Uncle Paul turns 28

we had lunch at grandma's yesterday (sunday) to celebrate uncle paul's birthday and catch up with that half of the family again.. it occurs to me that i probably should've taken some photos of lachlan with the birthday boy, but didn't think of it at the time.. anyway, here are some of the photos i did take..

getting a cuddle from grandma..

tara with uncle john

cuddles with daddy

Chasely McKellar Turns 1

lachlan enjoying some party nibbles - more ended up on his face and hands than in his mouth we think, but it kept him happy for about half an hour.

lachlan and the birthday girl saying hello to each other - hard to believe that chasely is the older of the two judging by physical appearances, don't you think?

chasely making a wish with her mummy heidi and cousin knaiche

showing off the outfit we gave her for her birthday

New Achievements

i am pleased to report two new achievements for this week.. lachlan can now stand totally unsupported for a few seconds at a time, and he can pull himself from sitting to standing. all this from a child who has still not managed to roll from his back to his tummy!!!

his first achievement happened while he was standing up holding onto his incrediblock - he let go of the block to wave his arms in the air and then put them back down on the block. he has been getting better at it and can now balance for about 5 secs while not holding onto anything. he hasn't worked out how to correct himself when he starts over-balancing but i'm sure that won't be too far off..

the second one happened this afternoon.. he was sitting on my lap as i sat cross-legged on the floor and he reached out and pulled himself up to standing using the incrediblock. it took 3 attempts before he managed to do it without sliding to one side, but he got there in the end.

i just hope these new milestones don't mean that he is going to give up on crawling all together and just start walking..

A Day in the Park

took lachlan for a walk down to the local shops during the week and stopped in at one of the parks for a ride on the swings.. he doesn't seem to be overly enthusiastic towards them, but at least he doesn't cry!

 

Eight & a half months and counting..

well, not much to blog about this week so i thought i would give you a rundown on where we are with development...

we weighed lachlan on the weekend and he's now tipping the scales at a healthy 9.48 kgs (fully dressed). at 8 & a half months, he is just over the average weight for his age according to the growth charts.

he is still very irregular with his sleeping, particularly during the day, and sleeping through the night seems to be the exception rather than the rule these days. hopefully, once the weather warms up a bit, and the air isn't as dry at night, he might go back to sleeping through instead of waking up in the early hours of the morning wanting a drink..

he is now on solids 4 times a day but seems to be hit and miss as to whether he will actually want to eat at any given meal - although, he will happily accept anything you hand feed him, rather than spoon feed him, even if it is the same food - go figure!

he is chatting more and more, and behaving much more like a little boy than a baby. he can clearly say mum, dad and bub, although we're not sure if he associates any meaning to those words. he makes lots of other noises too, and has taken to squealing every now and again in order to get our attention..

he still isn't crawling, although he has gotten up on all fours a few times now, and has pushed himself forward one push while laying on his tummy so i'm sure it's only a matter of time until he is mobile, and i have to start locking down everything in the house.. he still hasn't rolled from his back to his tummy, although he has rolled onto his side quite a few times - we suspect that he can do it, but just doesn't see the need to, seeing he doesn't like it on his tummy anyway. he can also stand briefly holding onto something but hasn't worked out that he needs to stay balanced if he doesn't want to fall over.

his fine motor skills are developing as well - he is able to pick up things with his thumb and forefinger instead of raking with his whole hand, and can pass objects from one hand to the other (and then they usually go straight into the mouth). his concentration span is getting longer too, and he has started to get more interested in the world around him, and can often be found staring intently at something in his hand as he turns it over and over.

his social skills are improving and he is showing less signs of stranger danger around other people now, so long as he is securely in mummy's lap. he still isn't keen on strangers holding him for extended periods of time, but at least doesn't cry as soon as someone tries to give him a cuddle now..

anyway, here are some photos of him playing with his latest addition to the fisher price corner - the incrediblock. seems i got it too early though, it's going to be on sale for half price at target later this week.. isn't that always the way? at least i didn't pay full price for it so it's not so bad..

Lachlan's First Tooth

getting a photo of lachlan's first tooth turned out to be a far more difficult task than i first thought it would be. in the end, the only way i could get him to keep his mouth open long enough for the camera to take the photo was to hold his jaw open - as you can see, he didn't like that too much! it's not much of a tooth yet, but there is definately a pearly white showing on his lower gum.. you can't really see it in the photo, but the tooth next to it has cut through as well, so we're now up to two on the toothy-peg count!

 

Hanging out with Uncle John & Aunty Karida

uncle john & aunty karida having a cuddle with lachlan while we were over at grandma's celebrating karida's upcoming birthday - seems lachlan is over his stranger danger, at least where these guys are concerned!

Subscriptions now available!

after having conversations with two different people, i discovered that some people prefer to get email updates on what is happening rather than having to check a blogspot on a regular basis (and were in fact waiting for another email telling them that it had been updated and therefore hadn't checked it since the original email was sent telling them to bookmark the site, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a blogspot but anyway..) that being the case, i have set up a google group that will get emailed any new messages that i post to this blog. anyone who wants to be automatically emailed the updates can subscribe their email address using the button on the right - anyone who doesn't want to be emailed can just check the blog regularly - everyone else can just ignore me like they normally do. and this way, i can't be accused of spamming everyone in my addressbook!

ps thanks to scotto for the idea - feel free to rip off my code which is a rip off from google groups' info pages anyway..

A hundred & one ways to keep a child entertained..

the activity centre that lila has let us borrow manages to keep lachlan entertained for around 15 minutes at a time.. i haven't put him in it more than twice a day in fear that the novelty will wear off and it won't work as a distraction anymore!

hard to believe that it's been 8 months already since the little boy was born - he has changed so much since then!