Category: week in review

Another week. We learned about first aid for children, thanks to kids first aid – in just a 3 hour course, we covered the main things that can go wrong for parents.

Puff also made another trip to a pub: this time for a combined birthday party. He had a great time being held by someone other than his parents, and had his first ever rusk! As you can see, he’s getting better at sitting without being propped up.

Puff is being more and more vocal – he’s finally started to make “da-da” consonant sounds. We keep hearing new sounds from him, and he’ll often sit and talk to himself, or to his toys, for a long while.

We continue to be amazed at how well he can move around: he’s not yet crawling, but he can roll and spin and stretch out all over the place. He’s enjoying his new mat, this time without the tears (though he’s still not a big fan of being put down on his mat at first).

His hands are getting stronger and stronger (at least when he grabs dad’s hair it seems like it). When we walk through a green grocer’s store, he will now be very fidgety until you let him explore the fruit and veg by touching it. If you try, though, be quick – he’ll try and put anything vaguely food-like straight into his mouth.

He continues to be good at eating, varying from taking in rapid spoonfuls of food, and then staring off into the kitchen for a while. His evening routine remains much the same (dinner, maybe some water from his cup, a bath, breastfeed, bible reading and prayer, and then into his sleeping bag and off to sleep), and he regularly sleeps 8 hours or more. Mum has been a little sad to see him wake up around 5 am many mornings, but still manages to go back to sleep for a few hours after that.

Another week has flown past: lots of activity. Another trip to bible study, a weekend trip to a cafe for breakfast, then home to have lunch with old friends.

The old friends brought a present for Puff: a new play-mat. This one is *very hungry caterpillar* themed.

Though I made a poor decision as to when to put him on the map to play – he was a bit too tired.

He continues to learn how to do new things: trying new vegetables, and tonight trying meat for the first time (mushed up amongst the vegetables).

He’s started saying different words: “mum-mum”, mostly, but occasionally other sounds. I was hoping for “dad-dad”, but sadly, it went the other way. Sometimes, when you put your finger into his hand, he no longer grabs it, but rather he moves his whole hand away.

This is all okay, though: he makes up for it by being able to put his arms out when he wants to go to someome, and he regularly chooses his Dad.

Another week with not much photo-taking. It’s been go, go, go for dad this week, with something on nearly every night. I did manage to take puff on a long walk in the stroller. He liked most of the walk, but by the end was starting to whinge and look for company (previously he would have fallen asleep instead).

Dad’s busyness meant that Aunty Chan managed to spend some extra time with him this week. As a result, he had the chance to pose for some cute photos.

We continue to introduce new vegetables, and he’s even had pear this week. He’s had varying facial expressions with new foods, but has mostly loved them. Pear has been the exception:

Firsts for the week
* managed (with careful supervision and coaching) to drink some water out of a glass at Grind.

Puff’s first week of solids has seen a big change of routine, at least for Dad. In addition to the usual events, he now sits in his chair, eating 5 large ice-cube sized cubes of finely mashed up vegetables. So far, he’s had pumpkin (probably the favourite), carrot, sweet potato and for fruits, he’s had avocado and grape (probably the least favourite). Sometimes we stir through some rice cereal.

You might not want to know this, but his nappies have – within 48 hours of his first solids – changed forever, just as the books say.

Eating is generally pretty tidy for Puff, but at some point in the meal, he tends to grab the spoon, and smear mashed food on his hands, and then onto his hair. Here’s an after-photo.

Grapes were not all that popular. To feed him grapes, they go into this strange-looking eating mesh which seems to work well at keeping the hard-to-handle parts of fruit away from a baby’s mouth.

He has a few issues at the moment with being put down on his play mat, but he’s happy enough again after a while.

As a result of eating solids, he has a lot more skill with a spoon. Here he is in a cafe, with two spoons in his mouth at once.

On Sunday, we went with the grandragon back to the airport: he coped well for a little while being up for so long. Here he is in front of another cafe.

