Our Tommy turned five yesterday. (It’s just cake after cake over here lately!) The countdown was on for weeks leading up to his big day and he woke with a Tommy-smile ready for some fun! (And his cool guy pose up above.)
Tommy’s birthday was wild and crazy. He has had way too many late nights and early mornings and it all caught up with him on Sunday. He was a mixture of complete happiness and excitement to major meltdowns and tantrums, and all the while we tried really hard to ignore the bad and enjoy the good to make his day special!
Amidst his moodiness of late, he still shines through with his always cheery smile and happy nature. A characteristic that is noticed by everybody and I hope stays with him for life. He is referred to as the “Smiley Boy” in many a household and definitley knows how to cheer someone up. (And I will always remember how very cute he was on his first birthday with his cheeky, toothy one year old smile.)
He had many ideas for his birthday cake, wanting an elaborate dinosaur scene, but I steered him towards a CIRCLE cake with yummy chocolate ganache. When we went to a special lolly shop together to buy a big bag of chocolate rocks he was sold, a kid in a lolly shop…you can sell them anything in that heaven! Dinosaurs from the toybox popped on top and we were done! And he was happy! I am soaking up this last year of Tommy at home part-time before he starts school full-time next year and grows up even more. It really does go to fast…
It was a happy day, but a bit sad that our baby is gone now. Way too fast. Lucky he gets cuter and funnier and cuddlier every day, but he could just stop growing a little bit.
Harvey’s first birthday was great, he had a 2 hour sleep in the morning and a 1 hour and 45 minute sleep in the afternoon and I got lots of housework and cooking and sewing done. Bliss. (For me anyway!) We had some raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes for his birthday cake that night, because there were raspberries in them I didn’t feel so bad that he ate a whole one – and I left the icing off his. I’ve been pretty strict with Harvey’s diet and this was the first cake that he has had. Needless to say, he loved it after squishing it up and making a lovely first birthday mess.
I like to save the “fancy” cake for Sunday night because that is when we get together for family dinner so there are more people to help us eat it!
We have had birthday after birthday to celebrate over the last couple of months and were getting a bit sick of buttercake and sweet, buttery icing so I made an orange and poppyseed cake for Harvey and tinted the cream cheese icing blue! It was weird to look at but was a nice change from a plain cake! The cake was loosely based on one from our Women’s Weekly cake book (it’s a great book) except I wanted my cake to stay circular (not a fan of cutting cakes into shapes!) so made my own version of the little monster (or is it an alien?)
Harves loved all of the singing and attention.
Happy birthday big boy! We love you! (And I’ll be back to share his 12 months photos very soon.)
In Harvey’s 11th month, I turned to sultanas for help when taking photos! He had never had them before and was enthralled by their sweetness, meaning that he sat still for a couple of minutes while I went snap happy!
This month Harvey started taking a few wobbly steps on his own. Very cute and with the kids on school holidays, they were all over him with an intense walking training programme!
Where ever I go in the house, Harvey is never far behind. He knows when I am in the bathroom and sits at the door trying to get in! I love this age. My favourite baby ages would have to be sleepy newborn 0-4 months and around 10 months when they start to get more independent. The six months in between seem to be the hardest for me, until baby learns to crawl and is happy to move himself around the house. Then it gets easier again. I’m excited about the next few months, when Harvey will really start to explore and discover new things – at the moment he is kept entertained for ages playing in the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen.
(Ninja top sewn from an old faithful Ottobre pattern. It comes from Ottobre 4/2011, Baby Basics T-shirt and the funky Ninja fabric is a knit by Lillestoff.)
Harvey always gets excited to see his brothers and sister after school and spends the afternoon crawling around after them. I love it when it is a warm afternoon and he can play in the backyard with them!
He tries to copy things that we say or noises that we make now – and is very good at copying squealing! It’s really cute to hear him forming sounds and mimicking some of the things we say to him all the time.
