A new blog

Hi everyone,

I won't be updating this blog anymore, but I will leave it here for until I can work out if there is a way to merge these posts with my new blog.

The new blog is called 'Catch the Clouds' and is about anything and everything - but still mainly about my boys!

I just think it is going to be easier to update one blog, rather than trying to keep up with two.

Hope to see you over at the new blog.

Trace

16 Months

Second child syndrome must be setting in already... I can't remember the last time I posted a proper end of month update for Sam.

He are a variety of photos taken during January. From the cheeky little boy who loves to do whatever his brother does, including eating at the 'nee naw' table (ie think of the sound that a fire truck makes, this is a fire station that converts into a table and chair).
There is a photo taken at Queenscliff when we went to look at the old steam trains there. Josh got up there, so of course Sam did too! Then he wouldn't come down until Kel had to get up there and grab him. In the middle we have a photo at the beach. I think he ate a lot of sand that day... and ended up very wet (even though he was only supposed to be wading up to his knees). The next photo is his first time getting his face painted - what a scary clown! Then there is another pram photo, followed by eating icecream at Torquay! What a mess he made - but he loved every second of it.

Every night I sing Twinkle Twinkle to Sam... it is the first tune that Tad plays. Sam has even learnt how to do all the actions, including blowing a kiss at the end of the song! (Well I do the kiss, he does the blowing!!!)

We have been very lucky that Sam is still having two day sleeps... the first one is usually about 9 or 10am, the other one at about 3 or 4pm. We give him his bottle and he walks around to say good night to everybody (which involves tilting his head toward them waiting for a kiss). When he wakes up it's his job to crawl under the cot to find his empty bottle, then he goes and puts it in the sink! He is a very tidy boy (I don't know where he gets that from!!). He is always getting paper towel to wipe up any spills.

We have been having a yukky time with teeth lately. It took a while to realise what the problem was. Sam kept waking up in the middle of the night crying. He just lay there wimpering, and I would tuck him in and put Tad on and he would go back to sleep for a little bit. Then it would happen again. I gave him Panadol, which seemed to help. It wasn't until yet another wake up that Kel decided to put teething gel in, and that is when he felt a tooth. It is up the top on the left hand side. Then the next time he woke I put some more gel in, and I felt another tooth, this time on the right at the back, and also another one on the left near the front. So poor Sammy has been getting three teeth at the same time - including two molars!!! No wonder he was miserble and clingy and wanting cuddles all the time.

Oh and I almost forgot.... he can talk!!! He just doesn't want to... or need to, most of the time! We have been trying to encourage him to say ta when we give him things, but lately he just shakes his head when we do that, and then asks for it again (by putting his hand out). There have been a few times when we have caught him off guard, and he has answered us with a very clear 'No'. One time was "Do you want to go on the naughty mat?". The other time was a bit strange... he must have been having a bad dream, and woke up screaming, followed by a very loud and clear "No". Kel even thought it must have been Josh who said it because it was so clear.

We have also noticed lately what a little temper Sam has. If he doesn't get what he wants he throws himself to the ground and cries. Today he even started banging his head on the ground. If he is in his highchair he gets his fork, or his bowl or anything he can grab and throws it to the floor.

Well that is Sam at sixteen months. I can't believe that he will be turning two this year!!!

Sam's Second Christmas

For Christmas this year, it was still hard to know what to get for Sam. He plays with a lot of Josh's toys.

In the end, he got a fold out couch of his own, a little electronic piano (that plays frogs croaking as well as music), new shoes (always a hit with Sam!), a Tad frog of his own (though it has been updated now, and I like Josh's version better). A Little People farm set and matchbox cars (also another hit there).

In the end, Josh was playing with Sam's toys a lot!

Other things he got were a little ride on bike that converts to a rocking toy, a cookie jar shape sorter, a bag of sand toys, some books and clothes.

Sam was right into unwrapping presents... pulling off a little piece of wrapping paper at a time. It took him ages to open each present! And the Santa Sack didn't hold his attention long... we actually found some presents still in the bottom of the Santa Sack about a week later!

