Bailey's 4th Birthday Party

Bailey had an awesome 4th Birthday Party with a Cars / Lightning McQueen theme.  He loved it!!  Tim did a great job on the cake!

Lily is 1

Lily turned 1 on the 14th March. We had a lovely day, she slept in until 7.30am and then opened her presents and had a bit of a play and some food then she went for a nap and then when she woke up we had lunch and then headed to Monkey Business (an indoor playcentre at North Lakes) for an afternoon of fun and playing in the ball pit and slides. Once we got home Mum came over to give Lily her presents and then we all went out to the sports club for dinner.
We had her birthday party on the 17/3. It was a pink and blue themed morning tea party with a Dorothy the Dinosaur cake. We had family and friends come and help us celebrate and the kids had fun on the trampoline and on Bailey's ride on car.
Our little girl is 1 already, I am loving her at this age, she is standing up all the time now but not yet ready to walk though she is able to jump on the trampoline! :-)

2012

Wow I have been very slack in blogging hey! Or rather very busy with 2 children now. Lily Eva Grace was born on the 14th March and she is 10 months old now. We were finally able to turn her around to face forwards in her car seat on Saturday. She is a happy, smily little girl, very graceful and flexible, we think she is going to be a dancer or gymnast she is always doing the splits and pointing her toes and crossing her legs like a little lady. The first 4-5 months were very hard, she was not a good sleeper like Bailey and would only nap for 45 minutes at a time. She was very grumpy and rarely smiled but in September/October we got her sorted out and onto a routine that worked and since then she has been a different and happy baby :-).
Bailey has become more difficult, we spent much of 2011 toilet training and he is still not there yet! :-/ He loves to refuse when we ask him to do things and throws some ripper tantrums. He still loves playing with his wooden Thomas trainset and his Lightning McQueen cars, he still loves letters and numbers and is learning to write and learn sounds. At first he didn't really acknowledge Lily but now he likes to play with her a bit though he loves telling her 'No Lily that is not your toy, this is your toy' when she plays with something that is his (though of course he is allowed to play with her things all he likes).
Bailey is starting Pre-Kindy next week at the EYC. He will continue Kids Gym and also go to playgroup.
Lily is crawling and has 7 teeth, she has 2 naps a day now and they are both in bed by 7!

Sleeping better!

Bailey's sleeping has improved heaps, for the past 2 weeks he has been going to bed a bit easier and most nights he doesn't get up. Some nights he gets up to ask for a drink but is easy to put back to bed after. He has also been waking up between 6.30am and 7.30am which is a lot more manageable. :-)
Still not napping everyday though..
Tomorrow we're taking him to try Kindy Gym at the PCYC again as the gym we took him to in Term 2 and 4 last year has put their prices up heaps!
He is getting very good at knowing road signs and rules and knows left from right. He can recognise heaps of road signs and can read the speeds as well.
Words he can read in any context are EXIT, STOP, GO, ZOO but theres lots more words he can read only in certain contexts.
He is enjoying jumping, walking on his hands and doing somersaults as well as jumping on the couch, looking forward to Mum getting her pool in so he can do some more swimming and jumping into the pool.
He has been a bit whiny lately and resisting going for baths but fine once he is in there.
Think thats all for now, only 6 or so weeks until our baby girl will be born, will be interesting to see how he reacts!

Big boys bed / Sleep issues!

Tim and his brother Chris have been working hard in December building Bailey's long awaited Thomas bed which was finally finished on the 21st December. He had his first night in his new bed on the 22nd. After a few nights where he fell out of bed during the night (and falling out of bed was also how he woke up Christmas morning!) we put up a side thing which has solved that problem! The first week in his new bed things were going very well, apart from he would keep getting out of bed and coming out like a jack in a box - just because he could now he wasn't in a cot. Then he started waking up and crying in the middle of the night and wanting us to sleep with him in his bed. We are using the Supernanny technique of just continually putting him back to bed and after a few times not talking or making eye contact just putting him back but it can go on for ages! Over the past week he has also been waking up ridiculously early (just after 5am) and this is after not falling asleep until about 9pm most nights as well!!
Not only that but since he went into a bed his day sleeps have become a thing of the past, he just won't stay. The few times we've got him to nap have either been laying on the couch in front of the Wiggles or in the car on the way home and we've just put him to bed and he's stayed there. So the days have been very full on!
Today is the first day he has had a nap in his Thomas bed on his own but he didn't fall asleep until 3pm so looks like another late night!
After him getting out of bed 20 or so times we start smacking his hand which I hate but it does seem to be effective - Tim is better at following through than me. Just can't believe our good little sleeper who used to sleep 11ish hours per night as well as an almost 2 hour nap has totally changed his sleep habits.
We're also starting to encourage him to use the toilet but so far that is turning into a big failure too, I don't think he is ready yet so might wait a few more weeks. Getting close to the baby coming now though! That is probably less than 10 weeks away!
Other recent news is we went to A Day Out With Thomas 2011 at the Ipswich Rail Museum, had a great Christmas and have had some of the worst floods in QLD history. Yesterday we were flooded in at Morayfield/Caboolture, floods have been worst in Toowoomba, Ipswich and the city though!

