Self-Care Birthday: Week Two

I have stretched ear piercings, not large, just 10 gauge, but they require something in them or they start to shrink. When Sebastian was born I had these clear silicone eyelets in; just place holders, really. A few months ago I noticed they were getting chipped and manky so I took them out. I can't really wear any of my fancy, curly (sharp!) ear rings right now; they are not conducive to cuddling a baby. I can't even wear my simple steel hoops; I tried it but Sebastian kept hooking a finger around them and pulling hard.

So I've been wearing nothing and thinking about how I need to get some baby-friendly jewelry asap. I've been thinking that for at least 3 months now. Thus, the next item on my self-care list was a visit to Wellington's awesome little piercing and jewelry shop, Ninja Flower. Actually, they are not so tiny now. They just moved into a larger space, which maked one more reason I wanted to visit.

I always enjoy a visit to Ninja Flower. The proprietors are awesome; knowledgeable, friendly, as enthusiastic about what they do. The jewelry they stock is varied and beautiful; I love looking through all the cases, not just the ones that hold jewelry in my size. The first thing I needed to do was get my piercings re-stretched. Their piercing technician has awesome bedside manner; asking my son's name directly after the second stretch was particularly genius.

I chose some beautiful paua (abalone shell) studs to go in them. They had about half a dozen to choose from. I picked two that are quite different from each other, but both are lovely and go well with my other ear rings, (little opals).

I almost didn't use this picture because I look tired. But then I thought: you know what? I am tired most of the time. Why hide that?

And here's a close-up

I walked out feeling a tiny bit more like myself again, and with a resolve to go up to the next size in the near future so I can wear some of the even more awesome jewelry that caught my eye at Ninja Flower.

Twelve Months!

Yesterday my little man turned one year old!

Sebastian, at 12 months...

 

  Sebastian is often shy in new situations, or maybe a better word is reserved. He likes to carefully study a new people and places before jumping in to check it all out. At home, he is a very happy and active boy these days, often puttering around the house, practicing his walking and carrying things about. 

  He's got a great sense of humor and one of the things he finds funniest right now is feet. He likes chasing my feet - especially if they are bare - and nothing gets more laugs than tickling him with my feet. Other things that make him laugh are games of chase and being held upside down. 

  He has taken to initiating games of peeka-boo when the mood strikes. He's walking everywhere now; his main means of getting around since two or three weeks ago. He knows how to wave and insists upon doing so at every opportunity. Probably his first word is "bye-bye" which he says kind of like "bu-bah." He seems to also be working on saying "mama" "dada" "grandma" and "bird." We are doing a bit of baby sign language with him, and so far the one sign he's mastered is "hot" though he's also working on "done." 

  He still hates nappy changes, though the musical mobile we put above the change table helps. He also hates it when strange ladies try to stamp his hand, something that happens more than you'd think. I guess it's something kids a bit older than him are really into? At this point I think he associates strange ladies touching him in any way with nurses and shots, which is understandable.

  He likes music, often "dancing" along to music on tv or radio or musical toys. He loves it when Grandpa lets him "help" do the dishes, or when anyone lets him play in a sink, really. He loves to pull my shirt up and cuddle my belly and blow raspberries on it. He does this with Grandma's belly too. He's a bit more cautions of Grandpa's belly, which is quite furry. 

  We had fun coming up with things to do with Sebastian on his birthday - favourite foods, activities, and of course a few presents. I'd like to do a short post just on his birthday, but until then, here's a picture of the Birthday Boy inspecting a present:

And another from the series the first photo is from, because I had trouble picking just one:

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

Ten Months

My parents headed back to Hawaii on Sebastian's ten month birthday. Then he came down with a cold, so his parents were exhausted and busy and pretty much that's why this update is so late. He's ten months and thirteen days old today.

I'll do my best to think back to what he was up to thirteen days ago. Yes, when it comes to babies things really do change that fast.

So, at ten months...

Sebastian is an energetic little baby, always wanting to move and check everything out. He's got an easy smile around those he knows, but can be a bit more cautious around strangers. He still loves watching other babies and small children, and making friends with them. He's a little more able to interact with other babies now beyond just pulling their hair. He likes to hand them things, one of his new favorite things to do with grown ups too.

He still loves games of chase; He can now do this crawling instead of holding someone's hands to walk. He also likes to play "where is it?" He or I hide an object under a blanket, in a basket, etc. and he finds it and olds it up, grinning at me and I say "there it is!"

He's still not a fan of nappy changes, and it's hard to get him to sit still long enough to get his clothes either on or off.

Sebastian had just started consistently hands-and-knees crawling when he turned ten months. His unique "scooch" is gone! He had been pointing at things that caught his interest for a couple of weeks already, and he had just started handing us things. He can also wave, but he mostly does this at the dinner table. That's where he was when he worked out how to do it, and now he thinks that's what you do when you're at the table!

