Still not walking

Everything's going really well with our soon to be one year old. He's still happily barking when you ask him what dogs do, he's now started meowing as well which is super cute. And kisses pictures of cats in books - well they are his favourite! hehe Thankfully the screaming NNNOOOOOOOO when he's told no has stopped, didn't like that at all! He's still not walking, just the 4 or so unaided steps that he'll do between Chris and I, which he's been doing for a while. We thought he'd definitely be walking before he turns one, but now it's not seeming so. Even though he's been walking around the furniture and walls etc. since 9 months and walking holding our hands for yonks before that - ah well, you never can predict these things huh? He absolutely LOVES walking and running around behind his trolley, his favourite game is to chase Toa around - so cute!! They play so well together, is gorgeous to watch. They're becoming closer friends every day - gonna be best of friends soon and always together I'm sure. There's probably way more to update on but I just can't think of it right now sorry!

Here are some of the latest photos:
1. Making playdough for the first time, so much fun!
2. Chasing Toa.
3. All tangled in the mosquito net and really hot!

What a great weekend

It was soooo lovely! :) The three of us went out to dinner on Saturday night, to a "real" restaurant. We'd taken him to cafes and the like before but never a real restaurant. Soooo we did and he was just the best :) We went to MKOP in Mission Bay and he had a great time watching all the people and action outside on the footpath below. It's his favourite restaurant now! haha He had a seafood pasta and really loved it, which made me happy (I so don't want him to be a fussy eater like me). It had mussels, scallops, squid rings and all sorts of horrid seafood (well to me anyway!) but he gobbled it all up and really enjoyed it. Yay for him! He also had some of my chicken dish and Chris' duck - loved both of them too. He was so well behaved, drinking his glass of water nicely and not getting food all over his good clothes :) He had a really good time and was so happy. It was awesome! After dinner we wandered down the road to get some frozen yoghurt waffle cones for dessert, really slowly! Caelan walked in between us - everyone eating out on the footpath stopped to watch - it really was VERY cute! Then it was over the road to the park where Katchafire were playing. Caelan was in his element - real, live, loud music to dance to. He loved dancing with the thousands in the park! It was a cute, cute sight - this little bubba dancing in amongst all the big people. Everyone around thought it was gorgeous too - of course! hehe I really wish I had the video camera with us cause it was just adorable. Didn't even have the still camera dammit!

Yesterday was the annual Childrens Day and to celebrate our one we took him to The Teddybears Picnic. It was a really fun day, he took the bear that Grandma made and off we went with our picnic. So many kids and their teddybears all picnicing together - I've never seen that many teddybears in one place! There were heaps of activities for kids like face painting, bouncy castles, rides, games, shows, heaps of stuff happening all day. It was good fun to sit there amongst it all. Caelan's friends Lily, George and Finn met us there too - lotsa fun for all.

Caelan's talking is getting really good now. Over the last couple of days he's "saying" a lot more and really copying everything we say. And we've just noticed in the last few days that he's now saying ta when he wants something and thankyou when he gets it - though the thankyou isn't said properly, it's just copying the sound the word makes but we can tell everytime he does it that it's definitely thankyou. VERY CUTE!!! So along with his "yum" when he's eating something he likes and the others that he's been doing a while we're getting there! Oh and he sometimes will bark when you ask him what dogs do - though this is very hit and miss! And the barks aren't real bark sounds they're done through a closed mouth cause I don't think he's worked out how to do them properly. Still it's pretty damned clever. Oh and another new thing is he will sniff something when you tell him to smell it. It's very funny.

Nearly a year old!!

Holy gamolies!!! We'll be having a 1st birthday party soon. It's nearly been a year since we went into the hospital knowing that our little bubba would be bought into the world. Really doesn't seem like a year ago.

Well it's been a while since I last posted huh? Sorry loyal watchers! hahaha Right - well we still have no walking but we know he stays on these stages a while. He's very fast on his feet and walks everywhere using anything as support. He stands unsupported every now and then for quite a while so the balance is definitely getting better but really no further along since the last post. The main thing to write here is that the sleeping has improved!!! Wahooooooooo! He's back to sleeping through the night again and it's consistently - thank the lord! That was a hideous five months of night-waking. Dunno what started it but it definitely turned into a habit, that was worsened by colds, ear infections, stomach bugs, ear infections, colds, ear infections and ear infections. Soooooo after a long run we're all fixed up. HORRAY! He's due for his next immunisations and I've been putting it off cause I don't wanna wreck the niceness we're having. hehe But I'd better take him next week.

