Cuddles

You've entered my favourite stage ever! Cuddles!!

It's especially nice after you've woken from sleep. You cry to be picked up, and as soon as I do you "koala" on to me.

It's my policy not to pull out of cuddle before you do, and sometimes they can last as long as 10 minutes!

Not usually though :) Usually it's only for a few precious moments, then you find something more interesting to look at or reach for. My busy boy.

This morning, after your nap, you cuddled me for the longest time. Then after you were done cuddling, you pressed your forehead to  mine and we smiled at each other for ages, until the smiles turned into laughter and you began to smoosh your little wide-open mouth into my cheek.

Kissing: Hamish-style.

Retrospective months...

I wrote these up each month before I even started this little blog... I thought I may as well copy them here! They are long-winded and probably only interesting to me..  but here you go..

3 months

• Weight: 7kgs
• Length: 62cm
• I love the way you flail your arms in the air when you are fist put down on a flat surface - it’s as if you think the world is spinning too fast and you are trying to find something to hold on to.
• You also love to smoosh your face against me or your dad after you’ve had a big feed, wiping away any mess.
• You pee in the bath each and every time without fail.
• You intensely try and copy us blowing raspberries.
• You have well and truly found your hands hands (at about 9 weeks) and they reside permanently in your mouth. Your little face is constantly covered in saliva, which makes cheek kisseys very interesting.
• I got a nice laugh out of you at 12 weeks 4 days. It was amazing and I cried happy tears. Now it is my aim in life to get you to laugh again.
• You're a smiley little bugger. We just have to look at you and say “hi!” and you grin from ear to ear.
• Sometimes, the only thing that will calm you down if you is having a meltdown is for me to hold him in my arms and sing. Favourites: Twinkle twinkle, Baa Baa black sheep, Two Little Boys, Close to you, Yesterday.. quite a mixed bag!
• Your eyes are strikingly blue at this stage. Daddy has brown eyes and I have blue eyes so it’s anyone’s guess what colour they’ll turn out eventually. I’m gunning for blue, because you're a spitting image of your dad so I’d love you to have something attributed to me!
• Sleep is a challenge (see previous post).
• You LOVE bathtime. LOVE. You and daddy have a bath together every night and the only time you get cranky is when we’re trying to re-dress you.
• Related: you love to be naked. You're going to be a GREAT summer babe. Not so good in these cooler months!
• You light up my life.. god that is so cliche! But you do!

4 months

Baby Boy - today marks 4 whole months of your life outside! Can you believe it? I certainly can’t.

Let me tell you a bit about your 4 month self:

• You just found your toes! As in yesterday! You grab at them now and try and pull off your socks.
• My favourite time of the day is the mornings. You are your most vocal then - almost like stretching out your vocal chords. It starts out like a scratchy owl sound, building up to a teenage-boy-who’s-voice-is-about-to-break. Once you are put on your playmat, it turns to squeals and hoots of delight as you try and grab the different toys that I hang up for you each day.
• You roll around the floor with terrifying regularity. You started pretty early in your life - about 11.5 weeks - but it was kind of a one-trick wonder. Lately, it has been your favourite thing in the world. You sometimes prefer to be on your tummy to play!
• We sit you up and sometimes you stay sitting up without our help. Only for a few moments, but you can see your brain trying to work out the proper muscles to use. It’s magic.
• You love your Bumbo. Yellow, like your personality.
• You hate the Jolly Jumper. It may have something to do with the fact that our doorways are too narrow and you got a nice bump on the head the other day.
• You dribble like a champ. I change your bibs as often as your nappy.
• If your hands aren’t busy - they are in your mouth. You are not a thumb-sucker - you are a forefinger-sucker. It’s incredibly cute.
• Sleep. Well, sleep is overrated, right? But we’re working on it.
• You weigh around 7.5kgs and you’re wearing 00 and 0 clothes.
• When I lean down to kiss your face - you grab mine and try and suck on my nose.
• You are a real boy - a roughnut, a boof-head. I love it.

5 months

Hey Hamish! Can you believe how much I love you? It seems to balloon every single day. Sometimes the enormity of my love for you catches in my throat and I find myself choking back silly tears.

