Baby's First Christmas - Part Two

Today we did Christmas all over again at our house, with my parents and George's cousin Erin. There was more turkey, (lots) more presents, bucks fizz, video games and a gingerbread house.

Again, George was only slightly interested in the unwrapping of presents and more keen on trying to get up the stairs at every opportunity. But we had fun with his new glockenspiel and the Mr Men books,

His present from Nanny and Grandad was his first playstation - well it's a vtech baby game which hooks up in a similar way. So far I don't think he has actually sussed that the buttons he presses affect what is happening on the television, but he is such a telly addict (and a button-pushing addict, for that matter) that I am sure he will love it once he works it out!

Baby's First Christmas - Part One

So here we are in Wales at the home of George's paternal grandparents - and true to form he has created complete chaos in their house, aided by the vast number of presents he received yesterday.

George did sort of enjoy tearing the paper off the presents, but I don't think he really understood that he was doing it in order to get to something underneath - and he had very little patience with the extreme packaging that seems to come attached to most of the toys. Some of them had to be played with for the first time while they were still in the box, and wrestled out of their box-and-wire contraptions once he had moved on to something else. But by far his favourite game is clearing the coffee table, especially of any breakable or liquid items.

He enjoyed his turkey dinner (although didn't actually have any turkey). Sprouts were spat out, but cauliflower cheese was a big hit, and he couldn't get enough of the trifle - I don't think there was any sherry in it though. Christmas pudding was also munched on with enthusiasm (he obviously takes after his dad there).

Another first today was a visit to the local church, where he was (it goes without saying) much admired, waving regally to all those in the pews around us. He was also the recipient of a blessing from the vicar.

All in all it has been an exciting day for George - and we get to do it all again on Friday with his other grandparents.

Climb Every Mountain (well, every stair)

George's latest top source of amusement is scaling the stairs, and he is getting pretty good at it. He can now get all the way to the top without mishap (although of course I try to always be just behind him in case he gets distracted and leans back). Every time I turn my back on him when we are downstairs, he speeds off and starts climbing - and when I catch up with him he laughs triumphantly.

I have spent some time today working with him on the mini-flight of two stairs on our landing, trying to teach him how to come down them backwards - which he can do so long as I am there forcing him to do it. But he prefers to either sit at the top and shout for me, or try to walk down them while holding on to the banister - or (just once) keep crawling at top speed and execute a forward roll downwards when the floor disappears from beneath him.

Annoyingly the stair gates were delivered again today while I was out at work - they were supposed to leave them with a neighbour but that didn't happen.

Weapon of Mass Destruction

George is driving me more than a little crazy today. After a second night of only 6 hours sleep (and not all at once) my patience is wearing thin - and George remains full of energy for mischief-making.

So far today I have: re-shelved the books in my bedroom which he took down yesterday - while George emptied the contents of my bedside cabinet over the floor; cleared up the dirty clothes from his bedroom floor - while he pulled out a drawer of clean clothes from the wardrobe and tipped it out; put away the clean clothes - while George grabbed everything from on top of the chest of drawers and put them (you guessed it!) on the floor; retrieved all those items - while George liberated the soft toys from their suitcase; spent 20 minutes on hold to the courier company about the delivery of the stair gates - while George climbed the stairs all the way from the bottom to the top; made breakfast for us both - while he opened the saucepan cupboard and carefully selected the most fragile item to remove and bang on the tiled floor; wrapped the almost final Christmas presents while George emptied the contents of two bins in a very wide arc across the lounge floor; fed him to sleep and carried him upstairs in that state, only to have him wake up when he touched the mattress of his cot; and now walked around the block in the freezing cold to get him back to sleep again.

Now I am going to try to pick up some of the mess and iron some clothes for him to wear for nursery and for bed tonight, before he wakes up!

Meeting Father Christmas

Today George visited Santa's Grotto at our local shopping centre. It isn't strictly the first time he has seen Father Christmas as we bumped into him at Debenhams in Stratford the other week, but this was his first official visit.


As I believe is traditional for meetings between small children and men dressed in red with enormous white beards, there were nearly tears. So Grandad had to hold him for the photo.

George is generally quite keen on all this Christmas stuff though - he loves looking at all the lights and baubles, and would of course like it even more if he was allowed to touch it all. And I am sure that he will soon get the hang of ripping the wrapping paper off his presents!

First Christmas Party

This afternoon we all (Mummy, Daddy and George) went to a get-together of the local NCT Tea Group. George and I used to be regulars but haven't made it there for a while because of being away, and working, so it was nice to see all the other babies (and mothers) again. For me it is a useful guide to development because George is younger than some of the babies and older than others - and I try not to put too much pressure on him to keep up with the more advanced ones!

George ate a sausage roll and a couple of cheese sandwiches, and came home with a little christmas spinning top and a balloon (a proper helium-filled one). I wonder if he gets an extra special wish when he eats his first ever mince pie, not just the first of the season?

In the evening we had people over for dinner, and George was forced to entertain in his bedroom before settling down to sleep. All the books warn against that sort of thing, but he was very charming, giggling and generally being cute - and went to sleep beautifully when everyone disappeared downstairs.

First Night in his Own Room

Most people I know evicted their little ones from the parental bedroom months ago, but at nearly a year old George was still sharing with us - until tonight!

I am reserving judgement about whether or not it is a good thing - let's see if it has any effect on the number of times he wakes during the night demanding milk. For now all I can say is that our bedroom looks very empty without a cot in it. I think I am going to miss him. And it does of course mean that I no longer have a spare room to escape to in the middle of the night if David's snoring is keeping me awake.

Better late than never

Well I just created this blog - something I probably should have done this time last year, when we were waiting for George to arrive. Since he made an appearance there hasn't been time to do very much at all except keep him happy and clear up after him, so I have been a bad mother and not made minute notes of every tiny new thing that he has done over this first nearly-year.

But that is all going to change - honest. From now on I am going to do my best to document our not-so-little baby's adventures as he grows. And when he is fully grown he will either love it or hate it!

Working Backwards

This is a test to see if I can start making up for my laxity, by backdating some posts for the things that I have made a note of!