13 months

The last month has gone so quickly, with Riku's Neenie visiting we were busy almost every day! We are moving away from the baby stage and into toddler-hood, even though we don't technically have a toddler yet because although he cruises around furniture happily, Mr. Riku still prefers to crawl across open spaces. He is getting left behind a bit as one of his friends who is 6 weeks younger started walking two weeks ago- Riku has met all his other milestones (rolling over, sitting, crawling etc) slightly earlier than average so I'm sure we'll have a walker eventually, he's just taking his time with this one!

Trying a few steps

New things in the last month:

-Riku is starting to imitate the things he sees us do a lot more. I was surprised to see him holding a credit card to his ear a few weeks back and babbling away like he was talking into a phone- we don't have a home phone and I in particular don't make or receive a lot of phone calls (I'm a big text messager) but he has seen us on the phone enough to mimic it, even if no-one is on the phone at the time- I'm amazed by his memory sometimes! He is also making first attempts at trying to use a spoon, although mainly this just means he bangs his spoon around in the bowl. Sometimes when I shake my head at him he will shake his as well, and if I tell him "no" (more and more often these days it seems!) I get "nah nah nah" back- I'm sure there's a lot more of that to come!

In the big kids' shopping cart

-He is about 9.5 kg and I think around 76 cm- until he was one I was able to take him to the public health centre monthly to be weighed and measured, but in our area there isn't anywhere to have that done for toddlers that I know of, so I'm not sure of the exact figures at the moment. 

-He has 8 teeth, no new ones lately but the ones he has are pretty much all right through, next will be the molars I believe. He hates having his teeth brushed but is starting to try out proper brushing movements with his toothbrush- mostly on his back gums though!

-He is becoming more agile even without the walking- he is now a pro at getting off the couch and isn't too far from being able to get up onto it I'm thinking. This week he figured out how to get over the very high door sill onto the balcony and he can also climb out of his low chair now, which I am not thrilled about as it has been hard enough to get him to eat when he wasn't able to climb out of it!

Wheels and space to use them!

Party time!

-There are quite a few words he seems to understand now although he isn't speaking yet other than to mimic. Things I am sure he understands are: Arms up (when taking his shirt off), nappy (his response to this is usually to try to escape), bye bye, more, finished, froggy (a small plastic frog he has taken a particular liking to), bath, ta, no (although like all toddlers he ignores this a lot of the time...)

It's summer!

Giving himself a round of applause

-He loves playing with his toy plastic cars and drives them all around the living room and kitchen, sometimes up the wall and on to the window sills as well.

-He really knows what he wants these days and is going through a stage of shrieking at me to get me to do something for him- turn on a battery operated toy, open his suitcase, get something down off a table, open a lid/drawer etc. I have been encouraging him to say mama/mummy, but have yet to hear it unless it's part of random babble.

There's something very worrying about that cotton bud apparently!

                                           
                     
-Poor Riku had only just got over the cough which came with his bout of roseola when he got quite a bad cold which made him a bit miserable for several days- nasty cough, sore throat and runny nose. We were given about 6 different medicines, which are not Riku's favourite thing at all- hopefully they gave him a bit of relief even if he hated taking them!

-Now that he is over the cold we have started on the round of one-year-old vaccines- today he had his measles and rubella injection. We have to wait a month until the next vaccine which will probably be for chickenpox. He doesn't like injections of course, but is pretty brave, usually only crying for a few seconds.

-Yesterday he had a trial morning at a local daycare- I had to wake him up a bit early from a nap to hand him over and he was less than impressed at first but apparently was quite happy on their trip to the park. In June I will be working for 3.5 days so his grandmother will be coming up for the first 1.5 days and he will go to daycare for the second two days. He enjoys playing with other kids and I would also like him to be in an all-Japanese environment occasionally to get a bit more exposure to everyday Japanese.

He is reaching all kinds of milestones and growing up so quickly, and I love being his mum :)