Conrad’s blog

And then the day came: Conrad’s very first birthday. How quickly time has gone. Seems almost like another lifetime when he was just a little baby, doing nothing much more but sleeping and feeding and being just about aware of things going on around him. Now he’s such an alert, responsive, active and happy little boy, and definitely on the move!

We started his big day by opening the presents he’d received at his party and, boy, were there a lot of those to get through…! Conrad had to enlist the help of his sister, who was very keen to assist (Mummy and Daddy made sure to point out for each present that this was Conrad’s and not hers, just in case) and Conrad didn’t mind sharing the ripping apart of wrapping paper, as long he got to carry on ripping it to shreds afterwards.

Conrad’s farmor and farfar came over a few hours later – the plan for the day was to go to Drusillas Park in East Sussex, driving down towards the coast… (to be continued).

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Gabriella

We had decided to have Conrad’s first birthday party in our garden, which we knew would be a bit of a gamble – our garden is fairly big and we think it pretty presentable, but if the weather turned out bad, we wouldn’t be able to squeeze the amount of guests we had in mind into our house… And the weather kept us on our toes, spitting with rain all through the morning. As there was nothing else we could do at that point we just went ahead with arrangements, and, as it turned out, it stopped raining after lunch and the garden dried up surprisingly quickly!

My brother Carl-Fredrik had come over to stay with us for Conrad’s party and actual birthday, and he was busy helping with preparations before our guests arrived; as was Ian’s sister Wendy, who arrived around noon. The two of them being around to help us prepare, at the same time as we needed to give Conrad and his sister attention, made all the difference and Conrad’s Mummy and Daddy felt much more relaxed about the whole thing than we had expected!

Our guests arrived, a mix of family and friends with children. People seemed to be enjoying themselves: lots of toddlers running around playing with toys (some of which intentionally put in the garden by us, some not…) and grown-ups chatting away. Our youngest guest was little Kyla, only 4 1/2 months old, so Conrad wasn’t the youngest, although most kids present were 2 years plus.

The party was scheduled for between 2 and 5 pm, so at around 3pm we invited people inside to help themselves to the buffet, and then about 4pm it was time for cake. I’d made the latter myself – baked the cake the night before and decorated it the same morning with moral support from my brother. As it was the first time I’d baked an ‘English-style’ birthday cake complete with buttercream icing and sugarpaste, plus used writing icing, I’d been pretty nervous about it. But it felt important for me to bake Conrad’s first cake myself.

When most guests left at around 5pm, Conrad’s farmor’s cousin Rita with husband Clive and daughter Alison stayed on, as well as Ian’s sister and parents and my brother, of course, for some pizza and ice cream. Conrad seemed to be enjoying all the attention, and he behaved so wonderfully all day, being all smiles, and not fazed the slightest by all the people bustling around him all afternoon. He got so many presents, which we decided to open the following morning. (Need I say that the wrapping paper and boxes – at least initially – turned out to be more interesting than the presents themselves…?)

Gabriella

Already a week ago, one of my post-natal friends (from Conrad’s sister’s baby days) said the weather was going to be glorious yesterday, and – as we were discussing meeting up – she suggested us digging our paddling pool out. So that’s what we did and it turned out a fantastic day, with five other mums with kids coming over to ours for the afternoon, splashing about in the paddling pool, jumping on the kiddie trampoline, playing with the sand table and generally running around while the mums lounged in the shade of our gazebo.

I put Conrad in the little wet suit he’d been given for Christmas (!) for the first time, and it fitted him perfectly. The water in the paddling pool was a bit cold, which didn’t seem to deter the older kids, and as I didn’t really seem to get around to bringing out those buckets of hot water to sort the water temperature out, I decided to just risk it and plonk Conrad in too, preparing to fish him out straight away if he complained. But he didn’t at all: first time in the paddling pool, in his new swimming cossie and with five toddlers bundling about in the cool water around him, splashing him non-stop, and he just laughed.

