1st steps!

Wow the shoes worked magic - we had our first steps (3) tonight!

Not a great video of the experience but here's an idea (he wouldn't perform for the camera) - his style like his earlier lopsided crawling, seems to owe quite a bit to crabs (ie sideways) but I'm sure that will improve....

1st shoes

Ok they are not really his first shoes but they are the first proper fitted pair as his cruising and standing status warrants.

Size 3 1/2 F if you understand these things (thats very small if you dont!)

We did it properly and got the photo

Tristan was pretty fond of his shoes and preferred playing with them to his Christmas presents. Humph.

Sledging

(ok on a tea tray!)

Tristan wasn't that impressed - he can't easily be fobbed off by a tray and some string plus the snow was colder than he expected!

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 - our 2nd one (already!) with Tristan (and yes most of the presents are for him!)

Tristan and and me posing for posterity - note his first ever tie (baby-safe!)

Christmas started with stockings all around - Tristan had lots of fun exploring his - although seemed to think that playing with the stocking rather than exploring the contents ways the true aim!

Grandma was with us too in festive red... ... and some people got presents that allowed us to take embarrassing photos!

Xmas is coming

... bringing Christmas decorations and more of the white stuff (look at the snow in the background!).


It'll be our last Christmas in this house as we have accepted an offer on it - although we'll be staying in the same area (I have now just tempted fate as to the whole move!)
... and inspired by the birthday cake - I've made my first Christmas cake. I wish I had read the instructions a while ago as I hadn't appreciated the lead-time required to make it and I fear it may not be alcoholic enough as I wont have been able to feed (yes that's the technical term) it enough brandy in 1 week...

Let it snow...

Just to get us in the festive mood, '8 sleep to Santa' brought us snow!

And the chance for Tristan to wear his new wellies!

Next stop tour de france

Tristan's first time being chauffered around in the bikeseat.


He didn't mind it too much but will probably prefer it when it isn't December!

Evie's birthday

We have had 6 birthday parties to go to this season! These are some photos from one of his best friend's - Evie's party.

Tristan playing with a garage - yes its on his Christmas list!

Discovering that not only icecream comes in cornets but marshmallows as well - life is good!

Tristan and the birthday girl on the trampoline

Cosy toes

We finally figured out the sewing machine and made Tristan (the clue is on the front!) a cosy toes for his buggy.

Birthday party

Tristan's party - terrible weather but fortunately we all just about managed to fit (minus the furniture!).

Note the badge (and birthday shirt) this badge lasted about 30 seconds and we have no idea where it is now (the shirt lasted about another 60 seconds before being dirtied!)!

There was a lot of inflating balloons - this one was hellium - lets just say I think Manu will prefer it when Tristan is 2 when I make him walk this particularly shaped balloon home from town!

The calm before the storm (and before the chili, pizzas and sandwiches artrive)

The song and cake moment

The other cake moment (this is one to bring out when he's 21!)!

Passing the parcel 1

Passing the parcel 2

...and 3

Birthday

Tristan has turned 1! I know people said how fast it all goes but I never fully believed them.

He had a lovely day with us both going swimming, music class and lunch in town (he likes a mango frappaccino from Costas!).

He immediately understood the unwrapping present concept (I think we'll be having fun at Christmas!)

He's learning so much and you can really tell he's in the middle of a big burst of development. As soon as he got this telephone (thanks uncle - its his very favourite toy) he picked it up and said 'aho' and has been getting praise for this party trick ever since!. He has also learnt to make clip-clop donkey noises and while we were blowing up the balloons he grabbed one (inflated though) and started blowing on it - he's come a long way from that helpless little orange baby we had a year ago!

Birthday prep

Lots of prep for Tristan's birthday. Many firsts in additon to his 12 months: first cake made (chocolate), first icing and first decoration were some of the highlights! It has been a bit of a military operation with party stuff taking up pretty much all evenings as soon as he goes to bed - that and tidying as the house is on the market!

The invite:

Making the cake (do not disturb on pain of death)

The final product (Tristan had just smudged the 'A' on the red block but I redid for the party)

The cupcakes just incase the master cake wasn't so good (plus they went in the party bags)

We've now decided to only do parties every 2 years (or possibly pretend his birthday is on the 29th Feb so we only have to do them every 4 years!).

Creche

Tristan has been at creche now for 3 weeks (yes that means I've been back at work for the same time). The first week we had tears each morning and more upsettingly the evening as well (he would so happy he would burst into tears!).

