Visiting Nanny and Poppy

It's been a while since our last trip up to Bli Bli to visit Nanny and Poppy, so last weekend we made the most of our days off and took our newest member of the family for a spin up the coast. We left at night in the hope that Max would sleep most of the way there, and although he took a while to get bored of looking at the lights out of the window, he did indeed sleep soundly for most of the trip.

Nanny and Poppy were delighted to see their littlest grandson again (as well as Cam and I) and we think Max enjoyed seeing them again as well. He was proud to show off some of his new accomplishments, such as clapping his hands and pretending to be an Indian.

He also helped to continue the Batkin legacy by using the family heirloom high chair to sit in for his meals. Here he is enjoying a yummy snack of watermelon, which he managed to bite and chew fairly well although he did choke on some over-ambitious mouthfuls.


Nanny very kindly watched Max for us while Cam and I took the opportunity to do some shopping in the morning and go out for a yummy Indian dinner in the evening. I definitely recommend Hathi as an excellent restaurant if you're hungry on a Saturday night in Maroochydore.

We also took Max around to some friends and neighbours to show off what a clever grandson Nanny and Poppy have, and all agreed that he is indeed a clever little munchkin. They were particularly impressed with his sitting, clapping and walking while holding on. Max is still making progress towards crawling, and since he is getting better by the day I'm sure it won't be long.

We had a wonderful weekend up at the coast and it's hard to say who enjoyed it more - the visitors or the visitees.

Visiting the cousins

Max and I took another trip over to the other side of town to visit his littlest cousins on Thursday last week.
All of them have new skills now and are getting increasingly mobile, so it was fun to watch them interact. Gabbie is now crawling like a pro and pulling herself up on furniture, and can even climb up stairs! Elke moves around on her tummy and is apparently eating solids faster than you can say 'where did all that food go?'. Max also loves to pull himself up onto people and furniture and is getting closer and closer to crawling.

Here's some photos of them, unfortunately taken when everyone was a bit tired and cranky.

In this one Gabbie is eyeing off Max's dummy and is about to go over and snatch it.

Here are the girls all set to crawl over to Mummy and Daddy.

And here's all three little ones. I like how Gabbie looks like she's consoling Max.

7 Months Old!

That's right, the 19th of Feb means that little Max is 7 months old today.

We think he is quite smart for a 7-month-old, and his weight, height and teeth place him up the top in the physical development area as well. Max's latest achievements include giving enthusiastic high-fives, which he likes to do repeatedly and accompanies with big proud grins, and clapping his hands. He doesn't always clap on cue yet, but often does it independently when there is music playing and just because he feels like it. He is getting better at both of these by the day.

He is also slowly progressing towards crawling. Since he is so good at sitting up, this is the position he feels most confident in. So if he is on the floor sitting and wants a toy just out of reach, he will lean forward onto his hands as if to crawl, but still is hesitant to take his legs out of a sitting position to get both knees onto the floor, because once he does this he can't easily sit back down again. He often looks as if he is about to take off and crawl, but then gets a bit scared and decides its safer to just sit down, and then clap his hands. He is getting closer by the day though, so I'm expecting him to figure it out before he reaches the 8 month milestone. Lets see how that prediction goes!

Standing up has always been a good way to cheer up a grumpy Max, and this is still the case. These days he doesn't feel the need to hold on with both hands for support, which leaves him one hand free to grab at all of the new things within reach while standing. He loves to investigate everything on our coffee table, especially the box of tissues, which fascinates him. He is very good at pulling out tissues. He is also using the furniture to pull himself up more and more, but is quite unsteady so I really need to watch him in case he loses his balance.

Max is also progressing well into the adventure of eating solid food. On the weekends I cook and puree a variety of fruit, vegetables and some meat, and store it in the freezer in ice cube trays. Max has 4 of these cubes of fruit for breakfast with some baby cereal mixed in, 3 cubes of mixed vegetables for lunch, and 3 cubes of meat (either chicken or beef) and mixed vegetables for dinner. Although he loves to get his fingers in the container and mush the food around his high chair tray, he also usually loves to eat it and it doesn't take long before the container is empty.

One other fantastic achievement for me is that Max now regularly sleeps through the night, from 7pm until about 6am. It's so nice to be able to rely on getting a good solid night's sleep again, and means that Max is quite happy to be awake for about 3 hours in the morning until he goes back to bed for another nap.

Happy 7-month birthday Max, and congrats on all of your achievements!

New addition to the family!

Yes that's right folks, we have a new addition to the Batkin family. We picked him up on Tuesday and he is fitting in just fine with the rest of the family members.

I know you'd all love to see what he looks like, so here's a photo:

What a beautiful boy!

Cam and I have sold both of our cars and sacrificed a little independence to upgrade to a more family-sized model. I really liked my Mazda and feel a bit too middle aged when driving the new Camry, but it's also very exciting and it really is a great car to drive.

As part of the changeover, we decided to switch Max's carseat from the rearward-facing baby position, which is designed for babies weighing 8kgs or less, to the front facing child position. Although he has met the weight requirements for this position for a few months now, the rear-facing style is much safer and they recommend leaving babies facing this way until about 6 months. We thought the change in cars was the perfect opportunity to change Max around as well, and while he is still getting used to it, we think he enjoys the more expansive view as well as being able to watch his parents drive.

(p.s. we usually do strap him in, but didn't bother just for taking this photo)