Category Archives: Hunter’s progress

HUNTER: MONTH 14-15 PROGRESS

25 April 2012 11 comments

Happy 15 months, Hunter!

LOL

Well HELLO major growth-spurt month! Hunter had really obvious physical and mental developments over the past month, which also brought about a week’s worth of crap sleep (egads). He studies what people do with great interest and just loves to figure things out himself.

A cute trick he does is when we’re out shopping and he’s tired of walking around, he’ll go to his stroller and stand in front of it, say “Up!” to me, and when I put him in, pulls the stroller bar across him so I can snap it down.

He also loves reading, so will proactively go look for his books, choose one, and bring it over and try to climb onto our laps, asking us to read it to him. Love how he can easily understand instructions now, and has his own lil personality. And, boy, with that comes quite the temper too..! He can really tell you off resoundingly when he feels you’ve done him wrong ;)

He’s also learning to swim by himself, holding onto a floaty tube/bar and kicking himself forward. It’s tough, cos they have to learn to grip as well as keep themselves afloat! He’s learning this way, the super-hard way, because he refuses to have those inflatable water-wings on his arms :X

Learning to swim by himself

MONTH 14-15 PROGRESS:

Eating – Hunter is still going well with his eating, and will eat most things we give him. He still has the same (healthy) diet and so far hasn’t yet figured out what desserts/sweets/deep-fried foods are, much to our relief. We will be in Australia for the next 2.5 weeks, which is causing us a major headache, since I won’t have much opportunity to cook, and he doesn’t eat ‘outside’ food (too laden with oil, salt, sugar, etc). I honestly have no idea how we’ll figure out his meals…
He has 2 formula milk feeds (1 morning, 1 night) and 1 fresh milk feed (afternoon) daily. Sometimes I’m too busy talking or shopping in the afternoon and forget to give him his milk by 3PM, so he’ll twist around in his stroller, look at me, and go “Nan, nan, nan!” whilst doing his baby-sign for milk. Guess a kid’s gotta do what a kid’s gotta do to get fed ;)

Sleeping – Perfectly 7:30PM – 7:30AM sleep-through-the-night-without-waking for the first 3 weeks of this month… then in the past week he decided to kill us by fussing madly and insisting someone stands there until he falls asleep, and waking up randomly at night fussing again. ARGH!! I was about to have a mental breakdown, but then he slept fine the past 2 nights again. But, we leave for Australia today (!) and having Hunter sleeping in the same room will destroy my sleep for sure (I’m a super-light sleeper now and can’t sleep properly with him in the room) :( Really worried about this as because I’m pregnant, I really do need my rest..

Motor control - He walks, he runs, he picks up small objects off the ground when standing, he can kick a ball far, he can pull a wheeled-toy behind him as he walks, he draws with crayons (nonsensical scratches, of course!), he can screw stuff together and unscrew, he can put lids on and take lids off containers, he can fit differently-shaped blocks into their correct holes, he can unlock my iPhone, he can climb on/off toy cars and push off with both legs then lift both legs to let the car roll forward, blah blah blah..
He’s also really into pretend play – cooking alongside me in the kitchen, putting Lego man on his horse and galloping it, feeding us and his toys food/water (making appropriate lip-smacking sounds to get his point across), etc.

He also enjoys putting on his shoes, and will go search for and bring me his shoes when I ask him to, and lift up each leg so I can put them on his feet.

