We’re a little bit late this month – Toby actually turned eleven months old when we were in France last week. I can’t believe in less than a month I’ll have a one year old baby!

I haven’t weighed or measured Toby this month but he is definitely still growing. I’ve just had to put him into bigger sleepsuits as his toes were getting squashed in the bottom of his old ones. All his clothes now are 12-18 months but I’m starting to find that a lot of things are too big round the waist and the sleeves too long but the smaller sizes aren’t long enough. The perils of having a tall baby I suppose!

This month’s major development has to be standing up! Toby can now pull himself to standing easily using his cot or the play pen (or anything he can get his hands on really) and once he’s stood up he’s fairly stable and can just hold on with one hand. He’s started cruising along the edge of his play pen too. Weirdly though he doesn’t want to stand up at all when we’re holding him, only when he’s pulled himself up on his own! There were a few tumbles and bumped heads when Toby first started pulling himself up but he seems to have worked out how to sit back down without too much of a bang now. He can also get himself from crawling to sitting now so he’s can really move wherever he wants to. This means he’s much happier to play on his own for a while as he doesn’t get stuck in one position and need help to move. I love seeing him getting more independent although it is sometimes a pain when he wants to explore and gets into everything he shouldn’t!

We’ve had a little bit of a break from teething this month – Toby now has four teeth on top and three on bottom. We did think the other bottom one was coming at the same time as its partner but it hasn’t made an appearance yet. With teeth though has come a new problem – Toby has taken to biting us! I don’t think he is doing it with any intention of hurting us but it really does when he gives you a good nip, and I’ve got the bruises to prove it! I can usually tell when a bite might be coming though and make sure I stop Toby and and we’re trying to teach him ‘no’, although with limited success so far!

Of course this month also saw Toby’s first foreign holiday and he was great the whole time. He coped especially well with the three day drive to get there and the two day drive to get home. We had a few crying episodes when he had just woken up and he had to wait for us to get to the next services but for the most part he did really well. Sleep was a bit hit and miss, he woke up at least once most nights but he settled back to sleep OK most of the time. Since we came home though sleep hasn’t been so good – the last couple of nights Toby has woken up crying and taken ages to settle again. He seems to be OK when I pick him up and give him a cuddle but as soon as I put him back in the cot he just starts screaming, and I mean really screaming. I have a feeling he might have a bit of an ear infection so if tonight is no better I’m going to take him to the doctor’s to get checked out. Fingers crossed he gets over what ever it is soon though.

Other than that my little monkey is still showing his personality every day. After mastering saying ‘Dada’ (and not saying much else for a few weeks) he is now babbling even more and making a few more sounds. No Mama yet though… He was copying Barry and my dad shaking their heads on holiday too which he thought was very funny. And I think lastly, my favourite development this month is that Toby has developed his cuddling technique! For a while now he has kind of snuggled into my neck when I pick him up but now he has started putting his arms round my neck too. It’s so cute!

So that’s my little boy; eleven months old and less than a month to go until his very first birthday.