Post birthday mega update

I've felt reclusive over the past few weeks, hence no posts. I think it's mostly to do with the change in season; it's now officially autumn! How can I tell? I'm wearing tights and Isaac is wearing socks, neither of which can be hung outside to dry.

Here follows an Isaac update of mega proportions.

Food

Isaac is doing very well with feeding himself nowadays; he mostly feeds himself with his spoon &/or fork & lets me collate the damage into one final spoonful. It's our little agreement. He eats and loves a wide variety of foods & usually has the same as us, which makes mealtimes very easy, but here are a few of his favourites.

• Breakfast - still whole wheat cereal biscuits (Weetabix type efforts, but not made by Weetabix), home-made hemp milk & a mashed up banana followed by a piece of toast with either pear & apple spread or Natex (like Marmite, not as salty). He's also partial to lemon curd. Mmm...lemon curd...
• Lunch - humous (plain, lemon & coriander, red pepper, sun-dried tomato, roasted vegetable) & mini bread sticks
• Tea - it's a toss up between coconut-cauliflower chana or tofu saag. Yup, I know! The boy loves his spicy food! HURRAY!
• Naughty tea - alphabetti on toast (when Mummy is: Just. Too. Tired.)
• Fruit - blueberries. If he had his way and we were made of money I suspect he'd eat a punnet a day.
• Snack - Organix alphabet biscuits or mini rice cakes (apple & cinnamon or pumpkin & carrot)
• Milk - breast is still best for the Wiggler. We're down to three feeds per day now. 1st - before breakfast upon waking, 2nd - after 1st nap around 11ish & 3rd - before bed. He dropped the afternoon one himself. I gathered he didn't want it when he started to squirm & push away...three days on the trot! I'm not sure what we're going to do about milk replacement. Everyone else I know is moving onto cows milk, but we all know how I feel about that. I've read that almond milk is high in calcium & other vitamins/minerals/fats/proteins so may try that. It's pretty easy to make too, although will need to remember to soak the nuts. He had it before I started to make hemp milk so I know he isn't allergic to it and it's quite naturally sweet anyway. Hmm. *ponders*

 

Mobility

Isaac is well & truly on the move now. He still commando crawls everywhere, but really rather quickly! He's started to crawl on his hands & knees a bit too & sometimes he'll shuffle forwards upright on his knees. He pulls himself up using me & Simon, the sofa & the coffee table. You can tell how high he ventures by which shelf of DVDs is in disarray! 

Play time

Master Chef 2010

He loves playing with his different toys & spends the most time with his wooden ones and the things that aren't created as toys, such as empty containers, kitchen utensils, the telephone, camera battery chargers, spectacle cases etc. He loves things that make noise and enjoys smacking seven kinds of musical s**t of the keyboard. He also likes an app I have on my phone called Toddler Lock. It's basically a black screen on which you draw lines & shapes by tracing your finger on the screen or tapping it. It's good because only an adult or older child would know how to unlock the phone from the app so no deleted stuff! I don't like him using it much & only really use it as a last resort. (i.e.: when I'm coming around in the morning and his toys just aren't cutting it, or when we're out & about & have run out of things to play with, which isn't often as he's so easily amused!

He also loves playing with the dog. He lurches at her to give her cuddles now and has recently learned how to thrown her ball for her to chase. It doesn't go very far, but she joins in and  it's very cute to watch; I think Rinny is warming to him. It freaked her out massively when he started to move and she was very nervous. This created a catch 22 for her because she'd use me for protection, but at the same time Isaac would be using me as a climbing frame! No escape for the pooch. I like to think it's payback for all the times she never lets up with her ball. Revenge, dog, suck it up. 

Of course he loves having play time with Mummy & Daddy, although it seems we start out playing to entertain Isaac & then it turns into us playing & he's buggered off to do something else because he's bored with watching the paper aeroplane/bouncy ball go back & forth for the 80th time. He likes to climb on us and if we roll a ball at him he'll push it back. He also likes bashing balloons around - great fun! 