Most of his time at the airport terminal was spent looking at the ads – he liked the flashing lights and wasn’t so interested in the planes. There was a bit of an exception, though. Here’s a shot of him with his grandragon.

Firsts for the week:
* putting his arms out to indicate that he wants to go to someone

Today, puff turns six months old, and this week just gone has been our 26th week with him. To say “how time flies” would be an understatement. It’s already hard to remember a time without him in our lives.

This week marked a number of changes, not all of which we have photos for. His evening routine has been carefully honed now: bath time (usually with dad), some food, then a couple of stories, into his sleep-bag, and then straight to bed. This week, we’ve changed from a short story (is there any other kind for his attention span?) and his flip-tab bible to the “Big Picture Story Bible”. This later book is a beautiful hard-cover book with normal pages. Reading is a constant dance to keep the pages away from his hands and feet, and just show him the pictures. Both mum and dad have tried this, and the book has suffered minor abrasions on each parent’s watch.

This week also marked his six month immunisations, which were performed by a different nurse to usual. Instead of sitting on Dad’s lap, and staring accusingly at mum, he lay down on the bed in the doctor’s office, and Dad watched while the nurse put a needle in one leg, and then the other. He was so brave – he barely cried for 20 seconds before being happy again.

As part of the growing-up process, we also “introduced solids”. In this case, it meant a small amount of rice cereal with boiled water. There was initial confusion, where he thought it was a toy, and tried to touch the spoon.

Later that day, though, he seemed to have figured it out, keeping his hands away, and getting his whole head involved in working with the spoon.

With less success, we tried to get him to drink boiled water out of a baby’s cup. So far, we’ve just seen any water that made it into his mouth flow back out again.

Other firsts for the week:
* first yum cha (with mum and dad and aunty Chan and uncle Jordan)
* first evening church sitting up the front

A lot of changes this week. Though he’s been sleeping in the cot for a long time, this week we gave back the bassinet that was loaned to us, so we grabbed one quick photo with him. It’s truly amazing how much he’s grown.

We also had another last journey this week: he now has the neck strength, and the size to leave his capsule behind. Here’s the last photo of him in the capsule.

On Sunday afternoon, we changed the car over from the capsule to the new baby seat. By Monday afternoon, he’d learned a new trick: sleeping in the baby seat while we were driving.

He continues to be strong, and interested in anything he can reach. Here he is playing with his monkey.

The mirror is becoming a big part of his playtime. He likes looking at his reflection, and using it to see things behind him.

He’s getting better at sitting, too, but has yet to work out how to sit up by himself.

This week has been a pretty quiet one for taking photos.

Puff still seemed to have some sleeping problems, and so we spent much of the week at home in the evenings, trying to settle him.

During the days, he made it to a few different mothers’ groups.

Sunday afternoon we had our lunch guests cancel, and so we set up Puff’s playmat in front of the large baby mirror (like a full-length mirror, but on its side). He spent quite a while (minutes) looking at his reflection and playing with his playmat as if it were a toy.

Sunday night was tough: we tried a new way of settling him, with Dad going into his room to re-settle him. Though he woke a few times in one night, each time he went back to sleep pretty well.

Firsts:

* first swimming lesson (half an hour at a nearby swimming pool) – he cried most of the time, though – hoping for better next week

* first shower, to try and get him used to having water on his face (he didn’t like it, but it wasn’t as bad as the swimming lesson)

Another week, and the holiday is well and truly in the past. Just when we think Puff is back to his usual sleeping pattern, he goes back to waking every four or five hours.

Now happy to stretch out and grab toys, or to explore mirrors, most toys end up in his mouth before too long: here’s some proof.

His habit of waking up in the morning, and then going back to bed for another few hours’ sleep has meant some mornings are spent with him in his pyjamas – on this occasion long enough to take a photo.