Birthday Season!

Birthday season is finally here! Bailey's best friend Ava turned 2 last Thursday and had a great party with a clown, magic tricks and balloons for everyone!
Now it's Bailey's turn, he will be 2 on Thursday and we're having a Thomas and Friends birthday party on Friday with his friends and a family party on Sunday afte
rnoon.
Our house has gone Thomas mad and there's soo much Thomas things coming for his birthday and party but he loves it so much!!
Lately he has started being very grumpy and difficult whenever he wakes up from a sleep - first thing and also after his afternoon nap, not knowing what he wants but wanting to keep going into the fridge and whining which is very annoying!
Talking lots more now too and more complex sentences. He is also very good at setting up his train tracks and connecting all the carriages, the creche ladies call him the 'Little Engineer'.
Also starting to look at Preschools for him, one of them he could start Term 4 next year once he is 3.
Here is the picture Tim did for his birthday party invitation.

PJ Party and August update

Tonight Bailey and I went to the Early Years Centre for a PJ party, dinner and storytime. We had a lot of fun, the parents made their own pizzas and the kids played and danced and listened to 'Hairy McLairy from Donaldson's Dairy' which is a favourite at our house too. Bailey got to play with his friends Ava and Jacob, only had 1 tearful incident when an older child took a car from him.
Think he's getting a cold though, he's starting to get a runny nose. And his cheeks have gone all red and the skin a bit dry ever since Sunday.
We went strawberry picking on Sunday afternoon which he LOVED, he ate soo many!! We will have to go again soon.
His day sleeps are getting shorter and some days he skips his nap altogether! Time to start thinking about getting him into a bed soon I think too. I have been looking for a Thomas the Tank Engine bed, he would absolutely love that! I think a Thomas birthday party next month is on the agenda too. Thomas and Chuggington are his absolute favourite things, with Roary a close third. Bailey now goes to Grandma's house for the day once a week, which allows Tim and I to get some work done and Bailey and Grandma love it too!!

'Gifted'?

On Tuesday we were at the Early Years Centre and Bailey walked into the health clinic and started pointing out all the shapes and animals he could see in the waiting room. The clinic sister wanted to know how old he was to already know shapes. She asked what other words he can say etc and she said he is quite advanced for his age and possibly gifted in some areas (letters, numbers etc) She gave me the checklists for 2 year olds and he has already achieved those milestones for language and we worked out he knows well over 200 words. We knew he was smart but doesn't every parent think that? Apparantly they only expect children his age to build towers 4 blocks high and to do 1-4 piece puzzles but he can do heaps more than that.
He's also started displaying more 'Terrible Two'-ish behaviour :-p being difficult and deliberately disobeying us!
He is enjoying colouring in using his new Mess-free Crayola textas after making a huge mess using normal textas yesterday!
And oh yeah the reign of broccolli as his favourite food has ended. He loves stirfry, cheese sticks and pineapple at the moment.
He carries a car or train everywhere!!!