Caelan's such a dancer, just the hint of music and he's dancing away. It's adorable and real funny, he'll dance to Daddy's raps, he dances to Mama's silly songs, dances to ads on TV, dances to his piano, absolutely everything. So cute. He's absolutely LOVING his piano! We got the best deal in the world - were at K-Mart and there was an announcement about a 5 minute sale of damaged goods so we went for a nosy and there was the Fisher-Price Baby Grand Piano which had a sticker on it saying keys 4 & 8 don't work. We had a play with it and it turned itself off every now and then but we decided to get it anyway, Chris said he could try to fix it, it was originally $135.00 and we got it for $5! Yep $5!!! The first thing we did once home was get some new batteries and VOILA just like new! The silly buggers in the shop hadn't even tried that, it was just flat batteries. So we have a wonderful new expensive toy that Caelan LOVES for $5. Best $5 we've every spent. It's so awesome, it has heaps of different songs and sounds and things to play with, it has songsheets to teach them how to play the songs and all sorts. Just the bestest.

Hhhmmmm what else... he has nearly 6 teeth now. I say nearly cause one is only just coming out but it's definitely on it's way. Oh and last night he was super cute - well he's always super cute but last night he did something that really surprised us. He'd gotten hold of some paper and ripped it into a million pieces, no that's not the surprising bit! I was going around picking all the bits up and putting them into his empty dinner bowl so I could take it all into the kitchen, when I got to where he was standing at the coffee table holding some bits he just put his in the bowl for me. It was sooo cute and nearly bought a tear to my eye. hehe He then picked up the next bit and put it in the bowl for me. What a good, good little boy! We've never gotten him to do this before so don't know where it came from. I didn't even think he was watching me do it, I thought he was just playing with the bits he had. He's so lovley :) It must come from putting his toys away in the toybox - we got a new toybox for in the lounge, it's a seagrass chest with a lid which lives under the sidetable. Beats putting them away all the time and then getting them out again! When it's playtime I pull the chest out from under the table and he opens it and gets his toys out to play with, he put's them away again when it's sleeptime. So I'm just guessing the rubbish thing came from that. Or he's just an incredibly intelligent boy - I think that's what it is! :)

PS. I just had to add this after I finished. OH MY GOD CAELAN'S CUTE!!!! He's awake now and I've got him in the office with me, I opened the last photo (below) to show him and he grinned and waved to himself. Soooo cute! Over n' out.


Hanging out on my armchair.


Yum!


See ya!


Out having sushi for lunch - yummy.


War wounds.


Well the one under my eye is from a nasty bit of concrete that jumped up and hit me in the face! Aaaand the one on my cheek is from this evil, scary bedside cabinet that attacked me.

Just photos for now

Just the cutest! That's what I get told allll the time anyway :)


Say CHEESE.


Mama bakes reeeeally BIG cookies!


Don't worry - I can do it.


Hhmmmm, what is this stuff? Can I eat it?


Yeah why not.


That stuff's crunchy!! And not very yummy.


Cool - sand castles.


Gonna get it! Gonna get it!


Daddy dug me a hole and built castles all around me. I destroyed them! FUN!!!


Cooling down In the back yard in a cold bath on a VERY hot day.

Our lump

We went to Plunket yesterday for Caelan's 8-10 month check-up but couldn't do it so he just got weighed. He was 11.5kg and 74cm long. Though we're not certain cause he was too tall for the scales and kept putting his feet on the bench and taking weight off the scales! And he wouldn't keep still while doing his length, little worm kept rolling over and trying to crawl away. The nurse and I decided to give up and guess at it based on what got! At Ascot Hospital at the beginning of his ear infections, their scales said he was 12kg but we know he's lost weight in the last month from not eating with the ear infections. The doctors and our home scales say he's 12kg or just under but I don't think he's 12kg anymore (feels lighter and not as bulky), I think he's probably somewhere between 11.5kg and 12kg.

