He’s been out as long as he was in!

By which of course, I mean, my little boy is NINE months old.  Yikes.

Actually, he was 9 months old last week, but as you more experienced mummys will know, 9 months is a delightful age where suddenly NOTHING is safe, and you can’t turn your back for 5 seconds, or sit down for 3 without having to jump back up, fly across the room & run interference between your little darling & some form of impending doom.

It’s certainly keeping me on my toes.

But, you know what? I’m loving it.  I really am.  When I was pregnant, my friend (who had 2 under 2 at the time), told me ‘every stage you get to, you’ll think it’s the best yet’ – and she was so right.  The 9 month mark is the most fun we’ve had so far, for sure. The nine best bits being:

1. Kisses. Okay, his technique needs work, in that he basically opens his gob & plants it on my face, but saying ‘kiss for mummy?’, definitely gets a reaction – and it makes me super gooey 🙂

2. Cuddles.  Real, proper, clings on for dear life cuddles.  They are THE BEST.

3. Talking. Or at least trying to. He has certainly found his voice, and is having a whole lot of fun exploring what he can do with it. So far we’ve had a lot of da da da’s, a lot of DO which I’m sure is an attempt at dog, lots of gollygollygolly, and most recently, bobobobob.  I don’t know who bob is, but the little dude seems to be a fan.  The first Mummy will be any day now… right?!

4. Playing.  All of a sudden, play time is so much more fun, so much more interactive, I’m loving it.  I build him block towers, he crashes them down, then trys to rebuild.  He loves to line his stacking cups up, upside down, so he can put smaller toys inside – that can last for hours.  And of course, the old faithful – peekaboo – oh how we love a game of peekaboo – never fails to make him chuckle away in delight 🙂

5. Stories – It seems to have happened overnight, but suddenly rather than books being just another something to gum, the little dude now loves to sit & listen to a story – pointing at the pictures, turning the pages – he loves anything of the ‘touchy feely’ variety, and The Very Hungry Caterpilar is proving to be an early favourite.

6. Clapping – my little man has officially nailed clapping, and it might just be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  He gets so excited & looks all pleased with himself. It’s brilliant.

7. Food!  We’ve been baby-led-weaning since 6 months, and it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made. (It should really have it’s own post – *adds to list*) – The Daddy & I are both total foodies, and it seems to be running in the family – there is nothing the little monster won’t eat!  I’m so proud of the variety of things he’s tried, and how much he seems to enjoy munching his way through his tasty noms 🙂

8. Early attempts at toddling. I shed a little proud mummy tear the first day he pulled himself up onto his feet – little did I know what was coming next! He never stops. Just desperate to be on his feet – exploring – getting into *everything*. he scoots around so quickly in his walker, I doubt it’ll be long before he’s walking solo. Then I’m in trouble.

9. The mischief.  Much as he is exhausting me with his new found crawling, standing & wobbling skills, I just love watching his personality developing.  He is such a monkey – absolutely understands the word NO, but chooses just to grin and carry on with his mission of mayhem.  And I can’t help grinning back.  I suppose I should work on that.

It’s hard to believe this adventure only started 9 months ago.

What’s scarier, is that in 3 months, I’ll be telling you all about his first birthday. Gulp.

We’ll be weaning in style now…

In case you missed me jumping round in excitement last week, The Little Dude & I got a little lucky… we won a shiney new Stokke Tripp Trappin the competition over at Yummy Mummy Tips– hooray!

And today as the nice delivery man dropped it off, I got all over excited again!

I ripped open the packaging and laid all the gorgeous chunky pieces out on the carpet – like a beautiful Scandinavian jigsaw. With screws.
I had a brief ‘boo hiss, going to have to wait for the Mr to get home to put it together – super pout’ moment, before finding my determination & convincing myself it couldn’t be that hard.

I was right.
Do not let flat pack connotations of doom put you off getting a Tripp Trapp. Yes, it does come as a box of bits, but this is not your ordinary flat pack where you end up with too many ‘e’ screws and not enough ‘g’, and the pre-drilled holes never match up, and there’s always a chipped piece, and the instructions make as much sense as your favourite drunk uncle at a family wedding… oh no.

This is as simple as it is chic. Ten screws, (complete with magical alun key so no need to stress about tracking down the right kind of screwdriver) and nine pieces, which clunk together beautifully and effortlessly.

About 25 minutes later, I was looking lovingly at my little man’s super chic new dining experience.
(Having only sworn once, which was my own fault for tightening all the screws before sliding in the flat pieces – silly mummy. Don’t do that.)

