Jack's First Birthday Party - Invitations

We had a first birthday party for Jack. Here are the invites I designed. I couldn't decide which one to use, so I sent a different one to different people.

Do you like my elephant? I drew it from scratch. It's a bit dorky, but I think that's part of its charm (well, that's what I tell myself, anyway!).

This on took me the least amount of time to make and it was very popular (typical!).
I think it's simple, but very effective.

Much to Dave's dismay and my excitement, I've now discovered a love for designing things on the computer. So far I've designed a friend's daughter's birthday invitations and my in-law's anniversary/birthday invitations. I really LOVE it. The last thing I need is another hobby!

Jack at 12 months

Well, it's been a while! I've struggled to get myself organised and inspired to write a new post, especially since returning to work. It's definitely a challenge managing my time!

Jack has changed and grown a lot in the last month. I feel that since he's turned 1, he's started to do a lot more.

Mobility
I thought that Jack would be walking by now, but, no, he's quite happy with crawling. He's not that confident with standing up, let alone walking. The other day he did stand up for 2 seconds, until he realised that he was standing up and then he very quickly sat down.

Having said that, he has grown more in his confidence in using walkers. He was a bit wary of them, especially the one at his grandparents, which moved too quickly and he couldn't keep up with it. But, he's happily moving around with a walker and will find anything to use as a walker.



Sleeping
This has been going well most of the time. Jack has been sick for the last few weeks and in the last few days he's developed a cough, which has affected his sleeping at night. He's been coughing quite a lot at night and so we've not been having very good sleeps. We're all pretty tired at the moment.

There have been some days where Jack has not had his morning nap. Sometimes he has taken too long to go to sleep and we've had to go out in the morning, so I've gotten him up without him sleeping. There have been some mornings where he's slept for 2 hours, so it seems that he does need his morning nap. I'll keep persisting with his morning nap and see what happens.

Signing
In my last post I commented that I was starting to teach Jack to sign 'please'. About 2 weeks ago, I started to get more consistent with it and within a couple of days he signed please! I was very excited. It took about 5-6 days of "intensive" practice before he started to do it consistently. Now he does it every time we say, "please" or when I offer him food and I wait for him to sign please. He even signs please when he wants something, without being prompted. I was so impressed that he learnt to sign pretty quickly. I didn't expect it to be that quick. It's so nice to be able to teach him something and then see him do it.

Playing
As I said last post, Jack has moments when he plays really well by himself and other times he wants to be with one of us. The other day we were on the deck and he was really content playing with a truck. He happily played with it for ages while I did various things around the house. I've noticed that he's starting to play with cars and trucks properly now by pushing them along the floor.

Fine Motor Skills and Hand-Eye Co-ordination
A couple of months ago I gave Jack some wooden rings which all pile onto a wooden rod. He loved tipping the rod upside down so that the rings would fall off, and then he'd play with the rings. He had no interest in putting the rings back onto the rod. But, on the day he turned one, he started to try to put the rings onto the rod and he will often try to do it.

Jack loves to move around the house closing doors (he's inherited his Grandfather's obsession with having doors closed!). He'll play for ages opening and closing the back door. He also has a thing with putting things in and out of other things.

Eating
I've stopped breastfeeding totally now. When I returned to work, I dropped his morning feed and then, when he turned 1, I dropped his late afternoon feed. He has coped really well with this. Now that I'm not breastfeeding, he's eating a lot more at meal time. He'll have 2 wheat-bix for breakfast, which I think is pretty impressive. I've been giving him cows milk at breakfast, but he doesn't seem to be all that interested in it. He's very happy drinking water and he can now lift up his sippy cup and drink from it by himself, which is so much easier. He just has a drink whenever he wants to.

Babbling
His babble sounds are expanding more and more. He's experimenting with the 's' sound at the moment. He'll often shout out, "dad!", for no apparent reason. I think he just likes making sounds.

Cuddles
Another thing that Jack has started to do is give cuddles. He's giving us proper hugs now when he wraps his arms around our neck and shoulders and squeezes tight. He's a pretty affectionate little boy. You know when he's comfortable with someone when he gives them a cuddle. When I picked him up from my parents tonight Jack gave mum a hug and then leaned over for my dad to take him and he gave my dad a hug too. It was really sweet.

