Marking 11 months today.

I suppose when you are a new parent, every new experience is exactly that, an experience.  But more than that really, it is also a milestone.  And so it is today that Luka celebrates his last birthday counted in 'months' (at least in so far as it is the last one prior to one being counted in year(s)).  If this does not quite make sense, today is Luka's 11 month birthday.

For his birthday today Luka got an extra 200g for the past month, which means that he officially (we double weighed to make sure) topped the scales at the big 1-0-k-g this morning.  That's right, our little bruiser is now officially freaking heavy!

To say that he is a joy in abundance, is to lack the words to describe the sheer pleasure we derive from his reaction when we walk into the house from being out for some or other reason.  More often than not we will come home and notice his play room door is slightly ajar, knowing that he is in there playing with books, musical toys, and other stimuli with his lovely nanny, Michelle.  Yet, when he hears one of our voices, he is like a bat out of hell, climbing over the local Timorese-made throw pillows, swings the door open, and leopard crawling at light-speed to get to one of us.

There is perhaps not a more incredible feeling at the end of a long, hard day at the office, than to have 10kg of adorable, smiling, cooing (squealing, really) baby boy come charging in your direction when you walk through the door, demanding to be picked up, cuddled, then promptly put back down so that he can resume the game of annoying the cat by endlessly chasing him around the dining room table.

Pouring the batter into what will be the final installment
of the 'months' cake series

For some reason this eleven-month mark has been quite emotional for me.  I found myself today thinking about our time in Darwin, about the baking, the long hours in hospital, and eventually about how Chris and I used to have to strap our (then still premature) baby to our chests, in bed, shortly after arriving in Cape Town, to ensure he is kept warm, secure and safe from slipping off.  Which, as you can imagine, meant that neither one of us slept for a good few months.  And, as per the tradition, I baked a cake.  This time a simple Vanilla Bean Pound Cake (hey, I'm a full-time mom that does not even have time to buy my own eggs - thanks honey!)  It was not so much for the cake, but for the act of baking that I simply had to be in the kitchen tonight.

The final product 

Chris said tonight that if we did this again, he would surely need amnesia - but I thought it comes with that automatically, hence why I don't remember the 1.5-hourly breastfeeds, or the entire month of October at all for that matter.  And as we enter the last month of his first year, I cannot help but feel incredibly sentimental about our time together in Darwin, Cape Town, Oxford, Scotland, Sri Lanka...and soon to be California, Arizona and elsewhere.  How blessed we are to have been given the privilege of guarding over this little person for a few precious years, how I wish the next few won't go quite as quickly...

Countdown to Luka's 1st birthday family extravaganza starts now....

All in a day...

While mommy takes her guilty conscience to work every morning, looks like Master Luka does just fine at home.  His schedule usually goes something like this:

Luka practices his 'cruising' skills in Adrian's
play pen.

06h30 - wake up, daddy changes his nappy - then he hops into bed with mommy for a breastfeed while daddy makes breakfast for both of us
07h15 - after playing in bed, mommy and Luka gets up, mommy hops in the shower, Luka keeps me company (which generally means him pounding on the floor drain in the bathroom) then unpacking the bottom shelf of my closet where I store my belts and other accessories, while I get ready for work
07h30 - Mommy feeds Luka breakfast
07h45 - Michelle, Luka's nanny, shows up - throws his laundry in, tidies up, then takes over feeding while I eat breakfaste
08h00 - (or thereabouts ;) I leave for the office)

rest of the morning - Michelle reads a few books to him, they play in his playroom, and eventually, when his late-sleeping neighbor Adrian wakes up, they either head over there for a play, or Adrian comes here.

mid-morning Luka naps, then lunch time mommy comes home - it used to be for breastfeeding, now I feed him his regular lunch.  We usually have 20 minutes or so that I get to play with him in his playroom.

mid-afternoon Luka takes another nap, perhaps have a play-date again back and forth with Adrian, go for a stroller ride with Adrian, chase Gus, play in the playroom.

