This week brought on Mr A first birthday! To my disbelief he is actually a year old which means officially he is no longer my little baby. Honestly, I cannot believe a year could go past so quickly, just by watching him grow and learn so many new things. From becoming pregnant with him to giving birth and now reaching his big milestone of a year old, as a mum I feel shattered! Being a mum of two is a different ball game and it has definitely tested my patience especially as Z has been playing up – A LOT! But either way I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love having a girl and boy, seeing them bond is so beautiful, and when they fight (yes already) it is actually funny to watch.
This last year has taught us all something new… a new addition is a massive change and creates a shift in the household. For one Z has really struggled with it by no longer being the baby. She has had to learn to grow up and become a big sister, to help out and to share. I think the sharing is still a real struggle. Mr A loves her to bits and wants to do literally everything she is doing… which means she has nowhere to hide and do her ‘grown up big girl’ things – like sticking, or colouring. But they have also found a common interest. Screaming at the top of their lungs at the same time and crawling around the flat at top speed as well as getting up to mischief like emptying out the pot of soil all over the living room floor. Funny enough for us Z has shown a cheeky side that she didn’t have before A was born. I can see them getting up to a lot of naughty things.
For us as parents, we love being a family of 4, and the reality is, even with the mental breakdowns (mainly by me) the collapsing on the sofa and not getting 2 seconds to ourselves… the minute these two are in bed we sigh a relief and pat ourselves that we all survived another day.
Looking back at Mr A first year, we couldn’t be prouder. When he was born he struggled to drink milk. So we were kept in hospital for a couple of days extra whilst we got him to drink at least the minimum from the bottle. Once we got back home and started to settle into home life and survive the heatwave, I saw a massive shift between my relationship with Z as well as hers with A. She chose to be closer to her daddy and saw me with ‘only baby’ which added to a lot of jealousy and behavioural shift towards me. This hit me a lot as a mum as I never expected the distance to grow so much in such a short space of time especially as she was still my baby.
As the months went on Mr A became more active, which meant that interaction grew between him and Z – especially as Z would attempt to read him books and sing him frozen songs. His scream crying turned into babbling and even into tiny words like mumma, dadda and babba (for Z).
Even though he loved food by this stage, he wasn’t so sure about eating it… so weaning took on at 6 months with us loving Babease and Aaras Foods. He grappled at fresh fruit especially as the season was melons and had at least one banana a day (we would have fights over bananas). Truth.
Mr A teething came out extremely late, as at 5 months Z already had 3 teeth whereas Mr A had been ‘teething’ since 3 months but nothing was sprouting. His first little tooth started to come out at 8 months old and now we have 6 little teeth!
When it came to moving around, Mr A is and has been a hard one to control. Compared to Z in her first year, you could place her in one spot with a couple of toys and she would literally play for ages without being distracted. Mr on the other hand (some say it’s because he is a boy) will be distracted within a couple of minutes, crawl to play with something else, or start chucking things about without a care in the world. You have to squash him in your arm if you want him to sit for even 2 minutes. He moves even more in his sleep… its madness.
However, we love our baths! I have to say since day one, Mr A has been a water baby. He enjoys everything to with water. Not once has he cried when washing his hair, instead he loves water to be splashed over his head. We really need to take him swimming soon. His water skills are great and he could spend hours in there if we let him.
His love for his dummy, has got stronger, which only means a massive tantrum will be coming up soon when we start to wean him off it (any tips will be great by the way). And attachment to another toy/blanket is failing drastically… save us!
But overall, this last year (or two is you count our pregnancy) has been a whirlwind… and I will miss it… I already am. It’s a stage we won’t get back again, but instead all his other milestones will come and we will enjoy the next chapter with a fresh slate.
Get ready year two… we are on our way!!
The post Mr A first year – Our journey appeared first on Mummys Bubble.