gajumaru

 I haven't done an "E's milestones" post lately because their development has happened too quickly to track. I don't think I can do a complete readout of all developments, and I'm daunted even by the idea of trying. So I'm gonna take bites out of it. This post is about language.

Language went from "learning lots of new words a day" to two word sentences, then three word sentences, then EIGHT word sentences, in a matter of weeks during the autumn. In September the only words they could say were "duck" and "there"; and just before Christmas I heard them say, "Roomba base dirty, needs wash, Zaza sort it".

E is one year old! Their development seems to be happening so fast. Here are the big ones lately:

Communication: LANGUAGE. IS HAPPENING. This is so exciting. There have been days recently where it feels like every single day we have a new language milestone, it's coming thick and fast. E now has six signs that they use regularly in context: Milk, Tree, Bird, Sun, Shower and Rain. (We spent AGES on the difference between sun and shower and now they're totally on top of it. We were walking in Lea Valley Park the other day and when we saw a waterfall they signed Shower. INCREDIBLE) They also understand a lot of other signs - such as Food and Wait - and they definitely understand English too!

For instance: E has a pet dead spider. It is on the back of our polycarbonate secondary glazing, which has come down off the window and is leaning against the wall for the summer. The dead spider is on the far side of the polycarbonate. Its underbelly is revealed in anatomical glory. E is obsessed with it, and keeps stroking it through the polycarbonate, pointing at it and shouting with delight. I've been chatting to them about it and telling them about spiders, using the sign for spider and so on. And then I sang Incy Wincy Spider the other day and they pointed at the spider. Leo also tells me that they said "toys" to them and they pointed at their toybox. So yes! Language! AAAH!

Mobility: They're confidently climbing onto the sofa from the floor and down again. They zoom around on hands and knees, and are almost as fast walking with a hand on furniture. They frequently take two or three wobbly steps when crossing from one support to another, like from the sofa to me or vice versa. As I was typing this I just watched them walk a metre from the sofa to Leo, who was in the middle of the floor - four steps at least!

They can climb up stairs without help and sometimes do, if we leave the stairgate open.

They can get down from the bed feet first...

...like on Monday when this TOTALLY CRAZY thing happened! I was having a lying down feed with them in hopes of a nap, as I've been waking up early or lying awake in the middle of the night a bunch lately and have been a bit sleep deprived. I didn't nap - heart and head too full of Things - but E had a good long sleep. We were up there for two and a half hours. They fed for a bit, slept a bit, fed a bit, slept a bit, fed a bit, and I was expecting them to be done with lying down after that feed... but they slept and rolled away from me, sleeping totally independently on the bed like they do at night.

So I snuck out. I went downstairs, and Leo and I had lunch and a zoom call with friends. While we were on the call I heard a thunk from upstairs. The cat was down here, so I went upstairs to check on E...

...and saw them happily CRAWLING TOWARDS ME ALONG THE UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR.

They had woken up, seen that they were alone, seen their water cup on the bedside table, fetched it, had a drink (as I learned later when I found the water cup in the bed), heard voices downstairs, got safely down from the bed, and started coming to find us. All without a cry!

How's that for independence? This is literally the first time they have woken up on their own without crying and I am SO IMPRESSED WITH THEM I CAN'T EVEN.

Sleep: The rain noise is m a g i c. Pure magic. We use Tropical Rain from mynoise.net (we have a subscription to the app) or sometimes Rain on a Tent. It works every time. So now we've got into a really great sleep routine. At 10:30am E has a long breastfeed, I put rain noise on, and they sleep on me. They're either feedingsleepingfeeding without ever really letting go of my boob, but sometimes totally limp and relaxed and not suckling before they wake up a bit and latch on again, or they feed for a bit and then sleep for a bit in my lap. Then in the afternoon either I take them for a sling walk, or Dot does*, or we do an upstairs lying down feed and nap together, or they fall asleep on my lap during their afternoon breastfeed. I'm definitely not doing the sling walk thing every day or even every other day, which is an enormous relief for my body.

At night they're feeding less, finally. I think the rain noise and lavender oil are helping with the sleep conditioning, so they feel familiar and safe to go back to sleep sometimes when they wake. They've slept "through the night" once or twice recently - like 9.30pm through to 5.30am - and then fed and dozed on and off until finally waking up at 7ish. Most nights they sleep 9.30pm until 7am with feeds every 3 hours at the start of the night and every hour from dawn onwards. Now I just need my own insomnia to sod off and I'll be better rested.

* OMG we have childcare again 1.5 days a week and it is literally lifechanging. Char is still unavailable but Dot has stepped doing and is doing an amazing job, and the extra work time is taking an enormous amount of pressure off me. It is SO GREAT.

Activities:
They're still obsessed with books and love being read to. They're very specific about which book they want. Today they climbed up on the sofa and pointed to the shelf of spillover books and kept pointing and vocalising until I picked out the one they wanted (Where's Spot). They love flip the flap books although several of them need repair after over enthusiastic tugging.

Char introduced me to the idea of schemas. E is currently fascinated by Enveloping and Positioning. Lots of moving items around, sorting them into piles, pulling stuff out of bags, putting things into containers and pulling them out again. They love playing peekaboo and will play it by themself, throwing a muslin over their head and pulling it off again and giggling. They love being given boxes and bags to open and toys to unwrap.

Their manual dexterity is greatly improving. They were playing with a little plectrum type object today, putting it in and out of a plastic cup. We like building towers out of wooden blocks - they don't do the building yet but they hand us blocks, we build with them, and then they try and remove blocks from near the top of the tower without knocking the whole thing down. They're getting pretty good at it.

