Dear William: January 2011

Dear William

While the focus this month was Christmas and the New Year you still stole the spotlight. Even our ecard had you plastered all over it.

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Christmas day at Gran and Grandpa’s (your Dad’s parents) was all about how well you could sit as you had just mastered it 2 days prior. Boxing day at Nan and Pa’s (my parents) was all about you blowing raspberries, a new trick that you all of a sudden learnt and insisted on doing while I was feeding you. Oh how everyone thought it was funny (they weren’t the ones being covered in food), a few days later I managed to stop you doing this by gently squeezing your noise when you did it at meal times. In the New Year we caught up with Simon (Dad’s old work mate, who’s now living in England), while I was feeding you dinner, your dad and Simon were talking however you decided that Simon wasn’t taking enough notice of you and started yelling. You stopped as soon as he showed you some attention.

For Christmas we brought a new camera mainly as the old one was slow and every time I took a photo you had stopped smiling or looked away etc. Not only is the new camera faster but the photo quality is soooo much better. So much so I couldn’t wait to set up a little photo shoot session. So a few days after we returned from Nan and Pa’s, before I packed away the Christmas tree etc, we had a little play. These photos are some of my new favourites.

In the first week of the New Year I had a little time out and your father had some quality time with you. My first outing was with Auntie Lucy at a day spa for a little TLC while you started at Gran and Grandpa’s with Dad. You were a good little boy and showed your grandparents your winning smile all morning and early afternoon. My second outing was with your grandparents to see Mary Poppins. Oh it was such a lovely theatre show, so much joy and colour it made you want to sing (actually I did quietly a few times). Dad looked after you at home this time, it was always going to be a little harder as you were suppose to have a sleep a feed of milk and dinner before I returned. Dad hasn’t managed to get you to sleep when your suppose to and you haven’t taken the bottle from anyone since about 4mths. Needles to say I returned to you having your early afternoon nap at 4pm (40mins instead of 1.5-2hrs) and your 3pm milk replaced with a meal. However your Dad did manage to get you back on track by giving you dinner at 5pm, I returned at about 6 for milk, bath and bed. Your Dad was glad to have me home.

For a long time I’ve been trying to get you to sleep unwrapped knowing that once you started rolling it was going to be more difficult and not overly safe. However I didn’t have much luck until the first week if the New Year. I managed to get you to fall asleep one afternoon unwrapped, the sleep was short lived but as the days followed I managed to get you to sleep more and more often without being wrapped. I found that the nights were easiest to start with and as you became comfortable with that, the days followed. I now only have to wrap your arms if your over tired and fighting sleep.

Your still eating well but it’s only fruit that you’re willing to eat without fuss. When it comes to vegetables and meat I need to sweeten the deal by making them nicer by mixing in fruit or juice. You will only eat watermelon if you can hold it and eating a banana now is far too messy as you get so excited that it’s flat and all over the place before it hits the mouth. I will have to get the little mesh bag/feeding thing out and see if this works better for you. You have gone off avocado for some reason but you have been very willing to try some new foods such as;
• Lamb Shank
• Salmon (with mango and cucumber salad)
• Sheppard’s pie (which was more like bubble and squeak pie)
• Sweet Potatoes
• Blue & black berries and , raspberries
• Passion fruit (with yogurt)
• Peach
• Chicken, basil and cheese (I gave you a little filling from my sandwich one day)
• Apricots
• Watermelon
• Pasta with tomato sauce (again a little bit of my lunch)
• Feta cheese
• Sausage
• Vegetable Risotto

Eatting Sausage

Enjoying Watermelon

A week after your 6mth health check (where you weighed 8.685kgs) I took you to see Dr Fan for a check up. Finally she said your liver is normal and no longer need blood tests. After she looked over you and made sure everything was as it should be she popped you on the scale. Much to my amazement (and hers’) you had put on over 400gms in a week bringing your weight up to just over 9kgs. She asked how often I was feeding you and after a quick discussion she said that when you wake in the middle of the night I’m not too feed you as it’s more of a habit than you actually being hungry. I tried that night but ended up feeding you, but like a light switch had just been turned on you started sleeping though the night again after not sleeping though the night for about a month. However due to Christmas and going up to Nan and Pa’s that only lasted a week. Once we returned and got you back into a routine you've slept though a few times but I’m still getting up to you more often than I would like (normally around 3am). Nevertheless it has some advantages as most times your now missing the 5-6am feed and going straight through to 7ish when I give you breakfast.

Your now rolling all over the place and doing 360’s on your tummy. While in the beginning (of rolling) you weren’t able to be left alone long, your now more than happy to play on your own as I get on and do other things around you. You sometimes attempt to crawl but get agitated that you can’t, so I give you a little help. While you’re still a little way off I have put the gate up in front of the stairs just encase you turn the crawling on like you turned sitting on (overnight).

Just like you turned sitting on you have also just turned waving, high fiving and saying Mum on. Mum started when you woke up after an afternoon sleep crying. You just had your 6mth immunisation needles so I was prepared for you to be upset, but wasn’t prepared for your cry to be full of Mummmmmmm mmm mummmmmmm. You followed up with Mum separate to a cry, funnily enough yesterday, the day you turned 7mth. Yesterday you also started waving and high fiving. While you wave around the right time that your suppose to wave, sometimes it’s a little early and other times it after the fact, but nevertheless it is cute. High fiving did occur once when I videotaped you sitting, however you have only managed to do it repeatedly yesterday.

I also managed to find a little time make a palm tree growth chart in keeping to the jungle theme. I love the idea so much I’m making a few extra (different designs) for your little friends. I'm also hoping that I might get some custom made orders.

Below are some things we got up to this month.
• 6mths – can’t stop rolling, started to raise your arms to be lifted, started to push your arms through your sleeves and have a habit of watching your hand open and close. You’ve also started to play with your penis at nappy change.
• 27 weeks – can sit for longer than a couple of minutes (timed twice at 2.5min and 6.5mins on the 23rd Dec), began to blow raspberries.
• 28 weeks – you start to put your feet in mouth and you found your squeaky voice.
• 30 weeks – sleeping unwrapped most of the time and you will now raise your arms over your head when I take off your tops
• 31 weeks – had your first ride in a shopping trolley sitting up, and we welcomed other little playmate into the world (Eli Benjamin' Jarred)

• 7mths – Started saying Mum, waving and high fiving. And saddly it was time to say goodbye to size 00. The bigger you get the harder it is to part with each size.