One of his favourite pastimes of late is taking off & replacing the lids of pens. Felt tips, biros, gel pens...whatever. Any kind of pen. He loves it. Hew also drew his first picture a few days ago. It's really a piece of A4 covered in green squiggles, but it made me proud nonetheless. He didn't even get any on the floor!

He loves swimming and I try to take him when I can. We usually all go together on a Sunday morning for the parent & child session in the teaching pool, but coughs & other activites have kept us away lately. Will see how we all are this weekend perhaps?

Dislike

Isaac really isn't a fan of having is nappy changed any more. I've found that giving him different things to investigate while I do it helps to distract him. I keep a small stash of objects in the drawer under his changing mat for this purpose.

Without sounding smug, there isn't a whole lot else that makes him upset or grumpy, other than being tired  or hungry & no one likes that do they? He's a very happy little chap & we're always complimented on his smile when we're out.

Sleeping

He's been sleeping through for a good few weeks again now. HURRAH! He goes to bed between 7 & 8pm depending on how he is & then wakes between 6.30 & 8am. He still naps twice a day. Times vary, again depending on how he is, but he has a morning & afternoon nap. At one point I thought he might have been gearing towards one big middle of the day nap because he slept for 2 1/2 hours in the late morning, but he's changed his naps so that it now seems to be the afternoon one that's longer. Go figure. Babies toddlers huh?

Misc

I sometimes think I have a mogwai rather than a human baby. The vocal similarities between Isaac and Gizmo are astounding. It's very cute. Then he does he's thrash metal growl and even that is cute.

We still use the carrier. I'm particularly grateful for this as the weather is decidedly more autumnal than summery now, brr! It's different to this time last year because I could put a hoodie over the top of him & the sling & zip it up around us both, but now there's a lot more of him so I usually unzip my sweater & have it on, but open under the carrier. This keeps us both warm & prevents Mummy from passing out through overheating. We shall see how this goes. I've bought him a coat for the colder months & we've still got the special socks to keep him legs/feet warm when it becomes bitterly cold. I shall sincerely miss him when he's too big to be carried, but that's a few years away yet! He likes being able to see everything from my perspective and is interested in it ALL. I would call him nosey, but that isn't the right word. Insquisitive methinks.

"Inquisitive" and pulling himself up, all in the space of 5 minutes!

We still meet up with the NCTs sporadically. It's so lovely to see them all growing and changing & to hear funny parenting stories. The ones that are going have nearly all gone back to work now so it's trickier to have a time when we can all meet up, especially with constantly changing nap times. C'est la vie.

Isaac's got his first real little cold & cough at the moment. I think that nearly 13 months without sniffles is pretty good going really. We've been giving him the Nelson's cough syrup & I've been taking echinacea for mine. Seems to have done the trick with the cough & the runny nosey-ness is clearing up now. It hasn't been traumatic in the slightest and hasn't interfered with food much either. In-fact, it only lasted a few days!

He gets on very well with his sisters and they like him lots too. They came to stay for a week last week while their Mum & boyfriend had a week away. We had a lovely time! I think I was dreading it; weekends are sometimes a strain when it comes to keeping them entertained, but no one was bored and I did lots of stuff with the girls while Isaac napped when we got home from the epic hour-long school run (so called because they live on the other side of Derby from us, but we managed just fine). Roisin started her reception class this year and is making some little friends of her own which is GREAT news. She's only been there a few weeks, but already it's made a hugely positive impact on how she is. Aoife is doing very well in her class, she really is a very bright little girl.

In short, it all going well. We're all poottling along happily. Nothing major to report. Rest assured when something massive happens, you will know!

Master of the Spooniverse

OK, so maybe he hasn't fully mastered the use of the spoon yet. But he's doing a damn fine job of trying!

Last week: a summary

Gosh it's been a week since my last post, and that was a hastily thrown together picture affair rather than a proper post. So. What have we been up to? Well...

Monday

Isaac & I do our food shopping together; he likes to check out new things so I let him explore stuff  from his perch in the trolley while we're going around the supermarket. Today he decided to sink his teeth into a red bell pepper before we got to the checkout! He looked at me as if to say "I know I probably shouldn't be doing this, but what the hey". Who am I to stop a mini-scientist? And besides. Isn't that the cutest little set of bite marks?