Hunter's weakness - vehicles

No worries mate, let me screw that in for you

Talking/listening - His list of words (taken from last month, new words in italics at the bottom):

Hunter – but sounds more like ‘haaaahn-tahhh!!’, whilst patting himself on the chest
Ma ma – when looking for me
Da da – when looking for Chris
Kong Kong – what he calls my dad
Playground – possibly his favourite word
Park – same as above
Star – accompanied with hand actions. Will say it whilst singing songs, or point to a picture of one and say it
Up – to ask to be picked up, when lifting this up, going up the escalator, etc
All – whilst singing songs, possibly his favourite word to sing out
Nan – for milk
Woau / oohooh / roar / brrmmm – sounds for dog, monkey, lion, motorbike
Por Por – what he calls my mum
No – one of his favourite words, sadly!
Row – part of the song and when he wants us to rock him
Hiiii – greeting people or when playing with a phone

So only 4 new words (above) learned in the past month, ‘cos I don’t take into account random babbles or sounds, and a new word to me only counts if he says it with clear understanding and consistently over a period of weeks.

Follows more complex instructions like “Look for the ball, and throw it to Dad”, but now has a cheeky side and sometimes after getting the ball, will look at the person he’s meant to throw it to and go “no no no!” and grin and run away with the ball, thinking himself rather clever. LOL!

He understands too many words to document (babies always understand waaay more words than they can speak) but he can now accurately identify and point to his (or someone else’s) body parts:

head
ears
eyes
nose
mouth
teeth
tongue
chest
shoulders
belly
hands
legs
toes

I do think Hunter’s ability to point to all the above body parts is pretty good for his age, but I’m not sure why. I think he’s just really fascinated with the human body?! That, and vehicles; he can tell the difference and identify aeroplane, helicopter, boat, train, bus, car, motorbike, etc. Such a BOY ;)

He loves singing along to his nursery rhymes. He can’t get the words out properly, but can hit a few notes accurately and blabber in time to the actual words. In particular, the “abcde….” song, where he’ll rattle away in his own babbles in time with the alphabet :P And like all other kids, he loves listening to music, and will ‘conduct’ with his hands and bop his bum and dance whenever he hears music ;)

Great pals: having a babycino with my Dad

And so at 15 months old, Hunter goes on his first trip to Australia, today!! He’ll have attention galore and Chris is also really looking forward to spending quality 24/7 time with his son :) And I’m excited to see what kind of baby clothes, toys and supplies Australia has to offer!

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HUNTER: MONTH 13-14 PROGRESS

25 March 2012 28 comments

Happy 14 months, Hunter!

I first caught Hunter starting to walk by himself about a week after he turned 13 months old. He started taking his first step or two whilst clutching onto a stuffed toy (gives him more confidence I guess), or when he was really distracted and I wasn’t paying much attention to him. And then seemingly overnight, he got more and more confident and started taking more and more steps…. til now he walks by himself from one end of our home to the other steadily, confidently, and repeatedly. He also goes from seated-to-standing without needing to hold on for support (serious thigh muscles going on there!). It is SO COOL to see your child suddenly start toddling away by themselves, it truly tranforms them from a baby into a child :)

Earlier this month, Hunter (unprompted) started going up to my belly and staring at it, then stroking or patting it with a smile on his face. It really surprised me, because prior to that, we hadn’t specifically told him I was pregnant or where the baby was. I guess babies have some sort of sixth sense! Some friends did point out though that perhaps he was just observant and spotted me subconsciously stroking my belly, and wanted to do the same. Now, he proactively will reach over and happily *pat pat* my belly looking rather chuffed with himself. We’ll see if that happiness still prevails once baby is out and competes for attention ;)

Giving his best badass look! Or maybe he's just nervous with my pretty girl friend next to him, hahhaa

MONTH 13-14 PROGRESS:

