I think I can, I think I can...

On Saturday Daniel was 4 months old. It's amazing how quickly time goes by.

Such a big boy

Today he had his 4 month injections and he did pretty well again. He did a big cry, a little bit of sobbing after and then the was fine. He was also weighed and measured. He is now 64cm and 6.005kg. His length is the 50th percentile and weight is 25th percentile. Go bubba. So happy that his weight isn't an issue anymore. Paul was happy with how he is going.

He is doing some new things and trying to do other things. The main thing which he is working on is rolling over from his back to his front. He loves holding things - his grip is going pretty well. He can pick things up from beside him and pull them over. In the car, he loves holding and swinging his butterfly.

 He has also started to wave a lot. He is such a fidgety boy, but so cute!

His tummy time is still going really well. He loves lying on his tummy and his head control is getting much better. He is still a bobble head at times, but most of the time it is nice and strong.

He is also working really hard on rolling over. He is great at getting to his side, but then can't make it all the way over. He just needs to pick up his momentum and he will be there. Each time he practices, he moves himself around on the mat. He often moves himself 45 degrees around. The other day I put him down like this...

 And then after hanging out the washing he was like this...

At the moment he can get to his side and then just a simple flick and he flips over to his tummy. Clever boy!

So close!

 This morning he was just enjoying repeatedly trying to roll over to get his birdy. I could just watch him for hours, but sadly there is work to do.

The other thing that he has been developing is playing with his mobile. He used to just hit the top of it, and at time accidentally push the side parts, but he now deliberately spins the side parts. He is such a clever boy :-)

Here is video of him spinning it.

At the moment I'm really missing things that I used to do. I do love being a mum and I am so proud of Daniel and think he is just the cutest, but I am missing a lot of things I used to do. Things like singing on Sunday nights, teachings, hanging out with friends, being able to stay up late (or having the energy to stay up late), etc. This has increased as the girls at Mother's Group have been talking about going back to work. One of the girls goes back this week, most others are going back at 12 months. Just for a couple of days, but still, going back. I have been thinking if I should go back or not, but I think it is just in the moment. I'm sure when Daniel becomes more active it will be more interesting when we go out to different places. It is hard, but James has been very understanding and good at listening and helping me think through things which I am very blessed by.

On a different note, I think that my bubba has been knocked around by his injections. He has been asleep for 2 hours now and counting... Hopefully he will be ok :-)

Freedom!

This week has been nice to be back at home and try to re-establish a routine of some kind. Daniel has been rather unsettled though, I think it's because of so much travelling, unstructure and lots of new faces. The last couple of days though he has started to settle down again. Earlier in the week though I had quite a few night wake ups, a lot of tears after a feed and just rather unhappy moments for no reason I could see. But as I said, it is nice that he has settled down again mostly. 

So to throw another change into Daniel's life we decided to try having him go to sleep in a sleeping bag, not being wrapped anymore. I decided that we would try Friday night so that James was around to help out the next day if we were working on limited sleep. Daniel was pretty happy to be in his sleeping bag

We really weren't sure how he would go. I was expecting a lot more wake ups and waiting for him to resettle himself. He did however surprise me. He went to bed at 6pm and went to sleep around 10mins later. He then slept until 12:30am. I got up and gave him a feed and he then went straight back to sleep, no fuss. He woke up at 5am, but then I left him to resettle and he then slept until 6:30am. Champion!

We were then trying to work out if he would sleep in the day without being wrapped. We decided that we might as well try and if it wasn't working for us, then we would wrap him for a bit longer in the day. However, he hasn't been bad at all. He has settled himself within 15/20mins each time and has slept for his normal lengths. Yay :-) So goodbye wraps, hello sleeping bags. Fun.

We have also started to use the quilt that Nana J made for Daniel. It works perfectly in his cot and we have had a couple of cold Spring days so I put it on his bed.

We have received a couple of fun presents which we used this past week too. One is from Noel at church who while overseas bought a bib that is branded 'Add a Baby'. We decided we would add Daniel as he is starting to dribble a lot. You have to hide his arms so they can't be seen but it is pretty cute.

