On your marks...

Get set... Go!

Daniel has started walking (using a walker). This morning he started by pulling himself up on his high chair and then pushing it to walk. I was pretty impressed by that!

Then he tried to pull out his walker that was folded up and pushed that around on his knees. I thought I'd give it a go, not expecting him to have the coordination to walk using it. How wrong I was! He is off and improving each time he tries using it! I captured these videos for you to see. Seriously, this was within 5 mins of getting the walker out.

So turning 1 obviously = walking time. Oh dear. I think I'm going to be even more tired chasing after this little munchkin!

"Happy Birthday To You"

Today Daniel turns 1. At 9:58pm to be exact. It's pretty crazy. Thinking that at this time last night I was fully in labour, pushing to get him out really. It still seems surreal at times. This year has gone by so quickly. It has had its ups and downs. It has been very challenging at times, especially in the early days when Daniel was not feeding well and other times when he is sick and I have no clue what to do. It has been fun - going on adventures with my little family, playing games and having fun. It has been tiring - not having much downtime to myself besides when Daniel has his naps (which I am fortunate he is pretty good at). It has been joyful - I just love watching him learn, grow, develop, and enjoy all that is around him. It has been tricky but also a uniting experience between James and I - we really are a team when it comes to Daniel (besides night time wake ups when James can sleep through them). I love that decisions are made together. I love that James loves hanging out with Daniel and has embraced being a Daddy. It has been a time where it really makes me appreciate all that our parents did (and still do) for us and how they raised us. 

I am so proud of my little man. I am so proud of his temperament. I love that he is happy a lot of the time. I love watching him problem solve. It's not often that he gets frustrated, instead he just keeps trying until he game do what he wants to do. I love that he loves his family - both those near and far. I love that he seems to enjoy being at church - this Sunday we took his maraca so that he could join in the music which was very cute! I love that he is happy to play by himself, but he is also happy to play with others. I love that he loves to laugh. I can't wait to see what this next year holds! I'm sure it will go just as quickly and I will be wondering where the time went.

So what did we do today? James worked from home today so that he could see Daniel more for his birthday which was lovely. Our day started with saying bye to Aunty Jen, Maddie and Nana J :(. It was so lovely having them stay with us for a little while. I wish that Daniel was fine for the whole time and that some virus didn't get him at the start of their trip, but atleast he became happy and his normal self toward the end. But before saying bye, he received some presents.
 

Opening the card from Aunty Jen, Maddie and Uncle Ryan

Looking at the card from Nana J and Boompa

Daddy helping unwrap

Yay for Bunnikins dinner set

We then said our goodbyes before Nana J, Aunty Jen and Maddie headed to the airport.

Kisses from Maddie

Cuddles with Aunty Jen

Cuddles with Nana J

Maddie is ready to go!

James and I then gave Daniel his birthday present - a fold out lounge! He took to it like a fish in water. He climbed on it, sat on it, lay on it, bounced on it. He seemed to love it which was great!

After a good morning nap he had a yummy lunch of hummus on bread and then mandarins. Yum, yum. He enjoyed feeding himself the bread.

He then spent some more time playing and reading books. He even chose to read on his couch!

After another good afternoon nap we hopped into the car and headed to Nana and Poppy's place for dinner. First there were some cuddles and presents.

Happy birthday Daniel

For me?

Oscar helping Daniel open his present

We then sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candle for the cake because Nana wasn't going to be there for dinner.

The cake was kindly made to Oscar's request - a smiling face because Daniel is always smiling and it needed to have blonde hair. It's lovely that Oscar sees Daniel as a happy baby. Good cake making Nana.
After dinner it was then time to light the candle again, sing again and blow out the candle again. Daniel was keen to have some cake!

Gimme gimme

This time when we offered cake to Daniel he picked up the whole cake slice and took a bite. It was still an unimpressed reaction though.

Yummy

Actually, get it off my hands

I'll try just a little bit

So still no real progress with cake eating (which isn't a bad thing at all!) We then had a bit more of a play and then Daniel 'helped' Poppy pack up.

We then headed home for milk and then bed. Hopefully he will have a great nights sleep.

Happy 1st birthday baby boy! We love you so much and can't wait to see what this next year holds for you. Thanks for all the laughs, tears and fun times.

Daniel's 1st Birthday (Party)

On Sunday we had Daniel's 1st birthday party with his family.

