As I’ve mentioned (just once or twice) before, Vindoo was born underweight.  And it wasn’t until he was about 6 months old, that the health visitors at the baby clinic said he was at a ‘normal’ weight.  I was a bit worried that maybe he wouldn’t ‘pick things up’ as quickly as he should…  After all, my mum is forever telling us how my brother was up and walking at 7 months (THANK GOD Vinay wasn’t).  And don’t you know, my sister was potty-trained by the time she was 4 weeks old?  FFS.

My mum rings every day and asks, ‘What new things is my baby (yes, her baby) doing today?’  He does lots of new things but… Not *every day*!  Then she’ll ask, ‘Does he know where his feet are?’  Um… No.  ‘If you give him a tissue or a napkin and tell him to wipe his mouth, can he?’  Er… No – he prefers to eat them.  ‘Can he say ‘Mama’?’  YES!  Yes!  Yes, he says mama.  I felt disappointed telling her that he says ‘mamamamamama’ – but not referring to me.

Anyway, so now Vinay is 10 months old, I find myself thinking about my friend’s daughter at 10 months (last summer) and all the things she could do.  She was walking.  She would say ‘tatu’ for ‘thank you’.  If you asked her where her nose, eyes, mouth, feet, etc were, she would point to them and repeat some of the words.  She’s 22 months now and her mum does phonics with her on a daily basis… *eye roll*  Her mum is a teacher – she *is* one of those mums (and she knows I love her)!  And I worried some more – am I not doing enough with him?  Should I be teaching him more things?  He is nearly a year old…  Maybe he should know more?  I know I’m not meant to compare him to other babies, because they are all different.  As a teacher I’ve lectured enough parents about comparing siblings!

Then I started thinking about all the things he *can* do.

(Before you continue reading, please know that I tried VERY hard to get photos to illustrate all my points – but when he sees the camera, he makes it his mission to get it and everything else is forgotten.)

He can crawl and stand and is using a walker now.  Yes, I know – lots of 10 month old babies can (and do).  But this is *my* list!

He ‘calls’ Rolo – eeehheeehhh

(It’s an old picture.  And the Bumbo is purple because we borrowed it!)

The two windows in his room face our garden and the neighbours’ garden – and he likes to look at the birds.  And if you ask him, ‘Where are the birds?’  He looks out of the window for them.  And if there aren’t any, he calls them – the same way he calls Rolo.

If he’s being carried, he points to where he wants to go.  Points and whines.  A lot.  Oh yes – there’s a lot of whining.

His favourite book is ‘Guess with Jess’.  And if you ask him, ‘Where’s Jess?’ he goes crawling off to the book basket and takes each book out one by one until he finds the correct one.

He picks up any mobiles or remote controls and puts them to his ear and says ‘Hey’ (the sound, not the word) as though he’s on the phone (before putting it in his mouth).

(Please excuse the dribble all over his chin and trackies!)

If you ask him to show you the light, he looks up and points at the light.

You can ask him, ‘Vinay, where’s the monkey?  Go find the little monkey.’  And he’ll find the little toy monkey.  

He has started ‘dancing’ to music – he flaps his hands and does a little bounce.

And he has started waving goodbye!

Actually, I think he can do rather a lot!  He never ceases to amaze me 🙂  Maybe I am a little silly to worry…?