Happy ONE YEAR Birthday, Carter!!!

 

GOOD GRIEF MY LITTLE BABY IS ONE YEAR OLD.

I think technically he is meant to be a ‘toddler’ by now, but I am still referring to him as my ‘baby’ because he is. So there!

Remember him like this, fresh into this world, a year ago?

 

We celebrated his 1st birthday party on Saturday and had a blast! I hope all our little superhero guests and their super daddies and mummies did too! More on that in my next blog entry….

My baby wombat is deep deep deeeeeeppppp in the throes of separation anxiety. This means that he will allow only these people to carry him for extended periods of time… in order of preference:

1. My Dad – his #1 playmate
2. Myself – Chris likes to point out it’s my boobs he’s after and not reaaalllyyy me. Hrmph.
3. Chris – a kinda distant third, but at least he makes Carter’s circle of trust, LOL.

I am both frustrated because I simply can’t hand him over to a friend if I’m out, but also very pleased that he clings to me (it feels AWESOME!! Hunter had zero separation anxiety so I feel ultra-loved by Carter). 

 

He has quite the temper, for a baby. Knows exactly what he wants and will NOT be satisfied until you please him. Very different from Hunter who was very placid and ‘go with the flow’. We always marvel at how we can produce two children that are oh-so-different in personalities.

But, he’s very quick, very sharp, very alert, super eager to learn, and takes great delight in everything. His favourite activity is to point at his object/person of interest and *squealing* til we tell him the name. It’s like he just drinks in information.. wanting to know about everything and anything in his world. It actually gets fairly tiring because I have to explain every. single. thing. we come across… and sometimes all I wanna say is “Errrmm… nevermind about that. Just be quiet!”

He’ll also scream and make a ton of noise just to get what he wants. See what I mean below??

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px2iFPBaIzM

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xslDmq_F7Hk

 

Whilst Hunter was totally poo potty-trained by this age, Carter will poo in the potty.. but is just as happy doing it in his diaper. D’oh.

 

• EATING – Super greedy pig. Considering he’s still on zero teeth at 1 year old (!). He now eats directly off our plates at lunchtime. And basically anytime I eat and he’s around watching me. Isn’t very amused with his baby puree anymore but at least he’s still a fan of all the usual healthy foods (ie. Hunter’s favourite/standard foods) alongside the junkier foods. Basically wants to (and does) eat like a normal adult. It’s no wonder why he’s totally GIGANTIC for a 1 year old! 
  I now breastfeed him once a day, when he wakes up in the morning. Yes, we are both hanginggggg on to that last breastfeed! I love the bond we have and the blissful look on his face is priceless.
  Thus, now he eats solids 3x a day, breastfeeds 1x a day and drinks 210ml of milk 3x a day.

 

 

• SLEEPING – We did something dramatic….. we moved Carter into Hunter’s room!! That has always been our goal but we’ve been too scared to do it until recently. And now we’re wondering why we didn’t do it earlier, because it’s worked out so well!! Both of them just go to bed together with zero issues, and wake up together and chat/play in bed. It’s super cute.
  The only thing I don’t like about Carter’s sleep is that he can wake anything between 0-3 times a night. For absolutely no reason. If we get up and go into the room, he’ll see that we’re there, drop back down onto his side, and fall asleep dead to the world. All in maybe 2 seconds. But of course, we’ve already gotten out of bed and walked into his room, so WE’RE up! Arggghhh!! I hope he stops this nonsensical behavour asap.
  He’s finally down to 2 naps a day, ranging from 30-60mins each. No issues with these.

 

Kisses before bed
httpv://youtu.be/MX9A8pAqz8Y

• PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT – We were a little late to the game and finally let him use a walker recently. Not sure why we didn’t do it before, because he loves it and quickly learned how to maneuver himself – so now he zooms around the home, around corners and in and out of rooms with GLEE! He hasn’t walked by himself yet, but will walk holding on to our hand with one of his hands. He is an epic climber, though, and loves to get himself into trouble!
  Loves to point at everything in sight to ask for its name, will turn pages of a book (and loves to flip to particular pages he likes), and will give high fives and blow kisses.

 

 

 

 

Kids extraordinarily pleased with balloons
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGsvNc-o6Ls

 

 

“Look mama, I found a xylophone!”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8E5oDEgUbk

• SPEECH DEVELOPMENT – No new words learned, just kinda stalled on his three words 😉 (previously spoken words: dada, mama, there). He understands a lot about what we say though, and can take direction “go here” “go there” and look for objects that we’ve asked him to get “Where’s giraffe?” etc.

 

Hunter’s been pretty naughty with Carter this month, which has been stressing me. Now that Carter is upright and extremely vocal, Hunter’s starting to view him more as a proper person that  can steal his thunder. And Carter FIGHTS BACK! He will shout and slap Hunter right back.. and then it’s just downhill from there. Argh. Hope this phase passes real quickly.

They are otherwise lovely together and are sooooo happy to see each other again if they’ve been apart.

 

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, my baby wombat!!

You bring us such joy, with all your crazy giggles and bright smiles. You are so clingy and I secretly love it, because I know it won’t last. You are so precious, so loved, so absolutely adored!!

 

 

 

Compare with Hunter at Month 11-12 here.

 

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