11 months

Riku turned 11 months old on the 11th! Nearly a year already, it's gone so fast! We met a friend's 2-month old a couple of weeks ago and Riku looked huge- they will actually be in the same school year in the future, but right now there is a big difference.

So many new things in the last month it is hard to remember them all! Here are some of them:

He has learned to click his tongue which he is very proud of and we often have family tongue-clicking sessions ;) He also clicks his tongue when he sees the picture of a clock in his book "First Words"- I didn't set out to teach him this, and I don't think he has actually really heard clocks tick, but for now at least he associates the tongue clicking sound with the clock in his book.

No real words yet although he is getting better and better at imitating other sounds we make as well as the clicking- he will often make a growling sound (i.e. like a lion) if we do, he sometimes says "da, da" when I talk to him about his ducky when he gets in the bath, will repeat "mama" after me and tries "papa" although it usually sounds more like "baba" or more often just "ba".

He is gradually getting more confident with his unsupported standing and I think he might be walking in the next few weeks- maybe not though, hard to say! Definitely getting closer though. Particularly when he sees other babies about his age standing or walking he will make more of an effort. When we were at the park on Thursday and R, who is 6 weeks his junior, was showing off her standing skills, he did several 10 second standing bursts, just to show that he could do it too if he wanted!

His eating is also improving, and will hopefully continue since his weight is a bit on the low side for his height, although not yet worryingly so. At his 10-month check, which we did just before he turned 11 months, he weighed 8,700g and was 74.5 cm tall, which I think puts him in about the 70th percentile for height and about 20th for weight. He has learned to eat bananas without me having to cut them up for him although I still have to hold them- he didn't seem to like banana at all when we first tried them so I am pleased he has changed his mind!

He loves to take things out of baskets, boxes and drawers and also sometimes puts them back in, but mostly I find myself spending a lot of the day picking things up and putting them away- over and over again. We have put locks on some of the drawers and cupboards and will add more but I don't want to baby-proof every single drawer and cupboard in the house, so will probably have to resign myself to more of this for a while!

He has also started to pass me things- very cute and sometimes helpful when I am doing laundry for example, but just as often he tosses the item over his shoulder instead, so it's not really a time saver yet- hopefully soon though!

We have given him a few of his birthday presents early- we got him a little car which is mainly for inside use- at the moment he just sits on it and is happy to be pushed around for a while but then wants to get off, which he can usually do by himself. It will be fun when he learns to push it along by himself and we can take it to the park- planning to get a lot of park time in before it gets too hot!

We also got a "bilingual computer" which is a baby toy that looks like a small, colourful laptop- it sings short songs in English and Japanese and says numbers, letters, colours and shapes, mostly in both languages, when different buttons are pushed. Something we haven't given him yet are these baby crayons:

He is still a bit prone to putting everything in his mouth (and biting off pieces) for crayons yet I think, but we probably aren't too far off.