I brought a couple of cartons of ice cream out a little while later for the kids, and Conrad got his first ever ice lolly, a blackcurrant 100% fruit juice one. He put the stick in his mouth almost as much as the lolly itself, the lolly broke in half, lots ending up on the grass and he made a sticky mess of a towel I put over his lap, but he seemed to enjoy it – every time he dropped it on the ground he picked it up and put it in his mouth again (usually, at the moment, he’s generally not very interested in finger foods, he mashes them between his fingers or in the palm of his hand but they very rarely come near his mouth…).

Today, without any other kids around, Conrad and his sister got the pool all to themselves and, boy, did they enjoy it!

(More piccies to come!)

Gabriella

Pretty much since Conrad moved in with Jessica, we’ve had a quite a few very early rises, with Conrad stirring around 5am, and waking his sister up too. Conrad stirs and starts to chat away to himself, and more often than not kicks the side of his cot as he rolls back and forth. But every so often we get a 6am one, which is fantastic – almost like a lie-in. Conrad seems chirpier throughout the morning for it (and his sister and Mummy aren’t quite as shattered either…!). Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, or just Conrad sleeping a bit more due to the cold he’s just had, but it seems somehow that the slightly later mornings have been a bit more common lately.

As soon as I come into the room and pull down the ‘black out’-blanket from the window, Conrad giggles at me and kicks his legs excitedly, and Jessica hops to her feet, point to his cot and goes ‘Dada vaken!’ with a big smile. I fetch Jessica out of her cot bed, sit Conrad up in his, open the window and straighten both their beds out (so they’re ready for the kids’ naps later in the day). And then I lift Conrad up and our procession of three make our way down the stairs with Jessica, clutching her bed toys, leading the way. Then Jessica, sitting on top of Conrad’s box of clothes in the bathroom, watches me wash Conrad and change his clothes and nappies before we go into the living room and sit down at the table for breakfast.

Conrad has two 1.5 to 2 Weetabix or Oatibix biscuits (on alternate days) with full fat milk and little bit of mashed banana. Jessica chooses his bib out of the two I’ve put on the table for them, which he seems quite happy with. After he’s had his cereal I offer him water in his sippy mug. If he wants to, he’s fine picking it up and drinking from it himself now, but the last week or two, he’s been more interested in blowing in the water, giggling as he makes bubbles in the water and it pours down over his chin and into the bib. He’s terribly cute with his big smile (when he smiles it’s with his whole face, his eyes light up and you can’t help smiling back and feel all warm inside) and then he giggles and kicks his feet and Jessica giggles too.

When Conrad plays he seems particularly interested in toys that make a noise – that is, musical noise. Some of his favourites seem to be Jessica’s drum, xylophone and swanny whistle – aside from all of his own and Jessica’s rattles, which he loves to shake (and still, not to forget, chomp). When he hits the drum and xylophone, it’s not to whack it as hard as he can, but makes quite a pleasant, melodic sound. He blows the swanny whistle really well, we think, for someone so little, and we were all really happily surprised when he managed to make a whistling noise come out of a star-shaped funnel (belonging to the outdoor sand table) by blowing into it. It amused us all when he did it first time, and it made him laugh and look very pleased too, and he seems to find it really easy to do it (although Ian and I have both tried to make a sound of it and failed miserably…!). So I guess we’re wondering a bit whether music might be his thing…?

It probably sounds too good to be true that Conrad laughs and smiles so much, but he really does. He gets cranky too, of course: when he’s tired, he loses interest in things much more quickly and grumbles if he’s not given attention; when he’s just about to have his breakfast (when I’m preparing it in front of him, even if he’s been perfectly happy up until that point) he starts to crank because it’s not in his mouth yet(!); sometimes when he falls over either out of surprise or because he’s bumped himself a bit. But he’s such an easy-going little boy, who seems to really be enjoying life – long may that last!