Car Wash

On Sunday Tim and Bailey washed the car. Bailey just loved helping and he got to wear his Nemo swimwear and hat! His favourite part was playing in the warm, soapy water in the bucket! But he did do a pretty good job using the sponge on the car!
Later on in the afternoon he tripped on the concrete and scraped both his knees. There was a lot of blood but he didn't cry - until he saw the band-aids on him which he wanted off!
He can now count to 10 on his own, can say how many fingers a person is holding up to 10 and I'm so proud of all the words he can say now. He can finally say 'Thomas' where previously it was just 'Mas'.
Really enjoying the holiday break and spending lots of time with Bailey, Tim, Mum and Heather.
Have also been spending a lot of time with our friends Anna and Ava lately, it's good to have friends. :-)

Changes

Well there's been a few changes here lately. I am back at work, working as a teacher for a Christian Distance Education School for North Brisbane families. It is work from home but there's a lot of home visits and home calls etc to do. Tim lost his day job but is now focusing on growing his own multimedia business and doing freelance work, as well as being a stay-at-home Dad for Bailey.

Mum and Heather moved here from Perth last week too and have moved into their own rental house near us. It has been great having them here and seeing them settle into their new house.

It's been hard for me to be away from Bailey over the past week as my training has meant I've been away from home a lot lately and I have missed him. He's been a bit naughty/cheeky for Tim some days as well, breaking a part off his lamp and drawing on the coffee table with permanant marker!!

He is getting so clever now can say and point 'A,B,C', still mad about his cars and trucks and loves climbing onto our bed and hiding behind the curtains and loving his books!

My boy is very clever!

Bailey has always been very into books and in the last few weeks he is starting to show that lots of it is sinking in! He has randomly started pointing at numbers and letters in books and naming them. This comes after months of pointing at every number or letter he sees ANYWHERE (letterboxes, number plates, signs, TV) and asking us what it is. He can now recognise and say numbers 2 and 3 and letters C,D,T and Z and correctly identify 14 letters of the alphabet when asked to locate it. I think he's pretty clever but really I guess it is no different from him being able to identify a dog or bird or flower in a picture. He definitely has a very good memory and thinks he's so clever when he gets it right! He is still asking for dozens of books a day, so he's definitely going to be a reader and is even starting to sit down and look at books on his own too. Alphabet books and Thomas as well as The Very Hungry Caterpiller are current favourites. :-)

Long Weekend

This has been another long weekend and we've been busy and having lots of fun! On Saturday night we went to visit Tim's Nan and Aunty in their new home and had dinner there, then on Sunday we went and tried a new church with our brother and sister-in-law then went for lunch at Tim's Mums for his Nan's birthday, and today the three of us went to Centenary Lake for a play at the playground and a walk around the lake and Bailey climbed his first tree! :-) See photo!
Then we had a lovely time when putting him down for his nap and we played this game where he would kiss us and then we'd fly across the room and he laughed and laughed and kept wanting to kiss us, even saying 'kiss, kiss' and putting his face towards us to do it! :-) He's been saying lots more words as well, can sort of say numbers 2,3,4,6 and can say Jesus, go, watch, tree, T (when pointing to a letter T), shoe, and 'ter' when he wants a drink of water.
A favourite food this week has been, strangely, brocolli, and also Nutri-Grain as breakfast or on their own as a snack.
He has loved playing trains and left his Roary the Racing Car toy at the creche at church, hopefully we can get it back next week. He also loved climbing on our bed and 'relaxing' on the pillows and jumping on us when we lay down!
Good times with our little boy, and there's another long weekend just around the corner in June. :-)

Sick :-(

Bailey has been sick and unhappy. Took him to the doctors yesterday morning after he couldn't eat breakfast and kept crying and crying, turns out he had an ear and throat infection again. I guess that explains why his balance has been a bit off kilter lately and he's had a lot more little falls and accidents. But with his medicine and some rest he is feeling much better today, just gotta clear up his nose a bit more. Hate yukky noses and when they are sick and there's nothing you can do to make it better for them :-(. Last night he woke up after 11 and was screaming and crying for nearly an hour and we were holding him and trying things that we thought he might want but he didn't want anything. :-( Not sure if it's related to the sickness or if he had a nightmare as usually when we pick him up he calms down but not last night.. Today he's been heaps better and his appetite is back in full swing!

