Step by step ooh baby!

Don't worry folks, I'm not having a bad 80's flash back, actually now i am -

"Step by step
Ooh baby
Youre always on my mind
Step by step
Ooh girl
I really think its just a matter of time"

Sorry for that moment of insanity, what this blog was originally going to be about was this -

PEANUT IS STARTING TO TAKE STEPS!!!

It really amazes me how much Peanut has changed over the past 13 or so months. He has gone from this tiny little baby that does very little other sleep, eat and cry to this little boy who plays, crawls and chatters (and he still sleeps, eats and crys!)

So back to the steps thing. It was a good couple of weeks ago now that he stood for the first time, come to think of it, it was the Monday after his birthday. And he only stood unassisted for a max of ten seconds before he went crashing down onto his butt, but it was a stand.

I am constantly amazed how quickly Peanut manages to master something, like once he figured out how to stand and within days he was able to stand and kind of dance (well, shake his hands and bop his head) when he heard music. And now he is working on walking. It was not long ago that he took his first step on the front lawn - looked at M34tb4LL and me with a "What the hell did I just do???" look on his face and crash down on the ground.

Now he will stand up and we can see the concentration on his face as he takes tentative little steps. He has not managed to take more half a dozen steps before gravity gets the better of him, but it's a start, and he will only get better from here. Who knows, by the end of this weekend he may be running!

Looking at Peanut's face we are seeing less and less of a baby and more and more of little boy. Where has our little baby gone?

(: Reggie

M34tb4LL's First Post

Ok, I started this post about 6 months ago. It originally began "I've been a dad for just over 6 months now. Here are a few of the things I've learnt so far . . . " and approximately once a month, I'd open up the document, aptly named "doc", stare at it for a few minutes, change the number of months, stare at it some more and then close it again. Well, I've had enough. So here it is, with the opening sentence changed just one more time, ready for your enjoyment.

I've been a dad for just over a year now. Here are a few of the things I've learnt so far . . .

One of the lesser known truths about babies is that somewhere deep within them is a small rift in the space-time continuum. They seem to suck time. Hours can be lost just watching a baby sleep or playing with them. I was lucky enough to be able to take a month off work after Peanut was born. No sooner had he let out his first cry, I blinked and suddenly he was four weeks old and I had to go back to work.

Conversely, I was overwhelmed by just how long everyday tasks now took. Not just the new baby stuff but things that we did before. You really need to add 40 minutes to everything. A quick trip to the shops that used to take 5, now needs a bag with nappies, face wipes, hand wipes, bottom wipes, something to remove pumpkin stains, a change of clothes (possibly for you as well), a bottle, a toy and some form of transport for the baby.

Babies also seem to take up a disproportionate amount of space for their size. Get used to stepping over things - toys, play-mats, strollers, other babies, grandparents, etc. And for some reason, everything they own is huge in comparison to them - oversized toy phones, pianos and teddy bears, all nearly as big as he is. If all our own stuff was this big, we'd need a much bigger house. In fact, even with just the stuff he has, we need a much bigger house.

It amazes me just how much learning Peanut has managed to cram into his first year. We've see him sleeping, pooping, playing on the floor (not necessarily in that order). What he's really been doing is learning how to eat (twice), express to us that he wants to eat, smile, laugh, sit up, crawl, climb up on things, express to us that he wants to be lifted up on things, clap hands, cuddle, blow kisses, point to things, say "uh-oh" when he drops things and generally figure out how to look really cute and manipulate those around him.

So with things whizzing by so fast we tend to take a lot of photos - I mean a LOT of photos. Thank goodness we live in a digital age. There would be very few people in the world who could afford to have negatives developed and prints made of the number of photos we've taken and even fewer would have the shoe boxes to store them in. The downside is that I'm now obsessed with making sure we don't lose anything, not just for us but for Peanut and Peanut's children. Regular backups - multiple backups - offsite backups. I have hard drives and DVD's scattered halfway across the state "Just in case".

So here we are, already one year into the journey. It's been a hoot so far. I wonder what I'll learn this year.

M34tb4LL