Hi there,
Sorry in advance for the long post.
I'm looking for some reassurance. My lo who is 10 months in the next few days is not imitating my actions and not gesturing much.
Her motor skills are awesome. She crawled by 6.5 months, was cruising by 7 months. At almost 10 months she's able to stand unassisted for a few seconds and walks holding one of our hands. She crawls at the speed of light and does down dog to lookbetween her legs. We do BLW so she feeds herself, has her pincer grasp and can use a preloaded spoon (messy). She is breastfed and likes to smile at me when eating.
She's just not imitating; no waving, clapping, pointing, no back and forth peekaboo. She laughs at peekaboo and comes to find me behind the blanket and when I cover my face with my hands she will pull my hands down and then smile when she can see me again. But she doesn't cover her own face or play peekaboo.
She is able to communicate what she wants in her own way- she will put her arms up for us to take her and has been doing this since 6 months, she takes our hands to go walking, she looks and whines at something she wants and cries when we take something away from her. She whines when she is coming to find me as she doesn't like to be alone for too long. She snuggles by chest when she wants to breastfeed and will snuggle and whine until i feed her. She is not very patient and gets very hangry 
She doesn't put food in my mouth butputs her hand in my mouth. So she doesn't feed me. she takes toys but won't give them back or put them back in the box. She just likes to eat them. She is able to switch on/off the light switch and is able to work all her musical toys and looks for praise when shd does it.She figured this out herself through play i think, not through imitation.
She is super sociable and smiles at everyone who smiles at her. Everyone comments on happy she is. She laughs a lot and always returns a smile. We play catch- She attempts to crawl away and squeals with delight when I run after her. She dances to music. She lunges at me with an open mouth all the time and does the same to her reflection in the mirror. Is this a kiss? She won't do this on command, it's just spontaneous. She is going through some separation anxiety so cries when left alone and comes crawling after me all.day.long.
She is babbling lots and can say mama, dada, baba, yeah yeah but it's not in any context. She follows when I point at something. Her eye contact is good. She will come when we call and gesture for her to come. she'll look for papa or mama when we say "where's papa/mama. She greets daddy with a massive smile / squeal when he comes home and then crawls/runs to meet him. So cute.
I read that she should be imitating us by now and gesturing at this point but she's not doing these things. She won't copy me and i have been making faces, waving and clapping a lot. She doesn't point to what she wants. She is inconsistent with answering to her name too but we've realised we use a lot of nicknames.
We live in a bilingual home but I don't know if that matters. She's also at home with me all day.
We had a 9 month review with the nurse who said she was fine. I'm just a bit worried. I'm in a country where it's not my first language and although my dh was at the apt i feel maybe my voice/concerns get lost in translation so just looking for some reassurance.
But anyway, I just want to know if it's ok that she's not imitating and gesturing much. Does anyone else have experience of this with older children? Or any advice?