ReNe: 12 months -- walking

Just in time for his first birthday, Ryan learned to walk!


He could stumble a couple of steps for the past week or so, but last Friday (7th May), he took his first few steps. Then, he'd walk from me to Mike and back again, and he always lunges the last couple of steps in impatience.

His initial steps were wobbly and cute; we called him 'drunken baby'. He always threw himself the last few steps when he's walking towards me, expecting me to catch him or perhaps just impatient to get to me? It's just adorable, yet heartstopping too, to see his unsteadiness.

But he improved very quickly. He still stumbles, but now he's already walking from one end of the room to the other, or from room to room, usually even daring to carry a toy. Or a toy in each hand. Which makes his stumbles quite painful... (Yes, that's my cell phone in his hand in the photos above. I occasionally let him hold it, which delights him to no end.)

We were overjoyed and utterly focused on him when he started to walk. Now I wished we had a video of his first wobbly steps, but at least we have the photos.

ReNe: sick again

Ryan and me, that is.

For the longest time, since his third month, Ryan had a rash on his face (and body too, for a time). Then in January, when he was about nine months old, his rash started to improve and we were pretty happy. We thought that perhaps he would start to outgrow it.

Then he fell sick three times in the past three months. Right now, he's having a bad cold with runny nose and a hacking cough. I suppose such illnesses are normal and expected with kids, especially if they have opportunity to interact with other people, especially kids. Fortunately, compared to his rash, he would recover from his cold much more quickly.

But while he's sick, it's exhausting for me. He clings to me, is often whiny and reverts to a three-month old routine, which is to say he naps every three hours and he only wants breastmilk. That is perhaps the most worrying part; if he refuses solids for a day or two, that's fine, but often he'd only nibble a little solid food during the week while recovering as well. He doesn't have much by way of fat reserves so right now, after being sick for six days, he's looking a little skinny already. Well, I've heard of babies who are exclusively breastfed for a year or more without problems, so I shouldn't worry too much and just feed him every couple of hours.

Taking care of him is exhausting though, and I usually fall sick after. With the same bug he passed to me. Right now, I'm nursing a running nose. Arrrragh.

ReNe: pretend play

Ryan engaged in imaginary play yesterday. He probably had been doing it for a while, for example he'd stir a stick in a cup, but I wasn't sure if he was doing it just because he wanted to stir, or insert a stick into something, or because he was imagining something else. But yesterday morning, his actions were very definitive.

We (me, Ryan and Mike) were all lying in bed Sunday morning, and Ryan was nursing. When he was done, he grinned and sat up, and fingers closed in a pincer grip, pretended to feed me something carefully a few times. Then he turned around and pretended to feed Mike as well.

For a few weeks already, he has fed us food (usually food he doesn't want). For example, I was feeding him grapes a couple of days back (giving them to him to feed himself) and when he was full, he turned to Mike and gave Mike the grape instead. When I stopped handing him the grapes, knowing he was full, he opened his mouth instead. So I popped a grape in. And he promptly took that grape out and fed Mike again.