Where we are at

by Anna

1 year review

It was time for the one year review and I am happy to say that the Monkey passed with flying colours. Here are the measurments:

Head circumference 49cm = 96th centile (wow big head!)
Height 79cm (although he did wriggle a lot, so this might not be 100% accurate) = 89th centile
Weight 10.46kg = 75th centile

Amongst other things – development and milestones

Since we are slowly expanding the blog and won't be writing just about food any more, but also parenting topics, developmental milestones and the likes, I thought I share with you a little bit more where we are at...

Milestones are a hot topic with new parents, and there can be a lot of boasting how amazing one's child is. Some are already walking at nine months (admittedly I have seen one such child), others are (according to their parents) already using enough words to explain quantum physics. 

We all know that every child learns in its own pace. And the child that is walking early may not be too bothered about other things, and vice versa. Our monkey is definitely not a child prodigy, nor particularly fast with any of the developmental milestones. Does it bother us? No. We think he is doing just fine.

At 12 months and 2 weeks our almost-toddler's development

What he is doing (amongst others)

• stacking Ikea wooden stacking rings (started this two weeks ago)

• putting lids on things, including lipstick caps (started this at roughly 11.5 months?)

• cruising like no man's business (been doing this for a fair while, without bothering to progress to walking)

• crawls like attempting to break a world record for speediness (he dragged himself for a long long time before starting to properly crawl at 10.5 months or thereabouts)

• feeding himself more or less successfully (by which I mean, only half goes on the floor)

What he doesn't yet do (yet)

• say individual words (in fact he has regressed from mama to daaaaaaaa for everything - but since he has three languages in his environment this is probably not surprising)

• walk (although he has just three days ago attempted his first step, purely by accident, and he does enjoy pushing the high chair through our living room)

• stand freely by himself

• quite understand the very cool Bobby Car he got from his grandparents for his birthday

He loves:

• music and jumping up and down in our arms "dancing"

• "stroking" the cat

• splashing with water no matter how big or small the container

• tactility games and songs like: Wind the bobbin up, Row Row Row the boat

• playing peek a boo – it is still the most entertaining game at this point

• pointing my finger to illustrations in books for me to name them


So you see... Every child is so different. I think what is most important is to enjoy the journey. This first year has already fled by.  I am happy we are not wishing it away by wanting our Monkey to do things he isn't ready for.

A long two weeks

Being ill isn't fun at the best of times. Let alone when you're only eleven months old and can't really say what's wrong. A tough tummy bug meant flat out food refusal. Milk was all that may or may not be accepted.

But after various doctors visits, and different meds, there seems to be an improvement.

The Monkey is still taking probiotic drops (will add a section in links and resources with names and photos soon) and we have also ordered some further probiotics for longterm usage. Hopefully his gut flora can soon be flourishing again and keep him a healthy little thing.

At the height of his tummy bug the only thing he did like eating were these: Mogli Pizza Sticks. Strictly speaking they are probably only from 12+ months, but we were happy for him to munch on anything at all.

organic pizza sticks

Weightloss

The last weighing at the doctors showed that he had lost weight. Only 270grams, but given that the last weighing had been a month prior (and therefor he would have weighed a fair amount more already) it probably added up to a good half kilo. Not good. He is down to the 63rd percentile.

Fattening the baby

Whenever we can we mix some avocado under or add extra baby rice / millet etc under his yoghurt. At the moment we go by: 'anything goes' and he gets what he wants. Luckily we still count some greens to what he does eat.

Mixed berries and yoghurt

On the road to recovery

With the Monkey getting better he is also starting to get his appetite back. What a happy sight! After lots of listless lying around on the floor it is great seeing our veggie baby back to goofing around with his plate.

We made scrambled tofu. Although I had a recipe I just went freestyle with the amounts. I knew he wouldn't eat a whole portion so just made it a rough size: some silken tofu (squeeze the water out as much as you can). Some green asparagus tips (ours were from frozen), a pinch of turmeric (meant to be anti inflammatory), a teeeeny bit of salt, olive oil, and (although this makes an otherwise vegan recipe vegetarian) a dollop of cream cheese. You can add whatever else feels nice: onion, perhaps a little bit of leek...

What a relief when he ate. And eat he did. He messed, he played, it went into his mouth, it got chewed and swallowed.

the veggie baby is BACK!

Let's hope we are now on the road to recovery and can get back to cooking.

We are extending the blog

Having a sick child made us think about lots of things, from food to co-sleeping to general child rearing questions. Plus a few of my friends are currently pregnant with their first child and don't quite know how to start easing into the topic of having a family. They asked for advice on what worked for us and what didn't. And although we are very aware that child rearing is a hugely personal journey,and unsolicited advice is the most annoying thing that comes with having children, if anything we have learned can be helpful then we are happy to share.

So, we may start using this blog to share more of our experiences, more of which products we found useful (from probiotics to good nappy creams), which books we have read (nutrition but also about babies and general tips) and so on.