Eating – Hunter was fully weaned off breastmilk by the start of this month. I want him to forget the boob as much as possible before baby #2 comes, to minimize jealousy. He now does 210ml formula, day and night, and 210ml fresh milk in the afternoon.
Solids-wise, he is still an average eater. We’re fortunate that he has no problems eating plain steamed veggies, steamed fish, tofu, etc.. so I don’t have to worry about his nutrition/vitamin intake. However, he always needs something to do whilst eating.. like reading a book, or looking at a toy, etc. If not, he’ll simply refuse to open his mouth! But once he’s amused with something, he’ll obediently eat up all his food. He also gets unbelievably excited and frantic when he sees people eating around him, and simply must get his hands on their adult food (always accompanied by frantic “more, please” baby sign language)… I guess this is true of every baby out there and something we parents just have to grit our teeth through, heh. I’m proud that his diet does NOT consist of any lollies, chocolate, chips, cake, deep-fried, etc etc.. which I consider a real achievement considering the terrible junk-food diet Chris and I have. We intend to keep him away from ANY AND ALL junk food until we absolutely have no other choice, ideally when he’s at least 3 yrs old. He doesn’t really come into contact with it that much, to be honest, because my parents are very healthy eaters and also against feeding junk food to babies, and my friends are good with their kids’ diets too. Whew!

First encounter with durian. He refused to take a bite, and I don't blame him!

Sleeping – He’s on his 7:30PM – 7:30AM sleep-through-the-night-without-waking thing, so not much to report here. But, early this month, we moved him to his own room. Specifically because we want him used to his own room before I give birth in Aug (baby cot will be in the master bedroom). And OH MY… the difference! Even though he doesn’t wake up at night, he is quite the noisy sleeper and once he went into his own room, I suddenly slept a LOT better. So now I wake up so refreshed :)
Also a revolution – turning the temperature in his room down to 21 celcius. I read that the ideal temperature is around 18-22 celcius, and previously he was at 24 celcius when he slept in the master bedroom. I noticed that he shifted/was less noisy when we dropped the temperature to 21 celcius. To be honest it feels a bit cool for my liking, but he wears a full-length footed onesie and a sleeping bag, so I guess it’s fine. And he sleeps WAAAY more soundly at this cooler temperature! Mums, if your baby fusses or wakes up during the night, you could try this? It worked pretty amazingly for Hunter.

Motor control - Developed a real interest in playing with screws. He has some toy screws and bolts, and loves screwing the screws in, then unscrewing them, etc. Also really likes putting stuff into boxes/buckets (great cos he can clean up after himself HAHA).
Now also will come to you and give you a cuddle and kiss proactively, without being prompted. Or, if we ask for a cuddle and kiss, he’ll dish em out too.
And of course… can now walk all by himself :)

Hunter walking around in the play gym

He also likes to sing certain words of songs, and do the actions. Hard for me to capture cos when I video him, he gets distracted by the camera! But here is a short video where he is sort of doing it….

Talking/listening - Too hard to keep track of stuff he understands. He does like pointing to animals and making their appropriate noise – his faves are dog, lion and monkey, the last one accompanied with him scratching his armpits HAHA!
Repeats a lot of words, and especially likes his game of point-at-something-and-ask-what-it-is.. where he eagerly points at an object, looks at me and goes “uck!!” which basically means “what is it?” in Hunter-speak. This game can go on for AGES, until I get sick of it and distract him with a book ;)
Some of the words he can say (I only classify them as such if he does so repeatedly over days/weeks, shows understanding of cause-effect of those words etc) are:

Hunter – but sounds more like ‘haaaahn-tahhh!!’, whilst patting himself on the chest
Mum mum – when looking for me
Da da – when looking for Chris
Kong Kong – what he calls my dad
Playground – possibly his favourite word
Park – same as above
Star – accompanied with hand actions. Will say it whilst singing songs, or point to a picture of one and say it
Up – to ask to be picked up, or whilst singing songs
All – whilst singing songs, possibly his favourite word to sing out
Nan – for milk
Woau / oohooh / roar / brrmmm – sounds for dog, monkey, lion, motorbike

So I guess from here-on-out, I am the textbook ‘pregnant mum running after her toddler’, with Hunter walking around by himself and me waddling after him ;)

Thankfully even though I’m pregnant, we are blessed with a very good-natured, easy-going and docile little boy.. so he does make my life pretty easy, since he doesn’t cause me any issues (well, so far!). And it also means I can still take him out every day on our daily playdates/outings with friends.. which he is really starting to understanding and appreciate now, because he’s more aware of people around him and enjoys social interaction more. Win-win!

