Bug = 2 years 10 months
Bub = 1 year 3 days What was Linus up to at this age?

My adorable 1-year-old learned a new trick a couple of days ago:

Bug = 2 years 10 months
Bub = 1 year 3 days What was Linus up to at this age?

How to Celebrate?

Up until a month or so ago I hadn’t been overly keen on having a party for Ada’s birthday: it was so close to Christmas; Ada – being just one – wasn’t going to remember any of it; and while both our children are equally loved and special to us, Ada’s first birthday doesn’t feel as “important” as Linus’s birthday, which represented the anniversary of our becoming parents. (Ada will be showing this entry to her therapist in 30 years’ time!)

However Ada and I attended a first birthday party recently for RB, one of Ada’s friends, and I really enjoyed it. It was a lovely mix of RB’s extended family and a few little friends (i.e. babies of a similar age), and the hot sunny day certainly helped. So I decided that a similar event would be a nice, low-key way to celebrate Ada’s first birthday.

The Actual Day

On Ada’s actual birthday, her Aunty Claire came for her usual Thursday evening visit. Nana also decided to come and bring RIR, who wouldn’t be able to make it to the actual party. Then Gaga decided he’d hitch a lift up and have tea with us as well. So the planned non-event of Ada’s actual birthday turned into a wonderful afternoon and evening of playing/watching kids play on our front lawn in the sun, followed by fish and chips for tea (still on the lawn) and a visit from Daddy’s best friend AS who’s down from Wellington for Christmas.

Ada also opened her present from Nana that afternoon, and she was thrilled with the hand-knitted doll that Nana for her. And Nana was even more thrilled that Ada was thrilled!

The Party Day

For the actual party, I wanted to keep it simple and cheap and stress-free, so it was held between mealtimes (2pm-4pm) on Saturday. I asked people not to bring presents, but instead to try to bring their cameras, take lots of photos/film, and make sure they get it back to me sometime. Even at events I’m not organising, I forget to take photos, so I figured that I’d hardly remember to take any at my own party. (I had hoped that the party would be outside, but the weather meant that this didn’t happen.)

The guests were family, family friends and Ada’s friends. This meant that I didn’t invite some of my friends because they didn’t have babies Ada’s age – many of them have toddlers Linus’s age, and I didn’t want the day to turn into a party full of toddlers who would dominate and take attention from the 1-year-olds. This worked a treat – Linus was napping when most of the guests arrived, so Ada managed to get a lot of the focus, and as Linus woke up his best friend SSO arrived (with her baby brother RHO) so he had someone his age to play with (i.e. chase and yell at).

Our guests were:

• Granny (who made the birthday cake, thank you!) and Pop-pop
• Nana
• Aunty Claire
• CP
• RG and RG with baby JDG
• LB with baby RG
• FW and KW with baby DW
• RH and DO with toddler SSO and baby RHO
• plus an honorary mention to AT who sent a present all the way from England.

We enjoyed lots of eating fairy bread and chips, taking plenty of photos and video, opening a few presents, and most of all watching all the babies playing and performing.

Bug = 2 years 10 months
Bub = 1 year (!) 1 day What was Linus up to at this age?

Linus had a big first today (obviously trying to compete with his sister’s big first yesterday!). He was eating a plate full of frozen peas, and when he’d finished very helpfully cleaning up the ones that didn’t make it into his mouth, he kindly informed me that he had peas up his nose.

I laid him across my knee, tipped his head right back, and used a hair pin to retrieve two pieces of pea from his left nostril. They weren’t too far up, and he mercifully didn’t struggle. I went and popped the peas in the toilet while Linus had a couple of sneezes, and when I went back to him I noticed a third pea-part on the ground.

My plan NEXT time one of the kids does the same thing is therefore to liberally apply black pepper to the nose and just wait!

Happy Birthday Ada!!

Bug = 2 years 9 months
Bub = 11 months 27 days What was Linus up to at this age?

Ada is going to be one year old this week, so it’s an apt time for me to do a quick update on what developmental stages she’s at.

• She can easily cruise around furniture and stand unsupported.
• She is good at walking with someone holding one of her hands.
• She loads and feeds herself with a spoon (when the food’s the right consistency). Until the last month or so we were always having to load the spoon for her.
• She drinks from a sippy cup (she’s been doing this for months, actually). We occasionally now try her with a normal cup, provided we’re prepared for her to spill (/spit!) most of it down her neck.
• She does all sorts of babbling, with lots of “Mama” and “Dada” sprinkled throughout, but probably not with any meaning yet.
• She is starting to show signs of knowing who we’re talking about (e.g. Nana, Mummy, Daddy, Linus), but this is far from consistent at this point.
• She enjoys reading books at bedtime, especially lift the flap books like “Who Is Hiding In The House?“.
• She is napping well, generally having two naps a day (e.g. a 2 hour one at 9:30am and a 1 hour one at 2:30pm).
• She’s basically sleeping through the night, although she usually moves from her cot into bed with Mummy and Daddy at around 11pm, so there’s lots of stirring and feeding (and occasional rib-kicking) through the night, but no major disturbances.