Matthew playing on the slide at the park

This is what my lounge looks like after an evening of playing

More playing outside. Matthew refuses to keep his hat on so we have to keep outside time to only a few minutes during the day. In the evenings we let him play outside a little bit longer.

Playing in the washing basket

Found another kitchen drawer to climb into

Blueberries fresh from the garden (picked, took a photo, then ate them!). They were pretty tasty too.

Rose bud.

I’m pretty bad at printing my photos – I print one of Matthew every few months or so and update the frame that I have these pictures in. But when we own our own home, I’d love to have a wall dedicated to prints. That people stop at and look at all the images on. Pinterest has such great display ideas that people have already done in there homes. Here are some of my favourite:

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So thought I’d share one of the breakfasts I make for Matthew.

Oats are quick, easy and healthy to make. They are considered a low GI food (which means that they digest slowly and help keep you fuller for longer) and as toddlers are so active, food that helps keep his energy levels stable are a win in my book.

We tend to have big bags of rolled oats in the house, so we take out about a cup full and run them through the food processor to make them slightly finer and store in a airtight container. This method is very relaxed, amounts are based of how hungry I feel Matthew seems. You can use the cooking time / guides on the back of the rolled oats packet, but just remember that you’ll be making a smaller amount and if you’ve made the oats finer then they will cook quicker.
And of course, if you’re making

1) Put 1-2 tablespoons of rolled oats into a microwaveable bowl
2) Cover with milk. I use whole blue milk. I add about the same amount of water again.
3) Cook in the microwave in 20-30 second bursts stirring in between. Once the mixture starts thickening, have a quick taste. If the oats taste a bit firm, add a bit more water and milk.
4) Put cooked oats into baby’s bowl.
5) Add some fruit. I often use the Watties pureed fruit as they have no added ingredients – seriously, the ingredients in the Pears are: ‘Pears (100%), Vitamin C’ . However if you are using pre-made fruits, do double check what the ingredients are as I’ve heard in countries other than New Zealand they will sometimes add sugar, which really, your baby doesn’t need.
Of course, you can also make your own baby fruits.
6) Stir and mix it all together.
7) Check the temperature of the food so you won’t burn your babies mouth.
8) Feed to your child.

Now I did try to take photos of this one morning, I even attempted to take a photo of me feeding Matthew. But breakfast time isn’t the most flattering for me or my child. So the steps above are roughly in the photos below, as well as an angry Matthew image (feed me!) and a lovely sleep deprived image of me ;)

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Disclaimer: Don’t feed this too your baby if they are too young. You know your baby best. Use common sense. I’d recommend an absolute minimum age of 6 months.

Matthew has a few new tricks up his sleeve now. He will clap for whoever asks, he also waves for hello and byebye and will give me a cuddle if I ask for one. He also closes doors and drawers when asked to, and also when he’s not asked too. It’s cool having little party tricks for him to show off, plus we have lots of giggles and fun when doing it, but I do often find random doors closed and him on the other side. Most interesting to date was when he closed the pantry door with him on the inside. Didn’t seem to bother him too much, not too afraid of the dark!

We had a good long weekend just gone. Was Auckland Anniversary Day on Monday, so public holiday and Rob was lucky enough to have all three days off. We started the weekend with a farewell party (left Matthew at home), then on Saturday had Max’s birthday party, followed by an engagement party on the other side of Auckland. Sunday was a day around home for Matthew to destory things. On Monday went to visit Anders, Catherine and Anton (Matthew has borrowed a bunch on Antons stuff in the past year, we are very grateful for the loan), then took Matthew to see where his daddy works, then stopped off to visit Matthews Nana and aunts. So very busy, but so nice to hang out with both my boys.

Mini Chef in the Making

Wordless Wednesday

Matthew crawling around the playground. You can see the teething drool expanding out of his mouth!

Sitting in the dogs water bowl – because playing in it just isn’t good enough.

Jock eyeing up a biscuit

So last week (16th Jan) I took a picture of Matthew sitting in the drawer beneath the oven. Within a couple of days, he’d learnt he can do this:

Sitting in the clean washing, harassing the dog. Yes, I do sometimes dress him in the same clothes as the day before.

Robot Cake topper for Matthews friend Max’s first birthday party.

New part of the subdivision. The first house is being built!

Matthews a very friendly little boy. Anyone that spends a bit of time with him will be able to see this. He loves other people and especially other children. And hugging is one of his favourite ways to communicate this. While I appreciate the cuddles, little arms around my neck, head snuggled in, and I know Rob plus our other family members do, children don’t really seem to get what the cuddles are all about. Slightly older children (pre schooler type ages) either find it annoying and complain or try to push him away, or think that it means they can pick him up and carry him around. Only a couple of time has he been hugged back gently which is nice when it happens. But I do need to keep a very close eye on him so that I can intervene when it goes a little wrong. And Matthew does need to be careful with babies his own age as well, because he’s been walking since such a young age and some of the other babies are still getting their balance, Matthew can knock them over with his cuddles. But regardless of anything, cuddles are great.