A few things about you and your little life that I never want to forget:

• You are still breastfeeding like a champion - and now you’re even beginning to bury your face into my shirt when you’re hungry - no whinging, just burying :)
• Sleep is still a work in progress…
• But you slept in your big cot all on your own for the first time last night!! I had very little sleep - my eyes on the monitor all night, but you seemed to sleep like a, well, baby! In the morning I came in to find you smiling and talking to yourself. Heart = warmed.
• I have started giving you rice cereal mixed with breast milk and some mashed sweet potato or pumpkin. Tonight we try carrots! I’m introducing each food separately and slip a new one in every few days. Perhaps peas next?
• You are in crawler nappies!
• You are trying to crawl on a daily basis and it frustrates you so much that you aren’t getting anywhere!
• You LOVE LOVE LOVE Gymbaroo.
• You stand up with a bit of assistance and beam your gorgeous big smile in such a proud way.
• And you can sit up all on your own… for a minute or so :)
• You easily roll onto your tummy from your back, but back to front seems to be a challenge for you.. you get it about once a day. Every other time you cry out for someone to flip you over… before you flip right back on to your belly. Sigh, little boy, sigh.
• Bath time is still your favourite part of the day.. no, it’s your favourite part of life.
• We took you to the beach for the first time two weeks ago -  you rocked those baby sunglasses and hat like a true beach bum. You spent the whole time in the nude, scraping sand towards you and grinding it into your, erm, private area. I’m assuming it felt good. It was still too cold for a swim, but daddy put your feet in the water and you kicked and kicked and squealed with joy.
• Laughing is more common now and once you get going you don’t stop! Words like “sushi” and “spit” make you cackle.
• Dribble should be your middle name.
• I think you might have some mouthy pegs moving around in that little mouth of yours - everything and anything is jammed into your gob at any opportunity. Sophie’s ears, horns and nose are your favourite.
• You still fall asleep so fast in your carseat, which is not very convenient when we are just headed 5 minutes down the road.
• You seem to be rather musical - and I may be seeing things, but I’m sure I saw you bopping along to Regina Spektor a few days ago - those little shoulders bumping up and down. Singing to you, any song, breaks your little mood swings immediately.
• You love toys - but you love things that are not toys more!
• You never stop moving. Even when you are chilled out and relaxed, a little foot is tapping or your little fingers are opening and closing.

You are going to keep mummy very busy, little boy. Very busy indeed.

I love you more than the air I breathe.

Love Mummy.

6 months!!

I’m writing this very late, you actually turned 6 months two weeks again, but because we were sunning ourselves on the beautiful beaches of Fiji on your actual day, I’ll update now.
Where the hell has the time gone? You are half a whole year! Sheesh! Stop growing little one!
Some cool things that you do now:

• You sleep in your own cot! Woot! We are still working on the sleep (and it’s going so so so well), but you don’t sleep in our room anymore. I find that exciting and sad. I miss you some nights, but all I have to do is hold the monitor up to my ear to hear your man-like snores.
• You sit up all on your own now. It means I can surround you with toys and I whizz around the house doing house work until you decide you’re bored and want to play with mummy. You are much happier upright, and reward us all with massive smiles.
• Also - you CRAWL! Yikes! You don’t move too fast though, so I’m not too worried yet - but next on our list of things to buy you is a baby gate or two and some child-proofing materials. A play pen  has been erected in the lounge room so I can pop you in there and know that you won’t be getting into mischief while I’m out of the room.
• Two toothy-pegs!
• You reach out to daddy and I when we are not holding you and you want us to be.
• You are a clingy little boy now and we can rarely leave you in a room with other people without you freaking out and crying. People are starting to get complexes. It’s getting better, but a weeks of undivided mummy and daddy attention while we were on holidays spoiled you a bit.
• You are eating three meals a day, plus snacks plus breast milk. You really don’t like food, which really surprises me. We’ve tried fresh fruit and veg, cooked, raw, mashed, pre-made baby food (all organic and 100%), but you still prefer mama’s milk. We have cut you down to 4 feeds a day, so you are sort of forced to eat other things. Because of all of the crazy dietary changes, you were terribly constipated for a few days (tears, straining, and sweating - very cute in a sad way), but that seems to have “worked it’s way out.”
• You still love Gymbaroo (and have graduated to the mobile babies class) and still like music class.

