In one word, the weaning is going: perfectly!

For the first week or so I was a little uncomfortable and engorged by the end of the day; but now only 2 weeks later, he has dropped back to only feeding before bed and during the night. And there have been no adverse side effects at all.

I have been saying for the last 3 or so months, that Baby boy is on the verge of walking, but to this day I am still waiting for it to happen. If anything, he is waking less now than he was a month ago or even two months ago.

Baby Boy can do it; he has shown us so on numerous occasions, he simply doesn't care to. He would rather crawl everywhere at the speed of light rather than stand on his two feet and lurch forward slowly like a zombie. I guess it makes sense, I just want my little boy to walk already!

Remember that scene in the movie ‘Beethoven’ where the little girl shares her ice cream cone lick-for-lick with the drooling giant dog; swapping spit and generally having a great time bonding? When I first watched that scene as a child, and still now, watching that ribbon of drool hang between Beethoven’s mouth and the ice cream made my stomach churn and I couldn’t think of anything quite as disgusting as having a lick of that ice cream (and I LOVE ice cream as much, if not more, than the next guy). Even watching the little girl eat the ice cream was enough to make me vomit in my mouth just a little bit; excuse me for just a moment while I...

That being said, I walked in an a very similar scene in my own living room the other day between my red heeler Alfie, Baby Boy and a pear that one of them had stolen from my hand bag. Alfie was munching away on the pear as happy as can be, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Baby Boy comes crawling in and snatches the pear from Alfie's mouth. I stood there in shock as the following monologue played through my head: "Oh Alfie, that's nice sharing the pear with Baby Boy. Okay Baby Boy, give it back to Alfie now. You cannot surely want to bite the pear after the dog has been munching on it. Oh no you don't. No... No... No... No... I am so not going to kiss you for a few days."

On the one hand, it was mega cute that my boys get along so well and are going to be the best of friends (it was touch and go there for a while until Alfie realised that Baby Boy was a great source of food), but super disgusting that Baby Boy launched right into the pre-masticated section of pear that Alfie had been devouring not 10 seconds earlier. Let's just say, I brushed his teeth well that night.

Oh my darling, I do love you, but please stop eating such interesting things.

xx.Mummy Arnold.


PS. If you would like to hear more about my life with Baby Boy and Daddy Arnold (and see what we look like), please come and check us out at www.iheartarnold.wordpress.com

Yesterday was Baby Boy's first birthday (Happy Birthday my big boy) and after breastfeeding that whole time, the thought has now crossed my mind - is it time to start weaning him off the boob? We are back from holidays and into our normal environment, Baby Boy loves his food, he has 12 teeth with more on the way (if the constant drooling, clear runny nose, clinginess, ongoing desire to suckle all night and general miserableness aren't dead giveaways, I do not know what is) and I'm just a little bit tired of having to express at work!

So, my first question is - where do I start? Baby Boy is not about to volunteer to give up the boob and I have to admit, that I am not ready to give it up completely yet either. I think I really just want to cut it out during the day - I am happy to feed him before bed, once during the night and first thing in the morning - but during daylight hourse, the kid is on his own. I have done quite a bit of googling over the last 24 hours and I am yet to find a 'go-to' reference for weaning a child. He is now 12 months, so I don't have to worry about formula, but he has had some bad experiences with dairy in the past (I'm talking Exorcist-style projectile vomits here) and I'm reluctant to just start giving him bottles of milk instead of EBM. Arghhh, what to do???

Why can there not just be a simple little checklist? I'm off to see if I can find one...

xx. Mummy Arnold.

PS. I'll update you on my approach as soon as I find one that sits comfortably with me.

the homecoming...

What a little rockstar! Baby Boy was such a joy to travel with on the way home (makes a much pleasant change from the screaming devil child we were blessed with on our last 5 hour red-eye flight from Las Vegas to Toronto). He slept when he was supposed to, ate, played, waved and said 'hi' to every person who looked at him and just generally was a little charmer. What a change not having four teeth coming through makes to Baby Boy's travelling mood!

This trip to Canada was all about seeing Daddy Arnold's family and introducing Baby Boy to the clan. This meant we, for once, had a relatively relaxing trip without too much to fit into our days. It also meant that on the few day trips we took down to Niagara Falls and the beach at Lake Huron, Baby Boy tolerated the car rides well and all in all we had a fabulous trip.

Saying goodbye to the grannies was a bit hard on all of us, but I'm sure it won't be long until we see them again. In the meantime, there is always Skype.

xx. Mummy Arnold.