A few things you may not know about Sam

Sam loves Post Man Pat on tv. He really doeesn't like Santa! (He did a death grip on me when we entered Santa's cave). He loves going in the rocking car and rocking slug which we have in the shed now. He loves the sand pit and could spend ages there. He loves baths. He loves animals - and is not scared to go up to Eddie and push him off his bed (and Eddie knows who is boss and lets him!).
He loves socks and shoes - probably because they mean we are going outside!
He loves wearing hats and playing peek a boo when they are too big for him.

He can show you his belly if you ask.

He does a lot of grunting, and not much talking... but we still get what he means.

Thirteen months (and a bit)

I have been slack, slack, slack!

I missed the thirteen month post... and have almost made it to fourteen months!

Sam is such a clever little boy... he is picking up new things every day.

He can point at the cow on his wall when you ask him, he points to his mouth, he can let you know when he wants a drink, or wants to get up, or get down. He blows bubbles in the bath (with his face in the water!). He doesn't really say much in words, but he can still let us know what he wants. He does say mumma and dadad and bubub. He waves every time he sees the cats (because that is usually when I let them outside in the morning.

He loves stealing sultanas from my breakfast in the morning. Actually he is a lot like a seagull when anyone has food that he wants.

Ouch

28/10/07 (Yes I am actually typing live this time!!!)

Sam's dressing came off only after a day or two. But it looked like it was healing nicely and sealed with a scab. Then he was chasing Josh down the driveway and fell over and (you guessed it) fell splat on his head. The wound had opened again and was bleeding. It wasn't too bad though. A bandaid helped to cover it. Then about half an hour later he fell over again, onto his head, and it started bleeding again...

And then in the bath tonight it got wet and started bleeding again!

We need a crash hat, some cotton wool, padded walls and a baby walker and then maybe he won't fall over again!

Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks...

In summary... a trip to Torquay beach, Werribee Zoo (the pram photo), putting the picnic baskets away from Sam's birthday party, and a photo taken today in the backyard (in the car).

It's started already!

22/10/07

Yesterday morning started like any other... Josh playing with his track, Sam trying to get into his room, Josh cracking it with Sam and slamming the door and locking him out of his room. Only this time Josh opened his door again and (I'm assuming this bit) pushed Sam who (I'm guessing) hit his head on the corner of the wall. I was in the kitchen at the time and in the 5 seconds it took to get to the hallway there was blood everywhere. His head had split open on the right hand side of the forehead. I told Josh to go and get Dad. Apparantly this translated to "Get up Dad, Sam's bleeding, I need a paper towel". We went down to the local doctors and were taken to the emergency/treatment section. Luckily Sam wasn't upset, and was even smiling at the nurses. We had to wait about an hour before we saw a doctor. And then three turned up! Luckily he didn't have to have stitches. We had to wrap him up in a big sheet to hold his hands down and keep him still. Then they held the wound together with steri-strips and glued his head together!

He is fine now, running around and playing like there is nothing wrong.

The one year results are in!

We had our 12 month assessment at the health centre. In the red corner, weighing in at 10.6kg with a length of 76cm and a head circumfrence of 48cm we have Sam the Maximus!

He is doing great, doing all the right things. He has finally started to get that eighth tooth down the bottom, so it will look a bit more even soon!

He already likes to be a helper. I have been going through the bags of hand me down clothes in his cupboard. I take a top and put it into his drawer, he picks it up out of the drawer and puts it on the floor!

Our cheeky little one year old

Its that time of year again! Footy grand finals, Melbourne Show, the beautiful, sunny spring days... these are all things that take me back to the days leading up to Sam's birth.I loved eminiscing... thinking back... "this time last year I was watching a movie, and secretly recording how far apart the contractions were", "this time last year we were just about to head off to the hospital" (yes we were up at that time - getting ready for the party!). Then waking up in the morning and thinking "this time last year I was starting to push', and then a couple of hours later "this time last year I was STILL pushing" and then "this time last year he was born!". And remembering the little sheep like cry that he had!

I rewound the home video back to the first footage of Sam, the day he met Josh. It was amazing to see this tiny baby, making the smallest of movements, a little tongue poking out, eyes looking to the sides, fingers moving slightly. And comparing to now!!! A little boy who is always on the move (usually to where ever I am), who can understand what we are saying, and can tell us in his own way, what he wants (usually with a lot of grunting and reaching).

