I can't believe a year is over. My little tiny baby that needed to be at mummy's boobs ALL the time has become so much more independent and is now furniture cruising and babbling.

Six months have passed since I did my last progress report, so here are some things Yannick did over these last months:

• Learnt to crawl! He also very steady on his legs and is cruising furniture a lot. I've seen him standing without support for a few seconds - but he didn't realise what he was doing.
• Has got to grips with finger food. For example, he picks up peas and rice with his fingers and eats them. He loves big cucumber and carrot chunks to bite into and has also had a go at a whole apple. He still eats loads of porridge and baby rice with fruit too as he wouldn't get enough otherwise.
• Admired the moon.
• Threw over the clothes airer and didn't hit himself, even though he ended up sitting in the gap created by the 'legs' of the device. That's where mummy found him when she followed his complaining voice. He wasn't crying, just unhappy that he didn't know how to get out of the cage that he built for himself.
• Fell head-over into the laundry basket, legs hanging out, couldn't move in or out. Mummy was in a different room and heard him suddenly complain very loudly so she came for a swift rescue.
• Fell asleep while sitting up.
• Discovered cars and bvvvvv. He also adores wheels on push-chairs. Wherever we go, I have to watch that they all have their breaks on. One day I was at a coffee morning with loads of prams, Yannick screeched with delight when he finally managed to get himself into the middle of them.
• Got another six teeth, so he has eight in total now!
• Is very frightened of anything that makes a strange sound, e.g. vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, toilet flushing, shower, … He used to be OK with the toilets, but lately he is out of the bathroom like a flash the moment I turn round to flush. I am sure it's just another phase.
• Has started to make more sounds: in addition to 'lah', 'mmmh', 'baba' and 'bvvv', we now have 'yaya' and 'vava'. I am trying to teach him to say 'mama' but no luck so far.
• Is telling me now what he wants to play with by giving me toys or books and waiting for me to do something with them. I love it!
• Did his first sign: he stuck his arm into the air (as you do for the plane sign) and went 'bvvvv' (as you do for the lorry on the same page in the book we were looking at - sigh). He's also started to kind of point at things.
• Had his first night with only two awakenings. That's almost like sleeping through…!
• Discovered flies. He was at first terrified by them and now he seems fascinated by their antics.

I am really looking forward to seeing what my little one will learn next. It's very exciting to see him master new skills.

… I was waiting.

Yannick was due 20 April 2006 but managed to hold out in Hotel Mama until Sunday 30 April.

… I had my sister over, staying with us.

She was the person who drove us to hospital as Frank didn't have his driving license then. She stayed with us there too.

… I was quite uncomfortable.

Sitting was getting difficult, unless I sat straight up. My hands and feet were aching as I was suffering of carpal tunnel syndrome (which persisted for a while even after giving birth), my legs were slightly swollen, and I had heartburn every night.

… I was slightly worried.

Back in Dublin I had missed the window for some examinations to find out whether my baby might be suffering of Down syndrome. As I am an older mother the risk was slightly higher than for younger mothers. On the other hand, what would I have done if I had found out that my baby was suffering of this??? I am glad that things turned out to be just right.

… I was VERY ignorant about babies.

I believed that all small babies would sleep for long stretches of the day. Ahem.
I thought that I would have a say in when I would stop breastfeeding. Ha ha ha…

… I didn't know what was going to hit me afterwards.

"Once you have the little one, everything will be forgotten." Ha, motherhood will make it all go away??? Excuse me, make what go away, what will be forgotten, the baby? You might forget the pain of the birth, but if you are unlucky you have a really poorly, crying, hungry, not sleeping baby. That won't go away!

… I was curious.

I didn't know what I was going to have, a boy or a girl. I was hoping for a girl, but this little boy is such a darling that it really doesn't matter!

… I didn't know a lot of things about myself or Frank.

I am incredibly short tempered when I get too little sleep. Ack!
But I can survive on a lot less sleep than I ever thought.
Frank really is my rock to lean on. *blush* And he is a great dad!

I can't help it, I just think they are adorable. Check these out:

Callum snuggling up with mummy		Hannah on the walker, with Amelia, Emily and Callum all trying to get there too
Yannick on the rocking horse		Hannah and Callum
Emily checking out Esther		Yannick in the car

I am reading The smell of little pong regularly and Solveig couldn't have expressed my feelings any better with her latest post about her baby Freyja becoming a toddler finally.

Yes, it's impressive how different all babies are. Yannick is 11 months now and I started to think that he is a lot more like a toddler ever since he was 9 months. He's always had plenty of hair compared to many other babies, so he looked older anyways. He doesn't walk yet but is standing and sports a cheeky grin whenever we say no! to him. He is also considering throwing tantrums at those times it seems, as he sometimes responds with a little angry crying. But he also has a great laugh when he finds something funny, like mummy tickling him with her foot after he tried to bite it!

The latest thing is that he is starting to communicate a lot more. He says 'ah!' a lot when playing with toys or looking at books as if he wants to point something out to me. When he sees something with wheels or pictures of vehicles he says 'bvvvv'. So in a way I guess this is his second 'word', after 'laah'.