11 months

With only one month short of his first birthday, Squirt is now no longer that helpless little infant, and his growing independence have become more apparent by the day. He has mastered the art of stand, stoop and squat, and has even started to toddle along confidently with only one hand gripping our index fingers. In fact, our not-so-little Squirt took his very first, unassisted, few steps at just about 2 weeks before his 11^th month birthday while we were still in Holland.

The look on his face when he realised that he could actually walk …. priceless! He was so pleased with himself after every successful attempt towards unassisted walking that that could not stop smiling and laughing – clearly happy at his accomplishments. (I have been trying to shoot a decent video of him taking several steps, but so far have only managed a really, really short video)

Since then, has been busy toddling around and trying his darnest to perfect the art of walking. He is still a tad unstable, and often, tend to fall backwards like a tree being chopped, but I reckon, all he needs is practice, practice, practice. Like Spud, I guess he would know and learn when to let go when he is ready to.

So.

At 11 months, Squirt is more mobile than ever, babbles non-stop (even more than Spud ever did at that age!), enjoying gumming on biscuits, and yet, despite several bad nights and some other signs which may have pointed to him teething (drooling, bright red cheeks and chins, big and smelly poo, days that he did not really want to eat,  as well as crankier than usual…), Squirt, to date still has not cut any teeth! I know I shouldn't be worried and there is no reason to, but I cannot help wonder what the hell is taking those little teeth so long to cut through. I mean, come on already! Just pop - especially when he has been showing a lot of interest on the food we have on our plates.

Squirt is also learning to wave goodbye and, each time he successfully "waves" (he does it in a stiff, weird sort of way), he usually laughs heartily. It has been a pleasing sight to see a chuckling baby do simple things.

Apart from that, Squirt has been pretty apt in saying no by shaking his head vigorously. It has been a few times already that I thought I heard him say "Nee" (means "No" in Dutch and pronounced as "Nay") as he shook his head from side to side (But, I could also have been imagining it).

In exactly 31 more days, Squirt turns 1. And what a major milestone that would be!

Related post(s): 
Spud's 11 months update