He's so funny with his clapping, yesterday some people on TV started clapping and he clapped with them - real cute! Also as soon as you start singing "If you're happy and you know it..." he claps when you get to the "clap your hands" bit. Oh AND he's got a toy that says "Bye bye" when it hasn't been touched in a while and yesterday when it said it and I copied (which I always do), Caelan waved. Real cute! Our clever, funny little clapping waver.

There're many annoying things about him now being mobile, as well as many great things, but one of the best things is being able to call him and he comes! I'm sure walking's not too far away - he's up and walking around holding onto everything all the time. Climbed up and was standing against Toa this morning, the bummer is that dogs move! hahaha There was a tumble and a few tears but he wasn't hurt at all, just shocked.

What's new with Mr Poo?

Well he's still got ear infections and that's definitely getting old now!! It's been pretty hard for all of us for a while and due to that I haven't been in the right frame of mind to post anything. And even if I could it would have just been crying and swearing - doesn't make for nice reading! But things aren't so bad at the moment so I thought I'd better update on our gorgeous boy. The bastard ear infections - we had to go to the doctor again at the beginning of last week as he'd gotten worse and had a fever again. Got given a double strength version of one of the first antibiotics he had but by the end of the week he was still visibly sore. So back to the doctor and sure enough infections were still angry, after being on antibiotics since before Christmas and it not doing anything he's been taken off. This makes me a bit happier as I didn't like all that crap being shoved into him for no reason. Sure if it does something I believe antibiotics have their place, but when they're not working it can't be good for you. Especially a little baby. He's scheduled to have hearing tests in February as there's a risk that there'll be permanant damage to his hearing, or speech problems due to not being able to hear properly while his speech is developing. So at this stage we're playing the waiting game and hoping the infection clears up on it's own.

He had his first fall while standing today, he'd pulled himself up against the coffee table while I was getting his lunch ready in the kitchen. He fell and banged his cheek on the corner while falling - poor little boy screamed his heart out and now has a bruise on his cheek. But he's ok - I'm sure there'll be many more accidents now that he's wanting to get up and about. Oh and he's started clapping all the time and thinks it's just so much fun. He waves more now too - not all the time still but it's definitely better than the odd time he was doing it. It's about one out of 3-5 times he'll wave back - sometimes he'll just clap instead! hahaha His favourite game of the moment is chasing his beach ball around the house. He'll whack it with his hand and then chase it giggling his head off - he and the ball end up all over the place, it's really cute. He's climbing up on everything at the moment - us, the stairs (gulp, have to get that gate up tonight!), the couches, the coffee table, the dog, absolutely anything - he'll crawl up to it and use it so he can stand. Oh and for ages we've been saying we need to put his cot down to the next level but due to colds, ear infections, christmas, new year and being slack we hadn't. Well on Saturday afternoon I went in to get him after his nap and hearing him shouting out to us, I found him standing there grinning at me. Holy shit - I nearly died!!! Needless to say Chris put it down while I fed him. Whew!!! Luckily we didn't find him on the floor on his head screaming.

Yesterday we decided to get out as cabin fever was threatening to kill us. We took Caelan to Mission Bay for a picnic dinner of roast chicken and chips. Caelan experienced junk food for the first time - he had a few hot chips and thought they were pretty damned good. I sucked off all the salt before giving it to him and felt ok about it as they weren't greasy at all. But I was so worried that we looked like "those" parents!!! hehe After dinner we were gonna have a little play on the sand and make sand castles but Caelan wasn't feeling the best so we came home, he wasn't interested in playing at all and just cried. His ears must have been sore because the first half of the nights sleeping was shit. Poor little guy was trying to pull his ears off while he cried. Please ear infections go and bring back the full nights sleep!

He's such a good boy though - we've had a breakthrough with the "no" word. He understands and has learned. We decided not to change our house in any way, everything is exactly as it is before he could move. We decided that he needed to learn anyway and it seemed silly to alter the whole house when babies need to learn boundaries at some stage. So that's what we've been doing. The stereo used to be his favourite place, he'd always end up there pulling all the CDs out. Great fun he thought. Well after much persistent and patient no-ing he's learned that he's not allowed to go there and doesn't even bother anymore. It went from always going there and having to say no and actually move him, to him always going there and having to say no and him stop touching, to going towards there and when you say no turning around, now he will look sometimes and remember so not go. What a good little boy! He hasn't been hear the stereo in ages. Brilliant! He doesn't pull the books out of the bookcase anymore either. Oh he's so good!!!