Only one month left until Conrad’s first birthday…

Gabriella

Bank holiday weekend and two kids’ birthday parties to go to! First one was yesterday, Conrad’s big sister Jessica’s friend Daisy turned two, and her parents were having a BBQ with cake. Weather was good for it: sunny, with a few clouds drifting past every so often, and a bit of a breeze. Conrad had had a morning nap, so he was cheerful, happy to walk about holding on to just one hand, or finger really, sometimes with Mummy, sometimes Daddy, and didn’t even mind just suddenly taking a couple of steps over to one of our friends, Jerry, grabbing hold of his hand and walking around with him for a while (until he spotted Mummy again…).

There were several children there, two actually younger than Conrad (Cameron, Daisy’s one-month-old brother, who spent most of the party asleep indoors, and Riley, a party guest at the tender age of 6 months, who snoozed away in his pushchair in the shade), and various trikes and toy bikes had been brought out into the garden. Conrad was especially keen on a battery-driven 3-wheel motorbike, which started up when one put ones feet on the foot rests (thereby pressing a switch on the right pedal) and then chugged across the grass. He even lent forward, tugging at the handles as if he was trying to rev the engine and make it go faster – so cute! I had to adjust the steering for him every so often, though, so he wouldn’t end up crashing into a table, chair or another child. At one point, when I was following him around and Daisy suddenly appeared and reached out for me to pick her up, he almost ended up in one of the flower beds! Luckily – in a way – the battery was starting to run a bit flat at that point, so he wasn’t making very quick progress and I managed to catch him up just in time.

Conrad had his milk, and then chomped on a bit of cucumber sitting in Daddy’s lap for a while, in the shade under a marquee. We tried to keep his sun hat on by tying it under his chin, but when he discovered that he couldn’t just lift the hat up to throw it on the ground, he started to pull it forward instead and made it slide off that way… Best policy is to keep him in the shade as much as possible, really.

In the evening, both Conrad and his sister were noticeably tired: they can both get a bit silly when they need bed and we ended up putting them in bed at 6.30, half an hour earlier than usual! Conrad had a bit of a restless night though, waking after only a couple of hours, restless in his cot, crying and pulling his legs up, almost as if he was having a tummy ache. When I picked him up, he stopped crying and slumped on my shoulder, still a bit restless until I’d sung for him for a while, when he started to nod off. As soon as I put him back in bed, though, he’d stir and start to cry again, and we’d start over. I gave him Calpol and a bottle of half formula half water, of which he gulped down 100ml. After about half an hour he calmed down enough to go back to sleep. Then he stirred again at about 4am, not crying this time, more a sleepy moan, on and off for about an hour. I didn’t hear either of the kids again after that until just before 7am, and then it was Conrad’s sister – Conrad himself was still sound asleep, curled up in the top right-hand corner of his cot, on his front with his head buried in the very corner. When he woke up maybe 15 minutes later, he was rested and cheerful.

Today, the party was at Wacky Warehouse, an indoors soft play area in a pub only a few minutes’ walk away from where we live. There we met up with Julia, whose little boy Daniel is turning one in a few days time, and her kids. While Jessica was running around, climbing and going down slides, Conrad played with plastic balls together with the birthday boy and, later, got near-buried in wave after wave of plastic balls by Mummy and Daddy, something which made him laugh and laugh – always a wonderful sound!

Back home not long after 12 o’clock noon, Conrad was a bit too tired for lunch, but had some pureed fruit and gnawed for a while on some Leksands-knäcke (cracker bread), and when put in his cot – even though he had hiccups – he fell asleep almost within minutes.

Conrad and his sister are in bed now, and hopefully tonight will be a better night’s sleep for both of them. Conrad’s suffering a cold at the moment, complete with cough and very runny nose, which can’t be helping matters. But he’s stayed happy throughout, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.

