Disco Knitter

Saturday the 29th of November is Inigo’s first birthday.

Which is amazing. We’re within weeks of celebrating the end of the most intense, terrifying and amazing year of our lives.

So we’ll be celebrating two things. Inigo’s birthday, and our survival.

We’re going to be having a little party at Pearl Beach, and we’d love you to come. Invitations are still in the works, but consider yourself warned 🙂

Inigo and Ella play with Bev & Ted

Last week, you started waving. Real, recognisable interaction. You’ve been charming random strangers everywhere we go, and even grabbing at them in shops. I can tell I’m going to have to lift my game with the omniscience – you’re already so much more capable of mischief I can’t predict, and you’re only going to get trickier and trickier. I’ve had two unexpected baths in the last week. One water, one beer. Water smells better on a hot day. Less sticky too.

It’s getting harder and harder to breastfeed you in public – anywhere that isn’t the bedroom, where there is nothing to look at but grey walls and roof, yet you still manage to wriggle and squirm and examine every little thing instead of eating. I am thinking we might need a sensory deprivation chamber if I’m going to keep feeding you until you’re 2 as the paediatrician recommends.

You’ve developed the pincer grip, you can pick up peas and even get them in your mouth. It’s fun, but you aren’t that fond of peas, so the game becomes pea flinging very quickly. You’ve been increasingly interested in real human food instead of your exquisitely prepared steamed veggies and lentil mush. Funny that. Last week you tried Masala Dosa, Sri Lankan Roti, Hoppers, and Eggplant Curry. You loved the explosion of flavours, but the sensation of chilli in your mouth afterwards caused some confusion.

You’ve started to show an interest in climbing, but no real ability. The best fun is climbing on me after a feed, with the added thrill of possibly spewing on the bedclothes when I least expect it.

You enthusiastically grab on to my hands and haul yourself up to sitting, and standing positions, but you haven’t yet worked out that you can grab other things to pull yourself up. You’re crawling a lot more, and move quite quickly, but still only backwards. There has been a little forwards motion, but only while sitting up, and pulling yourself along with your hands.

You’re turning into a great sleeper, as long as we keep our expectations of daytime sleeps low. Yesterday you went all day on just one short day sleep, and you continued to charm the crowds with only a little whinging.

The yelling is getting creative. You’ve discovered that you can stick the back of your fist in and out of your mouth to modify the sound. And you love echoes – our fave south Indian restaurant has the most appalling acoustics, and you take full advantage of the tiled floors to shriek, yell, mumble, mutter and ululate.

As well as exploring the limits of your vocal range, you’re still enjoying peek-a-boo, gumming everything in reach and drinking everything in with your huge eyes. But the Best. Fun. Ever. is being swung around by one arm and one leg. I asked that paed if that was ok, she took a breath, looked at me straight on, and said “just make sure you lift from the upper arm, not the forearm”.

Weeeeee!