Sam woke up at 6:30am, and we had to wait until 7:30 for Josh to wake up to start the present opening. The first present that Sam saw was his train ball pit. We set it up the night before, and I had to keep reminding Josh that it was Sam's, not his! We dropped in the 50 balls that came with it, and couldn't believe it! They didn't even cover the floor of the train. Lucky we had another 200 balls from Josh's ball pit tucked away in the cupboard! Sam LOVED it! Actually, we couldn't get him out of it to open the other presents! We also gave him an Amazing Animals train. Josh picked out a giraffe toy that you pop balls in it's mouth and they come out the bottom(!). Oh and we almost forgot the Sam CD that we got. It has songs with your child's name in it. It was a bit strange to hear the Sam version, when we were so used to hearing the same songs with Josh's name in it!

Sam had a morning sleep, while we got ready for the party. We had a Teddy Bear's Picnic theme for Sam's party. Even before he was born, I knew that I wanted to attempt the 3D teddy bear cake that I had seen on the Internet. We planned for a picnic in the park... but the weather had other ideas! A quick call to Lisa and Laura (who live right near the park) for a Navan Park weather report told us that we were going to have to change plans... and quickly. It was just too windy! A mad rush of text messages and phone calls, followed by a mad rush to clean up the house and we were ready for the guests to arrive. Sam had even obliged by having a nice long sleep until about 10:30am.

The teddy bears had a picnic in the lounge room, the humans had a bbq lunch under the pergola. The actual party seems like a big blur to me (I will have to check the video to see what actually happened!). We got some great items for Sam's time capsule, including letters, poems, a copy of The Australian Car Buyers Guide 2007, a copy of Rolling Stones, a recording of Playhouse Disney and a 5 inch floppy disc. I can see that one being very interesting on Sam's 18th birthday... we will have to try and locate a computer that has a floppy disc drive. Even now, most computers do not have one! I think they are already more obscure than a record! To think that they only hold 1.44MB, compared to a CD - ??? & a DVD ???. My iPod holds 4GB and that is considered small now. There are not many files these days that will even fit on a floppy disc! Anyway, I am getting a little off track here! Back to the party...

Sam was spoilt with lots of presents, he just couldn't cope with opening them all at the party, so we left them til after his afternoon nap. That means a lot of people didn't get to see him open presents... so I am sorry about that. I know that it can be great to see people open the present that you bought for them. He got some clothes, a Finding Nemo dinner set, an alphabet puzzle, hand made puppets, a caterpiller pull along toy, a train beady toy, a teddy bear, another carriage for his Amazing Animals train, bath toys, a truck, a Teddy Book, a hand made beanie.

Look at all these presents!
Me and the boys!
Josh - sprung with cake!

The funny hat family

And now to talk about the cake... I was really happy with the end result! I think it looked great, and it really wasn't that hard! I just hired the 3D teddy tin, made the cake, and iced it with a special tip that makes grass, or in this case, teddy fur! Just one minor detail... the first cake I made - a caramel mud cake - was a bit of a disaster! Two packet mixes at $6 each, and my teddy came out looking deformed! He had no feet! I kind of forgot that mud cake doesn't rise... so it wasn't quite enough mixture. So I had to madly rush about making another one, this time a madiera cake. Luckily I started the cake on Friday morning! The caramel mud didn't go to waste though - I just chopped it up ready to dish out. And it was delicious!I think the best compliments I got were when guests arrived and walked right past the cake not even noticing that it was a cake! They thought it was a teddy bear!

My favourite photo - brother love.
Josh had just blown out the candle, and I think Sam was in awe!
Sam got to have a little cup cake all to himself. He sucked on it for ages!
He must have wanted it to last!

One thing that I noticed was the comments about Sam's walking. To me it seemed that he had been walking for ages, but even Aunty Kel who only saw him five days earlier said that he was walking heaps better then the last time she saw him. He is a man on a mission now! He will still start crawling if he is in a hurry, but most of the time he toddles along. And if he can grab
somebody's finger to take them for a walk he can really get up a head of steam!

