Baby Milestones at 10-12 Months: A Baby's First Year!

The last stage of first year milestones has arrived! It only seemed like yesterday you were taking your swaddled newborn home fresh from the hospital. And look now, you have a bouncy 10-month-old who is raring to go! By now your baby should be crawling and pulling to stand and getting ready to take those memorable first steps! Parenting is becoming more joyful everyday by this stage as your baby has a greater understanding and can engage in simple games! Lots of peek-a-boo and blowing raspberries to occupy your time! And be prepared…. the 10 to 12-month stage involves huge growth including walking, developing personality and lots of exploring! Please remember to enjoy it…. life is flying by for both you and your baby so relax and appreciate these fleeting moments! 

Month 10:

Month 10 is a fun month; your baby is preparing themselves to start walking and this begins with the ‘cruising’ milestone, which involves your baby will be holding onto you or furniture while walking. Cruising usually occurs a few weeks after your baby can stand and it's one of the last steps on the journey toward walking independently. So, get ready for your baby to ‘cruise’ away! Another milestone this month is ‘interactive game playing’.  By month 10 your baby can understand and engage in simple games such as finding hidden objects, peekaboo or taking things in and out of a container. Encourage all these behaviors! They will help develop those all-important fine motor skills and every bit of playtime is also learning time. So, prepare your silly peekaboo face and voice and get ready to embarrass yourself all in the name of development.

Key milestones:

• Cruising
• Playing interactive games

Month 11:

Month 11 brings with it the ‘starting to explore’ milestone, fun for the baby but not for you! Your baby will be on the move and using all those newfound gross motor skills like sitting, crawling, and cruising to start checking everything out. No cabinet or shelf is safe, my friends! Take steps to baby proof and make sure cleaning supplies, toiletries, and medicine cabinets are well off limits! Don’t worry, it’s not all stress and baby proofing this month because month 11 also brings the development of your baby’s ‘distinct personality’…...how adorable right? They start to understand emotions better and can read and react to your emotional state. This level of communication and interaction deepens as they can use their bourgeoning vocabulary to state what they want and need. It’s so enjoyable to be able to communicate with your child even in the simplest form.

Key milestones:

• Starting to explore
• Developing their distinct personality

Month 12:

Wow……. month 12! Congratulations on reaching this all-important month! You’ve worked hard and both you and your baby have achieved a lot so a big well done to you. And by this month your baby’s brain has more than doubled in size! This extra brain power will mean they will have improved their language skills. They should already have a small vocabulary and will be adding to it regularly, and they will be practicing simple gestures like waving bye or shaking their head. Also watch out for what you say because at this stage, they’ll be repeating everything. So, I guess it’s time to remove all those naughty words out your vocab and keep it PG-13!  Another milestone this month and probably the most anticipated……your baby’s first steps!! The last few months have been leading up to this moment from ‘crawling’ to the ‘cruising’.  So, get the camera ready to catch the precious moment! They may still need a bit of help or support in the beginning but once they get the hang of it, you’ll have an avid walker on your hands.

Key milestones:

• Beginning to walk
• Improving language skills

This concludes our first-year milestone series blogs and what a year it has been for you and your baby! The first year of parenting can be so tough and such a big change for you but just remember to take each month as it comes and to enjoy your time with your baby. Don’t be too hard on yourself or worried if your baby hasn’t hit a certain milestone by said point! It will happen…. just have fun, make memories and don’t forget to document all the good stuff!  We would love to hear some of your milestone memories so please sound off in the comment box below!