Nanny's Birthday

Last weekend we ventured up the coast to Bli Bli to celebrate Nanny's 70th birthday. We arrived on the Saturday evening to get in early before everyone else got there the next morning before going out to lunch together.

Max is getting much better at travelling long distances in the car these days so that we don't have to plan on doing all our trips while he is asleep. We broke up the trip by stopping at Burpengary for a visit to the playground, which he really loved. Then it was time for afternoon tea and some listening to his favourite music and before you knew it we were there! Max was still glad to get out of the car and discover Nanny and Poppy's toy collection (most of which belonged to Cam when he was little). In fact he loved it so much that he had to get into the box with the toys!


The next morning we went out for breakfast at the local RSL where Nanny had a free birthday breakfast. Max loves the pancakes and also helped us eat our sausages, bacon and eggs. Yum! After a quick visit to the playground where he managed to get lots of sand in his nappy, we bought Nanny a delicious looking birthday cake and went back to their place to wait for everyone else to arrive. Max was very well behaved and managed to sleep through all of the exciting talking and noises from 5 of his cousins and 3 aunts/uncles arriving, and we had to wake him up so that we could leave in time for lunch. We all had a tasty meal and Max enjoyed playing with his relatives before heading back home to eat cake.

We also took the opportunity to take some Batkin family photos. Here are all of the grandsons, posing nicely for the camera.


Then we split into two teams for girls vs. boys photos. Unfortunately Uncle Lance couldn't be there, but everyone else looks quite happy.


Happy 70th Birthday Nanny! Hope you had a great day surrounded by family.

Happy Birthday!

After much anticipation on our parts (Max had no idea what was happening really), Max has now turned a very big 1 year old!! Congratulations son!!

We started his birthday celebrations on Friday night by opening his presents from Cam and I. Cam had to work on Saturday morning and we wanted to do this as a family with just the three of us before his party. So we all sat on the floor in the lounge room and had a great time ripping off paper and showing Max his birthday presents.


Then on Saturday afternoon, after Max was very patient while I was busy icing the cake and getting party things ready, we all headed down to the park for the party. Max always loves being the centre of attention so he had a wonderful time seeing his relatives and playing on the playground and just being outside with lots of new things and friendly people to see.

As our regular blog readers will know, Max always likes his food, especially yummy party food that he isn't normally allowed to eat. I made him a special rocketship birthday cake and gave him one of the stars to eat by himself and as you can see he thought this was awesome!


His aunty Alison took advantage of the different colours of icing to turn Max into a cross between Braveheart and Humpty Dumpty. We tried to clean him up when he was done with the cake, but as the rest of the photos will show, this didn't entirely succeed and he spent the rest of the day looking a bit like an alien. But he was very happy and if you can't make a mess on your birthday then when can you?

One of Max's guests got a bit scared by this little alien when he came walking towards her with both hands in the air and grabbed on to her for support!

The next major event of the day was the opening of birthday presents. Thanks everyone for your amazing generosity - Max had a great time opening them and will really enjoy playing with his toys, reading his books and wearing his clothes in the year ahead!


After we all packed up and headed home (huge thanks to all who helped carry everything back to the cars and take stuff back to our place - so much appreciated!) we put Max straight into the shower with Daddy to try and clean up his blue facepaint. Cam did a great job of making him look like the Max we know and love, but Max must have decided that he did want a blue face after all. While we were busy talking and cleaning up, he wandered into the kitchen and found the blue food colouring bottle in the pantry. Although we noticed this we didn't think he could do himself much harm with the lid on. Silly thought! He must have managed to suck up the dye through the lid because he ended up with blue hands (again) and this time blue lipstick to match!

What a cute little goth.
After we cleaned Max up yet again Cam and I headed out for the evening and let Nanny stay home to put Max to bed and babysit. He was so exhausted that he went to bed with barely a whimper that it wasn't Mummy and slept straight through until morning. Cam and I had a great night out and everyone had a good nights sleep.