I don't know who had more fun at the party - Josh or Sam... and it seems that Josh is spending a lot of time playing with Sam's new toys... but we all had a great time. And we can't believe that it has been a year already!

Just over a week to go

One week and two days and Sammy Boy will be turning ONE!!!!

Thought I had better hurry up and post the 11 month photo! But that is what life is like at the moment, a blur! Time seems to go so quickly.

Yesterday was a big day in Sam's life... because I am going to count that one as the day he started to walk. Last time I said he could do a record of three steps, well now we are losing count. And he will just start walking all the time now, and stand by himself without even thinking about it.

I did get a little bit of photo of him walking last night... its not great quality... I might try to get something better another day.

Oh and he can clap now, with his hands! It is issued more as a demand though - clap clap - hands up in the air (as in "pick me up").

11 Month Photo

11 Months

Wow... 11 months. Time to get my butt into gear!

It is September again, the wisteria is just starting to flower again, Spring is in the air!
It is a great time to play outside. That is why I hope that Sam starts to walk real soon. We take him outside and he always ends up in the swing while we do the gardening or hang the washing.
He used to love the swing, but even he is getting fed up with it now.
I even let him play in the sand pit the other day. He absolutely loved it! It was just the constant "no Sam you can't eat sand", "spit it out Sam, that's yukky", got a bit tedious after a while.

We went on a few play dates in the last couple of weeks. It was good for Sam to play with some kids closer to his own age. I guess that's the thing with being the second baby... most of your 'friends' are three year olds! His friends are three months older than him and already walking up a storm. So I think that has really motivated Sam, because he got really adventurous the other night and took a few tentative steps!!! You should have seen the look on his face! He was so proud. He just knew that he was doing something clever.
The record so far is three steps before he falls in a pile of laughter.

Oh yeah and I have been told that he is looking older now (see I can't notice these things - I see him every day!). His hair is getting longer at the back, and yes it has the dreaded curl!

On the teeth front - we now have a total of seven teeth! Four on top and three on bottom.

A new trick that Sam did tonight... I told him to clap... and he did... with his feet!!! And yes, he thought that was very funny! He can't clap with his hands yet but.

What else? He loves looking at the fish tank, he cracks up at the cats, he likes to follow you into the toilet, he has become a real mummy's boy, he likes to drink out of Josh's straw cup, he loves having a bath, he talks on the phone to me at work, he puts his hand up to his ear and pretends to talk on the phone, he loves car keys, remote controls and mobile phones (but I think all babies do!).

His current routine is to go to wake up some time between 6:30 and 7:30am. Then he has a breakfast of toast, or weetbix or baby muesli. He is back to bed at 9am with a bottle. He wakes up some time between 10 and 11, then its lunchtime. This could be anything from left over veggies, to baby food, to yogurt. Back to bed with a bottle at about 1pm. Then he wakes up between 2 and 4pm. At 6pm if I am working the boys come down to the train station to meet me. Kel says that about this time Sam starts sooking, like he knows that I will be home soon.
Then I give Sam his dinner which could be anything, similar to lunch. Lately he has been having a bath with Josh, then a bottle and into bed at 7pm. He usually wakes once during the night at about 1am for a quick bottle and nappy change (but I am hoping to wean this one real soon!).

Ten Month Photos

Ten months (a bit late)

Sam is definitely a baby on the move now. He loves getting into mischief... and if he disappears for a second a few of the places he might turn up include the bathroom (standing against the bath), Josh's room (the track wrecker) or standing up and looking into the fish tank.
Sam had some rough nights in the past week and we found a tooth coming through on the top. Finally some more teeth to even out his mouth! I was beginning to think that he would only ever have two teeth! And those two teeth are huge now. So we started doing the teething gel and pain relief thing to try and help him sleep a bit better. It didn't seem to be helping though. That is when I noticed last night that he has a tooth coming through on the bottom too! Poor bugger has two teeth coming at the same time... and we had only been putting the gel on the top gum.

Sam is being a very clever boy and sometimes stands for a couple of seconds without holding onto anything! Usually when he forgets and gets distracted by something. And he is finally getting the hang of crawling properly, but will still commando crawl when he wants to get somewhere fast!

