Santa and Alex - the difficult years

ho ho NO!!!!

Last year Alex was new to the world and everyone was new and strange, so a man in a red suit and big bushy beard was no big deal. Next year, perhaps he will be more comfortable, maybe even excited about this jolly fellow and his promise of presents and cake and reindeer led fun.

This year, well, things didn't go quite so well.

 It seems Alex didn't fully appreciate the swarovski crystal display, the over priced Santa and the fact that it's the first year the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney has hosted a Santa and the queue after we left was over 3 hours long!

 No... He just wanted out of there.


      

 Other Christmas themed events were more successful, like the daycare Christmas party from which I've posted a video below. He didn't exactly sing along to jingle bells but there's definitely an enthusiastic foot shuffle going on.

 

Will post photos of actual Christmas day and some of Alex's favourite presents, or at least his favourite wrapping paper soon....

little Hendrix

Bubbles bubbles bubbles updated

It seems like such a long time ago that we posted this little video of Alex - not even 3 months old - enthusing about these little soapy spheres of fun.

So here is an update, 15 months later... not much has changed

An offering to the kitchen gods

Not exactly a premium offering...

When we first moved into this flat in Sydney Alex's FAVOURITE place to 'hang' was the kitchen. More specifically he would pull himself up using the oven door handle and, quite literally hang off the oven.

Recognising that we would need to actually use the oven occasionally the next thing us responsible parents did was go out and buy a safety gate so little hands couldn't burn themselves on aforementioned oven door.

Needless to say this didn't go well, and it goes even less well if both mum and dad find themselves in the kitchen with Alex outside.

Recently he has tried a different tack. Whenever I'm in the kitchen for more than a few minutes he starts to bring me presents. I
like to think of them as offerings to the kitchen gods, in the hope that one day the magical gate will open and let him in to experience the wonder and general fabulousness that awaits within.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Sydney

techno baby

Here baby Alex, all of 16 months, demonstrates his expertise with the iPad at a cafe in the Blue Mountains this weekend. Notice the concentration on the little man's face, and the ease with which he navigates his way around the touch screen.

If the camera had still been running you would also have noticed the tears ad we took it away from him because lunch had arrived.

Toddler fond of throwing his food + expensive gadget = I don't know but I wasn't going to find out.

We will soon be confirming Alex's hourly IT and technical support rates - special deal for family, friends and blog followers.

Do these groceries seem heavier than usual?

shopping in style

I know what you're thinking, no blog update for over two weeks and this is the best you can do? A photo of baby Alex, sitting in my shopping cart in our lounge room. Well - I'll tell you this.

No.

That's not the best I can do.

The best I can do is give you a video of Alex in my shopping cart, being dragged around the lounge room by his dad.

So there!

Attack of the tickle monster

Just located, some very rare footage of the little known but much reviled 'tickle monster'. As you can see the footage is a little shaky, no doubt the camera(wo)man got a little concerned for their safety during the attack.

Baby steps

For once the heading for today's blog entry isn't some kind of witty double entendre, clever analogy or play on worlds. I'm literally talking about my baby's steps. And he's taking more of them every day. In fact the video here is not that impressive but I've managed to not have my camera around every time he actually takes his multiple baby steps across the lounge.

I didn't think I was all that keen to see Alex walking. I know that once he walks it's just a matter of time before he's running and that's a whole new world of trouble. He took soooo long to finally start crawling that I decided not to stress about this particular milestone. And I haven't to be honest, I still enjoy watching his little toosh wiggle from side to side as he wonders off to explore the uncharted depths of bathroom or chase animals in a park and I figure he'll walk when he's good and ready.

Judging by the last couple of days he's getting close to ready and I''m very excited. He's just so proud of himself when he makes it from the chair to the coffee table or from his mum to his dad, he even gives himself a little clap to recognise the effort.

Sunday's effort -  we've been making progress by moving the coffee table further away...

and aren't we proud of ourselves!

More assisted walkies

Progress on the walking/pushing front...

On the move... sort of

A present for mum on his birthday

Alex turned 1 today - can you believe it? I can't, in fact I think I'll continue to deny it and call him 'my baby' for at least another 7 years.

So far we have spent most of his birthday on Skype. In fact, I think that is what Skype is specifically designed for, grandparents, great grandparents, aunties to wish happy birthday to their respective grandkiddies, nephews etc.

And generous soul that he is, Alex has given his mum a present on his big day. He's been asleep for almost 2 hours this morning - and those that know him will know that this is an incredibly rare event. In fact I've done all my morning jobs and admin and don't actually know what to do with myself now, hence the blog update.

