New skills and Mothers' Day part 2

This past week Daniel has started some new skills. He is also very proud of himself.

1. He started playing with his xylophone. After just showing him how to play it once he seemed to get the idea of tapping it with the stick.

2. Daniel started to crawl properly. He has been crawling properly on grass since our holiday and started to move it to on carpet. But on Wednesday he started to crawl properly on our floor at home too. It is pretty cute to watch and he is picking up speed when crawling.

3. He has been doing this for a while but he is very confident with pulling up on things and standing. He loves to choose books from on the shelf, he loves choosing his own toys, he enjoys pulling up on chairs.

4. He has started drinking water on his own and most of it stays in his mouth. He is very proud of himself. You can't leave him alone though because I did yesterday and came back to find him happily pouring it on his legs. Funny, but messy.

5. Daniel had his first proper hair cut today. Nana came around and when he woke up we popped him into his high chair outside. He did well to keep his head forward most of the time. He did well at being distracted by the toys or by looking at me.

Thanks Nana!

He also loves laughing at Oscar. I know I showed a video from a couple of weeks ago but here is another one of Oscar playing on the beanbag and Daniel loving it.

On Saturday my boys gave me part 2 of Mothers' Day. It was an adventure day with my boys. James let me sleep in in the morning. He got up and looked after Daniel, went shopping for picnic food. We then drove into the city. We walked down to the wharf and caught a ferry to Shark Island. Daniel had some milk on the way.

 We got off at Shark Island and had some photos at the wharf. It was such a beautiful day! The sun was shining and the water was crystal blue.

We walked up the path and found a nice spot to set up our picnic. Picnic rug down, toys out we enjoyed some of the sun.

Daniel enjoyed pointing out the beautiful view of the city.

Lunch was yummy. We had some dip and crackers, ham and cheese sandwiches, salad, brownies and lemon lime and bitters drink. Daniel enjoyed his sandwich and grapes. He then had fun crawling around the grass and climbing on us. Daddy then enjoyed playing with him for a bit, throwing him in the air.

After 1.5 hours we caught the ferry back again. It would have been lovely to stay there longer but the next ferry was 1.5 hours later and Daniel wouldn't have coped with that much time of just sitting on the grass. James and I would love to go back another time - child free to just relax on the grass and read a book and enjoy the sun.

Tickling Daddy's neck

Our beautiful harbour

My boys

I felt very spoilt by my boys and very loved. This year of being a mum has been such a blessing and such a challenge. Daniel has brought so much joy to us and it is such a privilege seeing him grow up and learn new skills. It has made me appreciate how my mum raised me and how Julie raised James. The sacrifices they made, the sleepless nights (or broken sleep, the sick times, teething, playing, hanging out. I look forward to seeing my little man growing up and many more mothers' days ahead. I love my boy!