Such a little angel.


Playing with my ball on a hot day. What ginger hair?!?!?!?!


Stay still dog - I'm going over!


Grotty little boy.


Yummy! Chips are good.

ARGH

Spoke too soon again! Caelan didn't seem quite right yesterday, but in the morning I put it down to tiredness, then he was worse in the afternoon. Really upset, couldn't be put down and was in pain. Took his temperature and he had a fever again, it was all too familiar now... Soooo off to the doctor we went and sure enough - both ears had gotten worse again and he was running a fever. Poor little thing. We have stronger antibiotics and more paracetamol - he's gonna be addicted to the stuff soon!! Last night was pretty yucky again - all three of us are sooooo sick of ear infections now as we're into our 3rd week of the same ones! The doctor said that he's seeming like he's going to be a problem ear boy and it "usually, hopefully" gets better by the time they start school but it can go on from there. JOY! He could be fine but he just told us that to prepare ourselves as he said it's not looking good so far. Neato.

A new year

Well Caelan's nearly 9 months old and what a fantastic, trying, awesome, heart-breaking, fun, upsetting, wonderful and hard 9 months it's been! We say goodbye to 2006 and look forward to whatever 2007 throws our way. Our little boy is just amazing. He's been through some shit, my god he's been through some shit!! But he's still such a happy, good natured, fun baby (most times!) - he just the best. He seems to be over the ear infections that plagued christmas and new year ending in burst, bleeding drums - poor wee thing, but he's good now. He's a real little trooper! The Dr was amazed that Caelan wasn't screaming his head off constantly after he looked in his ears, I told him that he definitely had been throughout the sickness! hehe But he's tough, our boy. Another course of antibiotics and he's definitely on the mend now. He's booked in for some testing in 6 months to check hearing etc after such a yucky time with it. I hope it's all ok, no point worrying about it till we know for sure so I'll just forget about it till then. :) Needless to say after taking him to check his ears before going away for New Years and discovering they were worse - we didn't go. So Christmas and New Years just didn't happen this year as planned, but I'd say we'll have to get used to things not going to plan. We have a child now! hehe

Well Caelan's all over the show these days, we never know where he is cause he's crawling everywhere. He's started trying to pull himself up on things but hasn't quite mastered that yet. He's fine holding himself up against things and walking around carefully holding on - but I think he thinks he can do it all and just lets go. Funny boy! He closes his eyes real tight when he realises he's gonna fall and waits for the impact. It's so cute. Oh and he run real fast!! When we hold his fingers he loves to run everwhere fast - it's sooooo cute!

His vocabulary his HUGE! He prattles in his own laguage constantly and makes real sentance sounding things - though of course nobody but him can understand them! He knows Mama is me and Dada is Chris and he can say water and cat - though quite odd sounding! But he knows what he's saying and what they are so that's pretty cool. He tries to say dog as well but it just comes out as da - not really there yet!

He's way more cuddly now since getting the ear infection - it's soooo lovely. Shivers gotta go, he's awake and needs tending to!

Merry?? christmas

What a first christmas!!!! Caelan's been sick with a yucky cold for a couple of weeks now and it all got much worse last Thursday night - he literally didn't sleep all night. It was horrible. He was in really upset and seemed to be in so much pain and nothing could help him, we just held him while he cried all night. At 3:30am I told Chris to go into the spare room to try and get some sleep cause he was working the next day. He felt really horrible leaving us but did, otherwise he just couldn't have coped on Friday. He got a couple of hours sleep while I sat with poor Caelan and at 6am he came and took the crier for while so I could have a break before he left for work. What a looong hard day for all of us! Poor wee one finally went to sleep at about lunchtime. We had Chris' family chirstmas dinner at our place that night so I had lots of cooking and stuff to do - dunno how I did it?! Auto-pilot's a great thing - it got both Chris and I through the day. It was a lovely night, even though we were zombies - sorry everyone!! But we both really enjoyed it, it was nice to do something normal and hang with family. The nice evening was followed by another yucky night, though nowhere near as bad as the night before, probably due to exhaustion of the short person! While Chris was at work on Saturday (the world just isn't a fair place is it?!?!?) Caelan got worse and was burning up, he continued to get worse so we took him to Ascot Hospital A & E in the afternoon to discover VERY, VERY angry infections in both ears. Poor boy! We left with antibiotics, paracetamol and a temperature of 39 that we needed to get down. So christmas was cancelled this year, he was just too sick. We couldn't go up north to spend christmas with my family - bums, I really wanted him to spend christmas with his 96 year old Great Grandma. Ah well, shit happens! It's been a blur of sleepless nights and a mostly unhappy bubba. Bit sad for his first christmas but there'll be many more and we'll make up for it next year, when he's old enough to really enjoy it. So Merry Christmas - I don't bloody think so! hehe Nah, seriously though, it's been ok - he's heaps better now and we were together, that's all that matters really!