And today, we not only celebrate Hunter’s 14 month birthday, but also Chris’ birthday! We had a lovely lunch yesterday to celebrate, and a quiet dinner date tonight :) Chris always wanted a baby by 30 years old, and another baby 1-2 years after that. Guess he got his wish. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LOVE!

A casual family pic snapped by Chris' brother, when Hunter was 11 months old

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HUNTER: MONTH 12-13 PROGRESS

25 February 2012 14 comments

Happy 13 months, Hunter!

I thought the above photo was pretty apt.. since it was taken today, his 13th month birthday :)

Boy, it’s true what they say about kids having a HUGE developmental leap at the 1 year mark. Even friends that see him pretty frequently have noticed how different he is and all the new stuff he’s learned. He watches me very carefully and will mimic my actions and words – very cute :) It’s pretty cool watching a kid just ABSORB the information and world around them, and spit it right back out after they’ve learned it. Their brains truly are like a sponge! It makes it a joy to be around Hunter, because he’s responsive and we can have little ‘conversations’ with him.

What we find something AMAZING to do with your child, is baby sign language. It has really helped us so much, AND I feel it’s really good for the child because it means they can express themselves properly. It’s because of baby sign that I feel Hunter screams less than normal, simply because he can express his desires. It also makes him feel more in control, and able to communicate with us, which I feel is really good for a child’s psyche. The signs he’s mastered are:

Milk (squeezing hands into fists) – he will squeeze his hands repeatedly when he’s hungry and wants his milk. Really useful, because he’ll just tell us when he wants a drink, instead of us having to figure out when he’s crying. So because of this, he doesn’t cry for milk anymore. This sign is easy to teach – he started doing it at around 6 months or so, from memory.
More (touching fingers together) – his favourite sign, I’m sure! Whenever he spots food that he wants, or simply wants more of whatever he’s eating, he’ll point at the specific food, then do the sign. It means we know exactly which food on the plate he wants, and he doesn’t have to scream for it. Well, unless we still deny him! :P He also uses this “More” sign if he’s pooing and there’s “more poo” in him… hahahahaha.
No More (wringing hands) – this is to tell us he doesn’t want to eat anymore, or doesn’t want something anymore. He probably uses this sign to a lesser extent to the first 2 signs, since it’s to communicate a negative-want instead of a positive-want.

These signs each took about 3 days to master, which I think is not too bad, considering the long term benefits! Short term pain (lots of repeating yourself and helping them make the actions), long term gain :)

Next up, I’m planning to teach him Sleepy and Diaper signs. But they’re not very critical because he sleeps at such specific times, and he’s already poo-diaper trained.. I’m a big believer of baby sign language though. And despite some people thinking it may prevent a kid from speaking, I don’t think it’s affected because Hunter makes noises/says words in addition to signing. And regardless, it makes all our lives easier!

MONTH 12-13 PROGRESS:

Eating – Exactly the same solids/milk routine as last month. Works a charm. Hunter is, in general, and ‘okay eater’. It’s actually pretty borderline, because he is so aware of what he’s eating (will inspect the dish prior) and if it doesn’t take his fancy, it’s a huge struggle to get him to eat. Thankfully his fave foods are still all super healthy (steamed fish/tofu/avocado/banana etc). Still, it’s particularly difficult when I’m out at lunch, because he goes mental trying to get at my food instead!
Still fully potty-trained for poop. And not only that, but he’ll only ‘go’ when he’s at home, and will get really upset if he’s out of the house and wants to do his poo. This means we’re constantly alert and worried that he might get constipated because he’ll really hold his poo in until we get home! D’oh..

