Self-Care Birthday: Week One

For my birthday - which is only a few days short of Sebastian's first birthday - I decided to pick a self-care mission every week for four weeks. I was going to do it for all of June, but I decided it couldn't wait that long. I really needed a haircut. In my mind, my hair is just shy of one inch long. That's how it's supposed to look, that's what feels right to me. I hadn't cut my hair in about 9 months and it was really starting to bug me.

I didn't realise how much it was getting me down until I got it cut. I usually do it myself, but I couldn't face cutting that much hair on my own with what little free time I have in the day, so I decided to pay someone else to do it. I went to a moderately fancy hair salon and explained that I'm a new mum and doing this for my birthday, and by luck my hair dresser had a baby too, so she totally got it. After chatting for a few minutes about our children, she handed me a stack of magazines and left me alone to zone out for the rest of the session. As I am an introvert, this was heavenly. It was the most relaxing haircut I've ever had. I don't know how much of that was the luxury of sitting back and letting someone else do something for me for once, and how much of it was not dealing with the awkwardness of the hair dresser trying to make small talk. I hadn't realized how much the chit chatting to the hair dresser has always made it hard to relax when  I've gotten my hair cut before.

The hair cut took her over an hour, and when I looked in the mirror I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, I looked like myself again. It was like a weight was lifted.

Here's me and Sebastian in the pool a few days post hair cut. 

Eleven Months

Sebastian, at eleven months:

Sebastian doing his favourite new trick: clapping!

Sebastian is still a very active little baby and wears his parents out regularly. He is not as quick to smile at strangers; they have to smile at him first! If he's tired or grumpy then no smiles for you, strange lady!

He loves to hold your hand and walk around, find something interesting, pick it up and then walk around while holding it up high. He also loves putting things into other things (a cup, a drawer, you name it) and putting things through the cat door and throwing things down the stairs.

Some things that make him laugh: Holding him upside down, tickles under the chin or behind the knees, playing "this little piggy" and when I pretend to sneeze.

Some things he doesn't like: getting his nappy changed, and the noise hand dryers make.

His latest "tricks": clapping his hands, walking short distances unassisted, standing up using just the floor to push against, and getting off the bed by himself by turning around and getting down feet first.

He is currently 9.7kgs and he hasn't had his height measured recently but his arms at the very least are longer because he can reach things on the bathroom counter/ my desk/ the kitchen bench now.

If this update seems a little brief, it's because he's on his third cold in 6 weeks, and his parents are very tired. The good news is his grandparents are back, and boy are we all happy to have them home again!

Now here's some more cute baby pictures in lieu of me coming up with anything else to say:

Sebastian walking towards the camera, hoping to grab it!

What Sebastian looks like when he's pulled himself up to standing while holding my legs and he wants me to pick him up