Our baby is growing up….he took his first step on the weekend.  Admittedly is was only one wobbly step to move from a bench he had just been hanging onto to Andrew.  I missed it as I was looking away at the time, but I’m sure there will be more.  He is standing quite confidently without support, but I still don’t think he will be walking anytime soon.

On Sunday Nathan finally got the concept of clapping, and he practically hasn’t stopped.  It’s almost the first thing he does in the mornings after waking up now, which Andrew and I think is really funny.  He had a couple of days of grinding his teeth, and clicking them together, but that seems to have pretty much passed now.  I guess that having teeth is still quite a novelty for him.

Babyproofing the flat has pretty much finished for now.  The computer has been moved out of the loungeroom, locks put on all the low cupboards in the kitchen, and a piece of dowel put through the handles of the drawers.  It doesn’t stop the drawers being opened, but there is less risk of little fingers being squashed than without the dowel.  The kitchen bin is now a source of fascination.  The fridge is now covered in magnetic letters to help entertain Nathan in the kitchen.

Nathan is standing unsupported quite confidently now, although he does still tend to wobble a bit.  He even stands in the bath, though this is no longer so hazardous now that we have a non-slip bath mat.  Another favourite past time is delving into the shopping and taste testing everything in it.  In the photo below we see a mango that had a small bite taken out…..

And finally, Nathan enjoyed helping mummy to pot out some plants last weekend.  He tried several times to taste the potting mix, and still does pick up potting mix for tasting when we go outside to check on our garden.

I constantly wonder what new challenges will present themselves when we take him camping over Christmas.  😀

Edit:  I meant to have an update on Nathan’s sleeping patterns.  His official bedtime these days is 8 pm (that hasn’t really changed much over the months), though by the time we have dinner (all of us together) it generally gets pushed to around 8:30 pm.  This doesn’t mean that we don’t still have later nights but they are becoming less rare.  Also, he doesn’t wake up after the first 30 – 40 minutes anymore, he sleeps through that transition.  Although Nathan has slept up to 8 hours before waking, he generally wakes between 11 pm and midnight (and does a wee), and again around 4 – 5 am.  It is very hard to get him to go back to sleep at this time, but he generally will and wakes for the day around 6:30 am.  Other nights he doesn’t wake until around 3 or 4 am, at which time he usually does a wee and goes back to sleep again pretty easily until he wakes for the day.  He still sleeps in the hammock until his first wake and then sleeps the rest of the night between Andrew and I.  Daytime sleeps are still generally half an hour, 2 or 3 times a day.  Occasionally Nathan will sleep for a longer stint, but often it requires additional help.  For example, on the weekend he woke after the first 40 minutes, he went back to sleep when I fed him but he didn’t like being put back in the cot.  Andrew was having a little kip, so I put Nathan in bed with Andrew and the two of them slept soundly for another hour.  🙂  So all in all I think that Nathan is finally getting better with his sleeping.  It is certainly a lot better than it was, and I now feel like I’m getting a reasonable amount of sleep.  Hoorah!