I will only have a baby for three more weeks, I can’t believe it!! Ten days ago our little Maia Olivia turned 11-months and although physically she is only 80 grams bigger than last month – now weighing 6.98kg – she’s taken huge leaps in her development into a toddler girl. I am so proud of her! Before becoming a parent you just can’t comprehend the amount of joy and pride you feel when your little one masters a new skill, no matter how seemingly small it may be! So while I’m excited to share again some “Maia news” I appreciate you may not well up reading about them (the way I do just writing about them haha!). 😊
One fun new development is that Maia is really copying everything we do! Of course copying is how children learn but it’s so fascinating to watch her.
Maia’s new “skills”:
- Sticks her tongue out (which she thinks is absolutely hilarious) when you do
- Taps the table when you do
- Eats with a spoon and won’t even let us spoon-feed her!
- Takes laundry off the rail and puts it back on
- Tries to put a cap on a baby food pouch or a bottle
- Tries to put her sock back on after pulling it off
- Climbs up, but not down, the stairs (!!)
- Pulls things (food, clothes, shoes, anything) out of the cupboards
- Copies words – Maia repeats sounds and some actual words very well!! But I don’t think she connects them to their meaning yet, but the sounds are correct. I’m most proud of “äiti”, which is “mother” in Finnish. Admittedly she says “mmmm-ma” when reaching for me sometimes so I think there’s a chance I’ll be a “mummy” instead of “äiti”.
Our girl is physically very active and rarely sits still for long. She likes her books though, and can spend some time on her own turning the pages looking at pictures. Maia absolutely loves the peekaboo game and she has started playing it herself too, hiding behind a blanket. It’s so cute! When she sits in the pram she can do it over and over and over again and it never stops being funny (to her). She’s such a character!
Maia can stand more steadily without support but still needs a bit of support to stand up. She has learned how to walk around her activity table too but hasn’t yet attempted to take steps unsupported. Maia will climb out of there highchair/pram/etc if not in a harness. I can’t get lazy and not strap her in. I learned that the hard way – I turned around for a second and she was standing up in the highchair, giving me a heart attack!
Whereas before I could not tell any preference between right or left hand, Maia now clearly prefers her right hand for example when picking up things. Speaking of picking, she has a funny habit of picking bits off any finger food she is eating and then putting the small bits into her mouth instead of just biting bits off. Maia has also started to spit out food she doesn’t want to eat, so even if I manage to “trick” in a spoonful of something which she had avoided on her plate, it will come right out very quickly. When it comes to eating solid food the (sad) reality is that even though she is very skilful at eating different foods – shapes, textures, and sizes – she’s just fussy about what she likes. I’ve done Baby Led Weaning and have let her run the show but mostly this just means it’s very messy and unless the food is one of her favourites – spaghetti bolognese/mango yoghurt/pancakes/etc – it just ends up on the floor… But more about weaning another time.
Maia has become much more independent and brave. I’d say the separation anxiety has subsided and apart from getting shy sometimes and generally preferring mummy, she’d much better with other people now. I can leave her for example with her grandparents without a second thought, which is lovely! In the baby activity classes Maia rarely sits with me but either sits in the centre of the ring by herself (bless her little soul!) or goes to play with other kids. Maia is also more independently exploring our home. Before she wouldn’t let me out of her sight but now she might go next door by herself! She will still follow me to the bathroom, mind. We spend most of our time at the bottom floor of our three-story house where we have Maia’s playroom and a kitchen-diner. Because she hasn’t shown interest in stairs we had not rushed with getting the baby gates. A couple of days ago I left her in her playroom to go fetch something from upstairs and when I came back she gave me a shock by standing on the first step of the staircase! So not only had she followed me through the kitchen and dining room, quietly and without crying (!), but she had braved the stairs for the first time. We really need to get a gate now!
My little princess is getting a good use out of her clothes being so dinky. I’m planning to reuse her white flower girl dress from our wedding for her christening because 6-month size still fits her. She’s also been wearing her light snowsuit from the Finnish baby box which I used last winter, which has saved me from buying a new one. Maia uses size 3 nappy pants, which are quite easy to wiggle on her while she’s crawling away from me – normal nappies were impossible! I’ve given up on changing table and just change her on the changing mat on the floor. I got really worried she’d fall off the table being such a wriggly worm! Maia also climbs out of her baby bath so she’s now bathing in the big tub. I still get in with her just for fun sometimes but if I sit on the edge and watch her, she’s fine in the tub on her own too. After bath she’s usually so tired that I can barely get her into her pyjamas before she falls asleep. Bedtime is so easy nowadays – I kiss her good night and put her into her cot and she rolls onto her side and falls asleep (9/10 times). It still amazes me how well the sleep training worked!
Where did my baby disappear? And who is this big girl who calls me mmmm-ma?!!
xoxoxo,
Sini