This month has been dedicated to movement. I am getting a little worried about Tobias’ communication skills, most milestone lists and other friends’ babies are showing some signs (e.g. waving, clapping, kissing, saying mama or dada) but Tobias isn’t showing any signs, currently. Tobias is cruising around on furniture, trying to run before he can even walk. He ‘properly’ crawls now, until he wants to get somewhere fast and then reverts back to the army crawl.

Now that Tobias has been earth side the same amount of time that he was in my belly (sleeping with me for the last eighteen months) I think the best part about this month is that he is finally in his own bed, in his own room and sleeping from 7pm to 7am. Gavin and I are finally sleeping better and deeper (and as I’m sure you can imagine, with sleep you can battle anything)!

Tobias is slowing down with reaching milestones but has concurred some this month. He sounds like he is combining syllables into word-like sounds but no specific words yet. He loves nothing more than banging, dropping and throwing objects around so I’ve purchased him some percussion instruments. He has also learnt how to open doors, so I have cleared one drawer in the kitchen and put lots of kitchen utensils in it for him to find – obviously not the knives though! I’ve been watching him carefully and have noticed his pincer grip is developing really well, especially from only having finger foods now, he’s able to pick up peas and sweetcorn easily and swallow them, which I’m very proud of. He definitely knows his own name now and knows when he’s being cheeky as he gets a big grin on his face. He also understands the word “no” – which is said all the time now to him!

Week thirty five – it’s finally time to start moving him into the next stage car seat so we went car seat shopping this week to see what our options are. Gavin and I can’t decide, we agree we want a rear and a forward facing seat that is on a swivel for easy access into the car but we can’t agree on which one to go for. We visited the White Rose Centre in Leeds to catch up with a friend and it l managed to do end a lot of money on make up (in particular concealer to hide the black bags under my eyes)! Other than that we’ve started working on the house, finishing jobs that have needed to be done for a while and starting to redecorate. Currently we are working in the kitchen, where Gavin is boxing in the electrics and I am finishing the tiling off.

Week thirty six – this week I finally left Tobias for a full day to go on my friends hen do. I left at 11am and didn’t come home until 9pm, I missed him so much (and I missed Gavin of course) but it was nice to feel like myself again and not just a mummy. As a family we also went to a BBQ where Gavin was able to meet all my mummy friends and their babies (which I always talk about) I think it was nice for him yo be able to put faces to their names.

Week thirty seven – this week my aunt from Australia came to visit, she hadn’t met Tobias yet so that was nice to see and it’s always lovely to catch up and see what’s new with her (Australians are very sporty people and certainly put me to shame)! We had a play date at one of my friends houses which was nice to catch up and I found out that she also wasn’t returning to work either so feel better that I will have someone around now as all my mummy friends are starting to go back to work and I was worried that I might be all on my own – all the time! Finally I went to visit a friend who had gone camping near Pickering, it was an hour and a half to get there and Tobias did very well, I did plan the car journeys around his nap times which worked well.

Week thirty eight – we went on lots of day trips this week to the park, to an indoor soft play (which I forgot to take socks too) and we also took a trip to the piglets farm in York. It was such a great day and I have even booked to go back in December to experience the sleigh rides! We went around the petting farm, walked the fairy trail, and we watched a pig race. Tobias loved playing on the toy blue tractors and even went on a real tractor ride to the barn which had an inside play area, the only thing we didn’t do was the maize maze.

Tobias’ favourite games are peek a boo and pat a cake. He’s becoming overly ticklish and listening to his giggles melts my heart. Looking back at the newborn sized clothing makes me realise how far we have come and I can’t wait to see him doing more copy cat gestures and walking in the coming months.

Much love
Rebecca