Routine
Here's what our days when I'm at home are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

On the days I work:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast (sometimes) go to Granny's or Grandma and Grandpa's
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
4.00/5.00pm - Get picked up by mum and go home (or stay for dinner)
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Jack is 11 Months!

Here are a few photos of our gorgeous boy at 11 months.

Reflections of Weeks 45-48

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote a reflection! Things have been busy. I feel like Jack has developed quite a bit since I last blogged. Jack is 11 months now.

Is is Teething?
In my last reflection I wrote, "I thought he was getting sick as he was really temperamental and crying a lot, he wasn't eating very much, he was having longer sleeps...". Well, it turned out it was teething after all. So, to answer my own question, "Is it Teething?". Yes, it most certainly was. After what felt like a very long week and a very bad day, I couldn't tolerate his delicate state so I went to the chemist and bought some bonjela to see if that helped. It seemed to settle him. So, now, any time he seems out of sorts and upset for no apparent reason (like at 2am), I whip out the Bonjela! Jack opens his mouth ready to receive the Bonjela every time he sees it in my hands. He has 3 teeth now. The top two came down first, followed by one of his bottom ones. I think the second bottom one is close to coming through.

Mobility
Nothing much has changed. He seems to becoming more and more active and more and more mobile. He's forever crawling around, chasing balls, exploring, and going where we don't want him to go! He's very good at cruising the furniture and he seems to be more confident with it. He loves to hold our hands and walk. He's getting really good at this. Occasionally, he'll walk holding only one hand, but he's usually not confident enough to do it.

He's now worked out how to stand up along the kitchen cupboards, which has meant that he's learnt how to open the cupboards. But, luckily (for us!), he hasn't figured out how to move out of the way so that the cupboard can open properly. I don't think I'll be encouraging that little development.

Sleeping
This is going well and things are pretty settled, except for last night when he woke up a few times. His day naps have gone back to being quite long after a period of having short naps.

Playing
During his wake time, Jack has moments where he's really good at playing by himself and he'll happily play with his toys on his play mat. But there are also other times when he just won't stay on his play mat and he'll constantly crawl over to areas where's he's not allowed to go. I get so tired having to chase him around all the time.

Jack has some little wooden cars that he loves to play with. He enjoys putting them in his mouth, looking at them, holding them in his hands, fiddling with them, crawling around with them, dropping them and even using them on their car track.

Fine Motor Skills and Hand-Eye Co-ordination
This has been a big development recently. Jack loves to drop things, especially off his high chair! Usually when he doesn't want to eat something he'll pick it up and deliberately drop it and then look for it. This can be very frustrating. I'm trying to encourage him to put it in my hand rather than on the floor. He'll also spend a lot of time dropping his toys: into a box or a container or just drop them for the sake or dropping them! When he's standing on the edge of the bath I'll give him his bath toys and he'll happily drop his toys into the water (he'll also do this when he's not having a bath and there is no water!).

Jack also spends a lot of time playing with things that have lids. He's fascinated with putting lids on things. His co-ordination isn't yet good enough for him to put most lids on properly, but he still enjoys putting them on and taking them off. If he sees his water bottle and its lid, he'll put the lid on and take it off, again and again.

We thought that Jack was a prodigy the other day. We have a shapes box. Dave gave Jack a shape to put in its hole. Each time Jack was given a shape he chose the correct hole. We were amazed! We thought he was so clever. Until the next time we did it. This time, Jack was choosing the wrong holes. Ha ha! We realised the first time was a big fluke.

One thing that Jack does enjoy doing that hasn't been, funnily enough, encouraged by us is kicking a ball. One day he was watching his Grandad (Dave's father) kick a ball and then when we stood him up he started to kick the ball too. He really likes walking along (holding onto our hands, of course!) and kicking a ball. He's quite good at it too.

Eating
Jack has gone back to eating well again (must have been the teeth). At the moment he's not eating much for breakfast. He'll eat about half of what we give him (and if it's toast, he'll attempt to throw the rest of it on to the floor!). But he eats really well for the rest of the day, especially at dinner.

