September 3, 2003  Poor Henry is sick.  Last Wednesday Lincoln took him to the clinic to get his 12 month immunisation for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and also Meningecocal.  Because they use a live virus in the vaccine, sometimes you can get a small case of the Measles, and poor Henry has it.  He was fine on Thursday and Friday, then on Saturday he started feeling sick - wanting to be cuddled all day and going off his food (which is not like him at all!).  Then on Monday morning Lincoln had just finished giving Henry his bottle when he suddenly spewed all over Lincoln, his little couch, and the floor.  Istayed home with him and took him to the doctor, who said because it's viral there are no antibiotics, but give him lots of fluids and love.

I bought some Apple juice for him, but he didn't like it one bit!  He much prefers water.  He's much better at drinking out of his sippy cup now - previously he'd take a mouthful, spill half of it down his shirt, then not drink any more.  Now he takes really good drinks from his cup, and I have one of those unspillable cups lying around for him to drink out of whenever he wants to.

I took him for his 12 month check up last week at the Child Health Clinic, and he is now 11.65kg, 80.5cm tall and 48cm around the head!  He's in the top 10 percentile for height and weight, and Marie, the Child Health Nurse, said that people might expect more from him because he'll be big and tall.

August 18, 2003 Added more photos to page seven.  Henry is now a toddler.  He started walking properly about a week after his first birthday.  He gets around walking everywhere now.

We had a birthday party for him at Sherwood Forest Park in Brisbane the Saturday before his birthday, which was lovely.  He received some lovely presents and had a giraffe birthday cake.  Henry and I will be going to Brisbane again later this week for his cousin Seth's first birthday/naming day.  Henry will be getting another haircut because his is starting to look mullet-ish.  I'm afraid we're going to get it cut quite short, even though I love his hair longer, because it's too much of a pain to keep having it cut.  He is growing some beautiful curls at the back of his head - I think he's going to have the same hair I had as a child: blonde and curly.

June 29, 2003  Added a few more photos on page seven.

Henry learned to crawl at 8.5 months.  I started to get worried because he spent so much time rocking, and he could stand up and get about hanging onto the furniture, I thought he'd go straight from sitting to walking!  He took two steps last week, and has been doing a few steps each day, so I expect he'll be walking before too long.

He cut his first tooth the day before Mother's Day - ever since he started sleeping through at 3.5 months, he didn't wake us up at night....until he started teething.  Luckily it's only been four or five times - all he needs is a cuddle and some Panadol, and occasionally he'll sleep in our bed, but usually he'll go back to sleep in his own bed.

I'm starting preparations for Henry's first Birthday.  We're going to have a party in Brisbane, which is where most of the guests will be coming from.

As well as "Mum" and "Dad, Henry can also say "Poo", "Boo!", "Up" and "Hello".  Hello is his new favourite.  He says it when we go into his room in the morning to get him up, he says it to the cats when they go into his room, and he says it to strangers in the supermarket.  

March 15, 2003  I've been back at work for a month, and it's actually working out quite nicely.  Henry didn't cry at all the next time I put him in child care, and the lovely people who work there say he's a very smiley, happy baby who is easy to care for.  While I was on leave my pay went up, so now being part time isn't so much of a pay cut.  Henry is in care Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then I have him with me for four days straight.  Everyone's happy about it, and everything at work has come back to me with frightening ease.

We turned Henry's car seat around last week so that it's facing forwards.  It's lovely to be able to glance back and see him there, and I think he enjoys it more, too, seeing his Mum and Dad.

I've been going to a Parenting group, but it's meant to be for babies under 6 months - they don't want crawling babies poking other children in the eye.  It's mostly information discussions; last week there was a Speech Therapist discussing various things, all very interesting.  I'll have to give up soon because Henry is soon going to crawl.  He's still rocking violently, but he's not going anywhere yet.  Hopefully I'll be able to find a nice playgroup, so that I can socialise a bit with other mums.