They let him have his sucky blanket 'do-do' (shown here) all the time so now he has taken to carrying it around with him whenever possible (we've had to get mami and papi to find another one - no. 3 - Just In Case!). He's settled in much more now and seems to be doing quite well - we've had quite a few things coming home (including bisuits and pictures), and he's found a few new things he likes: arctic roll, ovaltine and curry (!). He also got bitten this week (came home with a sticker saying he required first aid poor thing) although it sounds terrible he was partly to blame as he had stuck his finger in another babies mouth!

Work is ok but I struggle being sat down after a year of charging around and also struggle to seem enthusiastic in what people are talking about. In a way it feels like I've never been away but in another way everything has changed and there are many more acronyms and faces/names to learn. Watch this space...

Hallowe'en

We went to a Hallowe'en party in the town square on Saturday. Most people had made a huge effort in dressing up but we hadn't and had to rely on our natural scariness to fit in!

Some of the pumpkins were really impressive (there was a competition). Ours is still sat downstairs uncarved which shows the level of our organisation - wonder if it will last until next year?

Tristan loved the music and kept dancing (or was it wriggling to escape us?) there were even a few headbanging movements which I hope are no indicatio of future taste.

Sleeping

Tristan in his first pair of pjs.

The men having a mid morning nap after all that watching football on the tele.

Tristan is still not a great sleeper. He sleeps from 7pm until about 4.30 and then cries until he gets milk and manages a further 2 hours. He's not that keen at sleeping during the day either and now that he is cutting down on milk I can be seen driving around most mornings humming manically!

First first birthday

We are entering into party season - some weekends we have 2 to go to!

Tristan has the same attitude to paper hats as he has to all headwear - it is to be removed as quickly as possible and to be accompanied by screaming to facilitate the removal!

This was the first party though which (albeit jointly) was for Tristan - the NCT group got together to reminise over how 'this time last year...' and 'can you believe how fast a year has gone...' aka a joint first birthday party.

Countdown

Yep the name tags are out - Tristan is off to creche in a weeks time. This will be a shock to the poor man as he still wont take bottles and isn't too keen on sharing! He is starting in the 'bunnies' room - having skipped the first class so is already a big boy. We are hoping that he wont pick up too many bad habits - swearing or bugs.

He's going to be there for 3 days a week and I'll be back at work after 53 weeks off trying to remember how to string together sentences and not speak in nursery rhymes.

A random image of Tristan and Manu having 'fun' at the recent fair (Manu felt very sick after this ride!).

Playing outside

This is one of Tristan's early birthday presents courtesy of ebay!

(Note the new shoes - he has 2.5 G size feet!)

There are holes to crawl through and peer into which he loves......infact he throws a complete tantrum if you take him outside and he sees it but you don't let him play with it. Concepts like wet and cold are not yet within our grasp!

Tristan's latest trick is pointing at everything that interests him (particularly lights), its quite handy though as he is so pleased with himself when you pass him whatever he has pointed at.

Lots of smiles as he's hoping to go down the slide.

He still loves his little car and will push it round himself if he must when our backs have given in and we are refusing to push him round on it anymore.

4 teeth a cut lip and the pox

Tristan has 4 very visible teeth even if they are all at different lengths (we hope that they will even out). He is enjoying rediscovering the world with the teeth - yes he bites everything (the favourite being shoulders). He also loves to grind them - a truly pleasant noise!


He fell over in his cot and bust his lip in the middle of the night (first blood as well). Thank goodness we don't have any visits planned to the health visitor any time soon!

This was a bad day as it was also when we discovered that he had chickenpox! We spent an hour in hospital trying to stabilise his 40degree fever and had 2 really miserable days of him needing to be constantly cuddled and refusing food. Then the spots came along (only for a day) they were really rather underwhelming and he was immediately much better. We certainly suffered a lot more than him!

I'm relieved that he's got one of the major diseases out the way before I start back at work (3 weeks to go :-( ) but apparently when they get it this young he could get it again. Great.

Sandpit

We'd been meaning to do this all summer these pictures cover 2 months - this baby business has not made us more efficient (and we still have the lid to build!).

It would have been much quicker and cheaper to have bought one but it seemed like a good idea at the time! Tristan did try to help but all he really wanted to do was eat stones!


And finally in October the colder mornings have spurred us on so it is now playable in (with a thick jumper!) - its just a shame that the shops no longer sell sandpit accessories like buckets and spades !