When I first caught the bug (ok, ok, Gordon), I had a husband to stumble into the bathroom in the middle of the night offering me a glass of water or anything else I might need. I had a co-parent (same guy!) to entertain Oscar and try to keep him away from Mummy’s germs. I’ve no idea how single parents manage sometimes. Hats off to them.

When germ-lockdown failed, Oscar had his Daddy to cuddle him and reassure him that he’d be ok.

When it looked like he wasn’t ok, we had his devoted grandparents, willing to drop everything and help take him to the hospital and fetch medicine for me.

When Gerrod fell victim, we had access to an ambulance and medical care, and the means to afford it.

When we were effectively quarantined, since nobody else wanted to meet Gordon, we had each other to share quarantine with.

Things could definitely be a lot worse.

Friends
Oscar’s spent a fair bit of time in the company of his little friends, with at least one play date a week. In addition to the cast of characters that we previously saw regularly, he’s also struck up great friendships with Amelie J, and little Lily who I met at the hospital. Amelie dotes on Oscar and shows amazing maturity and understanding of what he is and isn’t capable of at his tender age. Lily just lights up when she see’s Oscar and is one of the most social babies I’ve ever met!

Unfortunately our Qld Health Mother’s Group never quite got off the ground, so we haven’t spent time with those little people for ages.

Adventures
Oscar’s bigger adventures have obviously been this year’s travel, including his first flight (Melbourne) and his first overseas trip (Fiji). He’s also hit the beach a few times with trips to the Gold Coast, Mudjimba and Kingscliff.

Smaller adventures have included: sleepy bushwalks around Mt Tambourine and Noosa, safely strapped to Daddy’s back; regular riverside walks between New Farm Park and Teneriffe; and a visit to Debbie’s backyard menagerie!

Culture
Oscar’s a big fan of music and continues to bop along whenever he hears music. He’ll often sit beside a musical toy, tap it to make it start, then turn to play with something else. As soon as the music stops, he’ll turn back to restore his backing track. Maybe he thinks he should have theme music?

We’ve seen a few musical performances (Pineapple Productions at Paddington, and Katie Noonan performing Cradle Songs), and watched a puppet show. Surprisingly, the puppets seemed to be the favourite.

Playtime
Oscar loves walking down to the park at the bottom of our street and helpfully points out directions to us, to ensure we don’t miss his favourite destination. Swings and slides are met with squeals of delight, and there’s a new rule that you must sit on the adult swing beside him, rather than stand and push him. Walks about the neighbourhood are good fun, provided we go by the dog park and see who’s playing.

Reading is a favourite pasttime, especially Dig Dig Digging (thanks Meegan!). Oscar loves to turn the pages, point out clocks and things in the background, and make hand gestures and try words to “read along”, eg. the crane goes “up up up” as do Oscar’s little hands. Visits to the library are great and Oscar’s starting to help me pick out books rather than just play with the toys there.

Activities
Kids activities are expensive. Super expensive. So we’ve tried to strike a balance of free, discounted and paid activities. He’s loving his swimming lessons and so far they’ve made family beach holidays lots more fun, knowing that he’ll be keen at any time of day to jump in the pool.

Gymboree seems a bit overpriced, but I’m hoping that the padded flooring and equipment will encourage him to be a bit more daring (he’s a cautious soul!).

And indoor play centres are a fun rainy day play date, especially if you have a two for one coupon to the Strathpine centre.

Other than swimming, our most frequent activity has been free library Rhyme Time which was fun for Oscar and a great help to me in remembering some nursery rhyme lyrics! I’ll be keen to see what Toddler Time is like, now that he’s graduated to the next age group.

It’s hard to find activities that are aimed at this age group, but I keep reading about things that are fun to do with slightly older kids. Next year I’m hoping to join a playgroup (it’s been difficult to fit these morning sessions around his sleep time), and head on out for some more new experiences. Model boats and kite flying anyone?

The fest started with a girls’ night out on Friday. It’s something that a good friend started a little while ago, to keep us new Mums in touch with our friends and the outside world in general. A London buddy of mine joined in this time, and I was very proud of myself for talking about things other than babies and relieved to find that it’s getting easier to do so. We dined at the Crosstown near the Gabba, and had after dinner drinks across the road at Canvas. I really enjoyed trying out two new venues in what turns out to be a pretty cool neighbourhood!

