All About Darius at 1 year old

Physically, Darius is 78cm tall & weighs 10kg.

Motor Skills

He can walk steadily on his own now and able to turn while walking to any desired location. He still walks with two hands in the air balancing himself though.

He will be afraid however if he can’t see a support for him to hold onto after walking for a while (like a long road). This is because he is not good at just standing immediately after walking. He needs to look for an anchor (poles, pillars, walls, our legs, our hands) to stop walking and take a rest.

He cannot handle rough or unlevelled surfaces during walking but that does not stop him. We have to be vigilant in holding him and prevent him from going towards dangerous places, like an uncovered drain or a hole in the grass.

He loves walking on grass and likes to raise one foot to step on any raised surface. No steps seemed too high for him as he makes repeated attempts to do it despite some levels being at his waist.. We have to hold him to step up and down continuously.

Just a few days ago, he has also started raising his head upwards while walking which resulted in him falling a few times.

He still cannot crawl on fours but he can move forward now on his belly (commando style). Previously, he can only move backwards. He likes to go from sitting to knees on floor where he can now move forward with his arms, left, right, before collapsing to the floor on his tummy, because he can’t move his legs.

He can bend down on his knees and plop! his bum on the ground after walking but he needs us, a sofa, console or small table to pull to standing position.

He does not know how to sit up from a lying down position and will just cry for help.

He has learnt how to turn the dial for volume on the Hi-Fi after watching me. Sometimes, he ends up blasting his ears when he plays with it. He just discovered today that the dial for the DVD player works the same too. (I had to quickly turn down the volume)

He can now push buttons with his thumb and slot a ball into the round hole of the treehouse toy. He can drop a ball towards us when we play the passing ball game with him.

Likes/Dislikes

Lately, Darius enjoys the wind and would raise his head up whenever a gust of wind blows by, smiling and laughing. He finds it funny when I blow at his face too.

He has also been doing this funny action of swinging both hands in front to grab at the wind.

He always laughs excitedly and swing his hands in rapid action, up and down the length of his body, just before bath. We are not sure whether he’s trying to imitate the sign language I used for bath or just telling us that he knows it’s bathtime=splashing hands on water time.

He likes to stand in front of the hi-fi when it’s switched on and just listen to the music coming out from it.

He likes walking towards the tv when it’s switched on and stand right in front of it. He enjoys commercials with music, the flashcard DVDs but will only watch music DVDs or educational cartoon for a while before going away.

He especially enjoys tapping on any clear surface, like windows, mirror, glass walls. He also taps his palms on surfaces he is leaning on.

He chuckles when I tapped his lips with my fingers. He laughs heartily when I do the tickling action as he walks towards me, sometimes covering his stomach to preempt my tickling.

For some unknown reason, he likes to laugh at me when I put him to nap in the afternoon. He finds it funny to see me looking down at him? I can’t help but smile too and he’ll smile or laugh even more.

He has been doing some self-reading by flipping through the books in the bookshelf to look at the pictures while standing. Otherwise, he just pulls a few books onto the floor in a mess.

When he gets bored with toys, he follows me whereever I walk and grabs my legs or shorts. He is able to know my location and would come and find me from his place in the living room if I’m in one of the rooms or kitchen. Thus, he no longer whines to be picked up whenever I disappear from his view.

I noticed he has became much happier since he started walking. He is only unhappy when he’s confined to the stroller without opportunity to walk and restraint from walking to where he desired. Then, he will make loud noises continuously or grow red in the face shouting, “Eeeeeeeeee!!!” with clenched fist. He’s showing some defiance or independence in that he will just shake our hands off or keep complaining to pull away from us to walk towards his destination.

He loves to hug and would stamp his legs in frustration if I do not carry him when he needs it.

He likes to walk towards any stranger, touch the persons’s face & body and doesn’t mind being held by anyone.

Speech

He babbles sentences or short phases of his own language. Sometimes, he just goes, “ah..ah…ah..”continuously while walking.

I did hear him say, “Ma” on one or two occasions when he comes towards me needing consolence or help but am not sure whether he is really calling me. Sometimes, he also says,  “mum…mum” but it is nowhere near meal-time. Sometimes, he goes, “Da…da” at Vincent though we taught him to say, “ba..ba”.

So right now, his speech is still largely unintelligible. We are looking forward to the day where he can say something meaningful.

Baby Care

He still eats three solid meals a day with the morning being cereal, lunch and dinner being porridges. He also takes three FMilk feeds, 5 ounces when he first wakes up, 6 ounces in mid-afternoon and 6 ounces just before bed. He is able to drink water from the MagMag straw cup now but refused to drink large amounts of milk from it.

He has been staying dry during daytime naps and nighttime sleep (wake up twice for us to bring him to pee) for a long time now. He can also last 1.5-2 hours before needing to pee. With his mobility lately, he actually walk to me complaining a little which I think is his signal for pee. He is able to poop directly into the bowl daily, seated on the toilet insert placed on our regular toilet seat.

He can sleep on his own with a pacifier at night. We have been putting him to bed and leaving him to fall asleep on his own. (Thinking of weaning him soon from the pacifier though) During daytime naps, he sleeps with me stroking his back and singing a song, without a pacifier for 1.5-2hours.

Finally! Darius is 1 year old and the above records his transition to the toddler stage.

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