Sleeping – He does his 7PM – 7AM sleep-through-the-night-without-waking.. except for the past week when something made him go haywire. He suddenly had ‘night terrors’ and ‘night separation anxiety’ and will insist that someone stands there watching him sleep, until he finally falls asleep. ARGHHH!! Currently trying to get rid of this issue and tonight we let him cry-it-out (with 5min intervals) and miraculously it worked. He’d better go back to his 7-to-7 routine or I’ll be one unhappy mummy!
His nap time is at 12PM and goes for about 1.5 hours. I guess in general he hasn’t had sleep issues this month as usual, apart from the past few days.
Funny thing about Hunter, that seems to amuse our friends so I’ll put it down here too – he is obsessed with drinking water (like me). So much so that I leave his straw-cup in his cot at night.. and he’ll scuttle over semi-asleep in the middle of the night, take a long drink, then continue sleeping. He is the ONLY baby I know that does that, and he’s been doing that since he was about 6 months old, LOL.

Motor control - He holds with one hand and walks. He can stand for awhile by himself, but hasn’t taken his first steps and I think he is at least 1-2 months away from doing so. For now, he adores toddling around holding our hand :)
He can follow the hand action for songs, such as Wheels On The Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, If You’re Happy And You Know It, etc. Will give us a pat when asked “can you give me a pat?”, as well as lean his forehead in when asked “can I have a kiss?”
Oddly, he has a toy old-school style telephone and knows to hold it to his ear/month to ‘talk’ into it. Odd, because we don’t have a telephone like this at home, and he’s never really seen anyone talk into a phone before! Wonder if talking on a phone is innate behaviour in humans ;)
Loves to arrange and re-arrange stuff.. as in taking stuff out of a box, and putting it all back in again.

Talking/listening - At the start of this month, I wanted to list the words that he understood. But then it became INSANE because we realised the sheer amount of words he understands. It’s literally like having a mini adult in the room!
He listens and understands so much.. and can follow instructions, like when asked to dress/undress (holds out his arms accordingly), when asked to sit down, asked to raise his arms to get picked up, etc..
He can correctly point to his body parts when asked, such as ears/head/nose/tongue/belly/belly button, etc etc.
He can also accurately answer questions that we ask, such as “What sound does a motorbike make?”, “What sound does a lion make?”, “What sound does a dog make?” etc..
He learns how to say new words by pointing at objects and repeating after us
He can help sing some words of a song, such as Wheels On The Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old McDonalds Had a Farm.
Specific words he likes to say are: vrrrmmm, wow!, star, playground, “haaaaah taaah” (Hunter)

Hunter’s now at such an interactive age that it makes each day and moment with him so exciting. We really do experience second childhood through our kids! Wish I could capture this moment in time and remember it forever..

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HUNTER: MONTH 11-12 PROGRESS

25 January 2012 20 comments

Happy 1 YEAR Birthday, Hunter!

At Hunter's 1st birthday party

1 YEAR OLD.

A year ago, we were staring at our newborn baby.. soaking in all 4.2+KG and 54cm of him. Utterly amazed that we had created a whole new living, breathing human. Remember him when he was this little?

Our newborn

I don’t!

How time flies. And oh how our lives have changed. I can’t quite remember what life was like when I wasn’t a mother. It suddenly feels like I’m living for something now, and he truly brings such joy into our lives… even when he drives us up the wall at times ;)

He changed dramatically in the past 1-2 months.. so much so that I kind of lost track of all his ‘new’ developments. I’m amazed at how ~1 year old babies are like mini adults – understanding what you say, following simple instructions, etc etc. It makes it SO MUCH more fun than the baby stage when they pretty much lie there and do… not much at all.