Babbling
Jack is a real babbler now. I could listen to his babbles all day; they're delightful. He's making so many sounds now. Our favourite is when he says "a-book-a-book-a-book-a". He must be my child! It's really nice when he says "dadda", even though he doesn't really know what it means, and he usually says it when he's playing or talking with us. He says "mumma" a lot as well, but usually when he's upset, tired or hungry.

Signing
I'm trying to teach him some sign language. I'm starting with 'please'. But I keep forgetting to do it. He just looks at my like I'm a mad woman. But, I have to keep persevering with it and be more consistent. I'm also signing 'finished', but I have no idea if the sign is correct. He seems to understand it when we say 'finished' to him when he's finished a bowl of food. Over the last month or so he's been good at letting us know when he's had enough of something or doesn't want it anymore. Usually, it involves pushing our hands away or moving his head away. Pretty clear communication there! He's now started to shake his head when he pushes our hands away. I thought this was interesting as he has only ever shaken his head previously as a game, but now he's connected it with 'no'.

Bath Time
I keep forgetting to mention this, so I'm going to do it now. As I've mentioned before, Jack loves his bath time. He is always really happy and content when he's having a bath. He sits (well, most of the time!) and plays really well. As soon as he sees Dave go into the bathroom to run his bath, he doesn't want anymore food or drink. He wants to hop down and get into the bathroom. As soon as I take him out of his high chair and put him onto the floor, he's off! Crawling as quickly as he can to get into the bathroom. It's really cute. He'll then stand at the edge of the bath and watch it fill up with water, very keen to get in.

He has a few favourite toys. He'll usually have a small green ball in one hand and a washer in the other. He tries to grab other things but then he realises that he has to let go of the ball or the washer, so he goes back to holding his ball and washer. After a while he remembers his little "friend" and that will take preference over the ball :-)

Routine
I've dropped the midday feed, so now Jack's only having two milk feeds. He coped really well when I dropped that feed. I didn't notice any response from him at all. I'll be dropping the morning feed soon. Hopefully that will go as well as the last one.

Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, breakfast, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Making My Own BIBS

My friend, Sam, and I have decided to make our own bibs. I was needing to buy more as a lot of the ones we were given are too small for Jack now. After perusing the shops and seeing how expensive bibs can be (especially the descent ones), I decided that I could make my own. I figured I'd save a lot of money making my own, and I'd have bibs that I would actually be happy with and would fit Jack better.

So, here's one attempt. This is my second design (I'll post my first one soon). I bought some fabric from Ikea (3m for $15) and I used a white towel that I bought from Lyncraft ($3) that I never used. The bib was really easy to make. I've made about 4 now and I've got 8 more to sew. I haven't decided which fastner I like better. I made a press stud one for most of the bibs (as seen in these photos) but I've also made some bibs with buttons. The buttons are cheaper than the press studs and they seem to be a bit more sturdy. The press studs are a little bit more effort to make but they may be less fiddly to use. I'm going to keep experimenting and see what I like best.

Reflections of Weeks 43-44

Jack is 10 months now. Although adorable, Jack is becoming more of a handful, which is to be expected. These last 2 weeks have been a bit up and down. I thought he was getting sick as he was really temperamental and crying a lot, he wasn't eating very much, he was having longer sleeps and he was feeling warm. But, no actual signs of sickness have eventuated. We just have a very "delicate" baby on our hands.

Jack is learning more skills and interacting with us and his environment in a whole new way, which has been really fun. He's imitating us more and more now. When I'm rubbing cream into my hands, he'll copy me and rub his hands. When we clap, he'll clap. He's just starting to wave "bye-bye" now (although it's still very much hit and miss). When I was leaving mum and dad's I was saying good-bye and Jack waved good-bye to them (they were thrilled by that!), as if he does it all the time. I was very surprised. But he hasn't done it since! When I'm holding him and say, "kisses", he bends his head and leans his forehead towards me so I can kiss it (Dave thinks he bends his head down to protect himself from being kissed, but I think otherwise!). He's still shaking his head, which we still find absolutely adorable.