So it looked great, but would it pass The Little Dude quality control test?

Yes. With flying colours 🙂
He was a little bemused at first – sort of looked at me like ‘hmm, I’m at the table, but you’re not holding me… interesting.’ then he spotted ‘Where’s that monkey?’ (favourite book of the moment) and his happy safari cube and grabbed at both. He looked at me with a great big gummy grin of delight, then returned his attention to his book.
Safe to say, he approves.

And I certainly do, because I have a chic new (almost matching) chair at the table rather than a big plastic affair that doesn’t match anything – everybody’s happy!

Muchos gracias again to Yummy Mummy Tips, and to Stokke.

Now I just need to win an Explory… ;D

What a difference 16 weeks makes!

The little dude has been here for 112 days today!
It amazes me how much he’s changed in that time – aside from over doubling in size! He’s constantly smiling now (oh how I love that big gummy grin when I get him up from his naps!), getting more vocal by the day, and *this* close to sitting up unaided!

He’s so much more interactive too – with me, his daddy, other babies – the dog!
Rather than just looking all cute and dinky & sleeping & pooping, he’s developing a proper litle personality – he’s a total chatterbox, grabbing everything he can get his hands on, always looking round, taking everything in. He’s brilliant.

And of course, I’ve done 16 weeks of intensive mummy-training too, and d’you know what? I think I’m actually getting pretty good at it!

– I can change even the most explosive nappy in less than a minute
– I can get the LD dressed in less than 5 – without worrying that I’m going to bend an arm the wrong way or twist an ankle! (his, not mine :P)
– I can (at a push) have us both washed, dressed, fed & out the door before 10am
– I can tell the difference between cries for ‘I’m hungry!’, ‘I’m bored’, ‘I need a new nappy!’, never believed that would happen!
– I can trust myself to know that the LD is well fed without having to neurotically set alarms on my mobile to make sure he’s feeding 3-hourly-on-the-dot-like-clockwork (I love that one!)
– I can pretty much count on getting at least 6 hours of sleep at night! (Love that one even more!)
– I can do a whole bunch of things one-handed.
– I can multitask like no ones business – loading the washing machine while making bottles, eating toast & brushing my hair? No problem.

Don’t worry though, I’m not about to get to get all smug & complacent – I’m well aware that there’s still lots to learn!

The LD will be crawling before I know it (what do I do then when I need to nip to the loo? Can’t just leave him lying on his play mat, safe in the knowledge he’ll still be there when I get back!!), and of course weaning is on the horizon (am currently reading up on babyled weaning after everyone’s advice – interesting stuff!), plus a million other new challenges I haven’t even thought of yet.

Honestly though, I’m loving every minute of it.
Who knows what the little dude & I will have learned in another 16 weeks?
All I do know, is that I can’t wait to find out.

I weally weally wanna wean!

So the little dude is now 15 weeks old – still two weeks away from what ‘they’ (the all knowing, all powerful, super health professionals!), say is the absolute earliest a baby should start having solid food. (not that baby rice strikes me as all that solid, but whatever.)

The signs ‘they’ tell you to watch for, include:

~Attempting to put things in his or her mouth – has been attempting to get his whole fist in his mouth since day one – is now also trying my fingers, any and all available toys, muslin squares, his feet, and occasionally, the dog.
~Making chewing motions – again, since birth!
~Doubling their birth weight – check.
~Holding his or her head up and controlling head movements ~Sitting well when supported – yep & yep.
~Displaying curiosity about what you are eating. – And then some! I was having lunch with a friend yesterday, LD was sat on my lap, dropped his squeaky giraffe, as I leaned over to retrieve it, he launched himself at my sandwich!! Don’t try & tell me that wasn’t planned – the little monster is smarter than he lets on!!

So my question, is this:
Am I being an irresponsible mummy if I go for it at 17 weeks, rather than waiting for the more widely recommended 6 months?
Mummies whose monsters are already munching (loving the alliteration today aren’t I?), when did you start?
And also, what do I need?

I’m very aware of not wanting to feed the little dude jars of processed mush – I’d much rather he had home cooked mush. So is it as simple as just blending tiny portions of whatever we’re having? Or do I need to make separate cuisine for mushing up?

I know, I am the picture of cluelessness!!
All I am good at so far, is gazing lovingly at all the tommee tippy spoons, and bowls, and dinky little pots for putting stuffs in (I don’t know what stuffs though), and some more cute little bowls… and maybe a sippy cup… oh, and those bibs that are like overalls! God I love baby shopping 😀

Need help please!