Most of all, he showers us with huge happy sloppy grins.. that have the power to melt my heart. Like this:

His grin can make my entire day

MONTH 11-12 PROGRESS:

Eating – He eats solids at 8:30AM, 11:30AM, and 5:30PM… and has milk at 7:30AM, 3:00PM, 7:00PM. This schedule works really well so we’re sticking with it. He’s not the world’s most eager eater though, and unless it’s his favourite foods.. he’ll need a lot of talking to and cajoling to finish his portion. Fortunately, he loves steamed fish, avocado, tofu and bananas. So thankfully he likes healthy food! We’re also starting to have dinner together - as in I cook up food that is baby-safe (ie. low salt/oil) and so he can have the same food, which he really likes.
I am down to…… believe it or not….. breastfeeding once every 2 days. Yeah, I’m that Mum that can’t seem to let go of breastfeeding and am clinging on desperately to it. Soon I will document my entire breastfeeding journey.. but that is an entire (and long) blog post in itself. All I will say is it is a HUGE emotional rollercoaster weaning your child, far more than I’d ever imagined. Will write more about that at some point in the future.
He’s now fully potty-trained for poop. He simply won’t poo in his diaper anymore, but does his poo once a day once his diaper is off. The good news is that it makes life SUPER easy for me, especially since we go out every day, since I never have to worry about him pooing when we’re out and having to deal with the mess. The bad news is that he still pees in his diaper (and is probably a loooong way away from pee-trained), so we still have to spend $$ on diapers. Ah well!

Munch much munch

Baby and Adult dinners

Sleeping – brought this Sleeping section back because things changed in the past 1-2 months. He’s gone from 2 naps to 1 nap a day. D’ohhhhh! This means that I don’t have quiet-time to myself in the morning, which is difficult as it’s much harder to get stuff done now. But not much I can do because he will simply refuse to sleep in the morning.. boo. Fortunately, he still clocks in his 7PM – 7AMsleep-through-the-night-without-waking habit, so I suppose I can’t complain…
Rather cheery in the morning

Motor control - can easily go from lying down -> crawling -> standing up -> sitting back down, etc. And like all his friends his age, he simply cannot get enough of cruising around the place.. which is particularly exhausting because he needs to be monitored waaaay more than before! Fortunately, he’s not the super active sort and will still look at me for approval before he grabs or chucks stuff.. so I guess I should be glad about that. He especially loves to dance to music and is currently learning to jump by himself (though he falls onto his bum upon landing).

Crusing in the pool

Talking/listening - very noisy! And now can understand a surprising amount of words, like car, wheels, elephant/giraffe/dog/pig/cat. Can also point to his head, ears and tongue when asked, and does the splish-splash action when we ask him to. Loves to brush his own hair. Ummm… just a whole bunch of stuff that will be silly for me to try and document every little thing! But obviously he can understand us now and is like a little sponge in the way he absorbs words. So we have to be increasingly careful to speak properly in front of him, not swear, etc etc.

And of course we had his 1st birthday party over the weekend – a kiddy party with a whole bunch of all his regular playdate friends. I have a few hundred photos to trawl through and so will get round to writing that one up next.

But, CRIPES, our baby boy is 1 YEAR OLD!!!! Epic. HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, my son!

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HUNTER: MONTH 10-11 PROGRESS

25 December 2011 10 comments

Happy 11 month Birthday, Hunter!

Our little one is 11 months old today, right smack on Christmas :) Hard to believe that in just a month, he’ll be 1 year old! Also a bit surreal to think that, this time last year, I was heavily pregnant and we were having a quiet Christmas with friends in Shanghai. Now Hunter is out and Christmas is aaaaallll about him, LOL! He’s only young, so he gets to enjoy all the gift-giving of Christmas. When he’s older, he will learn about what the true meaning of Christmas really is, which will be even more special :)

He really seems more like a little boy than just a baby now, especially when he walks/toddles around and shows his distinct personality. We also realised, earlier on in the month, that he really can understand us and respond to simple instructions etc. Super fun, because it really does make him seem like a proper person instead of a baby that lies around doing nothing :P

He’s still easy-going and really placid, but does show separation anxiety from time to time. Particularly in places where there are heaps of people, and he’s passed to someone that he’s not particularly close to. To be honest, we actually like seeing him like this.. as before, he wouldn’t give a damn if someone else carried him. Now, we feel really loved when his face changes and he starts looking for and reaching out for us. Ahhhh…. I love baby cuddles :)

Seeing Nanna and Grandpa in the morning. They're visiting for Christmas!

