Thomas' Page 9-12 Months
At 9 months, Thomas can easily get around by a sort of stomach-crawl, and get into a sitting position; he can also pull himself up to stand with some effort, and if held under his arms or by his hands, loves to walk or run down the hall. His upper teeth have still not quite come through, although the worst of the discomfort seems to have passed. And although he still regularly wakes up in the night for a bit of comforting, he hasn't had a night feed in over three weeks.
He has enjoyed some outings over the past week, including a picnic with friends in Frederiksberg Have, a trip to the aquarium (he likes the big fish best), and a drop-in at the Wednesday open house at the local community centre. We used to come here to have him weighed and measured, but they also have a general play area, and this week it was jam-packed with kids - but Thomas didn't seem bothered by the noise at all, had a good play with his friend Albert from the mothergroup, and especially enjoyed crawling back and forth through a black-and-white striped tunnel. It seems like he'll fit in pretty well when he starts day care, in just under a month!
9½ months: We took advantage of beautiful spring weather to take Thomas on his first visit to the beach! He loved paddling (wading) in the chilly waters of the Oeresund, and generally had a wonderful time. He's now sleeping more or less from 8pm to 6am, though usually waking once or twice in the night due to some kind of discomfort (teething, cold, sore throat, etc.), and on average has two naps a day in his pram, totalling about 3 hours. He really enjoys all his books, particularly the ones that make noise or that have thick cardboard pages which he can turn himself. One of his upper teeth is now through, with the second one close behind, and there seem to be some more bottom ones on the way.
At almost 10 months, Thomas is pulling himself up to stand at every opportunity, and beginning to figure out how to sit back down again as well. He's becoming more and more vocal, and knows what he wants - and doesn't want - and is not shy about expressing his opinion. He weighs just over 10 kilos (having gained back the weight he lost recently while teething / learning to eat / overcoming colds etc.) He has enjoyed several exciting outings over the past few weeks, including a beautiful day at the zoo with the English mothergroup, a trip to the north coast, and even just hanging out on a nearby lawn. At home, he doesn't actually mind being in his round playpen for short spells, especially now that it provides some useful handles for standing up; the other kids from the mothergroup seem to like it too. But nothing is quite as much fun as getting into trouble, be it by pulling on plants, computer wires, or tipping over the basket of old newspapers / flyers for deeper inspection.
Thomas found the zoo very restful for the first couple of hours, but managed to wake up in time to see lots of interesting animals; his favourite was probably the Nile Crocodile.
Friday May 4th was a bank holiday, and we took advantage of the beautiful weather to visit some friends at their summerhouse in Rågeleje (pronounced row-lie) on the north coast of Zealand (the same island on which Copenhagen is located.) Thomas got to meet some ducks close-up, play with a Canadian wind chime, and generally enjoy a relaxing day out in the countryside.
At 10½ months, Thomas is now crawling "properly", easily pulling himself up to stand and sit back down, and pushing furniture around as walking aids. He has enjoyed pulling everything out of containers (drawers, boxes, etc.) for some time, but is now also putting things back in - and he is starting to enjoy the pleasures of giving (toys, his pacifier, half-chewed food - he's very generous!)
He loves to explore the balcony, especially the dirt around the plants; he also enjoys a good soap bubble session. But his favourite is actually going in and out the balcony door, which had previously been forbidden territory.
He has also started trying to get a hold of the spoon to feed himself - with mixed results... and a fifth tooth has started to poke through in the lower jaw.
For a long time now he has enjoyed looking at books, but he is now especially enjoying his "Pat the Bunny" book with the textures and activities, which was a gift from some of the extended Canadian family.
Over the past week Thomas has spent a couple of hours a day at the nursery, and seems to be enjoying it. We're taking our time with getting him into it, especially since he's waking up very early these days and is pretty tired when he gets there. Tomorrow he'll try to go down for his nap there for the first time.
May 23rd, besides being his mum's birthday, was apparently International Plant Day, so each child was asked to bring a flower to plant; over the summer they will continue to water and watch them grow.
We're not allowed to take photos at the day care, but below is a picture of Thomas' "house"; a collage of photos of his family, which is pasted on the wall at kid height together with all the other houses. The children can then find and recognise their parents and other relatives, which gives them a lot of pleasure especially if they're feeling a bit homesick.
May 30: last update before Cindy starts work again. Thomas is starting to settle in at the daycare, although he has yet to fall into their sleeping patterns. Luckily they're very flexible, especially with the youngest children, and have no problem putting him down to sleep whenever he seems tired. His sleeping patterns are a bit awry at the moment, most likely due to teething again. He's getting very good at walking around pushing furniture, cardboard boxes or whatever else is convenient.
He loves to spend time getting his hands in the balcony garden; his hands often smell of rosemary when we bring him back indoors! The purple flowers are from the same batch as the one he brought in to the day care. He sometimes holds his own water bottle, and has somehow figured out how to crawl into the storage basket of his pram, although getting out is a bit more difficult.
Updates to this page may not be as regular going forward, now that Cindy is starting work again - but we'll try not to let too much time go between them.
Around 11 months: The weather has been very warm lately, so Thomas is really enjoying the opportunity to cool down on the balcony after a hard day's playing at the day care. He's becoming an expert at negotiating the threshold, but can still get into some pretty wiggly situations with the pram basket.
We have also enjoyed another picnic with friends in Frederiksberg Have, and another lovely day at the beach; Thomas couldn't get enough of being in the water, spashing around and trying to drink it.
Almost walking: he has discovered that a moving box makes a nice zimmerframe, so we visited little Jonathan from the mothergroup to try out his walker - very nice, but in the end we settled on a more traditional "wagon" model, which he can later use to carry his toys around.
There are lots of interesting things around to investigate: tasty dirt in the plant pots on the balcony, a mouse with a shiny red light on the bottom, and a cupboard full of noisy pots and pans - best explored around 6am!
A quick haircut was in order to get a bit of relief from the heat and humidity. But the new hat with neck flap also works very well on sunny outings.
Almost 1 year! Thomas has been going to day care for nearly 2 months, and no longer cries when he is dropped off; he seems to enjoy his days there very much, not least the commute in his cool trailer. He still wakes up very early though, and sometimes the ride lulls him to sleep on the way.
He's on the move wherever he is, either pushing his walker or a convenient chair or table, or supporting himself with whatever furniture comes to hand; a current favourite is the sliding door to his room, which he loves to open and close and somehow rarely pinches his fingers. He even sometimes pushes his playpen around, although we tend not to make that too convenient.
The transition to "real" food is still a major project - he still prefers soft food and of course anything sweet. This is proving to be a challenge since the day care has a sugar-free policy! But we're getting there, with plenty of mess along the way. He loves his new cup, with pictures of the Whoozit on it and easy to hold handles.
Happy Birthday Thomas! We held a small combined celebration with Savalan and Johnny from the English mothergroup, as the three boys were born only a few weeks apart.
And then a week later, Thomas got his own party with some other friends including the Danish mothergroup.
Updated 8.7.07