They're getting more consistent with their shape sorter. They enjoy stacking toys. They've learned to pull the rings off the peg with their fingers (rather than just tipping them off) and have even put them back on once or twice, with a little guidance from me. They love playing fetch with a little plastic ball, and are learning how to roll it themselves.

They LOVE helping and being involved in whatever we're doing. They once took an entire airer of dry washing down for me, all the bits they could reach, and passed them to me one by one for folding. They like passing us nappies and laundry to hang and put away. They do sometimes try to take things down as we're hanging them, which is a bit awkward.

They love pulling books off shelves, will pull things off the dining table if we leave them too close to the edge. They're obsessed with getting their hands on whatever we're drinking, so we can't leave open containers of liquid around. We've baby proofed pretty well and are starting to be vigilant about pan handles sticking out, knives on the kitchen counter and so on

Food: still confidently eating with their hands. Broadening their range of tastes. Current favourite meals include cheesy omelette, bits of veg or fish picked out of our stirfries and curries (we've made our cooking totally salt free in order to be able to share it with E, and just add tamari or whatever to our bowls), fried mushrooms, courgette, fruit, bread and cream cheese. They are obsessed with smoked salmon, but it's salty so we almost never give it to them, and mete it out very carefully when we do. Most mornings they have the same breakfast as us: porridge with almond butter, defrosted frozen fruit, stewed prunes, Greek-style vegan yoghurt. They eat a mixture of vegan stuff, a bit of fish, and a bit of freerange organic egg and dairy.

They've been teething a lot lately - they're up to eight teeth now - and that makes them grizzly. They also have constant little flurries of frustration and temper when they can't do something or want something they can't have, but they're usually quite easily soothed. They know what they want and they're determined, persistent and wilful - definitely my child! Boundary-setting around biting is a work in progress and is creating some upset, but it's early days and since we changed our responses I have found it easier. Occasionally they get overwrought, but a snuggly breastfeed usually sorts it out.

They are a delight. Their mood is great most of the time: alert, engaged, curious, expressive, communicative. They're excited and delighted by the tiniest things and help make the simplest activities utterly joyful. Watching language centers come online is the best fun I have had in years.

E turned nine months old at the start of April. It's been a year and a half since I got pregnant! That is A LONG TIME.

Their development is racing ahead and it's been a while since I did a milestone post. This Dreamwidth is basically their baby book.

- crawling is happening on the regular. They're semi adventurous, but not totally zoomy. If I put them down on the floor I can expect them to move a few feet, but not end up in a different room.
- they are no longer safe to put down on beds.
- rolling. Lots of rolling. Particularly in bed. Particularly while trying to feed. Their latest trick is to roll over from their back to their front in the middle of the night and get on all fours before waking up and being upset and confused that they're awake. This is also how they wake up in the mornings. HELLO!
- also rolling on changing mat. Changing is an ongoing negotiation involving distraction and toys.
- we did painting this week and they didn't try to eat the paint ONCE. Although they did try to crawl on the canvas which pretty effectively wiped it clean
- no more sitting. Sitting is boring. Standing is the thing. They hang on to sofas, boxes, knees, tables, anything they can reach. Lots of traversing furniture and pulling things off. I'm continually moving water glasses and tea mugs and laptops out of reach and strewing safe distracting objects in their path for them to pull off instead.
- destroying houseplants. They keep tearing off leaves and trying to pull the plants off the table. I'm not sure where to put them.
- working SO HARD at independent standing! They stood unsupported in the middle of the room for like 30secs yesterday, it was amazing!
- very opinionated, very sure what they want, very big feelings. Strong immediate reactions if we try to thwart them. Usually wants to be holding an object in each hand. Gets upset when this then impedes their ability to climb on things. Very stubborn and determined
- they love playing the piano and reading books, and have started asking for things they want - reaching for books, reaching for the piano, etc. They happily turn the pages of board books (sometimes far too fast to actually read the book) and often request two or three readings of the same book in a row.
- we've had some lovely family times out in the sun, hanging laundry or watering plants or sitting and reading while E crawls around on a picnic blanket exploring the yard
- the weather got warm enough to clean and refill the hot tub, and we've been out in it with E three times. They love it! I wanna get them some little inflatables so they can float around in it
- their babbling is becoming more language like in tone and intonation, and I can often have conversations with them and feel like I understand what they're saying
- they've started getting into offering me things, mostly toys but sometimes food. Favourite game right now is to try to put toys in my mouth
- twiddly fingers while feeding - they like to pull my hoop earrings out of my ears (I need to replace my missing studs) and to pinch and grab my boobs (v painful when they won't let me file their tiny sharp claws). Wearing a fiddle necklace helps, as does giving them a piece of cloth or a small toy to clutch while feeding
- they are obsessed with tea and when we have tea they insist on taking the mug and drinking some. We drink redbush tea with plant milk which is caffeine free, so I'm happy sharing it as long as it's cooled. A few times we've given them their own tea in their sippy cup and they've drunk it with great enthusiasm.
- favourite foods: porridge with prunes softened in it for sweetness, houmous (always), steamed fennel, stirfried mushrooms, stirfried carrot and greens, cooked fish, pasta and sauce, toasted bagel slices with almond butter, banana broken into sticks, satsuma pieces (pierced for safety), melon
- generally very cheery, relaxed, secure kid, super engaged and curious about the world, adorably excited and enthusiastic about everything, cuddly when tired, thinks things we do are very funny, loves to make us laugh. They are so wonderful! ♥️