Jack has become really chatty over the last couple of days. He seems to have developed his own language, "gargle-gargle-ga ga-ga-gargle-ga...". When we give him something (a toy, food, etc.), he'll look at it and say, usually very quietly, "gargle-gargle-ga". He also makes other sounds, which seem to mean something as he usually says them to you or in reaction to something that's happened.

Mobility
I've now combined 'crawling' and 'standing' into the one category, to stream-line things somewhat. Jack is VERY mobile now. He can crawl quite quickly and he lifts himself up really easily now. Everything on the lounge chairs, coffee tables, floor have to be picked up and moved out of his reach. All the doors have to be closed so he can't go exploring into things we don't want him to. Jack can also walk assisted. He's pretty wobbly, but he'll happily walk whilst we hold his hands.

As a result of Jack's mobility, he is getting lots of bumps and bruises. He's often falling over and hitting his head on the ground. Usually when he falls, we suck in our breath and wait to see how bad his fall was by how loudly he'll cry. The longer the pause, the bigger the cry. He smashed his mouth on the coffee table the other day. His bottom lip had a nice mark on it and it was all swollen.

Sleeping
Last week, his day naps became shorter, but over the last few days, he's been having huge naps in the afternoon (2 1/2- 3 hours!). He's still having relatively short naps in the morning (he's just woken up now after only sleeping for 30 mins - gotta go!).

Jack's night sleeping is going well. We've had the odd night when he's woken up, but he's still sleeping well on the whole.

Playing
Jack plays really well by himself, but he does like us to play with him more now. He loves to chase a ball (or any other toy that can roll) around the living room. He hits it away and then chases it, gets it and hits it again. He also really loves books. He enjoys playing with them by himself. He particularly likes to turn the pages and lift the flaps on the books with flaps. He still loves being outside (we're outside at the moment). He enjoys crawling around, exploring, and putting things in his mouth. EVERYTHING goes into his mouth! He gets frustrated sometimes when he can't do something that he wants to do. He'll also have a whinged when we thwart him from doing something he was enjoying (i.e. playing with the phone).

Jack still loves bath time. But he tries to stand up in the bath quite a bit, which means that we have to be more 'active' in our supervision!

Eating
Jack's not eating very well at the moment. He will hardly eat any breakfast and he may eat a bit more for lunch and dinner, but it fluctuates. It's a battle to get him to eat more than a few mouthfuls and drink enough water. He'll often cry/whinge whilst he's eating and then refuse to have any more. I'm not sure what's going on. He's usually a very good eater. So, I'm not sure if he's going through a phase or if he's sick. I'm trying to offer him one thing to eat and if he doesn't eat it, I finish the meal, rather than offering him lots of things. He has no problem eating prunes, sultanas, cheese, yoghurt and crackers, and he'll eat them all the time if he had his way! For lunch, he had a few mouthfuls and then had a meltdown. I gave him a breastfeed and then he was instantly happy.

Jack is now at the stage where he'll look down after he's dropped something. Previously, he was oblivious of when he dropped something - totally unaware - but now he looks for the object (or food!) that he's dropped. He'll hang his head over the high chair and say, "ga-ga-gargle". This morning he deliberately threw his food from his high chair. Very annoying. I would have been more cranky if I wasn't already exasperated by his fussing and whingeing.

Is It Teething?
I'm sure this question has popped into your minds, as it has mine. I have often asked this over the last few days. I don't know the answer. His two front teeth are definitely ready to come through. They are bulging and you can see the bottom of the teeth, which look like faint white lines poking through. I noticed a small white fleck on the the right hand side of the lower gum, but I have no idea if it's a tooth or not. I'm hesitate to attribute his unsettle behaviour to teeth as teething seems to be blamed for a myriad of baby-related issues. But, who knows?

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, solids, play
12.00pm - Feed
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Our Little Baby Boy - He's nearly 10 months

Sometimes we find it hard to believe that Jack is our little boy. He is such an adorable little baby boy and we often find ourselves asking, "is he really ours?". After one of his afternoon naps, he was very happy and content playing in his cot. I couldn't resist taking some photos (what a surprise!).