9 Months Already

Yep, little Max has now been on the outside for as long as he was inside! He celebrated his 9 month birthday on Saturday, by going to the fruit and veg markets with us in the morning and then going to a friends 1st birthday party.
I thought it was about time for another checkup of his height and weight since it's been ages since we last went to the child health clicnic. So last Wednesday we went for a drive over there and put him on the scales. Max now weighs just over 10kgs and is 75cms tall. Both of these figures have him just above average for his age.
They also gave us a checklist of things that Max should be doing as a 9 month old, and fortunately he is doing pretty much of all of them. It includes things like

• distinguishing between familiar people and strangers
• recognising his own name
• sitting without support
• crawling/moving around and exploring surroundings
  
• picking up things and putting them in his mouth (he's been doing that for a very long time now!)
• using one finger to point or poke at items
  
• drinking from a cup and eating solid food
• playing peek-a-boo
• looking for fallen objects (and then dropping them again when I pick them up)
• speaking in babbling sounds.

He also loves to stand while holding onto people and furniture and loves to walk while I hold his hands. Noisy toys are his favourite, and if the toy doesn't make noise Max will often just bang on it with his hands, or bang it together with another toy, so that it does.

He is starting to seem more like a little boy than a baby, and is much more fun to hang out with during the day. He is also sleeping a lot less during the day and so I have to use my imagination a bit to think of activities to keep him happy and busy, so we've been going to the park in the pram or car much more often, which he really enjoys.

Anyway happy 9 month birthday Max! Congratulations on reaching this milestone and continuing to develop well.

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!

Mum and Dad take the night off

On Monday this week Max was a very lucky boy to have a visit from his Nanny. She came down on the train for her once-a-month visit, which this time we coincided with Cam's work Christmas party so that we could both go to that and let Nanny look after Max.

I was a bit worried about leaving him in the evening, since I am the one who usually baths him, feeds him and puts him to bed between 6 and 7pm, and the Christmas party started at 6.30. However, we managed to bring his routine forward by about an hour and have him in bed by about a quarter past 6. As soon as he was quiet, I quickly threw on some clothes and raced out the door with a few quick instructions to Nanny, to not get him out of bed unless as a last resort. Luckily I made it to the party before the entree was over and Cam saved me some food.

Max apparently woke twice after I left, but Nanny was able to settle him again just with a dummy and some soothing pats, and after that he slept through until 5am - what a trooper! And so Cam and I were able to enjoy a night out, and Nanny was able to relax and watch some TV and get some sleep. Way to go Max!

The following day Max got to play some more with his Nanny, and also to see his aunt Alison and cousins Sam and Caitlin and their newest addition to the family, the puppy Stella. We all enjoyed the visits and had a wonderful couple of days, especially our night off.

5 months old already!

Today is Max's 5 month birthday, so many happy returns of the day to young Max. We think he is doing very well for a 5 month old baby, so I thought I'd show off some of his best achievements with some photos.

Here is Max sitting up. He has always preferred sitting to lying down, and now he can do it unaided for a fairly long period of time. He is good enough at it that I am even able to leave him sitting by himself and playing with some toys while I get the camera and take numerous photos.


He can also manage to reach out, lean down, pick things up and then sit back upright while chewing on them/playing with them. What a clever boy!


Here is Max on his playmat. When we first put him on it, he would have fun by first just looking at the dangling toys, then reaching out to hit them, then grabbing them to pull down and eat as he got older and more coordinated. Now he gets the most enjoyment out of sitting upright and grabbing at the toys, and pushing the arch over completely to play with the pink tongue of the frog which you can just see in this photo.

I guess the other big thing for Max as a 5 month old is that he has two fully fledged and very sharp teeth. Getting a photo of these is always tricky so excuse the blurriness of this one and take our word for it that the teeth are very much present!


Other achievements for 5 month old Max include rolling from his tummy to his back, from his back to his side, (sometimes) being able to pick up his dummy and put it back in his mouth, reaching out and grabbing anything within reach (and some things that I didn't think were), laughing when he's having fun and sleeping through the night.

We think he is a very smart and talented boy - happy birthday Max!

Good news!

The last week or so has been fairly quiet for the Batkin family. There are a couple of reasons for this, all of which are good.

