Dexter's 13 Month Update

Another wonderful month has passed us by with our beautiful, clever and funny little boy who turns 13 months old today. What is new in the life of little Dexter James?

Dex now has seven teeth and finally looks normal when he smiles! Like most babies, he has a cute little gap between his two top front teeth and looks absolutely gorgeous when he smiles. He has been fabulous when the teeth have come through and barely made a fuss at all. I’ve noticed that he quickly learnt how to use his new gnashers and he is becoming really adept at ripping shreds of chicken apart to make more manageable chunks.

Talking of food, this month saw our first choking incident. You will know what huge advocates of baby-led weaning we are, and we have been using this method since he was six months old. We have had lots of gagging, but Dex has never actually choked on something…until last week. We were all eating dinner together and he was trying to make us laugh by pulling silly faces when he inhaled something. He bgan spluttering and coughing and I jumped up to get prepared to deliver some back blows. After a few more seconds of intense coughing, a piece of pasta came flying out of his throat and onto his tray. Phew. It was a scary few seconds (probably no more than ten-fifteen seconds) but certainly a learning curve for us all.

His favourite foods are blueberries, bananas, spinach, pasta, chicken, satsumas, pineapple, breadsticks, tomatoes and Little Dish curries. To be fair to him, he eats everything and everything, but his face seriously lights up when he sees any of those foods. He hasn’t been drinking much milk, but I offer it in the mornings, before bed and sips in the night if he wakes up. He drinks out of a Munchkin 360 or a Tommee Tippee basic sippy cup which I leave full of water and he goes to whenever he wants it. During the heat wave, he has been drinking lots and lots of water and he very rarely spits it out like he used to.

He is mainly wearing 12-18 month clothes, although some of the things look ridiculously big on him, despite him being on the 98th percentile for length. We have a few 9-12 month bits left, but sometimes it can be a bit of a squeeze to get him in them. He detests having his nappy changed or getting dressed and insists on sticking his hand in his poo when I try to change him which can be infuriating! He loves learning about different parts of his body and is always having a good feel of his toes, head and stomach.

I mentioned in last month’s post that Dex hadn’t been sleeping too great since my return to work. It certainly improved for a while with the help of a black out blind, however with the hot weather, things have got quite bad again the past week or so. He usually goes down to bed between 7pm and 8pm depending on whether I am working or not, and gets up between 6am and 7am. He has been waking multiple times during the night wanting comfort, cuddles, milk, food or a change of clothes (it cools down considerably and a vest is not always enough even though him wearing anymore than a vest at 8pm being unbearable.)

We don’t have a walker yet despite him standing independently many times and also taking a few steps. He will cruise for hours around the furniture but as soon as you try to let go of him, he lowers himself by doing a perfect squat. He will have super strong glutes that’s for sure! I am not going to press the issue and let him do it in his own time. He is so flipping tall that I worry he will be walking out of the front door once he is able to walk because he can reach the door handle with ease!

His favourite toys this month have been any door stop which he can find and collect (he knows how to turn them around until they unscrew and then he carries them around the flat), Duplo, Sleepytot, my mobile phone and his toy fire engine. He is also extremely interested in the vacuum cleaner which has been amazing after twelve months of him screaming hysterically everytime I have turned it on. He now follows it and watches with amazement as it sucks everything up. he also loves watching the washing machine going around and pressing the button so it turns on and off, and on and off, and on and off….

You can read Dex’s previous updates here.