6am christmas morning - Mama and Daddy sure were excited!

Underwater bubs

George and Caelan at swimming on Saturday.

He crawls! He crawls!

This morning he actually crawled and it wasn't just one or two steps before flopping onto his belly like he has been doing. This was real crawling, though it was pretty damned jerky and stompy looking but it was crawling none the less. I was sitting on the floor wrapping pressies for his cousins and he really, really, really wanted to come over and check them out. 'Well I'll just crawl then' he musta thought and crawl he did. He went for a good little distance too - about the length of my whole leg from toes to hips. Then I made him do it again. Just to make sure! hahaha So FINALLY he crawls. Gawd it's bin a long time coming, just went through posts to see when it all started. He was getting up onto his knees at nearly 4 months and then doing the rock and going backwards at 6 months and now actually crawling at 8 months. That's 2 months to get to the next stage each time - crickey that's a long time huh?!! LOL But he crawls :)

Saved our sleep

The following post was written yesterday (Sat 09.12.06) but Blogger didn't want to know about it (think it was down). Yesterday was soooo much better! We might just be damned close to breaking this habit by gum. He was a delight - went to sleep immediately as soon as I put him in bed for his first sleep yesterday, without a peep I tell ya! Second sleep he talked to himself for a wee while and then went to sleep - no crying, no screaming, no fuss! At bedtime last night he cried for less than a minute and then to sleep. HOLY GAMOLY!! This is freakin marvellous and totally thrills us. Horray. It's been hard but Tizzy, we love you. So it's back to being strict again and sticking to his routine and really enforcing things we'd decided were important to us right at the beginning which we'd been letting go if they didn't happen. I think we'd gonna a bit too comfortable and secure and thought "We've done so well, our baby is great and sleeps wonderfully" and let things slide a little and just let things happen that we weren't entirely happy with but though 'Oh he'll be right'. Well we learnt the hard way that he wont be right! So at 8 months and 2 days old we dont wanna chuck him away!! It was a different story when he was just 8 months old. hehehe

UPDATE (written today - Sunday 10.12.06): Last night was a bit yucky on the sleeping front. We went out to a christmas dinner and called Chris' parents at 11pm to see if everything was ok and whether they'd be ok with us being out another hour. Well the wee one had been screaming for about half an hour, so we came home and as soon as I heard the screams I knew something was up. It wasn't his usual 'I'M A POOBUM' screaming, it was really frantic and definitely sounding like the 'HELP ME! SOMETHING'S WRONG!' screaming. So I rushed up and found him on his tummy, trapped in his cot. Poor wee thing! Silly boy, don't know how he did this cause he sleeps in a sleeping bag at night to avoid it, and up until this point it's stopped him from being able to. Bummer, so now he can and we have to watch for this in the night sleeps as well as the day. Dammit. It took quite a long time to calm and fall asleep but I got to sleep at 1:30am to be woken by the little snot at 5am - he screamed for about 45 minutes but fell asleep. Horray! We're all mighty tired here today but it's a pretty normal feeling thanks to our gorgeous little boy.

He's soooooo active these days. All over the show and getting places pretty damned quickly and LOVING being able to do this. Though still no real crawling but by jingos he's pretty damned mobile all the same! It's feeling like crawling is gonna happen soon - though we've thought that since he first got up on his knees at about 4 months! haha And then again when he started rocking and going backwards at 6 months! haha So who knows when he'll crawl really.

We've got a BBQ with all his friends from coffee group this afternoon. That'll be heapsa fun! Must remember to take the camera. Right - off to have a wee relax with my green tea and husband before he wakes.