New words lately and favourite things to say:
car
'D'
google
there - if you ask him where something is
Last night he very clearly said 'Baby' I think he may have been trying to say 'Bailey' though.
He can do the actions to Open, Shut Them and If You're Happy and You Know It and part of the chorus to the Wiggles 'Point your fingers and do the twist' and has started to do actions for 'I love You'. Very sweet! :-)

Was great having Mum over last week while Tim was in Hobart, we found a house for them to rent near us from the end of May. :-)

Bailey's words

Bailey is finally starting to use a few more words frequently.
Here's a list of what he can say to date at 18 months 3 weeks.
Mum/Mummy
Dad/Daddy
car
cat
dog
duck
tissit? (What is it?)
and apparantly 'hourglass' but won't be saying it anymore as it got broken and we threw it away.
Doesn't say yes or no but can shake his head!
Hope to add more words soon, he should be saying more than that by this age I think but he'll get there, we're just happy he's starting to say anything at all! :-)
Tim's away in Hobart this week and Mum is staying with us for the week to find a rental to live in while her house is being built, having a good week so far!

April Already!

It's now the middle of April, next week Tim is going to Hobart for a week for work so Bailey and I will be by ourselves. We've had a lot of fun times already this month, had a great Easter, especially getting to spend a Saturday just the three of us and going to Centenary Lakes as a family, Tim took some great photos. Last Friday I took Bailey to Australia Zoo again and we had a fantastic time, got lots of photos with all sorts of animals and things, he just loves running around the zoo and climbing all the stairs in the Crocoseum.
Last week we also went to the Active Kids holiday programme the council runs for toddlers, it was a gymnastics one but catered more for older kids. 2 of our friends and their children came too. Bailey didn't really do it properly he just liked the beam and the little trampolines, the rest of the time he was just running around (yes he can run now) and moving the equipment around.
I have to say that Bailey is getting better at playing alone, he can do it sometimes, especially when he's busy playing cars or with the bead maze he got for Easter, though sometimes cooking dinner is still a real battle with him holding onto my legs trying to get me to pick him up, or else emptying drawers and pushing things under the fridge to get my attention!
Library this week didn't go too well, he didn't want to participate at all, just play in the playroom outside, had a tantrum every time I tried to get him to sit in my lap argh! Not sure if we'll keep going to that, we're quite happy with Playtime and Kindy Gym and Playtime has a singing part in it too so we don't really need Rhyme Time as well. Speaking of singing, Bailey can now do the actions to 'Open, Shut them' and 'If You're Happy and you know it' (he loves the stomp your feet verse). Very cute!
Trying the Kindy Gym at the Leisure Centre on Thursday as it's apparantly more geared for young children with smaller bright coloured equipment and stuff. (The PCYC is standard sized beams and bars and rings etc) then on Friday we're going to have a play at one of our new friends houses. So it's all go.
The past few days Bailey keeps taking his bib off and not wanting to wear it, doesn't seem to mind the cloth ones as much but they don't stop the mess as well. Today has been a lot cooler and it was good to be able to put Bailey in his jeans and sneakers today.
That's all for today, lots of random thoughts and things as I hadn't posted in awhile. And oh yeah, we've had a koala in the tree behind our back fence over the weekend, very exciting.
Until next time. :-)

18 months now!

Bailey's now 18 months and a week old. He had his 18 month immunisations on Tuesday and he was fine, no reaction and hardly even upset, just swatted a bit as if he was bitten by a mossie but then was more interested in the Chuppa Chup the nurse gave him...
We've been having some issues putting him to bed for his nap and at night, but especially at night, he just stands up and cries and cries. Last night he was still going after 8.30 at night so we got him up and asked what he wanted to do and he wanted to sit on the couch and smile at us cutely.. cheeky boy!! But he has been having naps of nearly 3 hours, finisheing just before 4 so maybe he's just not tired when we put him to bed?? We'll keep persevering.
His favourite things to eat at the moment are grapes, pineapple, chicken and bread.
At his 18 month old check up he measured 11.7kg and 79cm so just below average which is good, he's starting to fit into more of his size 1 clothes, though we still have a lot of 0s and 00s and even a 000 shirt!
He's starting to make a lot more noises and experiment with different sounds - hopefully talking is just around the corner.
Favourite things to play with are bead mazes - he LOVES the one at Playtime so much, shape sorters and cars. Starting to love Thomas the Tank Engine too, loves when it comes on TV.
Think thats about all for now, Easter is just around the corner, we didn't get him much chocolate we got him a few little hollow eggs and a pull and go Thomas toy, but I'm sure he will be spoiled by the extended family!!

