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.

Settling in...

We've been on the road for 1.5 weeks now and things have finally started settling down - we are in one place for 2.5 weeks, can get into a semi routine and have a lot of support from the family that we are here visiting. I guess it also helps that Baby Boy's lower eye teeth both made an appearance in the last few days, so he is a much happier chappy!

So far Daddy Arnold and I have been able to do a lot with our little man in tow.  We went down to Niagara Falls for a night, he has had sleepovers with his grandma, he has charmed all of his aunts, uncles, grandparents and extended family and even had his first haircut. 

I guess last weeks statement that one should avoid travelling with a baby at all costs was perhaps a bit of an over reaction as things are much calmer this week. I just hope that not rigidly sticking to our schedule (feeding/rocking Baby Boy to sleep, later bedtime than usual...) isn't going to bite me in the butt when we get home.

xx. Mummy Arnold.

The first week...

We are about five days into our trip and my advice for anyone thinking about travelling halfway around the world with an 11 month old is: DON'T DO IT!!!

The long haul flight from Perth to Las Vegas was relatively smooth. Baby Boy is not the greatest sleeper at the best of times and so, over the course of the 24 hour flight, he slept a total of about 5 hours (even though we had a bassinet for 23 of the 24 hours). Although he was awake, he was happy, calm and quiet, so we coped. For our three days in Las Vegas he was out of sorts - he was quiet, cranky, clingy and wouldn't eat (this is not like my super energetic, busy, noisy and hungry child) - he finally started being himself again just as we were due to fly from Vegas to Canada.

We caught the red eye thinking it would be the smartest option as Baby Boy would sleep the whole way. Boy, were we wrong. We were that family with the screaming baby for five hours on a red eye flight. Shoot me, shoot me now!

So suffice to say, not only is Baby Boy tired, but I am tired and so is Daddy Arnold. Off to bed now.

xx. Mummy Arnold.

Preparation (or in my case: procrastination, stress and throwing random things in a suitcase the night before)...

Bright and early Tuesday morning, Daddy Arnold, Baby Boy and I are heading off to Canada to see Daddy Arnold's family and introduce them to Baby Boy. Back in January we took baby boy to sydney and he coped exceptionally well with the flight. But that was only 5 hours and this time we are talking about 24 hours on a plane with an 11 month old who hates sitting still and loves making noise...

I am trying not to think too much about the flight - what will be will be. There is no other way to get to Canada and there is nothing we can do about it - worrying will not solve a thing. That is a huge sentiment coming from a long time worrier ("Hi, my name is Mummy Arnold and I am a worry addict. I have been clean for 3 hours and 27 minutes").

We have decided to pack light - which is almost a more difficult task than packing everything, which is how I normally pack - between the three of us we are taking one suitcase, two carry-on bags and the pram in its carry case. And we haven't even started packing eeek. I think I will deal with the limited space by taking only what we need for the flight for baby boy; we can buy nappies, wipes, cream, etc once we get there. Then for Daddy Arnold and I, we'll have to restrict ourselves to 4 everyday outfits and 1 good outfit. We're staying with the inlaws so we can wash regularly, but for 3 and a half weeks, I'm going to be struggling...

As far as the plane ride is concerned, my moto is to just keep him full. Boob on take off and landing and an infinite supply of yoghurt, meat and vegetables, fruit, crackers and sultanas in between.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and if you have any tips for travelling with babies, I would love to hear them, so please share them below.

xx. Mummy Arnold.

I am in the midst of planning Baby Boy's first birthday party and for ideas my first port of call was Pinterest, naturally... There were pictures of every sort of first birthday party imaginable - vintage themed, where the wild things are, the lorax, the very hungry caterpillar, moustache bashes, and on it goes. There were ideas for food and games and decorations and cakes. It was amazing and inspiring and overwhelming and just plain stressful...

What happened to the Woman's Weekly train cake, a few sausage rolls and frankfurters and some pass-the-parcel? Now, a party (according to Pinterest) needs to be more than that. A party isn't a party if it doesn't have a candy buffet and personalised backdrop and gourmet food and drinks; and above all, a party isn't a party if it isn't worth photographing and 'pinning'.

Despite all the stress this need to 'keep up with the Joneses' is causing in me, I will go above and beyond to put on an amazing birthday party for Baby Boy, but I'm going to try and keep it in perspective; Baby Boy's childhood will not be ruined if his cake sinks or the house isn't perfectly decorated. What is important is that he feels loved and supported and special on his birthday and every day after.

xx. Mummy Arnold.

I got a phone call today that no mother with a child in daycare, or at school or indeed anywhere, ever wants to receive. "Mummy Arnold, I am afraid to tell you this, but Baby Boy has eaten another child's poop. I don't know how it happened. The other child is in the process of toilet training and somehow Baby Boy got over there and poop ended up in his mouth. We have called the doctor and the worst that can happen is a bit of diarrhoea, but I am terribly sorry."

Geez, Baby Boy, aren't we feeding you enough?

It sounds like a shocking state of affairs, but I have to say I am not angry and I am not really that surprised. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thrilled at the idea that my son is eating other children's poop whilst in (very expensive) care and I will not be in any hurry to get kisses from him when I get home tonight, but I can see how this could have happened and I don't blame the daycare centre.

I would bet $1,000,000 that the whole situation went down a little bit like this:
Baby Boy was off playing with something on one side of the room, while the other child was doing their business in the potty. Baby Boy looked over and thought: "ooooh, something new and different and exciting, I've got to get me some of that" and off he crawled. And that kid is fast - the other day I was washing my face in the shower and Baby Boy was playing in the bathroom. I heard him crawl out of the room and in the time it took me to wash the soap of my face and wrap a towel around me he had crawled through the house, down three stairs and halfway across the garden. He would have (not so gently) pushed the other child aside to see what was going in and, as all children of his age do, had a bit of a taste.

Baby Boy, you are lucky I love you; however, please do not do that again!

xx. Mummy Arnold.