As you may have guessed from the title… Oscar was 18 months old on Friday! We celebrated with a trip to Go Wild Activity Centre and a slice of cake with his little friend, Lily.

Here’s what the little guy is up to these days…

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Most people write themselves some very sensible goals for the New Year, such as, “Put 10% of my income into savings”, or “Read more non-fiction books”, or, “Eat less meatloaf”. Well, I’m certainly no different from most people, and this year, my list of goals has (so far) topped out at the grand total of seven. Goal number one on that list is: “Learn to juggle”.

I know that by this point, you’re probably thinking one of two things; either, “Hey, awesome idea! You’re awesome!”, or, “Why? You’re a dork!”. Likely it’s the first one, but for the haters in camp two, let me answer your question with another question: “Why not?”. Kristy also agreed that at least one of us should know how to juggle, just in case such a skill should one day be needed to save our lives, and to this effect, she bought me a set of juggling balls for Christmas.

You may think that a handsome young father of a toddler (such as myself) would be somewhat short on time for juggling practice, but as it turns out, it’s completely the opposite! You see, said toddler has never been motivated by food – something we really should have seen coming – and as such, we’d do pretty much anything to get him to eat. And now, with juggling practice on the books, we have one extra distraction to use while the other person quietly encourages food into his mouth in the background.

Actually, his comprehension is getting amazingly good, to the point where eating has now become a negotiation. “Oscar, if you eat that quarter of ravioli, Daddy will juggle for you”. Yes, we realise that negotiating a child to eat probably isn’t something you’ll see on Supernanny, but since Oscar would be pretty happy to skip solid foods entirely, we don’t feel like we have much of a choice. Worse, I fear that we could be setting him up for long term disaster in his adult life, whereby every time he sees someone juggling, he feels a sudden urge to eat pasta.

Worse still, it’s not even the juggling that entertains him; it’s the failure at juggling that really makes him laugh. The whole time I’m delicately managing three balls in the air, he’s staring at me, just willing one of them to go astray. Thankfully though, he’s such a lovely, helpful little boy, that when he’s not strapped into his high-chair, he’s only too happy to go and fetch the fallen ball on my behalf.

Ahh, service with a smile!

Back when Oscar was only a few weeks old, Todd and Shannon sent him a lovely trainee barista apron. So cute! And yet, so practical! After all, Oscar has been in training since the day he was born! Perhaps even since before he was born, if that’s technically possible!

Admittedly, the first few months of lessons were centered around self control during periods of loud noise, and I can now happily report that Oscar no longer bursts into tears when the coffee grinder is turned on. Success!

Since then however, we’ve moved on to more hands-on exercises:

You don’t have to say it. I know he’s awesome.

(Ok, you can say it.)

As 2011 draws to a close, I’ve looked back over what Oscar’s been up to this year and made a few notes here as reminders.

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?

One of Oscar’s birthday presents this year was an inflatable yellow pool, sporting a huge giraffe at the back and a bunch of decorative blow up hanging things for him to rip off and inevitable lose. Kristy managed to pick it for an absolute steal, and up until now it’s functioned brilliantly as a safe-haven from fleas in the downstairs playroom. But, with temperatures cracking whatever number it was that they cracked today, it was officially “hot enough” for the little yellow pool to fulfill its water-based destiny!

As you can see, Oscar was rather chuffed with the whole event, and quite enjoyed his little splash about!

Oscar reached his first major milestone on Friday, hitting the ripe old age of 1!

He woke up at his usual time of 5:30 AM on his birthday morning, so we took a leaf out of the Durham’s book and started his day with presents in bed. He doesn’t quite get the wrapping paper thing yet, but I’m sure he’ll get plenty of practice over the years. Also, he’s not very greedy – once the first present was open, he pretty much wasn’t interested in anything else!

Nonni and Poppi visited with more presents in tow, as did Mia and Pa a short time later with even more presents! It really was quite a good haul for a one-year old!