Family leaf

This is the leaf I made for Bailey to take on Tuesday to Playtime at the Caboolture Early Years Centre, they are making a huge Autumn family tree on the wall and they want all the families who use the centre represented to promote positive family and community. I reckon it's not too bad, the dodgy drawing lets it down a bit but it's ok hehe. :-)
He continues to be fascinated with the bead maze every time he goes to Playtime, it's basically the only thing he touches!!

Getting out and about

We had a really good week last week, we're finally getting some regular activities and new friends which is great! :-) This week we had a playdate at a friends house with 3 other mums and their children, Bailey didn't cry. On Tuesday we went to Playtime at the Caboolture Early Years Centre for the first time which was great, there were a lot of kids and lots of boys around his age. They run it quite well with lots of toys and art/craft things for the kids to do. Bailey just played with this bead maze thing the whole 'free play' time though! They had morning tea/fruit time and then outside play time. All the kids had fun and we will definitely be going back! And we still have Kindergym and went to the park with a friend on Friday.
Then on Saturday we met up with all the mums and bubs from our New Baby group from the Morayfield playgroup which was great. So a very social week. :-) Hopefully being around other kids more will help Bailey as in the last few weeks he has cried around other kids when they make a noise louder than a normal speaking voice!
Our other challenge at the moment is teaching Bailey to play by himself or stay in a specified area when asked (like on the mat), only making tiny bits of progress though like 2 minutes at a time of him playing alone. Will keep persevering!
Here's a photo I took of him yesterday, love it!

Fascination with numbers

Bailey has had a fascination with numbers for awhile now. He always asks us to read the 'educational' type books he has (like about numbers or the ABCs) and not the 'stories'. Whenever we walk around the neighbourhood he has to stop at every letterbox to point at the numbers, number plates, the street electricity box things, every time he sees one anywhere he has to stop and touch it. He can tell the difference between a letter and a number, and can find a number anywhere. If a book just has words and we ask him to show us a number he turns it over and shows us the ISBN or barcode number. He is good at counting too, he'll count how many wheels on trucks and toys and the spot parts on the blocks and points to each thing only one time.
When we are doing drawing and I put numbers on the paper he gets so excited.
Not sure if this is normal behaviour for a 17 month old, but yeah Bailey just loves numbers. Will be interesting when he can talk to see if he starts 'counting' himself and saying the numbers himself.
Pointing out the numbers on the side of planks of wood at his Grandads.

17 Months

To get started on this blog I'll give a rundown on where we're at right now.
B is 17 months old, loves playing with cars. Last week he had an ear and throat infection and was very miserable and hard to deal with and then developed a rash from the medicine he was prescribed. Fortunately he is over it all now and back to his normal happy self.
This week we went to Kindergym on Monday, he is the youngest one there (it's for 18 months to school age really) but he does enjoy it and I think it's good for him to participate in structured activities and give him a bit of challenge and a chance to develop his gross motor skills.
I've been really missing interaction with other mums and kids as this year our regular playgroups haven't been happening as most of the other mothers are back at work. We've caught up a few times with one of our friends which has been good but I have been wanting something regular. I think B gets bored at home as he can be quite clingy and whinge at home and doesn't like me to go away from him but when we're out of the house he's quite happy to go off and explore independently.
We went to the Caboolture Early Years Centre yesterday and found out they have a few programs there we might be able to go to which would be great for us both, but we went along today and it had been cancelled (possibly because of the massive amount of rain we have had all week) but will try again next time.
B's behaviour was a bit better today, he is enjoying the 'new'/old toys his Nona gave him on the weekend (which used to be Tim's and his brothers when they were kids) and when he was napping I set up the playroom differently and put his little table and chairs set in there and he was excited to see it was all different. A change really can be as good as a holiday. :-) Only watched 2 shows Roary and In the Night Garden which is good.
He ate a lot of fruit today, his favourite things to eat right now are grapes, pineapple, strawberries (when we have them) and chicken or fish fingers. That last thing is probably not so great but its good to have a food he can eat on his own without me having to spoon feed him. He had shepherd's pie for dinner tonight - it was a good idea to cook in bulk and freeze a couple for when Tim's running late home and we can't all eat together.
Anyway I think that's quite enough for my very first blog, will write more when I can!