We discovered that Isaac is a BIG fan of cherries.

Nom nom nom

And also of eating bits of carpet fluff. Busted!

Tuesday

We went to a soft play with some NCT chums where Isaac had his first ride on a rocking horse! He loved it.

Wednesday

In the mornings after breakfast & while I'm doing the dishes, Isaac likes to drag himself around and discover new things. This morning he particularly enjoyed removing & replacing a cloth from the gap between the washing machine & the cupboard under the sink where we hang the tea towels. I now truly understand the saying "it's the little things".

Thursday

We were going to go swimming, but Isaac decided to sleep from 9.40am - 12.15pm! This meant there was no point us going (the pool we had planned to go to with a friend is about a 20 minute drive so by the time I'd have got him dressed, booby fed, in the car & there the session would've been over as the baby slot was from 12-1pm). So, no swimming last week. Plans? Forgeddabouddit.

Instead we went to clinic and got Isaac weighed. 17lbs 11oz! At this rate he's putting on 1lb a month which is pretty good going. He's still on the chart & doing what the piece of paper says he should. He sat up on the scales this time. I remember seeing other babies do that when I first started to take him to be weighed & I remember thinking "gosh look how grown up they are". Now our Little Man is growing up just like that, but he's still my baby boy...

Happy post-nap baberoo

Friday

Today was the start of the Just So Festival, but more about that in another post. Needless to say it was a totally insane rush to get everything ready & we didn't end up leaving until 3.15pm. Exactly what we didn't want to be doing. PLAN, ORGANISE & PACK THE NIGHT BEFORE NEXT YEAR! Before the craziness started, though, I managed to snap a shot of Isaac doing something he loves which is sharing his food. He really is a very generous child with his munch, despite putting a healthy sized portion away!

Observation

Since Tuesday Isaac's naps have become more regular. He sleeps for 2 hours twice a day with a good 4 hour chunk of day in between. This is great! We do more stuff during the day; he eats a small lunch  at 1 o'clock now instead of getting stroppy & chucking it about meaning he's full after tea and subsequently he goes to bed later (about 8pm) which means...*drum roll please* he sleeps through & gets up later!!! Between 7.30-8am. OH YEAH! I feel like that bit in The Matrix where Neo finally *sees* The Matrix. Lets see how long it lasts....!

Evolution of eating

Isaac, it would seem, no longer wants to be fed with a spoon. He screws his face up and has a little fit. There is a single daily exception to this rule and that is breakfast. He simply cannot get enough of the tasty banana-wheat biscuit-hemp milk combo in his mouth fast enough any other way than if I feed it to him. I guess it's because he's gone without food for so long (i.e.: all night) and he's super hungry by morning time, even with a boob feed at about 5am.

This morning he wolfed down a WHOLE BOWL of the stuff without stopping to whinge once AND THEN ate a WHOLE PIECE OF TOAST too! It was cut into dinosaur shapes, but still. That's some good going for the Wiggler, who usually gets to 2 spoonfuls left & then quits. 

I tried, again, to feed him his lunch, to no avail. He screwed up his face, again. He threw a little fit, again. So. I left him with the bowl and the spoon & went to do the washing up. I look up to see a perfectly contented Little Man playing with spoon & food and later on even eating it!! I think he managed to eat most of it, but it's difficult to tell with vulture hound stalking the underside of his high chair, ready to pounce on any freshly discarded foodstuff. He was happy enough to eat this way and even managed to get some on the spoon and subsequently in his mouth! Excitement!

It looks like a total mess, but it's not. Believe me. This is relatively clean when compared with previous baby led weaning exercises. Anyway, I think he enjoyed himself! And the fact he looks a little like he has food stubble is too cute :-D

Fruity fruity!

Today Isaac had his first taste of nectarine. He used all 4 of his teeth to nash his way through it. He has 4 teeth now by the way; the top 2 came through just before the weekend and now he's onto his next lot. He puts his hand to his gum & grimaces...poor little mite. I don't envy him this pain at all.