To start with, on Saturday night I needed to make Daniel's birthday cake. I wanted to make an afl ball, however, we didn't get around to getting a dollyvarden cake tin so opted for another favourite toy of his - his ukelele. I was very nervous about making it and so had put it off most of the day. I was using the guitar in the Woman's Weekly cook book as a base. This is the progress.

After baking 2 cakes, I cut them to make the ukelele shape

I used a whole bottle of purple food colouring to make the main icing

Add a cocoa circle

Licorice for the frets, wafer as the bar, musk sticks at the top and then white thread for the strings

Marshmellows at the top for tuning and green pen icing to draw on the trees

The finished product with the real ukeleke

Ta da. Pretty pleased with my efforts.

The mammoth effort to cover the ukelele so that it didn't touch the icing but didn't dry out

For Sunday's party we decided to just invite family as it would get too big and difficult to invite friends and to know who to invite - where to draw the line. I'm glad that it was just family because the weather was horrible so we had to make it indoors. This resulted in a lot of brainstorming to make everything and everyone fit in. The couch was moved to the wall, Daniel's rug was brought out so that the floorboards would be protected, 2 fold out tables were brought by the Howies who also brought some fold-out chairs as well as Mum and Dad. We were ready to party.

Unfortunately on Saturday afternoon Daniel became very upset and clingy and during the night woke up almost every hour. The morning was no different. He was a very upset, unsettled little man. There were little to no smiles, there were big red cheeks, he just didn't know what he wanted. The poor little thing. We gave him some panadol after he woke up from his nap which, after around 30mins, seemed to kick in.

The birthday boy had just woken up

Cuddles with Mummy before heading out

After a few cuddles to help happy him up a bit we went out to meet the guests who were already here. Grandma G came with Mum and Dad so we got our 4 generations photo. This was the best that Daniel was going to give the poor bubba.

Our other guests arrived and Daniel was there to greet them.

After having a lot of cuddles with Mummy to try and happy him up a bit

he was happy to go to Nana. After talking with Uncle Peter for a bit he was happy to go and have cuddles (even though his face didn't show it).

 After hanging out with Uncle Peter he then was happy to go and have some cuddles with Nana J and have a chat with Grannie and Boompa.

Eventually the panadol kicked in and Daniel was happy to crawl around between the rooms and watch his cousins and 2nd cousins playing games.

Sprung playing with Oscar's 4.5 birthday present from Nana and Poppy

In the meantime James was busy cooking the bbq - yummy chicken and sausages. Howie was helping keep him company and encourage his cooking.

The food went down a treat, both in the kiddies table area and the grandparents/great grandparents table area.

Daniel had some great laughs with Auntie Jenny, getting tickles and playing 'round and round the garden'. I'm so glad that he enjoys hanging out with her. Makes me feel better abou going back to work one day a week and having him hang out with Jens, Howie and Oscar.

1 step, 2 step... tickley under there

After lunch it was birthday cake time! We had the obligatory singing of "Happy Birthday" followed by blowing out the candles and then cutting the cake.

Looking at the cake

The candle is lit

Happy Birthday to you!

Blowing out candles

Cutting the cake

Then while Jens kindly cut the cake up for everyone to eat, Daniel opened his amazing presents from everyone. They were very generous!

Looking at the photo frame from Kimberly with lots of Daniel photos

Playing his maracas and tambourine from Grayma and Auntie Sue

Daniel's collection of presents

Then it was cake eating time. This was Daniel's first attempt of having sweet food (besides fruit) and his reaction didn't disappoint. 

Keen to try it

Yuck, get this off my hands!

Why did you put that in my mouth Mummy?

Daddy finds it funny, I don't

Ok, I'll try a bit more

Nope, not keen. I'm too tired!

I then took Daniel and gave him some milk and put him to bed. He fell asleep during his milk feed and then slept for a couple of hours. He did so well during the party for not feeling very well.

At the end of the party, Oscar, Kaysey, Tristan and Maddie had a great time playing with the balloons. They did some chasing, balloon fighting and hair raising.

Trying to make Uncle James' hair stand up

It worked on Maddie!

All in all it was a lovely day, even with Daniel feeling out of sorts. It was so lovely to have so many of Daniel's family be able to come and celebrate, especially having Great Grandma from Old Bar and also Aunty Jen, Maddie and Nana J come from Hervey Bay. Thanks to all who came!