Safe

Safety with mom when you are not feeling 100% is priceless. As many of you know we have had a little of a tough week with Boeta, and his throat infection, combined with the molars breaking through.

The fever is still up and down, but less severe than before. Eating is now a challenge, as he wants to gag on anything with a little grain, so we moved back in time to 11-12 month food. This provides a good base to keep the little man fed without the drama we went through on Tuesday with him, after the doctor visit.

Daddy has to keep his game up, to make the little man laugh and forget the pains while eating or taking medicine. We have been up and down a few times a night, when he stirs and he seems to dream more and talk more in his sleep this week. We are all looking forward to the weekend.

When it is all said and done, cuddling with mom when you are not feeling 100% is still the best thing in the world, so daddy took a photo of Boeta, sleeping and feeling safe, in the arm of his mommy.

Guava and custard

You know the flying car took us to a place called Cape Town in just over 1 sleep, daddy said I would have had to sleep at least 3 times, if we drove with mommy’s car and 4 times with the diesel.

We got the stroller back, and mommy talked to a friendly person who offered us a car with a baby seat, just like that. We loaded all our suitcases and off we went to my grandparents. We took the N2 (National road, said daddy), and I decided to say: “It is a car”, every time I saw one, but I got thirsty quickly, we did not even get to the N2, because I had to say it so many times, so I decided to say it every now and then, just so mommy and daddy could see I knew it was a car that passed us.

After a drive, we arrived at my grandparents. They were glad to see me, sorry us, in fact so glad grandma made me guava puree. Good thing too, I was getting hungry. I was a little worried about where I will be sitting, could not remember daddy packing my chair, but you know, he is very clever, he took a few sticks and material, said a few words to it, which I do not understand yet, and there, I had a chair.

My feet hang loose and it felt a little like swing, I liked it. I was very interested to see granddad standing back, far away. I think they have not seen me eat, and was scared I would make a mess, or scared I would fall, but daddy made sure that would not happen.

Mommy said that I had to wait for my pudding, and first eat some food she brought with her. She is also very clever, because if she did not, I would have surely starved. Grandma was also worried, it seemed, as I said, they have not seen me eat before. They really did not have to worry.

 After I had my meal, it was guava and custard time. Grandma made it special and maybe she was worried I would not like it, now that I think about it. Mommy said I should test it and see what I think. It was so nice.

After I had my guava and custard, I thanked grandma with a loving look and gave them both a kiss, okay, several for grandma, hoping there would be more.

One final comment on this post, mom also got some disposable bibs as we forgot to pack them at home. I am not a big bib fan, but for any toddlers looking, they do work, best is they can be torn into pieces after dinner – I loved that!

Need for play space…

Daddy has been hard at work outside, trying to prepare a level area for our little man to play. Our problem is that we may be living close to the ocean, but we also never thought about children when we bought the house, and who could have known that we would have such issues.

The difference in height between top and bottom of our plot is 8 meters. This means everything is at a steep angle. Daddy said that this needs to change, as the deck is the only area that is level and as we move to summer, we need to get some more level space for the little man to play.

At the moment he walks like an old man up and comes down like a sprinter, or rolls down. He has now nearly finished preparing a 70 square meter area and once the grass is placed, hopefully next week, we will be ready for some more fun outside.

We can look at adding some frames and swings, maybe a little bench for mom and dad. We cannot wait for this “new development“.

Daddy had to move some of the garden, which is still being established, lower down as well, but that is not an issue. One thing about living near the ocean, it is all sand, easy to garden, hard to get things growing.

On the home front, Boeta has added 3 new words, including grandma. He has had some interesting foods this week as well, including fresh raw peas, turkey, fresh blueberries, polenta slices, fresh guava slices, to name a few. He has also increased his weight to 12.3 kg.

We can also make it known that we are all flying down to Cape Town, Boeta’s first, as mommy need to go for work, so we decided to make a long weekend of it and visit Boeta’s grandparents. We decided to let them know, because at 80+, the surprise may be “not so good”, so they can prepare. They are excited about this development.

Peanuts, Fish and Teeth this week.

