The Journey of Parenthood…

12 Months Old!

WOW Kye’s 1!!! This is the last post I’ll have from What to Expect the First Year. Yes, I’ve purchased What to Expect the Toddler Years and plan to continue on with the monthly updates! I enjoy this time to reflect over the past month and to be able to see what the “norm” is for Kye’s age with developmental stuff.

This is another month of some “bonus” pictures I had that just don’t seem to fit anywhere else but I still want to use them somewhere!!!

This month Kye can do all the things a one year old “should” be able to do including:

  • walk holding on to furniture, cruise
  • use a few gestures to get needs met. 

Kye can do all of the things a 12 month old “will probably be able to” do. I like that this month the book included when the norms are for each thing. This way if you’re reading this and thinking “omg my kid is a year old and can’t do that!” you will know when to expect it to occur 🙂 Here’s all the things Kye can currently do:

  •  play patty-cake, clap hands, or wave bye-bye (Kye can wave bye-bye, not clapping yet) – most will be able to do by 13 months old
  • drink from a cup independently
  • pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefinger – many can’t master this until 15 months old
  • stand alone momentarily – many don’t do this until 13 months
  • say “dada” or “mama” discriminately – most will say at least one of these by 14 months
  • say one word other than “mama” or “dada” – many won’t say first word until 14 months or later

Kye can do most of the things a 12 month old “may possibly be able to do” including:

  • “play ball,” roll ball back to you – many don’t do this until 16 months
  • stand alone well – many don’t reach this point until 14 months
  • use immature jargoning, gibberish that sounds like a foreign language – 50% of babies don’t start this until after their 1st birthday and many not until they are 15 months old

The only thing Kye hasn’t mastered that a 12 month old “may possibly be able to do” is walk well. It says that three out of four babies don’t walk well until they are 13 1/2 months old! Good news to me b/c it seems like everyone I talk to says they were walking or their children were walking before 12 months!

Kye can do all of the things that a 12 month old “may even be able to do” including:

  • say three words or more other than “mama” or “dada” (duck, hey, bye-bye, dog, good just to name a few that we can clearly understand) – a good half of all babies won’t reach this stage until 13 months and many not until 16 months
  • respond to a one-step command without gestures, such as “give that to me” without hands out – most children won’t reach this until after their first birthday and many not until 16 months

This month the chapter covered some key questions to ask during his 1 year well visit and I’m thankful for those (like should he go to the dentist? good one!). It also has a big section on weaning from the breast. Although I’ve already done that, I do appreciate that they put it in at the 12 month old chapter as it encourages people to nurse for the recommend full first year. It also discussed how to handle the 1st birthday party. I didn’t follow any of the tips haha! It said not to have too many people (40 is probably too many by their standards), to go simple on the decor (oops!), don’t let the baby eat chocolate cake (double oops)! But hey I did time it right, didn’t expect him to perform in any way and I did record every second of it so we’d remember it! So I didn’t screw up too badly!!!

Other things this chapter covered included: separation anxiety (the little touch he had seems to be gone), not walking yet (as long as he does it before 18 months there are no worries),bottle attachment (not an issue), shyness (for sure not an issue), appetite issues (so far he’s still eating normally and isn’t picky), “forgetting” skills (he’s always practiced something like crazy then just randomly stopped doing it once he’s mastered it so I already knew that it’s normal), gender differences (I have already noticed that it’s FOR SURE more of a nature than nurture thing!), and pillow/blanket use (good to know that both are better left alone until he’s in a big boy bed).

It also talked a lot about tv watching. A lady said that she lets her kid watch some tv and she’s concerned that it’s bad for her and the book says that the average child watches 25 hours of tv a week which is 15,000 hours by the time they start kindergarten! Holy crap!!! That’s crazy!! It says that research says that 18,000 murders will be witness during that time on tv as well as countless rapes, bombings, beatings, and more casual sex than imaginable. Excessive tv watching is linked to obesity, poor school performance, and an increased risk of developing attention problems later on. Perhaps worst of all, it can create a picture of the world that is distorted and inaccurate and confuse a child’s developing value system. It also can promote a communication gap within families since it’s often watched over spending quality time together. Of course the book recommends waiting until babies are at least 2 until introducing television and even then to be very strict on the amounts they are allowed to watch. I can’t WAIT to share this info with my father-in-law as he is one of those people that always has the tv going in the background!!! It’s a battle (kinda, I mean he listens to me but I have to ALWAYS remind him) to get him to turn off the tv when Kye is around so Kye can get special play time with his Big Papa instead of zoned out tv time together!!!

I plan to do another post on the section about stimulating your one year old as I think that’s worth digging into a little deeper! Thanks What to Expect the First Year you’ve been good to me!!! 🙂

had to include this one for a laugh!!!

Emily Parker
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