The Journey of Parenthood…

Tess is 12 Months Old!

My itty bitty baby is ONE!!! Tess turned 12 months old on July 31st and this is the last of the monthly sticker pictures as well as the last of the What to Expect the First Year
 posts! Next month starts the Toddler Years versions 🙂 Big changes!

At 12 months old Tess can do everything a baby her age should be able to do including:

  • walk holding onto furniture (cruise) 
  • use a few gestures to get needs met

She can also do everything a baby her age will probably be able to do including:

  • play patty-cake (clap) or wave bye-bye (most kids should be doing this by 13 months)
  • drink from a cup independently
  • pick up a tiny object neatly with thumb and forefinger (pincher grasp – many babies don’t develop this until nearly 15 months)
  • stand alone momentarily (and by momentarily I mean she can do it for 10 seconds or less, many don’t accomplish this until 13 months)
  • saying “dada” or “mama” discriminately (she for sure knows those words mean us! Most babies will be able to do at least one of these words by 14 months)
  • says other words than “dada” or “mama” (“gog” for dog!)

Tess can do a couple of the things a baby her age may possibly be able to do including:

  • “play ball” (roll a ball back to you) she also likes to throw them haha (many don’t accomplish this until 16 months)
  • use immature margining (gibberish baby talk – most don’t do this until after their first birthday and many don’t until they are around 15 months)

She cannot yet:

  • stand alone well (many don’t reach this point until 14 months old)
  • walk well (three out of four babies don’t walk well until 13 1/2 months, and many not until considerably later. Good crawlers may be slower to walk; when other development is normal, late walking is rarely a cause for concern)

Tess can do one that a baby her age may even be able to do and that is that she can respond to a one-stop command without gestures such as “give that to me” without a hand out. (Most children will not reach this stage until after their first birthday, many not until after 16 months)

She cannot, however, do the other thing from the may even be able to do category and that is say three or more words other than “mama” or “dada” (a good half of babies won’t read this stage until 13 months and may not until 16 months)

I like reading over this list and seeing that it’s SO normal to not hit a lot of the milestones yet! While I don’t overly worry about Tess, it’s still reassuring to know that there is nothing to worry about when it comes to her slower pace in some areas 🙂 She’s perfect, duh 😉 

You can compare to Britt’s 12 month post here and Kye’s here!


A comparison of all her monthly pics!

Emily Parker
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