Age: 52 weeks - I'm wholly in denial that I'm going to have a ONE year old tomorrow!! This time last year I'd just got my epidural and things were looking up, which reminds me I never posted my birth story. I'll try and get it done, honest.
Weight: We got him weighed on Tuesday, 3 days before his first birthday. He was 8.85 kg (19 lb 7 oz) which puts him just on 25th centile so he's finally made it back to his birth centile.
Health: He's been a little bit better with his reflux this week although still struggling with his teeth somewhat.
Feeding: He's been really up and down with his food again but getting enough obviously, given his weight gain!
Sleep: Things have been really odd this week because he's been settling in at nursery but no more of a mess than normal.
Routine: Nope, nope, nope.
Likes/dislikes: He loves waving and clapping at the moment. He is really enjoying looking at big board books and actually listens/watches attentively most of the time. He does not like being left at nursery... but that's a whole other story!
Firsts: First time at nursery - first time being away from both mummy and daddy for more than an hour or two since he was very little. First Halloween! First pair of shoes. Oh so many firsts this week.
Milestones: He's finally nailed waving - although it looks more like flapping - and is doing it constantly. He'll also "rave" if you show him how. He's really starting to copy our speech now, although no words yet. He was trying to copy ALS singing earlier and it was adorable! He's mastered how to use his push walker to get around the room how he wants and generally just drags it around with one hand on it to balance him.
Things we did: Are you ready for this?! On Friday we walked into town and bought OJ his first pair of shoes, then we headed to the WPU World Powerlifting Championships where we met friends and watched the lifting for a bit. On Saturday we were back at the competition then we had a couple of friends round for Halloween festivities in the evening (including dressing up and decorating the house of course). On Sunday we were back at the competition for the final day then had a reasonably chilled out afternoon. It's half-term so there was no swimming on Monday but OJ had his first settling in session in the morning. It was only an hour and I stayed with him and he was fabulous, they all commented how chilled he was and he never came back to me once during the whole hour. On Tuesday we went to get OJ weighed and then went for a nice long walk around the park in the afternoon. Yesterday was his second settling in session, another hour but this time with me in reception going through the paperwork etc. They decided they he needed to be in the toddler room rather than the baby room and I agreed, although didn't consider that it was completely unfamiliar to him and the people were different to Monday. They only have 3 children in each room at the moment and the staff move in and out so it's nice and small and everyone knows everyone. He was absolutely fine when I left but 10 minutes later he started screaming and went at it constantly for 40 minutes until I went back to sort him out. We spent some time chatting and playing then came home and did Halloween activities - watched Hotel Transylvania and dressed up to hand out sweets to the trick or treaters. Today he had his first proper morning at nursery, which should be 7:30-12:30. Again he was fine when I left but within 5 minutes was crying. I waited around in reception for about half an hour and he wasn't as distraught as yesterday, switching between crying and being distracted, so I bit the bullet and left. I rang at 9 and they said he was much happier and had settled down playing with the room leader, although he did cry intermittently. At 10:30 they rang me to say that he wouldn't eat or drink anything and, as he'd had no breakfast (we didn't give it to him before nursery as we thought it might be nice for him to eat there, kind of like dogs love anyone who feeds them) they were worried. We picked him up at 10:45 and when we got there he was playing but obviously very tired and grumpy. He came home, had a massive lunch then napped for 90 mins which was the only nap he had all day. Nursery is going to be tough but we'll get there - ALS is going to pick him up at 10:30 every day next week (well, the 3 days he's there) so he's not there for too long and can hopefully settle in. I'm also going to try and express some milk and see how if he'll take it from them, which I doubt. It definitely went better than yesterday, so that's a plus I guess! We've spent the rest of the day getting things ready for tomorrow (decorating the house, wrapping presents, making and frosting a dairy-free cake for cake smash, making dairy-free brownies, general tidying, shopping etc.).
Me: I've been incredibly stressed about the whole nursery situation and me going back to work - I hate the thought of not being the one to pick him up and make it better when he's sad! However, I'm slowly making my peace with it and it helps that even just between yesterday and today there was a big improvement. Hopefully the improvement continues. I'm so excited about the next few days of celebrations so that should take my mind off going back to work. I'll do a separate post about his birthday and things once it rolls around.
I've taken a LOT of photos this week so some of them have been combined to save time/space.
51 weeks 1 day - stealing our friend's drink carton!
51 weeks 1 day - first pair of shoes (£32!!!) and he refuses to walk a step in them.
51 weeks 2 days - destroying our decorations.
51 weeks 2 days - removing the spiders from the cobweb.
51 weeks 2 days - cute, cute and more cute!
51 weeks 2 days - we love him even if he did entirely miss the point of Jenga!
51 weeks 2 days - cute, sleeping little pumpkin.
51 weeks 2 days - family Halloween with the cutest little pumpkin you ever did see.
51 weeks 3 days - bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning.
51 weeks 3 days - with our friends at the powerlifting competition - "I wanna touch the beard... ahh, too close, abort, abort!"
51 weeks 4 days - a very frosty morning walk to nursery, snug as a bug in a rug!
51 weeks 4 days - the face of a child who ate a giant homemade sweet potato and spinach fishcake, a pile of peas and swede, cantaloupe, a banana biscuit and was on his second helping of grapes!
51 weeks 5 days - always teething, always cheeky.
51 weeks 5 days - we've bought him toys for his birthday... but this kept him entertained for 20 minutes solid and has done on many an occasion!
51 weeks 6 days - our first Halloween as a family!
52 weeks - all ready for the birthday boy in the morning! Most of them are from us but the pile on the right are from my uncle who asked me to get something for OJ and my aunt and uncle who dropped off a present earlier as they're away at the weekend.