Chatting with Aunty Sian & opening presents

And can I just mention that in the video above, Alex is chatting to his great grandma and other family in Florida. Great grandma has very recently acquired her own skype account. If anyone tells me that technology is all bad I say... 'bah'.

Chasing ducks

watch out little feathered friends

Such bad blog admin, I've just realised that I never posted the video of Alex chasing the ducks at McLaren Falls back in New Zealand. It feels like a million years ago now but it's nice to look back and remember a less busy time... Personally I think Alex gave up the chase a bit to quickly (I think it was the gravel path that scuppered him).

More up to date news soon... I promise.

Learning to share

Try this for me will you Dada?

I'd like to claim credit for Alex's new found fascination with sharing. "Of course, we are a very generous, caring, sharing family, so it's only natural that the youngest member of the family has a natural instinct for these things" I might say ... except we really haven't done anything, and it's not like he's desperately sharing his toys with any little person who walks past.

No this sharing phase is mostly about food. He loves to take what ever he's eating and carefully plonk it in the mouth of anyone in reaching distance. I admit, it's very cute (see the video below) but now he does it with every meal - to the point where the family have become his unofficial taste testers. Lucky he usually eats whatever we're eating so I'm not having to develop a taste for apple, pumpkin, prune and chicken mush. Another thumbs up for this baby led weaning business.

At last

They said it should have happened by now... we feared it might never happen

They said we should try and 'encourage him'... we said 'sure... how do we do that exactly'?

We introduced him to another baby who was very good at it

We used balls

We used rattles

We used cats

We used relatives on skype

then finally... on January 24th 2011...

Our little man crawled!!!!

And here's the video evidence

watch out world...especially drawers, cupboards and low lying appliances

Rolling Rolling Rolling or Attack of the giant baby

This video demonstrates the refined and relatively effective technique baby Alex's has developed for getting around. Beware anything that gets in his way, being it an innocent duck or mum and her camera.

 

Backyard tradition

A few days ago Alex got to experience the ancient New Zealand tradition of sitting naked in a big shell filled with water in the backyard. Did the young man enjoy, and fully appreciate the significance of this important occasion? See the video to find out.

Outstanding

In the past week we've at last seen a real interest in moving around from our little 8 month old, and not before time. Not content to move in the traditional, and some would argue, more effective baby moving method i.e. crawling Alex has decided to roll everywhere. This works fine when the object of desire is to the side of him but presents some challenges when it's say... directly in front but just out of reach. He manages pretty well all things considered.

He's also keen to stand at every opportunity and holds himself up on the sofa pretty well. Here he is showing off for the camera.

Showing his loyalty

Yesterday in a fit of enthusiasm I attempted to bake some healthy scones, all wholemeal flour and no sugar etc. etc. Let's just say they didn't quite work out, unless you were looking for a small wholemeal weapon or an unattractive paperweight.

This morning at breakfast I discovered the true loyalty of our 7 month old baby boy. Disinterested in his strawberry and banana breakfast I thought I'd see if he fancied a nibble on one of the aforementioned rocks... i mean scones, soaked in tea to be slightly edible. Well, the enthusiasm was enormous, in fact when he discovered his piece of scone had fallen from his hand he was visibly upset. My heart did swell.

The video below shows a dedication to him mother's cooking well beyond the call of duty!

Playing with your food

Master Butler is the youngest in our little mothers group, by almost a month. Normally it doesn't make a difference as all the babies are developing at their own pace. We already have a crawler, an expert roller and a master bouncer but now I'm feeling a bit left out because all the babies have started on proper food.

At first I wasn't looking forward to the idea of dealing with actual food instead of simply putting a boob in his mouth at the first signs of hunger, but now, watching the other babies with their puréed vegetables and finger food I'm kind of envious. I've been reading a book on Baby Led Weaning (yes, my life is that exciting) which as far as I can tell involves skipping the purée stage and giving your bubba a variation on whatever you're having... that's assuming you don't live on burgers and fried chicken for three meals a day.

Anyway, I have decided to give it a go as it seems to make some sense and looks like fun, hopefully it also encourages us to be more healthy and creative in the kitchen.

The other day I couldn't resist and gave Alex a raw carrot just to see what he'd do with it, judging by his enthusiasm in video below he shouldn't have too many problems when we get the 'solids' phase.

bubbles bubbles bubbles everywhere...

How lovely is this little video of Alex enjoying the bubbles in our flat? It certainly helps that his dad knows what he's doing with a camera.

Not quite so fun was the sticky floor in our living room for several days afterwards...the price of art!