12 Months old – Happy Birthday Baby!

You may be getting little glimpses of the toddler struggling to emerge from the baby.  These little glimpses will become larger from here on, so use them as a reminder to enjoy the baby days that are left.  What a year it has been!  You have probably learnt more in this year than you have for a very long time, never mind how much baby has changed from that tiny helpless being that you first held a year ago.  Partly it will seem like just yesterday that your baby was brand new.  But it may also feel as though it’s been a long and tough year.  Every time you get the hang of one stage, the next stage is already emerging.  It’s exhausting!  Yet, think how much fun you have had.

The dropping game

Baby’s cleverest new trick is probably the dropping trick.  The discovery that if you hold something up and then let go, it falls to the ground, is a source of much baby giggling.  But even better is the discovery that any adult in the vicinity is likely to pick up the dropped item.  So that baby can drop it again! And again!  It seems that babies never tire of this game, or at least their interest in playing carries on well beyond the patience levels of most sane adults!  Believe it or not, your baby is learning a lot from this game.  The fine motor skill of actually dropping something.  The idea of cause and effect.  The concept of something existing even when you can’t see it.  And let is not forget, early lessons in controlling of parents!  So enjoy the fun for as long as you can manage it.

Driven by frustration

This is a baby who has other ways of keeping parents under control. No doubt baby has a few choice gestures that clearly tell mom and dad what baby requires.  The frustration when you do not respond appropriately can be hard to live with, but remember that frustration is what drives baby to learn new skills.  The temptation to make baby’s life as easy as possible is strong for parents.  So dashing around to try and figure out what baby wants is common. As is putting baby in a walker every time a lack of mobility causes frustration. Try and restrain yourself from intervening too early. It’s a fine line because you don’t want baby sobbing with rage, as can happen.  But by the same token you are slowing baby’s learning process by making life too easy.

See also:
12 Months old – Achievements
12 Months old – Normal behaviour