With so many projects on the go – sewing! running! avoiding food waste! and with Toby being child #2, he’s not getting as many developmental updates as his big sister did. Here is Alyssa at much the same age.
Alyssa Joyce, 10 1/2 months
Toby Spencer, 10 1/2 months
Alyssa, focussing at 10 months old
Toby, focussing at 10 months old
Since I last wrote about him, he has become competent in going up and down our concrete steps off the deck and can also climb full flights and get up onto little towers at the playground. Remember when Alyssa was learning about stairs? She started cross crawling quite a bit earlier than Toby, and hence spent a lot longer climbing up them before she taught herself to descend backwards. Toby has figured out a side to backwards technique quite quickly, and at the same age of about 10.5 months. Interesting (for their mother, anyway)!
(I can’t believe I referenced a study in my baby update post. Or actually I can, that’s the geeky sort of stuff I do).
He is now confident in standing with just one hand to support and is slowly cruising the furniture. He took about a week to learn to sit down from standing but now has that well and truly sorted.
Just chewing the fat on the back steps
Toby continues to be a pretty great sleeper. He wakes a few times a night but it’s almost always pretty brief – a feed or a cuddle and back down. For his naps it’s just a matter of laying him down in his cot and walking out – and after our experiences of child #1 (who has just this week stopped napping in her pram), this continues to be hard to believe. It’s truly lovely. But for nights part of me is thinking – Alyssa regularly slept through the night from 9 months, after a little encouragement – Perhaps it’s time for you to do the same. However the thing is, I am actually not ready to give up our night time cuddles. I’m ready for them to Never Ever be hourly again (the case this week as we are in the midst of teething or tummy bugs or separation anxiety or something unpleasant), but I would quite like to continue with the once a night for a little longer.
If you think that’s weird, you must never have experienced quiet of the night snuggles with a person you love so much your heart trembles just thinking about it.
Toby’s latest development has been spoon feeding himself, and much like I remember with Alyssa it’s all happened pretty quickly (here was the first mention of this with her). He is a baby led weaner so refuses to take a spoon from us. We have given him his own spoon pretty much since he started solids, and just yesterday I noticed he was making a concerted effort to use it as a spoon with his pumpkin soup. Then today with both porridge and soup he was away – in a fairly coordinated fashion spooning it in. Such concentration!!
Toby’s breastfeeding journey continues to be quite different from Alyssa’s. He has just had a ‘nursing strike’ where he only fed about three times over a 48 hour period (normal in this time would probably be about 15 times). Whether it’s teeth, adjusting to me working, feeling a bit unwell – for whatever reason he just refused. However we’re back on track now, hopefully for many many months to come.
So that’s our wee boy. Cheerful, self directed, easy going and extremely appreciative of food!
Flow Thyme 