He’s been spending more and more time on his stomach (he can easily roll front to back, or back to front, and spin around in any direction he chooses), but if you leave him on his play-mat too long, he’ll get upset, and start looking at the giant people who are walking near him.

Even with all of these new-found moving skills, his preference is to be on his stomach, exploring the things placed around him.

After his mammoth 12-hour sleep on Friday night, we decided to go for a trip to the Blue Mountains, so we all hopped in the car. It was pretty special to be back in the cafe where nearly 8 years ago I sat nervously with an engagement ring in my pocket, waiting for the right time to propose. On this day, we sat with Puff, and Kel fed him. In the downtime, he gummed his hat.

Visiting friends on the way home from the mountains, Puff had his first go in a standing-up toy (one that friends have used for all 4 of their kids), and seemed to enjoy it: there were plenty of toys within reach!

Wherever we take him, people comment on what a cute baby he is. This is one of my favourite things.

Firsts for the week:
* first 12-hour sleep since the holiday
* first mothers’ group for 2009
* second trip to the mountains (first for 2009)
* repeatable giggling after dad laughs with him and tickles his stomach

Our first holiday with puff saw us away from regular internet access, and so – even though we were away for less than two weeks – these three updates are combined.

week 20
In the lead-up to the holiday, puff went to his first engagement party.

Holidaying with a baby is much more hard work than holidaying without one. There are the frequent stops, having to take a number of different things just for the baby, but mostly the problems with sleeping.

Loading the car each time became easier the more we practiced: portable cot at the back of the boot, then the stroller, then the other bags nestled around the stroller. Most frustrating was the plastic chair: we drove around 2000kms, and didn’t use it once.

*week 21*
The poor sleeping began here in earnest: from 9 hours of sleep per night, down to medium single digits. highlights were his first big thing (the big slurpee), first swim, and first time meeting the great grandragon. He also received a number of gifts (first moneybox), and had his first cake – a welcome cake from his grandragon.

*week 22*
This week had his first bath with other people, his worst night’s sleep in a long time (feeding every two hours), and his first diagnosed illness – a bit of a tummy bug, which means he gets extra feeds, and is a bit more pale, and more restrained than usual.

Oh, and he had his first Australia day, where he was quite popular with a variety of kids.

He’s now increasingly mobile. While not actually crawling yet, he can wriggle and inch-worm his way around any flat surface he’s placed on. This makes looking after him a little more challenging at times.

His interest in the world around him continues to expand: in week 20, he saw his first fish tank, and was amazed for minutes at a time. We put this distraction to good use when in Ballina he was upset: we walked into a fish-shop, and he calmed down considerably.

For 19 weeks now, Puff has made a great impact on our lives. This weekend saw a return to form that allowed me to take him out to a cafe in the morning while his Mum had a much needed sleep in. Because of the sunny weather, though, he had a chance to try out his sunglasses and the big stroller.

We see a lot more smiles these days, but also the occasional serious face (his old screensaver face from weeks gone by).

As much as we’ve been trying to improve the amount of time we spend with him, and time we spend reading, he remains fascinated by the television. Here we see him distracted from his sitting up activities to see what’s on the box.

The rolling over is becoming more and more complex. We have yet to catch him rolling from front to back, but a few times his Mum has found him lying face up after a sleep – proof that he knows how to do it, but is too shy to share the information.

This week was the first time he rolled over while waiting for his bath to start: this triggered a brief happy mood in an otherwise unhappy boy, and there was time to grab a quick photo of a smiling Puff.

This week was also the week where we’ve decided to try out the next size up of nappies: he’s moving from infant to crawler. As you can see, he hasn’t mastered the crawling yet, but he’s certainly trying it!

We’ve bought him a portable cot, but have yet to try sleeping – that will be something for this coming week.

Firsts for the week:
* rolling both ways (but secretly)
* trying to sing along to the CDs we play in the car
* new year (which he slept through, after being awake for an 11:30pm feed)