Anyhoo, I think he liked the nectarine as he scoffed nearly the whole thing! :-D

Bye-bye Bumbo, hello high-chair!

Until now Isaac has been table top in his Bumbo. This has been great because he wasn't the fastest sitter-upper and we needed uprightness for feeding solids. Having had a relatively cramped meal with the girls this weekend (Simon, me, Aoife, Roisin and my Dad all round the table) we decided it was time for a high chair for our Little Man. I'd been lusting after the (nearly £200 - ouch!) Brother Max high chair for some time, but (after a recent trip to Derby Quad for some food with my Pa and actually successfully using a high chair for the first time) I decided to get the same one they use there which happens to be the rather modestly priced (£10.99) Ikea Antilop. Why? Because it does what it needs to, it's super easy to clean and Isaac stays upright in it.

We think he likes it :-)

Isaac’s new scream, food and family

...of horror? Terror? Pain? A combination of all of the above? Yes that's right ladles and jellyspoons, Isaac is now pooing real grown up poo. Please feel free to stop reading now, I won't be offended. I do, however, feel that I have the right to talk about this subject, at length. This is a baby blog about baby things so...suck it UP! (Not literally, that would be gross.)

So, it's no longer just breast milk he's squeezing out about once every 8-9 days. Nope. He started off pooing after every solid effing meal. Which, by the way, is 3 times a day. I don't quite know how that happened. He got a taste for real food and it fills him up more than my breast milk can I guess. We went from having banana once on Sunday evening to him eating 3 solid meals a day - breakfast, lunch and tea - almost over night. In addition to his regular feeds. WHAT?? The books say to build it up slowly. Slowly my arse. The boy wants food and he wants it NOW!!

He now poos sporadically, but always preceded by the aforementioned scream. Bless him. I genuinely wish there was a way I could make it easier for him to pass the stuff, but I know not how. I think this will be the first of many things I wish I could make easier for him, but what kind of mother would I be if I could and did?

One thing I wasn't prepared for, which I should have been really, was the mess. I'm not even letting him feed himself yet (because he isn't yet upright) and there's mess. Duh - of course there is, he's learning to eat. See left for evidence of said mess - poor Zeb has borne the brunt of a particularly savage sweet potato hit.  I'm surprised by how much I'm not freaking out about future-mess. I'm a bit of a neat geek, but I seem to have been granted infinite patience. I suppose I've been broken in already somewhat by meeting my youngest step-daughter at 9 months. Nappies, feeding, crying for no discernible reason - and not even mine! Was I mad? Possibly. But. They are both wonderful little people who I love dearly.

Aoife, 6, enjoying "The Weezer"

Roisin, 3, slightly mental, but so much fun!

Isaac loves his sisters too. They are great at entertaining him, even if he is somewhat bemused at times!

He had his first bath solo this evening. We usually avoid bathing him when the girls are here because it's just easier, but tonight he really needed a bath. So, I bathed him first in his little seat thing, rather than going in with him. Then we topped it up & the girls had their bath. Worked really well. I now know I can bath him alone with him in the seat and he won't mind - hurrah!

Anyhoo - back to food related business. I've already decided to raise Isaac as vegan. I don't feel I need to justify this to anyone, least it be said I feel he will reap the benefits of an animal free diet particularly healthwise. I'm almost there with the veganism myself, although cheese is sometimes still a hard one, specifically on pizza (a weakness fo sho). I'd like some vegan weaning pointers. All babies are essentially vegan at first, until meat is introduced. This is good. He's already had some lentils and quite liked those. My main query is: what about B12? Where does that come from? I'm not a huge fan of yeast. I've heard that the amount of B12 needed over the course of a lifetime is minimal and having researched it a little, up until the age of 4 children don't even need 1 microgram! How big is a microgram? It's got to be pretty small huh? I think I'm getting a little obsessed. How can I not? He's my little boy. I'm responsible for his well being and this includes a varied and balanced diet, among other things.

Pleh.

I shouldn't try to rationalise anything when my head feels full of cotton wool (for you Yanks) and I have a wad of tissue stuck up my nose to absorb the persistent and unblowable drip.

On that note I bid you an abrupt goodnight; I'm off to take my sweat juice and sleep this mother off.