Our little sailor boy

The other present which we used is from my cousin Nat and her family. She sent us Pee-pee Tee-pees all the way from Canada which is very fun. The idea is to use them when changing his nappy to try and stop any surprise fountains happening. So far we haven't had any land on us, but we have had a couple of fountains. James often takes the risk when giving Daniel a bath from stripping him down in his room and carrying him through the house to the bath. Rather than taking the risk, James decided to make use of the tee-pees. 

Hehe

Daniel has also started to do a couple of things this week. One thing is that he is loving looking at his reflection in the mirror. When we hold him infront of one he does lots of smiles - both at the baby and the mummy holding him.

Hours of entertainment

The other thing that he has started to do is find Mummy is just as funny as Daddy. He has given me giggles too - not as many as James, but still I will take what I get.

Daniel has also become a lot more chatty. One morning he lay in bed for an hour just chatting before he went to sleep. Cute but a bit annoying too when you want him to sleep. But as James said, chatting is better than crying. I wish that I knew what he was saying. It is very cute though how animated he gets. Here is a conversation Daniel and I had about what he did on Wednesday.

Up, up and away to Hervey Bay

The week after going to Tamworth, James, Daniel and I headed up to Hervey Bay to say farewell to Grandpa. On Sunday morning James drove Jenny and Maddie to the airport to head home, returned back home to then head over to Mum's place. She then drove us to the airport. I was quite nervous about flying with Daniel as it was another new adventure. I asked the girls from Mother's Group on Facebook if they had any handy tips for flying. I just didn't want to be that person with the crying baby who drives everyone crazy! Daniel was great as we checked in. I was carrying him in the ergo. Check in was really quite easy and checking in his capsule and pram was easy too. The problem came when I had to take him out the ergo to go through security. Daniel did not like that one bit. Then he must have realised that he would be hungry as it was feeding time so the tears stated. I could not settle him which made me stress a whole lot more. Fortunately James insisted on taking Daniel for a walk to get a coffee. He popped him in the ergo and when he returned Daniel was asleep (James is amazing!). He stayed that way until we got onto the plane and we took him out the ergo. Straight away I started feeding him to prepare for take off. As Daniel was hungry, he was very happy to feed for take off. Fortunately he was happy with just having one side so I saved the 2nd side for landing. The airhostess gave us the baby belt - but didn't explain how to use it. We looked at it and made it up for putting it one - you would think that they would ask if you had used one before, oh well. We worked it out. Once Daniel had fed he was just happy sitting there on my lap. He made the air hostesses fall in love with him, each commenting on how good he was.

1st plane trip!

Then when the announced to prepare for landing I just placed Daniel on the other side and he happily fed for landing - what a champ! We then waited for everyone else to get off the plane as I was finishing feeding and then we found our car rental place and then went for a long drive up to Hervey Bay. 

When we arrived it was quite late so I gave Daniel a feed and then popped him to sleep. He slept really well in the port-a-cot again. So proud of him.

The next morning we went out to visit Nan to see how she was going and to have her meet Daniel. It was so lovely seeing her and she loved meeting our little man. He was even kind enough to give her and Geoff some smiles.

 
 I wish that Grandpa could have met him. It was hard seeing his chair empty, when every other time he had sat there, but Nan seemed to be doing well and as I said, loved meeting Daniel and having a cuddle with him. I love it how both weeks Daniel has brought joy to places where there is sadness at the loss of someone special to us all. 

On the way back home, James and I were chatting about how it would be nice for Daniel to have some form of mobile to play with as that is what entertains him most of the days and I had brought up some toys but he isn't at the stage of grabbing things. James spoke to his dad about this and the handy man that he is set to work (Daniel is so lucky!) In the meantime, they made a mobile out of the high chair, which worked for Daniel.

 But then Boompa brought in something he just put together, hooks and all to put on the toys. Daniel absolutely loved it! It was perfect for him, and perfect height too. Thanks Boompa!