You are getting so freaking fun and challenging and you change every day. It’s a cliche, but it’s so true - you are growing before our very eyes!

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You're a 7 monther now! I'm working on a 7 month update for you and will post it as soon as we take your 7 month pictures :)

Out and about (and a bit at home too!)

We've had a fun week my little adventurer!


Daddy came with us to Speers Point Park and you had a ball! You are definitely a swing-addict and we saw our first glimpses of a little temper when we tried to take you off!


All was forgotten when you got to play on the rest of the equipment. You are a little, independent thing. Sometimes you let one of us help you, sometimes you insisted on doing it yourself.

You have begun to hang out by the window that overlooks the back garden. You love looking out at the trees and the lake. This morning, Daddy was doing some gardening and you saw him down there and began banging on the glass and waving. Once Daddy saw you and started waving back and pulling funny faces, you almost exploded with joy. Squawking and squealing and waving both arms. It was adorable. Everything you do is adorable.

This week saw a few firsts too!

Your first sushi train:

Your first real injury:

You face planted on the TV cabinet while you were standing there showing off.. There was plenty of screaming, but only a little bit of blood. I think Mama was more shaken up by the experience that you were!

(P.S. This picture was taken hours after the incident - you were crying because I was trying to make you sit still long enough for a photo)

Your first floor-nap:

You really love looking at the Christmas tree too! But, surprisingly you are very gentle with it. You love stroking the silver baubles and seeing your face in the reflection. You hate the texture of the actual tree, so you never actually touch the branches!

Your new favourite pastime is to wait for Daddy to build up a tower with your blocks and then hurtle towards them and know them down. You find it hilarious!

You have also showed a propensity for mischief... when Mama thought you were playing quietly with your blocks while she was in the kitchen... she came in to find this: 

You'd gotten into the baby ear buds that were in your nappy-changing basket.

You have definitely proven that we are going to have our hands full with you... but I've laughed at you so many times this week that it is very easy to forget! You are a busy and active little boy who will always push the boundaries... but I think that is what I love about you!

xoxox

Stairway to mischief...

So! Today you woke up and decided that today was the day to climb some stairs. And climb you did...

The incentive was the always coveted, but never allowed remote control.

Time to invest in a few baby gates methinks!

Hamish's 7 month photo shoot

 Claire Collyer took these amazing pictures of you and a few great shots of you with Mama and Daddy. We can't wait to see the rest of them!!

December 3rd and 4th

You and Mama drove aaallll the way down to Jervis Bay this weekend and we picked up Poppy in Sydney on the way.

We stopped off in Berry for a bit of fresh air because you'd pretty much had enough of your carseat. You had slept all the way from our house to Poppy's unit in Darling Harbour, but then you were awake and bored all the way from Sydney. So we put you on a swing - you loved it and Mama thought she'd have a swing with you!

And it was so cool to see you and cousin Josie get to know each other better. Josie was very interested in you and smiled every chance she got.

 

 

We did a little Chrissy photo shoot with the two of you... we failed to get a good picture of the both of you together, but we got plenty of pictures of each of you separately.

 

 

(You were kicking Josie out of the way here...)

 (You are such a drama-queen) 

(Josie getting in your personal space and a cute little Mr Claus)

(Two cute little christmas bears)

(I just love Josie's face in this one..."what you lookin' at punk?") 

 

At one stage, you and Josie were playing on the floor together and we looked down and you had stolen Josie's pink dummy! You were sucking on it and it looked like you were trying to figure out what the big deal was... you can't get food or milk out of it! You sucked and sucked and then pulled it out of your mouth and looked at it, puzzled. It kept you occupied for a good 30 minutes.

 

On Saturday morning, we went to the markets with Aunty Emma and your cousin Josie and you slept the entire time! Nanny bought you and Josie some cool matching overalls... you looked like a little Byron Bay babe.

Those overalls are cute from any angle.

Another cool thing is the fact that you are starting to pay attention to animals - which meant Nanny and Poppy's dog, Chelsea was veeerrryy interesting to you.

Here, you get acquainted:

It is so fun to see your grandparents on Mama's side. They love you so, so, so much and love having you around - even if you are a bit of a hurricane.