Weaning in earnest

As the title suggests, weaning has begun in earnest. After my last post I started to um and ah about it again as he is still not yet 6 months.  Despite my indecision I've been buying bits this past week to prepare us for our imminent adventure into the world of solid food. So far we have (as Boots have 3 for 2 on feeding items) Boots weaning bowls - 3 of, Boots soft tipped spoons - 4 of,  Boots cutlery case - 1 of, Brother Max food portioners, 18 of. On order we have Brother Max combi bibs - 12 of and doidy cups - 2 of. We already have one set of Brother Max combi bibs with a crumb catcher for Roisin who, until recently, liked very much to decorate herself with food. Isaac doesn't need the crumb catcher yet so the sharing of bibs is working well, but we certainly need more of them hence the mammoth order!! We also already have a Tommee Tippee beaker thing with spouty thing. I think we'll keep it for out and about & try to use the doidy cups at home. Will have to see how that goes & report back; best laid plans & all that.

Last night was the kick up the florals we needed to decide to get fully on board with the weaning. He wouldn't feed from me properly and was incredibly grumpy. I tried to give him extra feeds yesterday to help him make up what he wasn't getting at night now that he sleeps through, but it didn't work and just buggered about with my milk supply for when he actually wanted it. I should have known to go with him rather than forcing what I think to be best on him, but this is all still new to me so still feeling the way.  Anyhoo - he's  apparently developed quite a taste for banana & devoured 3/4 of said fruit before deciding he'd had enough. Today, as well as his regular feeds, he ate 1 & 1/4 carrots followed by a full milk feed at lunch time and nearly a whole small cox's apple this evening after a full milk feed. He doesn't like avocado, for now. It's a shame about that because it'd be really really good for him, being so full of nutritious fats & all. Might make him less of a skinny bean!

So now he has his own shelf in the freezer

and one in the fridge too.

I seem to have FAR TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS. Well, actually I don't, but I've clearly gone round the loop and have made this.

It is my first attempt at video. Oh the joys of modern technology! ANYONE CAN DO IT!

My goodness. My poor son.

Right, I'm off to bed before I do something else ridiculous.

Hat(s) & food

I saw on From A Sesame Seed that Shiloh has a hat very similar to the pixie-esque one I knitted for Isaac in the final few weeks of pregnancy. I have to admit lack of faith in my knitting skills, being more of a crocheter, and so put it away in the too-big-at-the-moment bag of clothes. While going through said bag today I found the hat and tried it on him for kicks and...it actually fits rather well! Not sure how long it'll fit for, but I'm glad to know that it does. Here it is:

Not everything I make is for Isaac, although it seems that way at the moment...*drums fingers impatiently on table top while still waits for new sewing machine*...

I found some other pictures on the camera while downloading the above image for editing.

Hmm, starting to show an interest in food perhaps?? He doesn't yet try to grab things, but he LOVES to watch the food LOL! Just another little observation. I love watching him change & grow, it really is the best thing in the world! I also love writing about it all because I can look back on things and remember how he was at the time. It all happens so quickly!

I had the most horrible (for me) dream last night. I dreamt that he started to get really skinny and looked quite emaciated. His face was gaunt and almost alien looking. It was awful. I had to give him formula, in my dream, and I can't believe how it made me feel! I felt guilty, sick, disgusted, bitterly disappointed - it was quite harrowing. I clearly remember making up a bottle with the powder and the water and it being in slow motion. I was thinking "I can't believe I'm actually going to give him this stuff, what happened to get to this point?" I woke up feeling terrible and rushed over to see that he was OK. Of course he was, but still. That such a little person can have an enormous impact on me is scary, yet reassuring in a way. I'm quite a detached person (in that I can quite easily remove myself from a situation for reasons of self preservation), but I don't think I'll be able to detach so easily from all things Isaac related, but I guess that's part of our programming, right? Not something I want to override :-)

Please don't take this as an insult if you formula feed your baby. I appreciate that breastfeeding isn't for everyone. We don't drink milk & don't want Isaac to either and aren't so keen on soya formulas so it's boob all the way!