Austin – Months 12 – 15

Austin – Months 12 – 15

A lot has changed in our household since my last update when Austin turned one. He’s now 15 months old and I’ve gone back to work after my maternity leave and he has started at nursery.

He seems to have adjusted to nursery much better than I thought he would. He’s a very inquisitive child, he loves to play and he loves to explore everything and anything. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a toy or not, he’s just interested. I suspected he was ready for nursery, or the very least a change of scene when he started to show boredom with our house and in particular his playroom. He’s always played really well – sometimes with just one toy for a very long time. But recently I noticed he seemed to discard toys very quickly and he seemed to want to explore the house more.

Since he’s started nursery, he’s had a break from our house and a break from his toys, so when he does play at home, he seems to enjoy it more.

The one thing I was worried about was neither my husband nor I being around. He’s been a clingy baby since about 5 ½ months old. To the point, we didn’t leave him with anyone as he would just cry and cry. This was my biggest fear with him starting nursery, that he would just be upset. But apart from the odd, normal grizzle, he’s been fine. Phew!

Sleeping

Austin continues to be a good overnight sleeper. Going from 7pm to around 6:15am. His naps are very patchy. I think he’s still adjusting to nursery and perhaps it’s a bit noisier than home. On the days where he is at home, he’ll still nap twice. Once at about 9:30am for around an hour and again at about 2:30pm for around ½ an hour to an hour. At nursery, he just has the one lunchtime nap.

Feeding

Austin has come along leaps and bounds with his eating. He’s getting the hang of using a spoon and a fork. He’s also very comfortable using his hand and fingers to shovel it in!

He’s quite a good eater, but some days he will be fussier about vegetables. I find it’s better to hide some veg in things like a casserole or veggie burgers. But generally speaking, if he eats his preferred bit of the meal, he will eat the vegetables when he realises there is nothing else coming.

At home, I generally stick to a good breakfast, a mid-morning snack, a cooked meal and some fruit for lunch and a lighter meal and yoghurt for dinner. At nursery, he gets more of a range of different desserts and snack options, which is fine by me. It’s good that he is trying lots of different types of foods.

He still has two bottles of cow’s milk a day, one in the morning, before breakfast and one in the evening before bed. We have toyed with the idea of switching him over to cups but because he still needs antibiotics until he is two years old, we’ve chosen to keep him on bottles for his milk, as we can more easily administer it via the bottles.

Mental and Physical Development

Our little man is now a fully toddling toddler. He’s been cruising around the furniture for several months and took his first steps at about 14 months old. He’s now able to toddle across the room and bump down on his bottom at the end. He’s come on a lot since he went to nursery. I suspect he’s been studying the other toddlers.

Austin has cut another 3 teeth in the last week, bringing him to 11 in total now. Poor boy cut three molars in the same 24 hour period. He was a bit grizzly with it. I got quite a few Mummy cuddles that day, which is unusual for him these days as he’s very much a Daddy’s boy.

His hand-eye coordination is excellent. I often see him stacking toys up and balancing things on top of each other. His favourite types of toys at the moment are varieties of stacking rings. My Mum has got a long wooden train with blocks that stack on the back and he plays for ages with it. Putting them on the pegs and then tipping them off again. He’s pretty accurate with them.

His comprehension has come on a lot in the last few weeks. I’ve always had a suspicion that he understood more than he let on, but he seems to be relaying information back in a very competent way. There’s a motorbike that goes past our house every day and when he hears it, he points to himself on the chest/tummy area and then to his ear – to signal ‘I can hear the motorbike’.

He also waves goodbye to me in the morning when my husband and he leave to go to nursery in the morning. It’s the cutest thing ever. He knows I’m not coming on the journey and says goodbye as they are walking down the path.

He can also say several words in context. Things like Mumma, Dada, Herbie (his cuddly toy), Hello, Fruit, Birdie, Flower, Bucket, ‘brella (umbrella), Nannie and Banana. He regularly says ‘doggy’ when he see my brother’s dog – he’s fascinated by dogs and gets very excited when he sees one.

He’s developing an absolutely wicked sense of humour. He laughs along at jokes. He’ll also offer you something, for example, his cup or a piece of what he’s eating, wait for you to take it and then whip it away and laugh. He always laughs more often than not when he falls over. I’ve tried to encourage him to laugh off minor falls and bumps and he seems to do the same. Luckily there haven’t been too many of the ones that require a bit more TLC.

All-in-all he seems much more contented than he was a few months back. I think he’s enjoying a bit more freedom and his new skills of movement.

I’ll be back with another update when Austin turns a year and a half old. Let’s see what he’s been up to then!

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