Firstly, Max has slept uninterrupted through the entire night, twice now! We usually put him to bed around 7pm, and twice so far he has slept until 5am, which counts as morning and is the earliest time I will let Max get out of bed. I've stopped feeding him during the night, so if he does wake before 5 it's usually not for long and he goes back to sleep fairly quickly sucking his dummy. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue to increase, and I can go back to those days (which seem so long ago) when I can rely on getting a good uninterrupted night's sleep myself.

The second reason for things being fairly quiet is that Cam has started a new job and is quite busy at work. He is still at the Convention Centre, but after a number of years working as a Floor Coordinator, he has now been promoted to Event Planning Manager! Congratulations Cam! This job involves Monday to Friday work and regular hours, which will make it much easier for us to plan things in advance and to get away for the weekend now and then. It's also a step up for Cam, although it involves new challenges and will take some time to settle into.

One more item of good news is that we took Max to get weighed last week, and he now comes in at a hefty 8.8kgs. He seems to be getting longer rather than rounder, and is even starting to look a bit stretched in some of his 00 size clothes. Mine and Cam's arms are both increasing in muscle as Max increases in weight, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Weekend road trip

After working 10 days straight last week, last weekend we took advantage of Cam's 4 days off from work to take a short family holiday up to Maryborough to visit the Coplands.

We decided to do the drive up on Friday night after Max's last feed in the hope that he would stay asleep the whole way. Unfortunately he must not have been aware of this plan because he stayed awake most of the way until we hit the Sunshine Coast and I got in the back with him. This worked out wonderfully for the both of us because we then slept pretty much until we arrived, leaving Cam to drive and keep himself awake in the front, which he handled very well considering how much he'd been working.

On Saturday after Max decided that 5.30 was a good time to get up, the Coplands informed us that our choice of activities for the day included the Torbanlea camel races. I don't think they actually got much further in the list of things to do since Cam and Andrew were both keen to go along to this much hyped event. So we sunscreened up and left our nicely air conditioned cars to watch 6 camels in bright colours walk and then turn around and gallop past us. Unlike most other races, camels apparently don't want or need someone to tell them when to start running - one of them just goes for it and the others try to keep up. Also since camels are in a shorter supply than horses there was only the 6 of them, and so they just had several races against each other.

We couldn't let the opportunity to introduce Max to the camels go past, so after the first race we went around to their holding area to take some photos.

In between the camel races we had time to have a look around and see the other entertainment. Fortunately the good camel race organisers had decided to also hold some woodchopping events, so we wandered over to the woodchop arena, which was signposted and named in the honour of the local husband and wife woodchopping champions. Cam took one look at the names on the sign and had to call his mum to verify that he was in fact related to them! (no matter where we go, Cam will always manage to find someone he knows.) May and Theo Stutz, the champion woodchopping duo, were seated in a place of honour overlooking the action, so in a lull we went over to say hi and introduce them to Max.


After so much excitement and one more camel race, we headed out of the heat and back to the Coplands place for a yummy fish and chips lunch and some afternoon naps.

On Sunday morning we all went along to Andrew's church and caught up with the Maryborough Nazarenes after the service. Max was much admired but a little grumpy, so we headed home again and tried to interest him in some of Nate's toys. One that he really liked was the jolly jumper, since it lets him stand up and have a bit more control over his movement. Although he wasn't jumping on his own, he had fun dancing around and bouncing with some help.

Monday was another relaxing day with not a lot happening. Theresa had to go to work and Nate went to play with his friend Harry, so Max got some more jolly jumping time and Cam and I relaxed and hung out with Andrew. In the evening we headed over to Hervey Bay to catch up with Cam's parents and nephews for dinner at the Boat Club, which was very tasty. Max wasn't happy just sitting in his pram while the rest of us ate so we took it in turns to walk around with him and amuse him. Nanny and Max had fun watching the water feature.
After dinner Cam and his dad went to pick up his sister and her husband from the airport while Max had a feed and went to sleep and I played canasta with his mum. We said a quick hello to Bron and Lance when they got back and then headed back to the Coplands to get some sleep before making the journey home to Brisbane on Tuesday morning, which we thankfully made without problems despite some car hassles.

So thank you to Andrew Theresa and Nate for your hospitality and helping us to have a great weekend away!