And even though he is pretty independent and likes to do his own thing, he still loves a snuggle and will happily bury his head into your neck when you snuggle him.
You know what I love about having four kids? By the time you’ve got that fourth baby, you know that time flies and you need to appreciate every little moment (good and bad) with the baby because soon enough he will be a big boy and you only get to do the baby stage so many times. It’s hard and exhausting work, but so special and so rewarding too. And before you know it – they will be turning 1! Like in 12 days!!! I am in denial…
I was a bit late taking 10 month photos of Harvey. The change in weather has meant cooler nights and always a runny nose so I was trying to wait for it to clear up (vain, I know!) In the end, I just took the photos with the runny nose, blotchy cheeks and watery eyes! I’ll always remember him as a 10 month old with a cold!
(Kisuliini Raglan-Sleeve Bodysuit from Ottobre 6/2012. Sewn with Knights & Dragons knit from Lillestoff)
Harves is turning into a little monkey. He is pretty cruisy and seems to take busy family life as the baby of four in his stride.
This month Harvey has started rocking back and forth on all fours. We initially thought he was doing it as a funny dance move but later realised that he does it as a form of comfort. Lil sometimes sleeps in his room and would come out of bed during the night telling us that Harvey was rocking on all fours in his sleep! Then he would stop and lie down and keep sleeping. He has rocked himself to sleep all over the house…on the loungeroom floor and even on the concrete floor in the garage! It’s a handy cue for me to know when he is tired and ready to go to bed – as long as he doesn’t put himself to sleep before I get to him!
He is talking a lot more now and starting to babble a lot of sounds. His most frequent word sounds similar to “more” and he says it in between mouthfuls of food!
His favourite thing of all time to do is cruise around the backyard when the kids are home from school. As soon as that sliding door to the deck is opened, he is out and will happily crawl around all afternoon if his brothers or sister are playing out there. Yesterday I think we had to change his pants four times because he kept getting wet! Time to invest in some waterproof pants I think!
We are nearing the end of first term but I couldn’t let a year pass without blogging the traditional first day of school photos.
This year Oscar is in grade 3, Lil is in grade 1 and Tommy has finally started his first year of school and is in Kindergarten. Tommy has been waiting and waiting and waiting for school for ages…he has been through all of the pre-kinder and kinder years with Oscar and Lil and we endured many, many tantrums when it was time to go home because he always wanted to stay at school with the kids.
We are so blessed this year – the kids all have the most amazing teachers and all three of them love to go each morning. Even Oscar, who wasn’t that keen on school last year is so enthusiastic this year, he gets on really well with his teacher and looks forward to all of the interesting things she has planned for them each day.
I love the height difference in the photo below – there is exactly the same age gap between Oscar and Lil as there is between Lil and Tommy (22 months) but Lil is such a shortie she looks like she should be closer to Tommy’s age! People are starting to ask us if her and Tommy are twins now!!
After the first week of school, I decided that we needed some kind of chart to help the kids get themselves ready in the morning before they were allowed to do other things so I made up some “Morning Routine” charts:
They are working a treat! I have laminated the charts and stuck them to the pantry door. We keep whiteboard markers on a nearby bench and as the kids complete each task they give themselves a tick in the corresponding circle. At the moment the deal is that they can’t play or watch any TV until they have all of their ticks for the morning. Most days Oscar and Lil are up and completely ready by 7:30am! It really makes the mornings a lot less stressful when I’m not having to nag them over and over again to get ready. It’s working so well for now, if the novelty wears off then I’ll change the incentive around…maybe a weeks worth of ticks will gain a lunch order or special treat after school on Friday or a special activity on Saturday.
Tommy’s birthday was wild and crazy. He has had way too many late nights and early mornings and it all caught up with him on Sunday. He was a mixture of complete happiness and excitement to major meltdowns and tantrums, and all the while we tried really hard to ignore the bad and enjoy the good to make his day special!