On Saturday, I enjoyed an early gift: a 3 hour package of beauty treatments at MummaBubba Windsor. They weren’t all that I had hoped for, but just lying down in silence for 3 hours was wonderful! Gerrod then cooked me the now famous Beef Wellington, which was ah-mazing. Thanks to Jason and Susan for their help and their company!

On Sunday, my actual birthday, we went out for breakfast at Cafe des Alpes, Mitchelton. The breakfast was way too heavy, but had we not gone there we wouldn’t have discovered the awesome farmers’ markets on Blackwood Street. I’ll definitely be heading back there to wander and snack!

Our plans to indulge in fish and chips on the waterfront were foiled by the weather, so instead we ate pizza, drank beer and watched Modern Family. Aaaah. Such a cruisy way to end the day!

Thanks to Gerrod for his thoughtfulness and birthday planning, and to all the beautiful friends and family who spoiled me and wished me well!

The weather was gorgeous, so Oscar and I started it on the front deck, watching the comings and goings of the neighbourhood and the birds. Our friendly neighbours, who have a home business, invited us over for morning tea. It was great to enjoy some company in the middle of the day, without the hassle of packing Oscar into the car and loading up the nappy bag. Then, as Oscar woke from his afternoon nap another neighbour sent a text message, “Are you free now for a walk? I’ll meet you at the end of the street”. So Oscar and I headed out for a challenging walk up and down big hills with Jen and her bub Mason. The walk took us past Laura’s house, so I was able to return a borrowed plate with a few home-baked cookies thrown in for good measure. It’s so nice to feel part of a community!

G: Spoiler alert: There’s videos.

Oscar’s had the coordination, but not the inclination, to wave for some time now. He restricted his waving to his favourite person: mirror baby. But days into his eleventh month he started waving consistently. He won’t wave on command mind you, unless the context is appropriate. Goodbye, hello, goodnight are all ok, as is “Mummy’s carrying me out of the room, so just in case I don’t see you again…”.

His shuffling has also become much faster. His technique is to sit upright with one leg crossed beneath him, and one foot on the floor with knee bent. Then he leans forward, puts his hands on the floor and uses his standing foot to propel himself forward. It looks a little gorilla-like and has elicited some laughs, especially from Aunty Chellsie. This opens up all new play opportunities like Marco Polo, where he has to scoot around the house until he finds us, and chasey with older children. He shows no interest yet in crawling ‘properly’. He’s also pulling himself to standing occasionally, and practices putting his water bottle up onto the coffee table and taking it back down again: just because he thinks he’s super talented for having worked out how to do so.

Swimming is going well, and he’s determined to impress his teacher (crush, perhaps?). Everytime he comes up from underwater he turns to her for some praise! “Did you see that, Heidi?”

Oscar’s pointing has come along in technique and emphasis. Where previously he would gesture with his entire hand (“Behold!”) he now extends his pointer finger. Sometimes it’s to mark his interest in an object, chiefly ceiling lights and fans, and other times it’s to demand that you take him to see something. He enjoys visiting the lime tree we planted for him in the backyard, points to ask you to take him there, then becomes disappointed and confused to find the tree is now bare. He points to the wall clock to be held up to hear the “tick tock”. He points to the bees that Nonni has stitched onto all the pillows in the house. It’s a bit like an easy game of Where’s Wally.

When you click your tongue, Oscar smiles excitedly then starts clicking his tongue back at you. Sometimes it seems like a secret language that he enjoys speaking in. He’s also experimenting with new vocal sounds like “Ba-jeh” (Bonjour, perhaps?). He’s good at making kissing noises and gets a bit cranky if you don’t respond in kind. As for actual kissing, he kisses the teddy bear in his book when he reaches the last page and the last line “Goodnight!”. Consequently, this page will wear out much faster than the others. He also kisses mirror baby who doesn’t seem to like it and occasionally head butts Oscar in response. Mean mirror baby.

Oscar likes to crawl right in front of Gerrod’s giant speakers the moment they’re turned on, and bop along to the music. It doesn’t matter if it’s Pearl Jam or KT Tunstall, he’s happy to rock on. I’m a little bit concerned about what this means in terms of his future moshing and ear damage. Similarly, if a toy plays musak, or you tell a story rhythmically he’ll have a little bop. Must be his Jamaican roots…

G: I really need to learn how to video on the 5DmkII properly. So much potential!

