Proud Mummy Rant

During my lunch time run today I was thinking about my son. I think I was thinking about him cause I'm so jealous my husband is spending the next 5 weeks paid to hang out with him. I thought about how much he’s changed in the past few months between now and his first birthday. He’ll be 17 months of age by the end of the year and I wanted to take the time to write down those changes now so the “future Cam” can reread this post, smile and reflect on this season of his life.

You are becoming more coherent and picking up things so quickly. Like when you sit on the couch and find the remote controller, raise and point it toward the tv because you see us do that. Or how you pick up our iphone, put it against your ear and say “ahh-nee!!” (that must mean hello in your language) then put the phone against our ear and say “ahh-nee” again.

You’re persistent especially when you’ve set your mind on something. If you want to grab that item you can see on top of a table you’ll stand on your cute tiny tippy toes and reach out for the object with your tiny arms. If that fails you will find whatever resources you can, like pushing a chair towards the table or pretend you want to be picked up, only to use us so you can get closer to what you want. May you continue to have this attitude in life, never giving up on something you’ve put your mind to even when you face road blocks.

You love music. You love to sing, your favorite songs right now is the alphabet song, bah bah black sheep and twinkle twinkle little star. I love how I'll sing a-z and you chime in at “Now I know my abc …” and sing the rest of the song on your own. Then clap your hands and say “yeeeaahhhaa!!” cheering for yourself afterwards.

You know where your head, shoulders, ears, mouth, eyes and nose are and where those parts are located on me.

You don’t know how to just walk at a normal pace. As soon as your feet touches the ground you’re off in a sprint walking like motion. You’re getting better at not falling over yourself but really you need to slow down. You gravity to any open space. If there is light coming from the smallest crack you will dash over to that light as if you’re making a jail break escape. It’s so cute but annoying as I don’t trust you to stay still in public areas.

You love cuddles and kisses and I love giving them to you. You want to be physically close to people. You love to position yourself snugly under my arms or on top of my chest when we sleep.

When you do something cheeky or naughty you say “oooh no!” like you weren't the culprit yet avoid eye contact when you know I’m telling you off.

You’re such a boy where play time involves wrestling, flipping upside down and climbing. You smell like one too when you sweat. You smell like a sweeter version of daddy ... I'm not looking forward to your smelly teen years.

You are strong and have no fear, always climbing up or down the highest part of the couch, chair or table.

You love to read and be read books. I love how you would grab a book from your shelf and bring it to me saying “boo k!”. You love to control who turns the pages so you will always position yourself between the reader and the book.

I think you understand things or repetitive processes you’re exposes to, like how you know to squat and make room for my hand when you’re standing and I’m putting your onesie together. Giving me space and an oppoutunity to fix you up.

You love balloons and balls. You find them and gravitate to them in every situation, like when we're at the shops and you saw a balloon sticking out from a pram located at the other side of the center. You ran and tried to grab that balloon, unfortunately it wasn’t mine to give to you.

You’re coordinated (like mum ha!). You know how to kick a ball and when you’re concentrating can catch one too. You know how to stack your blocks in order to make a tower and then collapse them in the opposite order to store each block within the bigger block.

You smile all the time and bring a smile to everyone. You’re so adorable and very cute, if I do say so myself.

As much as I want to keep you a baby forever I want you to keep growing and developing I’m excited to see more of who you will become. You make us very proud already.   

Mr Rapunzel

I took Eli out to get his haircut again. It had grown (obviously cause hair does that) and getting in his eyes again. 

Last time (and the first time he ever got his hair cut) the barbara who cut it must not understand the word "trim" cause he basically cut most of the length off.

This time I still went to a barbara, I specifically said I want to keep the length I only want to get the hair off his eyes. He asked me what number I wanted on the sides and I said "4".

But it still ended up short. Ian's going to be mad at me again ....

Admittedly getting a 16 month old baby to sit still and not cry hysterically from the razors buzzing around him is not easy. A friend says her 2.5 year old still cries at the hairdressers but at least now he knows to sit still while its happening. 

 

The haircut was only achieved by pinned down his arms and the barbara holding his head still. At first it was funny but towards the end I was just getting irritated at the barbara. Firstly from his BO it was so potent even after I got home and took a shower his smell is still lingering in my nose. Secondly, he was taking so long to cut his hair and the longer he took the more upset Eli got. His colleagues even had to tell him to hurry up or give the kid a break his cries was obviously making everyone uncomfortable. Thirdly, annoyed that he did not listen to my instructions and I could see how short he was cutting Eli's hair.

Next haircut Ian can take him or do it himself. 

Also what's with charging adult prices for children or it is just inflation? Last time I got his hair cut I walked to ever hair salon at the shopping center and the prices range from $17.50-$29, he's not even 2 years of age. So I decided to take him to my new local shops, still paid $14 for a cut I'm not satisfied with.

Any tips to get a baby boy to sit still at the hair dressers?

Four Months

Eli had his 4 months immunisation shots on Monday and he has not been himself since.  

Firstly he had a fever on Monday night. The doctor did warn us this was a common reaction however he was still feverish up until today. Secondly, he hasn’t slept well since Monday. He has been cat napping during the day and night, sleeping an average 30-60 minutes at a time, meaning he's been restless. Even now I’ve just spent the last hour and half getting him to sleep so hopefully he sleeps well tonight. He's also has a runny nose since Monday. It’s not blocked or has mucus but when he has been fussy or crying for a period of time I've noticed a thin clear liquid expels from his nose. 

His skin condition on his body has not cleared up either, if anything I think its gotten worst. He’s got this rash like condition on most of the front side of his body, on area’s that are covered, so his chest, stomach and groin area. I thought it may have been a heat rash as it appeared a few weeks ago during the heat wave but it still around. The rash also appears around his upper neck near his chin area too. I think I will go to the doctor’s tomorrow and get his skin checked out.

I’m surprised he had a reaction to his shots as he was fine last time. Maybe it’s a higher dose of the drugs this time around. He was pretty out of it on Monday. 

This time we went to a medical centre that specialises in children – what a difference in care and attention when you see people who service a target audience.

I thought we had a sleep technique down pact but seems like our methods do not work on him anymore. We use to hold him to sleep and then put him in his cot, usually faced down and he would sleep for hours. I know some people are against facing babies down and I still hear it from family that I should not do it but it works for us and I wouldn’t risk it if I didn’t think he could support his head / neck.