23/52 - Portrait Project 2013

'A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2013' 

Cooper: He has no fear. It makes him smile, and makes my stomach turn.
Indiana: She loves playing lego. I found her standing by the closed box screaming as she wanted it opened. 20 minutes later she was still sitting here happily playing.

Indiana Alicia: 10 and a half months old

In six weeks our baby will be one year old. No longer an infant, heading into toddlerhood. Crazy.

It's been a while since I posted an update of just where Indiana is up to, so i had better catch up before that birthday comes and passes me.

Miss Indi:

At 7 months you cut your first tooth, on the bottom, and its partner popped up next to it at 8 months. coming up to eleven months now, and you still have just these two little chompers. You have worn your amber beads almost every day, and while I didn't find they have provided all that much pain relief, they certainly helped with the drooling. On the occasional day you weren't wearing them, you became a dribble monster and had rosy red cheeks.

At 9 months you finally were able to sit by yourself, seeing the world from a new position. Two weeks later and you were pulling yourself up on the furniture to stand. It made for an interesting trip to Queensland, where you wanted to be able to stand up at everything.

By 10 months you are starting to walk around furniture, but are unsure just how to get back down to the floor... but you have mastered that by screaming at the top of your lungs until one of us realises that's what you want and helps you to sit down.

You are now coming up to 11 months old. You move around the furniture a lot easier and have mastered how to slowly get back down. We have caught you a couple of times letting go of things without realising and standing by yourself... and then falling. There have been lots of falls and bumps to the head in the process. Thanks to the need for socks as winter is now here, you have slipped a lot on the floorboards. So you have now been given your first pair of shoes to help you grip... and they are exceptionally cute!

You love to play with duplo, you will yell out loud to me if the box is closed. Once open, you will sit down and play, eat and throw it all around the room.

We are still breastfeeding, although there have been a few times lately when I've almost been ready to pack it in. Hearing of babies who are sleeping twelve hours is very tempting. But I know that there is no guarantee that you will sleep longer, and I would hate to stop for this reason and have no change. So we will make it to my twelve month goal and just see where it takes us from there.
Most nights you are pretty good and will have your feed and go back to sleep. There just isn't all that long in between. And the six o'clock starts don't particularly appeal with me. But time goes fast, and you won't be little forever, so we will be fine.
We still cuddle you to sleep. I don't remember at what age we stopped doing this with Cooper. It works for us at the moment, and you are happy.

A rough rhythm of your day:

6-7am: Wake and breastfeed

8am: Breaky: Weetbix with banana, or this week you have been loving porridge

9am: Quick breastfeed and morning sleep (usually about an hour)

11am: sometimes a snack such as yoghurt

12pm: Lunch - fruit, today you had a banana sandwich and devoured it

1pm ish: Breastfeed and afternoon sleep (I will try to push this out till later if I can as otherwise you are very tired by the evening). Usually sleeps for and hour and a half if I'm lucky.

3pm: snack

4.30pm ish: quick breastfeed

5-5.30pm: Dinner

6pm: Bath

7pm: Breastfeed and bedtime

9.30pm ish: Wakes for a breastfeed

Overnight: you will generally wake another two times in the night, have a feed and go back to sleep. I have tried just cuddling you, but you will just keep waking until you have a feed. So for now I will just feed you so we can both go back to sleep.

Looking at this it seems like she is feeding a lot, but they are quick feeds in the day, no more than ten minutes. Unlike bottles, breasts don't hold as much so this is why she has little feeds here and there. Plus she is oh so busy and often will have one side before wanting to get down and ruin the lego tower Cooper just built ;)
I have spoken with quite a few other breastfeeding mothers who have all said that this is fairly normal for a breastfed child. And if you had/have a breast fed baby who sleeps for the night, then you are one lucky mumma! And if not, then know that you aren't alone.

Love you baby girl xxx

Look out Winter

Life feels busy every day, and when it's not it feels like I must be missing something to do! The past few weeks have seen the kids sick on and off. Cooper even had his first sick day from creche!
See that pale little man up above? Well, I finally decided that although Indiana does have her daddy's colouring, he hasn't always been that pale. So after a trip to the doctors, Cooper was ordered some blood tests. He was such a brave little thing. After popping on some Emla cream to numb him up good, he sat lovely and still, and while he watched Toy Story on the iPad, the nurse got it first go.
The results came back showing that he did lack in iron and vitamin D, so he is now on a lovely dose each morning, and I have had to increase the amount of red meat we eat (Dales pretty happy with this). While he certainly hasn't been lacking in energy, his behaviour has been full on, and very trying for us. I'm hoping that maybe once he has stabilised internally a little, he might start to feel better, and in turn be a little happier... one can only wish! Thankfully he loves his 'medi's' and these new ones taste pretty good.
So it's been a busy few weeks, and now it's getting cold and wet we are having to rug up that bit more. But this afternoon we popped down to our little park, and had a nice little swing.

22/52 - Portrait Project 2013

'A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2013' 

Cooper: It was a busy week for this little man who has been a bit sick.

Indiana: Standing up behind one of the many push cars in the house, she knows just how clever she is.