Then mommy comes home and we either go for a walk, a swim, or we play together in the room.


So all in all, yes, I do, from time to time, feel mortified for not spending every waking moment with him - then I see his progress, development, happiness, sociability - and my sanity, and I remember why I work and try to convince myself I am not 'damaging' my child... ;)

When not climbing mountaintops in his Chariot Ferrari,
Luka likes to cruise town in his more fuel efficient hybrid
Chicco umbrella stroller. 

Double Trouble

Luka and neighbor/twin/partner-in-crime on their way to Nicole's for 'parent group' (read: and excuse to get together for a cappuccino on a Tuesday and steal 30-minutes with Luka during an early lunch).

By the looks of it, Luka was quite thrilled to have some company in the backseat!

Me and my homey off on an adventure!

  

A love that's bursting at the seams

I think we have pretty well established that parenthood is not easy.  No really.  It is hard.  What with adapting to having something constantly depending on you (as in every waking, and well yes, most non-waking moments) for food, security, developing, as well as protecting them from themselves (for instance introducing the notion of what goes up, must come down - including your newly-standing self), it is not for the faint-of-heart.

But then, every so often, you get a day where you just have to step back and go wow.  No really, WOW.  Thinking secretly to yourself, how did I get this lucky to have the honor of being this amazing creature's mamma?  Today was such a day.

Mr. All Smiles donning his 'amber teething necklace' said
to relieve pain and inflammation associated with teething,
or, well - it just looks cool!

While we've had a few rougher-than-usual nights (seems the Temple of the Tooth is making room for the Temple of the Teeth), and we actually had to revert to a steady dose of paracetamol last night with the requisite ungodly wake-ups.  Nonetheless, his mamma's 3-hour sleep last night notwithstanding, someone was bright-eyed and bus(h)y-tailed at 06h30 this morning (at this point I feel it necessary to disclose that we did not in fact get to bed until after 01h00 after hosting a few folks for pizza and wine).  I was brave enough to try last weekend's strategy of bringing him to bed to 'play it out' for an hour or so, and then hopefully he would fall asleep again for two hours like last Saturday - but by the fourth time he was practicing the drums on daddy's (sore) head - I decided to get up and get going with him.  We jumped in the car with nothing but his breakfast in his little travel cooler (no nappy, no anything) and headed out to a local beach bar for mommy-and-Luka breakfast.  While mommy nursed a cappuccino, Luka sat every-so-happy in a big-boy chair, no restraining device, no high chair, just lounging with his arm on the arm rest, happily eating his yogurt, fruit and breadsticks, while gaping at the people, televisions and sights around him.  He was all smiles, to the general amusement of the staff and patrons alike.

At home, Luka took a standard 30-minute nap  (while mommy dashed off to pilates) to prepare him for the next adventure of the day - Swim Lesson #3 at a local hotel pool.  He had a marvelous swim class and was able to finally relax a little bit on the back-floating exercise,  and did remarkably well in the submerging section (cannot believe how these bubs are going to be swimming in no time!)  With Luka squealing with delight all the way, we changed him, and had lunch at the lodge.  He (for the first time in...I don't know, months!) sat happily on my lap for over an hour, feeding himself raisins, a teething biscuit and his macaroni, bean, mince lunch.  We took him home for another quick nap (while mommy got a pedicure this time), before his next big adventure.

The exhausted hasher kips on the mountainside above
Dili.

At 4pm, Chris loaded his Chariot Cougar I in the car and set off for the local Hash House Harriers club (while Luka might not remember this, he actually participated in a Hash run in utero). Chris probably should have known from the host that it would be hilly - but didn't put 2 and 2 together until they set off from the Co-Operativo Cafe Timor (CCT) compound and started heading up, up, and more up.  According to Chris, it took about three guys to haul the chariot and its passenger up the hill, and some careful braking on the way down. But it was all worth it when Luka was honored in the circle with his very own Hash t-shirt.  Someone clearly has been following his growth trajectory, since despite its adult S size, we're convinced he'll be in it before Christmas!