On Saturday afternoon, we hosted a little afternoon tea for a few of Oscar’s nearest and dearest. One of Oscar’s favourite things to spot are little bees, and as such we had a bee-themed party that Kristy had spent many hours preparing – not the least of which involved her and her Mum making the little bees for his cake!

Thankfully, he seemed quite pleased with the end result!

All in all it was a lovely first birthday for our lovely little boy! We’re looking forward to seeing the adventures that Year #2 brings us!

Some photos (many c/o Jason) in the Oscar’s 1st Birthday album.

It’s been pretty quiet over the last few weeks. Work has been crazy hectic for me, with the product that we’ve been working on all year going live on Monday week. It’s very exciting to see all our hard work coming to fruition, but at the same time a bit nerve-wracking knowing that the software has never been properly tested “in the wild”. Fingers crossed all goes smoothly when it launches!

On the home front, things have been fairly routine, though we’ve had a couple of weeks of fairly restless nights with Oscar managing to pick up back-to-back colds. I think he is now on his third. His head gets so full of mucus that you wonder how on earth he still manages to breath – at night it seems he wonders the same thing, and getting him back to sleep after he wakes up in a fit can be quite tricky. But on the upside, he’s been eating like an absolute champion since his jaunt to the ER, so hopefully that will continue and the worst of his non-eating stays behind us!

We had a delightful celebration of fatherhood last weekend for Father’s Day #1. Both of our Dad (and Mums), and Jason and Susan all came around for a huge BBQ lunch. Oscar picked up some awesome gifts for me too – a bottle of Lagavulin Single Malt, as well as a “Pint” shirt (with matching “Half Pint” shirt for him). His “Half Pint” shirt is a little on the big side though – he’s really more of a Quarter Pint at this stage!

Anyway – our week ahead looks pretty much like the one just gone, but hopefully things will calm down after our product launch on the 19th. I’m looking forward to a vacation!

It’s been a big month for Oscar, in baby terms at least. He’s developed new interests, new skills and experienced new things. We’ve had a really fun time watching his antics too! These stories are chiefly to help us remember this stage of his life, so apologies if it’s too detailed and baby-ish to interest anyone else.

G: Spoiler alert: There’s videos.

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Poor little Moo bear! He hasn’t been himself for the last few days – very lethargic, not interested in solid foods, and thirsty as a camel. Last night he drank over 200ml of milk (about 50ml more than he’d normally be interested in before dinner) and managed to hold it in for all of about three minutes, before he decided to see what our kitchen floor and cabinets would look like in pale shades of white. Turns out – not good; and they’d smell bad, too.

As luck would have it, Oscar had an appointment to see the GP today for something completely unrelated. Unsurprisingly, the GP was extremely concerned when Oscar’s temperature reading came in around the 40 degree mark, and she told Kristy that she should take him immediately to the Emergency Room at Holy Spirit hospital, for possible admission and IV antibiotics.

Eeep!

Thankfully, Oscar was seen almost immediately, and after listening to his conditions, the doctor decided that he’d need to order some blood tests, and an x-ray. Oscar was fairly brave given the circumstances, but there was a lot of tears, and a fair bit of screaming to boot. It’s a horrible thing to watch, and to feel so helpless; but at least we knew we were in the right place. I now have total admiration for the skill required to insert a cannula into a baby’s arm – their veins are so tiny!

Once all the tests had been ordered, a nurse administered some panadol (in a way that guaranteed he couldn’t spit it out like he normally does… *ahem*…) which worked rapidly to bring his fever down. Oscar was so exhausted by the whole ordeal that all he wanted to do was sleep on our chests.

About two hours later, all the tests came back, and everything was clear. This is overall good news – he doesn’t have a serious illness – but it also means the doctor couldn’t “treat” anything. Instead, it looks like he just has a virus, and with all the usual treatments – rest, plenty of fluids, panadol, and nurofen – he’ll hopefully be better in a few days.

Poor little Moo!

The little man has reached double (month) digits! Saturday the 23rd was the big day, though we got confused and thought it was Sunday. For that reason, here’s a photo of Oscar aged ten months and one day.

(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!