Healing Colours

While pregnant with Indiana my Mum and I came across the most adorable beanie in a little coastal town. It was pink and purple, almost like tie dye, gorgeously hippie. It was made of merino wool, so although it was fairly thin, it was deliciously soft, it would be perfect for the cool winter months here in Melbourne. Mum bought it for us, thinking if it was a girl I was carrying then it would be perfect, if not we could gift it to someone else.

Thankfully Miss Indi came along! Well, this original beanie was too big, so I put it aside for now, and went hunting for the makers - Healing Colours makes these beautiful creations from hand. So I bought her a new little beanie in the baby size.

I was then excited when on our Queensland holiday I had literally about 3 minutes to shop before we headed to the airport for our flight home, and I came across one of their headbands in a store in Burleigh Heads. I had been looking for something like this for Indi for when the wind is that bit chilly just to keep her ears warm. This headband is the cotton one, but is still lovely and soft.

I am now just trying to decide just what else needs to come and live at our home... too many to choose from! I am thinking of getting Cooper a beaning in blues and greens for Winter.
I love the beanies especially, and if you have dreads I think the hair wraps would be beautiful.

I highly recommend checking their store out, the prices are great and the quality is fantastic! Thank you Healing Colours for keeping my littlies warm and looking oh so spunky.

*This is not a sponsored post, just simply wanted to share with you this beautiful little Aussie company :)
* Indiana is currently 10 months old, and has been wearing it for a few months. The child size would fit from approx 2years old I would think.
*Excuse her little nose, she had a fall this week :(

21/52 - Portait Project 2013

'A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2013' 

Cooper: We cooked a cake for Daddy and Aunty Dee's birthday dinner

Indiana: She is almost never without a bruise on that head these days.

It's his birthday...

Wishing my beautiful other half a wonderful birthday, the last in your twenties! 

I love you with all my heart, Pixie xx

Boba Love

I thought it was about time for a little Boba update from me. And it seems perfect timing having spent the past week interstate on holidays, where our carrier became our life saver.

At 10months old, Indi isn't yet walking, but wants to be carried everywhere. Our accomodation we stayed in had either stairs, or we were in the elevator nurmerous times per day. Being able to pop her in there on my front, meant she was safe, secure, warm, and we had our hands free to carry extra things, or hold Cooper's hand. 

But we even found it useful for Cooper - now three years old - when he was tired and when we needed to secure him from running away (which unforutnaly he likes to do). 

While I have used our Boba heaps, this was Dales first time carrying the kids in there. He commented on how comfortable it was with Cooper, that he felt lightweight in comparison to holding him in his arms. And with Indiana he loved the bonding aspect, that she would contentdedly look up at her daddy, or snuggle her head again his chest.

Oh, and when you don't have a high chair it comes in handy too, just strapped it around her tummy and she wasn't going anywhere!

Both our children feel safe, secure and comfortable in there, thats a triple win for me.

*I didn't take the foot straps away with us, as usually Cooper doesn't hop in the Boba, just Indi. But I will be popping them back of so they are there for him if he needed to be carried. In saying that, he still had a good seat, and there were no complaints from him in time he was worn.

*I am a Boba Ambassador, but all opinions here are my own, honest views :)

A big holiday for our little tribe

We have just returned from spending the week on the Gold Coast for my cousins wedding. It was a beautiful and hard holiday! We have found that taking Cooper out of his comfort zone, isn't particularly wonderful for him. But while there were moments of sheer frustration (on our part, as well as Coopers) we had a ball taking him and Indiana to the beach. Watching Cooper run, and splash, and watching Indi eat her first mouthful of sand did make it all worth while. 

The plane ride was fairly good, Cooper was happy to watch a movie on the iPad, and Indi had a play and then slept for almost an hour for both flights.

We stayed in Currumbin for 3 nights, then headed up to Main Beach for 3 nights. It was nice to stay in different areas of the Gold Coast this time. Unfortunately it rained every day, but it was on and off so we could get out and about inbetween. And the rain disappeared for the wedding along the beach which was beautiful!

I guess the hardest part for our hoiday was that Cooper just wouldn't listen, and almost every time we did something that he enjoyed there was a full on tantrum as soon as it ended. And trying to keep the peace while we were with the rest of family meant a lot of giving in, along with us getting frustrated and upset. I presume it's an age thing, I hope it's just an age thing. Three years olds are just testing boundaries right. We understood that he was in a new environment, so did our best to keep things limited for him and Indi, not going to every family 'do' to stay in and rest with them. When we did go somewhere we found our Boba carrier became invaluable, with one child in the pram and the other being worn. Cooper actually found he loved being worn, especially by Dale, I think he felt safe up there, but not missing out on too much.

Seeing my family, spending time with Nannee, Poppy and the girls, having all us cousins together was great though, such a rare occurrence these days. Everyone wanted cuddles from Indi, but unfortunately she is having her stage of separation anxiety, and only wants her mummy or daddy. So Most just looked from afar!

On our first day home, Cooper fell asleep on the couch, which he rarely does. It was a big week for all, but especially him. It's nice to be home, he has calmed down already, and we are getting back our little man. Although I am on the hunt for some good books to read to discover just whats going on with his little brain. First on the list is to re-read Buddhism For Mothers i think.