do when she gets difficult.

Okay. Okay. I’m kidding!

Sigh…I envy those parents whose babies sleep all day, not a big fuss-pot and are usually a sea of calmness. I guess the stars have dictated that come hell or high water, a super fuss-pot child would probably suit us better to ensure that we will not be bored. Ever.

I am sure that things will get even more interesting for us as she continues to test our patience when she tots her toddler’s trots which may be worth a post at a later stage. Till then, I’m leaving you readers with these photos below...



1 month: still a blob



2 months: Holding her head up strong

 

3 months: Trying to sit up



4 months: Finally turning over!

5 months: Sitting up and eating solids

6 months: Crawling

7 months: Standing



8 Months: Tumbling around



9 Months: 1st teeth



Month 10: Supported walking

11 Months: Walking

12 months: Toting with Lenny the (snow) Leopard

Until I became a parent, I never fully realised that simple little things like sitting, crawling and walking can be really quite an effort for a little baby to achieve!