MONTH 10-11 PROGRESS:

Eating – Going really well, whew! He now has 3x solids a day and eats just about everything. In particular, he likes the very food we’re eating, so I feed him before the food arrives or he’ll insist on eating off our plates instead. He also refuses canned baby food (he can someone figure it out) but is OK if I mix it in with homecooked food. His favourite foods? Fish (will open his mouth eagerly if we tell him “this is fish!”), tofu, bananas, avocado, yogurt/fruit.
He has formula milk 1x a day in the afternoon, and now finally is OK with it. Huge progress!! Breastfeeding 2x/day now, first thing when he wakes up and just before bedtime. Very happy with this as this was my ideal setup. It’s an incredible feeling, both of us drowsy in the morning, lying in bed together and him having a long-and-lazy breastfeed. It’s my favourite way to wake up :)
He’s also almost fully potty-trained. By his choice! He actually started at around 6 months old, but now more completely so, because he tries to vocalise it to us. It all started when he was 6 months and couldn’t stand having poo in his diaper. So he started only pooing on his changing station when we had his diaper off – specifically after his afternoon nap every day. He’s had 2-3 accidents (ie. pooped in his diaper) in the past 4-5 months or so, and went HYSTERICAL. Now, if he reaaalllyyy needs to poo, he’ll get really agitated and whine, but obviously can’t actually say the words yet. On the downside, I worry that he’ll get constipated if, for whatever reason, he’s not home in the morning and ends up holding it all in :X On the upside, everyone reckons it’ll be easy to train him to use the toilet later. I guess we’ll see!

Motor control - really quite the expert at going from lying down to standing up, and cruising around the house. Still far from walking though, in my opinion. That said, he loves walking when we hold his hand, and simply adores pushing his walker around the house.
He’s incredibly meticulous when it comes to inspecting and touching stuff, which is where I see how he differs from other babies. Instead of grabbing at things or shaking them, he’ll inspect them very carefully first then gingerly touch it with a finger. He’s obsessed with wheels, and will flip all toy vehicles over to inspect the wheels – but I think many baby boys do this too?

"Helloooooo! Wanna buy my Calvin & Hobbes comic books?"

(young) Aunty Della has figured out how to keep Hunter contained ;)

Talking/listening - very vocal and likes to ‘sing’ when we sing, or when he hears music :P Very fun to see! Yabbers a whole lot, especially in the morning. He also frantically does the “milk” hand-sign in the morning since he sleeps 12-hours straight with no feed. We probably should teach him other baby sign-language but haven’t gotten round to doing it yet :P
He understands simple instructions and sentences, such as:

“Where’s teddy?”, “Where’s Mummy/Daddy?”, ”Where are your shoes?”, “Where’s your nose?”, etc - looks around for specific object or person
“Give me the ____” – will get the object and pass it to us. And then take the object when we give it back to him.
“Dog” – his favourite animal and he looks around, perks up and grins if he spots one
“Lift one leg up” - we do this every night during bath time, so he’ll lift a leg for me to clean his bits ;)
“1, 2, 3″ – we always do something that he thinks is funny after “3″, so by “2″, he starts squealing in happiness :P

Hunter has also lengthened out so much more in the past few weeks. He no longer has multiple fat rolls on his legs, and his thighs are leaner and not as fatty. His whole torso has also elongated. It’s fantastic! I personally think he looks so much better now that he’s starting to get leaner, since he looks so much healthier and fitter IMHO.

We’re gearing up to celebrate is 1st birthday next month. EPIC! It’s going to be a pool party, but catered for children – because so often, I see kid birthday parties seem to be far more catered for adult stomachs and adult fun, and I want a really kid-centered birthday party for Hunter.