Another week has raced by and we are looking toward Saturday, when mom will be back again.

This week had a few important milestones for us. On Wednesday, I had some fish, and decided it is time to see if Boeta has any reaction. It was a Tuna bake, not the correct starter fish, but I took my finger and put some sauce/fish around the mouth, to see if there was any immediate reaction, swelling, redness or anything else. Nothing, so I proceeded to give him a test taste or three. All went well and I feel a little less stressed over fish, now we will prepare some Sole over the weekend or next week and formally add fish to his diet.

Secondly the issue of peanuts. This was another thing we needed to move past. Today, we had an appointment at the pediatrician, our first without mom, so we made sure our hair was cut, we had our best clothes on, and I prayed for the diaper to stay clean until we finished our visit, which I am happy to say did.

Selfy – ready to go!

Before we went up to the doctor, I gave Boeta a tester peanut butter, again around the mouth, little on hand and a tester on the tongue.  I figured that being in front of the hospital, on my way to the pediatrician, I had all the assistance needed should anything go wrong. Nothing happened, all seems well, agreed by the doctor too. Another tick!

As for the appointment, we went through that with a breeze, doctor checked everything, we talked about where he is in development, eating, talking and all the rest. He noticed a little redness in the throat, which did not surprise me, as we had a visitor yesterday with the flu. The winter weather is no help either, near 30 degrees C on some days, then freezing cold the next with gale force winds. Getting 3 new teeth also ain’t no support.

All-in-all, he was very happy and said that we are doing great, no adjustments anywhere, baby is strong, healthy and on track. His weight is now 12 kilograms, and he is 80 centimeters tall. As we talked, Boeta suddenly started giving me kisses and then he turned to the doctor and waved! We had a little laugh and got the idea…time to leave!

He got 5 new interesting balls to play with as reward for being a wonderful patient.

He may only be 13 months, but he ain’t no baby anymore! How quick they grow.

Helping hand…

Today was a stay indoors day. A cold front is rumbling through with strong winds, rain and bringing some cold winter temperatures. We therefore spent the day playing inside, then we lit a fire and dad put some steaks on, while mom made butternut and other vegetables in the oven, roasted butternut being our little man’s favorite vegetable.

Afterwards we took a nap and then started cleaning up, while mom prepared some waffles. We decided that Boeta could share in the treat, why not, and cut his into blocks, gave it to him with a spoon and stood back.

As you can see the spoon got dumped for a more favorite tool, hands.

So after all the fun, mom placed the butternut in ice cubicles to be frozen for later use. Our little man is now allowed in most of the house, except the kitchen without supervision, but he was eager to give a helping hand with the opening and closing of stuff (fridge, doors). As you can also unfortunately see, I am 2/3’s finished with the kitchen I am building and also the reason for his not being allowed in the kitchen. I was busy with the initial stages when Boeta announced his arrival and had 4 days, from birth to coming home, to get it up and running. I did it, but since then I am doing bits and pieces.

After the cleaning and sorting, playing hide and seek, he decided to attack the cushions on the couch, a favorite, and roll around with them. Then a bit of throwing balls all over the living room, just to give dad something to do when he is asleep.

We are not going to have settled weather until Wednesday, so we are going to have to explore every angle of the living room in the next few days. At least we had fun as a family.

The good and not so good – first 12 months

EATING

The good

We had problems getting him to sleep a few hours continuously at night, so we tried adding some food (rice 1st food porridge) to the mix from just over 4 months and tea (Rooibos tea). It actually helped and as time went on we added vegetables (one type for at least 3-4 days).

He had no issues with any so the mixing started of various vegetables and a few months later we added chicken and beef. His milk was still the mainstay. With time the food became more complex and we had little issues with his appetite.

The bad

The bad part about eating came later when we started introducing more grainy food, not the smooth stuff. Every now and then a gag reflex would happen, and it could get really messy if he had already a good dinner behind him. I felt sorry for him, shame, but tried to teach him by coughing at such times, which he to his amusement replicated, and we slowly got this sorted. By 11 months the issue was sorted, with a rare happening a while back, and he now chews better as well. Still not a great experience for all concerned.