February 14, 2003  Have added new photos on pages five, six and seven.  Enjoy!

February 10, 2003  We're going to have to baby proof the house very soon.  Henry is up on all fours and rocking violently back and forth, as if storing up energy to propel himself forwards.  He's also been babbling frequently and loudly, which is really cute.  Lincoln, of course, is saying, "Dad dad dad dad dad!" repeatedly, trying to get Henry to say that first.  He has said "Mumum" and "Dadad" a few times, but we think it's a fluke rather than him meaning to.

February 5, 2003  Henry went to Day Care today, as a "practice" session.  I was more emotional than he was; when I picked him up after about 4 hours, the staff said he'd been really happy and good all day.  Then he saw me and realised that I hadn't been there all morning, and burst into tears.  I'm starting back at work on February 17, three days a week, so Henry will be in care then.

He's sort of sitting up now, too, although he needs pillows and the back and he falls over a lot.  He face-planted into the rug the other day and wasn't happy about it.  He's also started on the second phase of baby foods, stuff with little lumps in it as well as rusks and Cruskits with vegemite.  Very messy, but he likes it.

January 6, 2003  Henry had a great Christmas, and he received heaps of lovely gifts (or "made out like a bandit"), including a flip out kid's sofa, a Bunnykins bowl and spoon, a clam shell pool/sandpit, a Fisher Price walker/cot toy, clothes, a gorgeous Noah's Ark toy with all wooden animals, rubber ducks, bubble bath, books, plush toys....and so on.  Lincoln and I only got him teething rings because we knew he'd be spoiled rotten!

We also put him in his jolly jumper for the first time yesterday - it was hilarious!  He loved it and was jumping around and kicking his legs; photos to follow shortly. 

December 12, 2002  I added a Christmas card to wish my online friends a very Merry Christmas.  Yesterday Henry had his second set of immunisation shots, and he was very brave.  He scrunched his little face up at the taste of the Polio vaccine, looked offended at the first needle, then cried for about five seconds at the second needle.  But it's all worth it.  I am a huge fan of immunisation.  I would rather the slight risk of complications with the immunisation, than the risk of deadly complications should Henry be infected with one of those terrible diseases (and with more people choosing not to immunise, the risk of that happening is getting higher).  [steps off soapbox]. 

November 29, 2002  I added some new photos to photo pages four and five (click here to skip straight to them).

November 26, 2002 It looks like I'm on my last breastfeeding legs - Henry gets very distracted while feeding.  It's easy to move the bottle around with his head as it swivels, but impossible with the breast.  I've been expressing milk (tricky at first, but I'm getting better at it) and either mixing it with Henry's rice cereal or giving it to him as a bottle.

I went to town today (needed to see other adults) and didn't notice until I was in there that I had a little baby spew on my shoulder.  I read somewhere that it's a mark of a mother to have spew on your shoulder, so I wore it with pride :)

Henry also finally figured out how to roll in the other direction.  Previously he only rolled to his right, today he started rolling left, too.

November 18, 2002 We gave Henry his first solid food on Saturday.  I think some of it actually made it into his stomach.  I've never fed a baby who doesn't know how to eat, so both of us are learning.  Lincoln was holding onto him while I was stuffing rice cereal into his gob., but Lincoln's at work today so I'm not sure how I'm going to manage by myself.  I might sit Henry up in his high chair, propped up by pillows.  He has to get used to the high chair sooner or later.

And one more thing, over the last two weeks Henry has started sleeping 10 or 11 hours a night.  Bliss!

November 6, 2002 Henry learned to roll over last week!  On the day he turned three months we found him on his tummy in his cot.  He had been trying to roll for a few days, getting most of the way over and then getting stuck and rolling back.  The next morning he was on his tummy again, then that day he just kept rolling and rolling and rolling!  At first he would roll over and not be able to hold his head up very high, so he would be staring at the floor and getting cranky about it.  Now he can hold his head up nicely, so he's not so bored after he has rolled over.