If I hide a toy in the palm of my hand and turn it over to conceal it, he has a great time checking each hand in turn, finding the toy then handing it back with a grunt that I interpret as “Again!”. His favourite toys continue to be household objects, chiefly fridge magnets and an empty box of Uncle Toby’s oats that has a cool cardboard pouring spout. Spinning desk chairs are also pretty cool, to sit in or to sit near and push around. He’s also invented a game where he sits on one side of the playpen wall and I sit on the other while he passes toys in and out of all the different shaped openings. For some reason, this is hilarious to him!

Oscar has enjoyed some great time away with us this month, at Caloundra with Nonni and Poppi and at Mt Tambourine with the Durhams. He loves having lots of people around to play with, especially crazy head-shaking David.

On a slightly less positive note this was also the month of projectile vomiting, blood tests, chest x-rays and an emergency room visit. Oscar has had colds before, but never with fevers, loss of appetite and lethargy. We had a few scary hours there, where taking his raggy rabbit photo was furthest from our minds, but he’s on the mend now and photogenic as ever.

Happy month-day little man!

(I know it looks like we cheated to boost his height a bit, but it’s near impossible to get him to hold his legs still! But they were all lined up with Raggy’s legs – honest!)

So what’s happened in the last month? Oscar has started moving around the room, but for the life of me I can’t work out how. I can watch him playing, not looking away for a second, and honestly not understand how his funny little rocking motion from bottom to knees and back generates movement! But slowly and surely it does. Crawling is still restricted to going backwards.

Oscar spends a large part of every day laughing. Laughing when you walk behind him, laughing when you look around a corner, laughing when you make eye contact, laughing when he wants attention, laughing when he hears someone else laugh. It’s become my favourite way of checking if he’s still awake in the car. I can’t see him so I just do a fake laugh and wait to see if he fake laughs along with me!

We started baby swim lessons recently, and so far he seems to be having fun. In lesson two he put his head under completely, with no tears and minimal water intake.

Oscar switched to formula milk this month and coincidentally (or not) started sleeping through the night! He still cries out occasionally when he rolls over or has a bad dream, but settles himself back down in a few seconds. What a champion! I went nine months without getting into sleep deep enough to have dreams. I cannot describe what that does to a person’s body and mindset, though I’m sure some of you know from experience! Gerrod and I will never take sleep for granted again.

Oscar has funny taste in toys. Household objects are infinitely more fun than toys. My wallet. An ice-cream bucket. A rubber pastry brush. A newspaper. These and many other objects create hours of entertainment. A laundry basket is especially good fun, worn as a hat, used as a seat, or to play a game of peek-a-boo where he has to catch the worm (my finger) as it pokes through random basket holes.

As for real toys, he’s getting quite good at stacking rings, and balancing a ball on a stack of nested cups. He also has a worrying obsession with a little crab that hangs from his toy mirror. When we sit in his playpen he holds it with one hand and plays with toys in the other. I cannot persuade him to let go of it, and he cries when I unlatch his fingers to take him somewhere else.

Day by day our happy little boy becomes more and more fun to laugh and play with!

On days when G has an early start, or Oscar is a bit clingy, eating a healthy breakfast can be a bit tricky. Here’s my solution: breakfast made the night before! My inspiration came from cafes at Heathrow airport.

Take some frozen berries, fruit yogurt and muesli.

Layer the the ingredients in a regular glass. Cover and refrigerate overnight, so the berries can defrost. Voila! Breakfast can be eaten, one-handed, in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.

It’s super easy and tasty. And you can alter your berries and yogurt for some variety. I like Carmen’s muesli in the yellow pack, but G says it’s too cinnamon-y. Any suggestions for a new box would be welcome!

Ingredients

• 1 Woolworths Flan Case (probably best to use this one as the filling fills it perfectly)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup thickened cream

Enjoy! We certainly did! I was surprised that something so quick and easy could taste so good.

You may be thinking, if the recipe is on the box, why post it here? Well, this way I can find the recipe again if they change the packaging, or buy the complementary ingredients at the same time as the flan case when online shopping. See? I’m not nuts after all.

Put on Jack Johnson and dance with tea towels as pom poms.

Baby laughs, and we’re four minutes closer to nap time.

We experimented with the recipe because we were trying to use up leftover buttermilk from when Gerrod made a red velvet cake earlier in the week (yum!). You may not have buttermilk lying around, but it’s in the supermarket right by the milk and cream, and has a use by date a few weeks long, allowing you to buy it and then try the recipe when you get around to it.

It says it serves four people but I’d say three is more likely. We almost finished it between our two piggy appetites. Oops.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 egg
• olive oil cooking spray