The photo proof

I got into a black and white photo mood last night.

Gee it is hard getting Sam to sleep when he just wants to stand up all the time! He has hit his head so many times... but he is finally learning how to fall with grace!

It's started!

Sam has started pulling himself up on things... and I can see that it won't be long before he starts cruising.

I put him to bed tonight and a little bit later he started crying. I got his bottle ready and his crying was getting worse and worse. I finally got to his room and open the door to see my baby STANDING UP IN THE COT!!!

It was kind of funny... he was crying because he couldn't work out how to sit down again!

And he can wave now too!

Nine Months Old

Yesterday I was feeding Sam his Weetbix for breakfast and he must have had enough... the next thing I knew I was wearing his weetbix! He thought it was very funny, and Josh thought it was very funny and tried to copy!

I can't believe that in three months time Sam will be turning one! He still looks like such a baby because he still doesn't have much hair.

He still commando crawls, but today he did try to climb up on me and get into a standing position. So who knows, maybe he will just go straight to walking.

Eight Months

Sam is eight months old now. He has two teeth. The second tooth just appeared one day. I was using my finger to 'clean' his one tooth and thought 'hang on, that feels like more than one tooth to me'. I had a closer look and I was right!

He has been doing a really good job of sitting lately. We can place him on the floor in a sitting position and he will stay there for ages. He can even use his hand to stabilise himself.He has been heard saying a new word in the last few days 'dada'. And he makes a funny clicking noise with his tongue too.

He has started eating three meals a day now. We have made our way through a big list of fruits and veggies. He seems to like most foods that we give him. The only exception being rice cereal. If we try to add rice cereal to something to thicken it up he doesn't really like it as much.He loves chewing on rusks. He almost goes crazy when we give him one... like he is about to chew our hand off!

He has been seen rocking on his knees a few times but no proper crawling as yet. Though that doesn't stop him from getting around! Turn your back for a couple of minutes and you don't know where he could end up! Though most of the time he just tries to find where Josh is.

We had another zoo trip the other day (Sam's fourth trip to the zoo in 8 months!!). He liked watching the butterflies flutter around his head and the seals swimming back and forth in front of the viewing window.

Sam is fascinated with the Eddie and Rocky and Kitty too. The other day he crawled up to the sliding glass door while I was out hanging out the washing. The door was open and he crawled up to the door frame and reached up and grabbed Eddie's head. I think he nearly poked him in the eye. Eddie is just as fascinated with Sam too! He puts his head right up close and sniffs him. He is so gentle with him though. But he does stay out of the way when Sam is in his walker! He can get very fast in that thing and always tries to chase Eddie.We have had to reassess our childproofing with Sam in the walker. Suddenly he can reach Josh's chalks, playdoh, books and drawings.

We still haven't had regular sleeping through the night. We got lucky one night, but it was just a once off. Usually he has a bottle around 10-11pm, then another feed around 3-4 and then I feed him before I go to work at about 7 (well for a while it was regularly at 6:50am every morning!). He has his meals and bottles throughout the day and then I feed him again at about 7pm and he goes to bed.

I took Sam for his eight month check up today. Here are the stats:

Weight: 8710g
Length: 69cm

Head Circumference: 46cm

The Tooth Fairy has been!

Last week I had to go to the dentist and get a wisdom tooth removed. It was a pretty simple procedure, and I got to take the tooth home. The tooth fairy even came and took my tooth away and left me $10!!! (which doesn't quite cover the cost of having it removed!)

Anyway, this tooth fairy has been very busy lately, because not only did she take my tooth away, but a couple of days ago I spotted a little white dot in the bottom front of Sam's mouth!

Lets just hope that it isn't my wisdom tooth growing in there!

Six Months

Look how far you have come in six months! Boy the time has gone fast.

Here is a photo of Sam in his swing. He loves it!
Sam has started commando crawling now! He is a boy on a mission, especially when he sees Josh's toys lying around. But it has been a bit disgraceful to see how dirty his clothes can get after crawling around on our kitchen floor!

And the other big milestone I have to report is that Sam has started eating real food now. His first food was rice cereal, and he has had some pumpkin now too. He really likes pumpkin.