After the hash it was home for dinner, a bottle, a bath, followed by mommy's nightly full-body massage (something I have done since birth - for which he actually laid fairly still for once) and he was asleep before he even hit the bed....

Luka receives his first
hasherdashery.

What an incredible day to be a parent.  They're certainly not all like this, but boy do they make it worth it....

Learning about this walking thing...

One small step for Luka, one giant headache for mamma and daddy...

Around a month ago, Luka started pulling himself up onto people and furniture around him.  That skill is pretty much firmly established now. To my horror, when I walked into his room the other night when he was crying, I came face to face with the little guy staring at me through the bed frame, while standing upright!

He likes to hang onto a small footstool in the kitchen while one of us drags it to 'practice' walking.  Obviously now he wants to 'practice' a lot more.  So here is a video of Luka practicing with his daddy at a beach side restaurant recently.

Practicing in the pool

We were very thrilled with Luka's first swim lesson last week, and tried practicing some of the new skills in Nicole and Fiona's pool over the weekend.  Luka has always been a natural in the water, which may or may not be a good thing for us I realize, and so have little issues really with getting his face wet.  Here is a cute short video of Luka with daddy in the pool.  One of the things the swim trainer does with them is to use a kickboard to encourage kicking, and then to throw things in front of them out of their reach to encourage the use of their arms.  Here is a short video of Luka practicing kicking with his new $2.40 Timor Plaza kickboard.

We'll be attending the weekly swim class for six weeks until we depart for the US, and hopefully resume with the next level when we get back.  In the meantime, nothing like living in the tropics to ensure plenty of practice time in a swimming pool!

Bub Club #2: Introducing 'arts & crafts'

The calm before the storm....

Dili Bub Club #2 was hosted by the awesome hosts - Nicole, Fiona, Amelia, Angelica and Luca.  We gathered at their gorgeous home in Dili to, well...how to say this lightly - completely wreck it!  Afterall, what do you get when you take 10 babies stripped down to nothing but their nappies, large swaths of construction paper, a bucket of jello, plenty of bubble wrap, four different color paints (non-toxic of course), and cherry red play dough - that's right - most people's worst nightmare.  But not if you are Nicole and Fiona.  With three little ones under the age of two (that would be the lovely Miss Amelia, and her twin siblings, cool as a cucumber Luca, and feisty Miss Angelica), they make it all look so much easier than I often feel with only one!

The storm... Picasso, make way for Lukasso!

The idea was to introduce the babies to the concept of 'texture' - and boy did they get a big kick out of that.  Everyone stripped down to their nappies, and were set free on the floor filled with cleverly positioned construction paper, paint, bubble wrap, and other textures taped to the floor. The Bubs crawled and clamored over each other to get to stick their hands in the bucket of jello, play with (okay, and taste) the play dough, and smear paint on the back of huge topo-maps taped to the shiny tile floor.

It was absolutely fascinating to watch the babies explore the various textures, tastes and sensations.  And explore they did - between enjoying his first 'jello shots' and me scraping the play dough off the roof of his mouth after spying a suspicious red coating lining the top of his mouth when he leaned back during a belly laugh, there was plenty of 'exploring' and 'experiencing' going on.  Watching their little brains firing and just taking it all in reminded me of the wonder and honor of watching the process of a little person growing into a big person.

For little ones, they did quite well with the whole 'big kid activities', considering all but two are still under one year of age, so the notion of 'arts and crafts's' and heck, even fine motor skills, remain somewhat of a mystery - yet, they each enjoyed the experience in their own special way.  For Luka, this meant immediately diving into the paints, then trying to throw the entire bucket of jello out of the floor, then exploring his talents as a make-up artist by diligently painting Miss Maya's face both with the paint brush, and his paw print (Video Here), and finally ripping the topo maps on the floor to shreds at the end of the day (mommy, just helping to clean up!)

