Toby is now 6 months and one week old.  We were away last week and didn’t get around to updating my blog.  Then I couldn’t log in and Andrew had to fix that problem.  So now I can finally get here I’d better get my blog updated!

Toby can now crawl properly!  That started on Saturday, so he was 6 months and 5 days old.  He’s slow, but he’s doing all the right moves with his arms and legs.  And yesterday I noticed that his second tooth has made an appearance.

At his 6 month appointment with the GP for his vaccinations, Toby was 7 kg (fully clothed)  and 64 cm long.  That’s pretty much the same as Nathan when he was 6 months old.

Our days are usually spent out in the mornings.  We go to an AP (attachment parenting) playgroup at Sydney Park on Monday mornings where we meet up with some very lovely mothers (and one father) and their kids.   Tuesdays and Wednesdays we are free to do whatever we feel like.  Often we go grocery shopping, or we might end up at the Magic Yellow Bus for some outdoor activities.  Thursday we have swimming and Fridays we often catch up with some women and kids from our old mother’s group…at a park (weather permitting).  Afternoons we go for walks/bike rides or stay home and do things around the flat, and cook dinner.

Toby tends to sleep on my back during the day, so he gets worn a lot in the mei tai and he just falls asleep when he needs to.  He generally has 2 to 3 naps throughout the day, and sleeps at night from 7 pm to around 8 am. When I say ‘sleeps’, I mean he wants to be asleep.  He does, however, wake what feels like a million times during those 13 hours.

I read my blog entry for Nathan when he was 6 months old, and I focused a lot on getting him to sleep in a cot because I went back to work when he was 6.5 months old.  I remember all the stress I felt trying to express milk and get a stash in the freezer, and get Nathan to sleep without feeding him.  It really is bliss knowing that I don’t have to worry about that this time round and can continue doing what is easiest.  To be honest,  I’m enjoying spending my days with my two little boys without worrying about returning to work just yet.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy….the perfect title for my little boy too!  He loves munching on books.

Yum!

Nathan and Toby gazing down on the City of Sydney scale model

Toby exploring Mummy’s face

Two boys and a bear asleep

Food….I want it!!!  Toby is always so desperate to reach any food or drink that we eat.  He reaches for it, having no fear of hot foods, often making me worry about him burning himself.  So far there have been no food related injuries.  Toby’s tasted lots of things so far. He enjoyes sucking an apple after I’ve taken a bite, sucking on corn cobs after I’ve eaten the corn off them, sucking on various cooked and/or ucooked fruit and vegetables like carrots, celery, cucumber, and sucking on chicken and chicken bones.  He gets very excited by spoons that have been dipped into soups as well.

It is paper, though, that is akin to baby crack.  Toby manages to hunt down any scrap of paper on the floor (and there are plenty since cutting and tearing is one of Nathan’s favourite past times at the moment).   Rolling onto the Saturday paper that was left on the floor is heaven for Toby!  He reaches out, scrunches the paper in his hands and then shoves it into his mouth, along with all the appropriate appreciative noises.

Proper crawling is still rather elusive, though Toby’s arms are now strong enough that he can support himself on hands and knees while reaching for  toy…or paper… i.e. one hand supporting him. If he wants to move forewards he sort of pushes off his elbows with a little bunny-hop from his legs.  Otherwise, motion is still mostly backwards.

Today I noticed Toby’s first tooth has made an appearance!

My little boy is 5 months old already!!  And he is essentially crawling….not a solid crawl that an older baby would do, but he gets up onto his hands and knees and tries hard to coordinate his arms and legs.  He moves his legs and it pushes him over so that he face-plants the floor.  He often goes backwards, but does also go forwards, but whatever the direction he can well and truely move.

This video was also taken recently and it always makes me laugh at his facial expressions.

Toby still isn’t particularly happy when in the car, particularly in the afternoons at any time of day (I realised today, after a particularly bad car trip, that it’s been a while since he’s been happy in the car in the morning).  His cradle cap seems to be disappearing slowly, not that it was ever very bad.  He has also been in the pool a couple of times now and he seems to like it.

Toby shows a lot of interest in our water bottles and food, so I have given him a couple of sticks of steamed (but still firm) carrot to suck on, and also a corn cob after I had eaten off the corn.  He loves sucking on them, but his coordination isn’t great and he keeps dropping them.

Toby is such a smiley little thing.

We have recently returned from a week camping in the Snowy Mountains.  The above photo was taken on the way down, on one of our stops to feed Toby.  The drive went quite smoothly because Toby slept a lot of the trip.  Every time he woke up and cried, we’d take a little break from driving and feed Toby, and then he seemed happy enough to be put back into his carseat.  Yes, he did a little bit of crying, but not much.  I was totally amazed that it only took us about 8 hours to get to our campsite.

The return trip, however, was the absolute opposite and reminded me of the horrors of driving when Nathan was a baby.  We decided to drive home over two days, since we weren’t sure how long it would take to pack up our tent site in the morning.  I’m glad that we decided to do this, as there was no way we would have made it back to Sydney in one day after leaving at midday.  Toby just wasn’t happy in the car at all for the entire trip.  He rarely slept and just cried and cried and cried.  We made loads of stops to get him out of the car seat and try to get him to sleep, but even when we did get him to sleep and back into his seat, he didn’t sleep for long.   Consequently, it took us an incredibly long time to get home…I think it took about 5 hours to get to Canberra, and it was 6 hours from Canberra to Sydney.

The camping was great and our new tent was spacious and easy to look after two small children in it, so I was looking forward to going camping again sometime soon.  But….I’m not sure I am game enough to go for another long drive with Toby any time soon.

I’m running late for Toby’s 3 month update!  I say it every week, but I don’t know where the time goes, the days just flit past so quickly.

Toby is now rolling from his back to his tummy, though when he gets onto his tummy he squirms and complains and tries to crawl.  His legs are strong, but his arms don’t work!   When I put him on the change table lying down, if I give him my hands to hold then he will try to pull himself up to sitting.  I can pull him up and if his feet are well placed, Toby will then push himself up to standing.

EC is going reasonably well, though some days we don’t catch anything and at best we’re only doing it part time.  What does impress me, though, is that most nights Toby is dry when he wakes up after 11 hours of sleep and I can usually catch his first wee of the day.

A few days ago, when Toby was sitting in the bouncer and I was busy doing something, I heard him  suddenly squawk loudly.  I looked around and Nathan had taken Toby out of the bouncer and was holding him by the head/neck and Toby was essentially standing.  Nathan is just so desperate to pick up Toby and hold him and care for him.

Our ‘routine’ at the moment is that Toby wakes up around 7 am, he sits in his bouncer chatting to us while I run around getting breakfast for Nathan and getting ready to go out.  Toby sleeps in the Mai Tai while we’re out, then we come home to get Nathan to sleep around midday.  Nathan goes to sleep and Toby wakes up (though he’s generally been awake for a while before that). Sometimes, though, Toby has a nap while Nathan is sleeping.   In the afternoon Toby generally just gets a few catnaps unless we go for a walk somewhere and then he’ll get a decent sleep in the mai tai.  Back home for dinner, and then Toby is asleep for the night around 8 pm.