Twelve weeks old meant another trip to the paediatrician: and a clean bill of health again. Lots more events this week.

Puff continues to work on his neck strength whenever he can, and he’s able to keep his head propped up pretty well (except when he’s tired). This leads to some awkward moments when people try and hold him: they’re not always expecting him to suddenly throw his head or body.

Most interesting this week has been Puff’s starting to take an interest in toys. While riding in the car, he’s managed to kick his toy duck a few times, with the resulting quacking making his parents smile. He’s also started to be interested in his toy rings, and his butterfly. If you sit him up when he’s playing, he tends to look at the toys very intently.

On Thursday Puff had another clinic appointment, where he was weighed and measured.

On Thursday night, we had a friend visit, so we went out for dinner: we tried to have Puff sleep in the stroller, but he needed to be walked around in the sling for a while to calm down.

Friday night was Puff’s first trip to a Sushi Train: He was quite interested in the train part, but is still a bit too young for sushi.

Sunday marked another trip to Grind in Cronulla, where we bumped into another friend, and Puff managed to pull some cute faces.

Firsts for the week: – train ride into the city

- sushi train

- time interested in toys

- time kicking the duck in the car

- trip to Dad’s new work

- overnight visitor

- sleep over 8 hours (which make the nights where he doesn’t want to sleep even harder to bear)

This week marked the first time where I started to feel sad at how quickly Puff is growing up – it won’t be long now, I think, and he will no longer stay where we put him… any day now, and he’ll be grown up and moving out of the house.

But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

This week has seen Puff smiling more predictably.

In tummy time (where you let the baby try and move around on a mat), he’s started to work harder at holding his head up and trying to crawl.

We managed a trip all the way across town to Berowra for a great lunch with David and Nikki – it was even back into the ergo carrier for a walk around the streets.

Increasingly, when we have our night routine (bath, put all the bath things away, feed, bed), puff will sleep through for 6 or 7 hours. This has been a great relief for both mum and dad.

If you’re wanting to see Puff smile, one of the most likely places is the change table: there’s something about the routine that makes him break out in a grin (as long as he’s well enough rested).

Even though it says “3 months and up”, we’ve been trying out the playmat that kel’s workmates gave us. He’s still too young to like the toys too much, though he’ll track the movement as they bounce around.

He’s still wearing 000 clothes at the moment, but these fluffy pants are 00: there’s a certain amount of convenience to this pair of clothes that keep his feet warm.

And the firsts for the week:

- first trip to Berowra – first visit to mother’s group – first nappy that leaked out on dad – first time making it all the way through bible study (though there was a lot of complaining) – first week sleeping through the night more often than not – first day spent with longer daytime sleeps

Another week has rolled by already, and has brought with it a couple of nights with long sleeps – last night, he even slept over 7 hours! Each night we wonder what he’ll get up to next, but we seemed to have figured out that a bath late at night will lead to a long sleep through until morning, which has been great.

The presents are still coming in. From his great grandmother, this dragon arrived: he still hasn’t quite figured out toys yet, but managed to find time to pose for a photo:

Another surprise gift was this, from Puff’s friend Leonidas:

We spent some time with product placement too this week: here’s puff with an iPhone:

and here he is with dad at the Genius Bar of the Apple retail store in Sydney.

We managed to fit in a couple of things to celebrate mum’s birthday, too – there was a lunch of Japanese food on Saturday, and on Friday a high tea at Leura, with puff resting in Dad’s lap (it was getting a bit hot in the carrier)

Firsts for this week:

- first seven plus hour sleep

- first trip to the blue mountains

- first high tea

- first trip to Sydney, visiting Mum’s workmates

- first trip to Happy Chef

- first trip to the Apple Retail Store, the Lindt Shop, and Haighs Chocolates

- first meeting with friends from Canberra

- met Great Aunty, and had dinner at her house (and interrupted some HSC studying)

- lasted all the way through bible study (mostly in the sling)

With this week’s milestone, we also see puff cross over to being two months old. He still has a worried look most of the time (his screensaver face).

On the positive side, the smiles have been getting more regular, and more pronounced. Mum has had time to take photos of him, perhaps because he’s starting to sleep a little longer each time.

This week was Dad’s last day at work, and so Puff came in for a visit: this was one of the faces he pulled while he was visiting.

Friday night we went out for a spontaneous dinner with friends! In a restaurant and everything… Puff slept in the sling the whole time.

On Saturday, we went with friends to see Sculpture by the Sea (at Bondi). We took him in an ergocarrier, not in the stroller, which made life much easier.

On Sunday Mum went to a Tupperware party, leaving strict instructions with Dad that puff needed to sleep. We had Shelby visit too, so we went to the park, and went for a walk over to the Tupperware party. On the way, we saw this dragon:

Aunty Chan knitted a new hat and matching shoes, which are very cute. They arrived this week.

Puff has also gone up a nappy size, from newborn to infant.

Here’s a rare photo of him looking sleepy.

Firsts for the week: – first trip to sculpture by the sea

- first ride in the ergocarrier

- first dinner in a restaurant

- first spontaneous evening for mum and dad since he was born

- first immunisations in a doctor’s office (there are some that are given in the
hospital when he’s born), including his first oral medication (to build immunity to gastroenteritis). He cried when he had the needles, but calmed down pretty quickly afterwards, and then had a quick feed.

- first play-date (with Shelby)

- first walk to Riverwood

- first time being left at home with Dad, when Mum went out

A week overshadowed by Dad being sick, this meant that mum had a lot more to do – driving Dad and Puff to the doctor, and keeping Dad away from Puff so that Puff didn’t get sick.

And it worked. Somehow, despite living in a house with someone who was sick, Puff is still healthy. We’ve even had one night with a long sleep – nearly seven hours. It was a bit of a trick, though, as most of the time, he’s been back to feeding every three hours.

On the smile front, there are certain times of day when he will smile for a while, but there’s still not really a smile on demand.

There has also been some steps towards making noises other than crying. He’s gone well at making sounds where perhaps he’s trying to communicate something.

In spare moments, instead of just lying around, or randomly stretching, there’s been a tendency for him to stretch out his left hand – I have this photo, and a couple of short videos where he ends up in this pose of his own accord.

We also managed enough presence of mind to take him out of the house dressed up in one of the outfits that we’ve been given – a pair of overalls and matching shirt. This is pretty heroic, given than a bondsuit is a lot more user-friendly (but not quite so cute).

More commonly, he can be seen in these perfectly masculine, but much easier to change, bondsuits.

While we try not to socialise him too much, so that he still sleeps at night, a trip to see friends, and play their Nintendo Wii, was too much to pass up. Here, after watching Dad play on the WiiFit for half an hour, he’s looking at the screen to see what else is happening.

On Sunday, Padstow was on Parade, so we took Puff there for a wander around in the stroller, and then had a leisurely late lunch in an actual restaurant, stroller and all. Dad had to learn quickly how to eat with one hand, as someone didn’t want to be quiet.