 This trip was a bonus too because he got to see him Boompa again, as well as spend more time with Nana J (after seeing her in Sydney for a day) and also got to meet all the rest of the family - Uncle Ryan, Nana and all the Pipers. One of the most special parts is that Ruth got to meet Daniel. 

When James and I were over in Scotland, we absolutely loved staying with Ruth, Charlie and Tim and we often wish that we stayed longer with them. We just got along so well and had so much in common. We didn't expect to see Ruth until I messaged her asking how she was going, and she mentioned that Belinda and Jane had flown her out for the funeral. It was so special for Nan to have Ruth there, but I also loved the fact that she got to meet our little man and have lots of cuddles with him. I hope that we can go back over to Scotland when Daniel is a bit older and stay with them again so Charlie and Tim can meet him.

The funeral was hard, but a lovely celebration of Grandpa's life. It was so nice to hear about him and about things he used to do before I met him. As I said before, I would have loved for him to meet Daniel and part of me wishes that the three of us did a trip up the Hervey Bay earlier, but you can't live in what ifs and if onlys. It was very special to have Nan say that Grandpa was looking forward to meeting Daniel at Christmas time. Daniel was very good during the service too. He was a bit unsettled at the very start but with constant rocking he went to sleep, only to wake up during a song but then settle again for the rest of the service. Thanks bubba. He then got to have some lovely cuddles with Uncle Ryan before a nice feed. We then went to Wendy and Geoff's place with all the family to have dinner and hang out. Daniel was so good at having some more cuddles but then going to sleep there. He was so snuggly when James got him up to go back home. So special!

It was lovely for Daniel to be able to hang out with his family again - Aunty Jen, Maddie, Nana J and Boompa. I am looking forward to Christmas time when he will be a lot more active and responsive to everyone.

He loved looking at his monkey feet!

Maddie apparently loved looking at all the animals on Daniel's suit

On Wednesday we popped back into see Nana as Thursday we were to head back home. Daniel was very good again, doing lots of smiles for Ruth and Nana, as well as some giggles for them too. He is just so cute!

Giggling at Daddy - I love his giggle face.

That afternoon we went to Enzo's for coffee with those who were still around. It was so nice to sit together, chat about Grandpa, have Daniel cuddles and just enjoy each other's company. Then Ruth took Maddie down to the water and James and I took Daniel for his first experience at the beach. While we were in the water I kept telling Daniel that he is to be like his Mummy - enjoy the beach - and not like his Daddy who doesn't like the beach. Time will tell who he follows.

I loved this experience and really can't wait for Christmas when we can go to the beach a lot more and he can wear his swimmers and play in the water. To start with, Daniel wasn't too convinced about the water

But then as his feed got used to the temperature, he started to realise it is not that bad

Such pudgy feet enjoyed the water and sand

He then started to really enjoy having his feet move in the water.

Then it was his turn with Daddy. It was ok at the start

But the best part was when Daddy would throw me up in the air. That brought big smiles to Daniel's face and fully melted my heart.

My favourite photo of Daniel and James together. Daniel really loves his daddy!

Maddie had a great time in the water too and was very obedient when Ruth told her to sit down. She became so wet, but absolutely loved it and brought many laughs to us watching her.

 When we headed home we had a very early start to the day and a very long car trip - 5am start to leave by 6:30 so we could have an hour stop on the way to feed and be in time for our flight. Daniel travelled mostly well again, but we were so tired by the time we arrived at Brisbane airport! Daniel now can pull his head up, and was doing so in the capsule, so we have now take out the head support as he was then falling asleep with his head on the support, not inside it.

While it was lovely to see our families over 2 weeks, I am also very happy to be home. It was a very exhausting time, both emotionally and mentally, and I'm very grateful that Daniel travelled so well on both occasions. He really is a delight to have. I am looking forward to Christmas when we are back at Hervey Bay and to Tamworth Christmas next year, but at the moment I am happy to be at home, re-establishing routine and familiarity as well as being able to catch up with my Mother's Group girls on Tuesdays and Thursdays.