He's working on his two front teeth coming in at the moment, making a total of six little teeth now. He weighs 9.3kgs and is 75 centimeters long.

Taking is photo is getting harder, he's usually either a blur....

 Or pointing emphatically at the camera because he wants to play with it...

Summer Wrap-Up: Weekend in Paraparam

In mid-December we decided to take a weekend mini-holiday. Sebastian was still little enough to be comfortably carried in our baby carriers for a couple hours at a stretch, and happy to sleep in them. He wasn't eating much solids yet, and he was good at sleeping in the car. He had been bed sharing with us long enough that we felt we could make that work easily enough in a hotel. And he wasn't yet mobile. We figured it was a relatively easy time to take him on holiday.

We booked a place on Paraparaumu Beach for two nights. Sebastian obligingly slept through the entire drive up. The day we arrived there happened to be having a craft fair, so we wandered through the stalls and also the various shops and also scoped out a good place to hang out on the beach the following day

The weather obliged with sun and warmth and only a little of the wind that can be quite strong on Paraparaumu Beach. That evening we ate dinner out for only the second time since Sebastian was born. He was just old enough to sit in a high chair and share nibbles of our fish and veggies.

The next day we set up our beach-tent in the sand and Sebastian got his toes in the ocean for the first time. He liked the sand, squishing it between his fingers and eating an alarming amount of it. The water was okay but the tiny wavelets scared him. After this adventure he got a wash off under the beach shower. After I dried him off and changed his clothes, we he had a nurse and a nice nap while Loren walked to the nearby shops to get us lunch. It was a lovely, laid back summer day at the beach. The tent was an excellent investment, as most beaches around here don't have much to offer in the way of shade.


Sebastian and Loren relaxing in our beach tent

Sebastian sampling the local sand

On the last day we had an early morning wander on the beach before heading home. One of the nice things about having a baby is it gets you up and out of the hotel early, and you get to wander the streets at an hour when most tourists aren't up and about yet.

It was all in all an easy, laid back summer get-away. We are low key vacationers and our usual M.O. involves a lot of wandering around our chosen location on foot. Sebastian spent a lot of time in our baby carriers while we wandered on the beach, and in and out of shops, and so on. He also took most of his naps this way.

These days he is crawling and getting very close to walking, and he's too heavy for me to comfortably baby-wear for any significant length of time. I'm sure he would still make an excellent traveling companion today, though perhaps in a very different way. But wow what a difference 3 months makes!

 
Walking along the beach with Sebastian asleep in his Ergo carrier.

Nine Months

Sebastian, at nine months...

Sebastian is a very active little boy. He wants you to help him "walk" everywhere: holding onto your hands while he tears around the house/ yard/ shop etc. like there's so much to see and he must see it all right now! He's still very social when going out into the world, and will try to "make friends" with other babies as well, with mixed success.

His very favorite thing is to play a sort of chase/hind and seek game with one person holding his hands to walk and the other playing with him. You hide around a corner, he finds you, you shout "boo" and run away to hide around another corner. He gives a squeal and goes running after you. And repeat. If you instead shout "boo" but don't run away, HE will run away instead, tearing off in a random direction for a few feet before turning round to see if you're following or have gone to hide again. This is a lot of fun if you're the person hiding. But a bit exhausting for the person holding his hands!

He is still not a big fan of nappy changes; having a second person "entertain" him on the changing table is a big help. And an extra set of helping hands is luxury we often enjoy these days, as his grandparents are here!

The thing he dislikes the most is when you DON'T help him walk when he wants you to. How do you know he wants you to? Well, when he grabs your hands and slides out of your lap, assuming you've got him, that's a pretty good sign. he likes to do this move after a feed and while I'm still trying to do my bra back up. He gets very impatient when he has to wait!

There are so many little things to enjoy about Sebastian right now. The way he makes a little sigh that sounds like an unvoiced "hah!" when he grabs something he has never checked out before. The little gesture he does where he nods his head once while simultaneously blinking and going "aahk!" It usually means "give me that!" but sometimes it's just a general gesture of making a connection or getting someone's attention. The way he now peers over the counter/ around the corner/ around the napkin when you play "peek a boo" because he now realizes where you've gone when you hide your face. The way he makes a little high pitched "ack" squeak of effort when "scooching" across the carpet.

He's got three teeth coming in, and has been really laid back about teething discomforts, thank goodness. We missed his last check up (need to reschedule) but according to the bathroom scale he weighs 9.4 kgs!

One of the many many nice things about having his grandparents here is that I find these lovely photos of me and Sebastian on my camera....