Gabriella

Conrad’s happy now to take a few steps here and there without support, mostly to get to me from some item of furniture – he’s got such a big grin on his face and seems so chuffed! On the 24th (Friday), he took 5-6 steps between the sandtable in the garden and one of the garden chairs, without stumbling. What a great time of year to learn to walk – he’s timed that well.

Gabriella

Last night Conrad woke up at 3.30am and wouldn’t settle again until about two hours later. I’m not sure why this was – he was restless in his cot, turning and kicking the wooden bars on the sides and chatting, but more in playful way, and only started to complain after a while – almost like he was ready to get up and play, and got frustrated by not getting to. I went in to try to resettle him maybe 5 or 6 times – I might have left him to it more, had it not been that he’d stirred his sister too and I was anxious to calm him down before she might get upset by being kept awake.

Conrad didn’t seem to be in any pain or discomfort; when I switched the night light on, he giggled and kicked his legs and waved his arms excitedly. Jessica jumped up straight away and went “Dada” (Conrad), “vaken” (awake) and “flingor” (cereal). So I had to point out that it was still night and no one would be having any breakfast for a few hours yet. As it happened, Jessica didn’t seem particularly bothered by Conrad’s noise at any point and when he eventually went back to sleep, so did she and I. When Conrad woke up again, he kindly chose to do so just when Ian had got up and got ready, so he fished Conrad out of his cot, got him washed and dressed and fed him breakfast, without either Jessica or me stirring. When he was about to leave for work, Ian came to wake me up, and when I went downstairs I found a happy Conrad playing with a bucket-full of toys on the living room floor.

We have had a few lovely hot summer days now, and it’s been great not to have to worry about jackets, or a cosy toe for Conrad, and to be able to just leave the back door to the garden open and let the kids run in and out as they like with bare feet. Conrad loves the sand table and gets sand just about everywhere but he’s getting quite confident running up and down the garden too, holding on to just one of my hands. His favourite spots are unfortunately those where we’d like him to go the least: the solar lights, the big tub with soil and herbs by the patio, and the side by the shed where there’s stacks of old plastic bottles and pots. Today, though, he discovered how much fun it can be to play peek-a-boo between the bedlinen hanging to dry on the rotary drier, so he and his sister had a giggle doing that for a while (me trying to duck in-between sheets and duvet covers too whilst not letting his hand slip…!).

So this evening, when the four of us were playing together in the living room as usual, Conrad amazed me and Ian by very casually and calmly, with a confident smile on his face, take three steps from Ian over to reach me. There was no stumble nor any rush to grab hold of me quickly; it was like he’d been walking independently for ages already. Ian and I got so excited, grinning wildly, and I kissed Conrad again and again on his cheeks, which made him giggle. So he’s done it now, not 11 months old yet. Wow.

Gabriella

Earlier today – with the weather being so lovely – Jessica, Conrad and I were out in the garden. Jessica was moving her toy lions and tiger from one place to another and I’d been carrying Conrad around. Rather than taking him back inside with me whilst I nipped in to get something, I sat him down on the grass in the shade. Conrad seemed happy with just looking around and watching his sister.
As I was about to come back out, I saw that he’d ever-so-slightly moved from where I’d put him and I stopped at the doorway to just observe the two kids. Jessica was quite happily moving the lions and tiger still, but Conrad was purposefully working his way towards the sand table, which was about a metre away. He continued to do this until he was able to reach a muslin that was hanging down from the top of the table. Having pulled it off, it was apparent that he wasn’t after that as he pretty quickly discarded it. He reached up to the edge of the sand table and the fingers of one hand just about touched the lip. He shuffled forward a bit more and reached up again. This time he could almost reach the lip with both hands. A bit more shuffling, then he reached up again. He was able to get enough of a grip to pull and on the second attempt he managed to pull himself upright – the first time he’s ever done this!
Clearly happy with himself, he then worked his way round and round the table.

Gabriella and I are really excited by this development and we’re hoping he does it again very soon.

Ian.