Sleep regression

Since a few weeks ago, you've regressed in your sleep.  Whenever we put you down for a nap or to sleep for the night, you would pull yourself to standing and cry and scream at the top of your lungs. I was worried you would sleep standing up and fall back and hit your head, so we would go in and put you on your back. Within seconds, you'll pull yourself back up again and cry even louder. Eventually, I would have no choice but to breastfeed you until you fall asleep.

Then you started waking up every 2-3 hours at night. When I put you down, you would pull yourself up and cry rather than go to sleep like you used to do. This happened every night without fail. I got so tired, eventually I would take you to our bed to co-sleep around 3-4am. Finally in frustration, I googled '12 month sleep problems'. I was surprised that it is actually quite common and is termed the 13-month regression. It coincides with your next development milestone of learning to walk and talk. You need more comfort and security because there is so much going on in your head. So based on internet advice, we have to do whatever works for you to get you to sleep, ie. nursing to sleep, co-sleeping, and definitely no crying it out. 

Apparently, this could go on for weeks. We'll just have to tough it out and hope that you'll be happy to fall asleep on your own again soon.

Anyway, I was going through my phone to delete some old photos and videos (I'm always running out of space because I take so many photos and videos of you) and couldn't believe how chubby you were at the 7-9 month mark!

And a video at 37 weeks (8 months) -

More playing with Daddy

The weather was gorgeous last weekend so I took you outside to the backyard to enjoy the sunshine while Daddy did some gardening.

Daddy came to play with you after some weeding. You tried to pick his nose lol

Feeding yourself

A couple weeks ago we noticed you were refusing your food. I tried so many different foods but you just refused to open your mouth or would only take a couple of bites. I was getting worried, especially since we weighed you at your 12 month immunisation and found out you weigh less than you did at 6 months. Finally, I decided to let you feed yourself with some diced veges. It worked! You loved picking up the little cubes of veges. So while you did that, I would prepare your main meal. It was cute watching you pick certain veges to eat first. You especially like carrots.

Lately you also like to play peekaboo. I ask, "Where's Lucas?" and you will pick up the nearest thing and hide your face behind it. Here's a video combining all the new things you've learnt: Where's Lucas? clapping your hands, picking up food with the pincer grip.

It is such a mess after your meals, with splatters of food on the floor, chewed up food falling beneath the tray and squished into your seat, not to mention the bits and pieces in your hair and even your ears! We have to give you a good scrub in the bath after dinner. I'm glad we've reached the next milestone in your development. Your appetite has returned, you love sampling different fruits and veges. Daddy mentioned the other day you look like you've gained weight in the last week.

Some pics of your messy face:

Playing in the backyard with Grandma

The afternoon was nice so Grandma took you to the backyard to play. You don't like the feel of the spiky grass so you try to avoid it as much as possible. Your ball rolled outside the mat and we thought it would be funny to see what you would do. This is what happened:

It was so funny watching you crab crawl on the grass to avoid touching it. Still, it was too spiky and you crawled back to the mat before reaching the ball. So you decided to ask Grandma to get the ball for you. Smart boy!

Blue steel

Yummy pasta!

You refuse to eat unless you feed yourself now. You fed yourself  bread, biscuits, fruit and pasta today. You are really asserting your independence. We can see your stubborn streak coming through!

Here's a video of you feeding yourself pasta, I love how you laugh!

Playing in the backyard

The weather has been really nice so I thought I would get some photos of you playing in the backyard. You're much more mobile now though you refuse to crawl on the grass because it's a bit spiky. I got some photos of you with Grandpa as well, you were fascinated when he was talking to Grandpa on the mobile phone.

Planning your Up-inspired birthday party

I had a lot of fun planning your first birthday. The inspiration came from a photo I took of you when you were about 5 months old wearing an orange cap and khaki overalls. Your Aunty Katrina remarked how much you looked like Russell from the movie, Up. I loved that movie and the idea stuck. So a few months before your first birthday, I went online looking for inspiration and found lots of posts on how to make the Russell costume and ideas from other parties with the same theme.

So I pinned things on to my pinterest birthday board when I had some time and slowly bought small party items on ebay and craft items from spotlight leading up to your birthday. That made birthday planning less overwhelming.

I wanted to take a photo of you in a makeshift hot air balloon, so for weeks I kept my eye out for a basket that was big enough for you to fit in. I drove past our local Vinny's store and saw the big basket we ended up using for your photo shoot. It was only $3! Score! The following weekend, I told Daddy I wanted to get some helium balloons from the local party store to tie to the basket. I didn't realise how expensive big helium balloons were, it was $30 for 1 big balloon, so we decided to buy a colourful selection of normal-sized helium balloons instead for only $16.50. I made bunting from scrapbook paper and hung it around the basket for a more vintage look. Then we went out into our backyard and I snapped away. You were very obliging though it took some coaxing and lots of funny faces to get you to smile.

There ended up being so many good photos of you to choose from to make the birthday invite. I loved how the photos turned out!

For your costume, I stumbled on to this site that had pretty good instructions on using t-shirt transfer paper and furniture pads to make the badges on your boy scout sash. It worked so well that the badges have stayed on even after going through the washing machine! I bought some ribbing from spotlight to make your bandana, that worked well because I didn't need to hem the fabric.

It took me a while to decide on party favours. I wanted to get things that were somewhat useful so taking the character Carl as an inspiration, I got all the boys bow-ties and all the girls bow hairpins. I also spent time decorating the gift bags. I used a border punch cutter to get the decorative border. Then used twine to thread through the holes made by the border punch.

I found some cute paper clips with different characters on ebay which I used to pin the gift bags down. I designed the stickers on vistaprint to put a personalised message on each bag.

Yay, I'm having fish and chips!

We took you out for dinner on your birthday and you had fish and chips for the first time. You look so happy. I love these photos.

12 month sticker photos

It was so hard to take the sticker photos this month because you kept wanting to crawl away! You also kept eating the sticker on your onesie. Such a huge difference in how you active you are in just one month. I'm not sure how long we can keep up these sticker photos since you are so mobile now.

First birthday party!

Lucas, I can't believe you're nearly 1. We held your first birthday party today. I was hoping to have it out in the backyard and had planned it for ages thinking the weather would be warm. Unfortunately it was raining all day so we had to improvise and move everything into the garage. Still, it was a wonderful party and it was lovely having everyone come and celebrate with us.

Theme of your birthday - the disney Up movie

We put up lots of balloons

Sad face because you wanted Mummy to hold you

Love your little aviator hat

Loving the ball pit

Aunty Katrina traveled all the way from Hong Kong to be at your party!

With all your Aunties!

What a beautiful cake by Aunty Kathy

With your Godfather and Daddy