My first coach: swim lesson in Dili

Lining up for instructions from
Coach Meg

Well, it had to happen sometime - Luka has his first 'coach', and not surprisingly - it involved water.  Apart from a few dodgy weeks in the tub when he was about 3 months old (might have had something to do with the sudden onset of freezing exit air in Cape Town versus what he was used to in Darwin), the boy has always loved water.  And while he has spent about as much time in the water as out of it since moving to Dili, he finally had his first official swim lesson yesterday.  We did a combination of stationary exercises followed by a number of movements around the pool in which the babies were transferred from front to back, encouraged to kick, paddle, and float.  For a brief video, click HERE.

Making the rounds

Members of the Dili Bub Club joined at chez twins+1 for their first structured swim lesson with a very competent and experienced instructor from Australia named Meg.  With seven babies in the pool, it was not for the faint of heart, but Meg walked us through the basics of floating on the back, the front, putting the face in the water, passing the baby from one person to another to get them used to being submerged. Luka clung to me like a nut hanging onto my hair (and earrings) for dear life when on his back, but when on the front, was happily laughing and kicking up a storm.

Practicing blowing bubbles

A great initiative, and definitely beneficial to bubs and parents alike, can't wait for next Wednesday!

Luka loves Sophie

Every parent of a new baby has one (or two, or in our case three) - the indomitable, lovable, Sophie [the Giraffe].  Around since 1961, this giraffe has become a part of the teething and holding routine of every young baby.  Not surprisingly, she was also young Master Luka's first love.  Here is a short video of him hanging out with her at a recent party.   

Inaugural Dili "Bub Club" event

When you live in a tiny island nation in the middle of nowhere, there tends to be a lack of organized kids gyms, classes, and other group events (among other laking amenities, mind you).  From our perspective though, this simply means more opportunity to be creative and figure out how to survive this babyhood sans Ikea, pediatricians and the FDA (I did notice today that drugs here are sold conspicuously closer to their expiration date than manufacturing date, and that Listerine bottles do not have child-proof caps - and people wonder why we need full-time nannies to watch our children??)

Some of the babies at the inaugural 'Dili Bub Club'

Anyway, back to the point of baby groups.  When we were in South Africa, Chris, Luka and I attended a few classes of an organization called Kindermusik.  As the title indicates, this involves kinders and musik.  I was so impressed with the whole approach that for a fleeting moment considered doing a course to become an official instructor - then remembered - right - 'working mother' and did what I have had to learn to do so often recently, lowered my expectations (of myself that is).  Truth be told, I would love to do a course to teach me how to adequately stimulate my child, but reality is that I don't have the time.  Instead, all the working moms in Dili came up with a concept to do a once-a-week gathering of babies (mostly Class of 2011, with a few honorary members from 2010 thrown in).  The idea is that we would get together at a volunteer's house every Sunday afternoon to engage in a baby-oriented activity.  The host would be responsible for 'facilitating' the activity which can range from music-oriented, to yoga, to a walk, to massage, to cooking, swimming - whatever they feel comfortable with, so long as the focus is on stimulating the little ones.  For s short clip from today click HERE.

For today's class, I downloaded a bunch of Kindermusik and other baby play songs from iTunes, and put together a simple program of approximately 20min.  The idea is that the group sit in a circle, babies on lap, or in front of the parent, and we sing songs to which we can gesture, sway, or play.  We used rattles, standing and swaying, blankets to do peek-a-boo, and physical touch with our babies.  All eight babies seem to love the experience, often squealing with glee.  

I did take a step back from the whole group for a minute and caught myself thinking how different my life is, as I watched this explosion of babies take over my living room...what a ride it's been!