Matthew still doesn’t have many really recognisable words (aside from the noises which I know what he means), but hes starting to put different babbling noises together in the same breath. So instead of just mamamamama, bababababa, there is more of mamabamababa. Though when he does talk, it’s very matter of fact. He’s got something to say, it’s very important and you must know about it.

Bath Time!

Look who can climb into the draw beneath the oven

My cousin Chris, up for a visit

Matthew trying to fill up the pool with the hose

Chilling out in his carseat

Nope, he didn’t want his photo taken tonight

Rob doing some cleaning – while I play on my camera

This resulted in the most epic game of Monopoly ever.

I’ve found some awesome ideas on pinterest for cakes. Some I’ll be able to recreate, some I doubt I’ll ever even try to make as they are just so amazing. But just to get your mouth watering…

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Matthew was so so about the cake. It was interesting for all of 5 seconds, but the garage door was open and it was raining outside, so naturally that was more interesting. So Rob had to help him see what the cake was all about. Still only held his interest for a little bit, but managed to get some good photos out of it. Even one of him playing in the driveway in the rain.

I’ve finished processing the images, so thought I’d share some of my favourites. They are all my favourites, but here are some of the extra favourites.

Speaking of poor dog, Matthews taken to try picking up Jock. I guess he just wants to take him with him so he doesn’t miss him. Jock isn’t too impressed with this, and we need to be quick when we see Matthews hands go around Jock. His favourite way to try to pick up Jock is with one hand under the chin and one under the back legs. And then he grabs Jocks fur, because that’s how you pick up dogs right?

Holidays are over for the paid working people, which means Matthew and I are back at home by ourselves for the most part during the day. It’s ok though, we still have a pretty relaxed routine as most activities haven’t started back up yet. And Matthew gets really excited in the evening when people get home, which is nice to see. Runs to the front door to greet them and gives big cuddles. So cute.

Matthew is his superman outfit!

Little Monkey climbing on his toys

The bouncy castle Matthew got for his birthday

Jock all worn out

Matthew in his superman outfit

Matthew climbing up the glass cabinet – he knows hes not meant to do it but as you can see…

Rob and Matthew having a nap together

Matthews friend Max, playing around on my garage photography setup

One thing I did before the shoot was jump online to have a look for some inspiration for the session. I came across some amazing photos, but thought I would share a few of my favourites.
Also – I fully believe in giving credit where credit is due. If you think these images are also awesome, make sure you visit the origin of the image and let the photographer know :)

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Yes, Matthew has turned one. A full 365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months (chose one) since he was born. And just reading back over the last year worth of blog post it’s incredible how much he has changed. From being this sleepy, curly ball of newborn who kept me up at all hours to this energetic little boy whose fascinated with the world, being able to see the change day by day and week by week is absolutely the best thing in the world. Ok – so some days and some weeks it was a bit harder than others, but still worth it.

I did a Smash the Cake shoot for Matthew last Saturday. I made him a sponge cake to smash, which turned out too dense, and iced it with butter cream icing, which wasn’t soft enough for playing in. Matthew wasn’t too interested either, it was raining outside (we did the shoot in the garage and had the garage door open) and Matthew was more interested in playing around outside. But never mind, I got some cool photos anyway and Matthew had fun, which was the whole point of it.

We decided to have a simple but still cool birthday party for Matthew. I had initially been thinking that we would just do immediate family, but then I realized that actually I wanted to do one that even though Matthew wouldn’t remember it was still like a kids birthday party. So i decided to go for a milk and cookies theme, because what kid doesn’t like milk or cookies. I spent the day before hand and the morning of the party making the cookies and the cake. My mum always made our birthday cakes and I think it’s a nice tradition to keep. We invited over people who Matthew sees often (plus a couple of mine and Rob’s close friends) so there were a few babies running and crawling around. The babies had a great time playing in the hallway in the tunnel, this probably kept them amused for 20 minutes or so, and most people just sat around and talked.
Matthew was spoilt with presents. Nana and his aunts got him a motorised farmbike which goes forward or reverse with the push of a pedal. Grandma and Grandad got him a toy carpark which lights up and makes lots of noise. Aunt Jacqui and Jason got him a mini bouncy castle. He got lots of other gifts as well (can’t name them all, too many) but they were all awesome and well thought out gifts.
Matthew had a giant cupcake as his birthday cake. The bottom half was a banana cake and the top half was a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. We sprinkled hundreds and thousands onto it which made it all fun looking. And didn’t taste too bad either.

So from newborn to toddler. In one year.

Love you Matthew. Worth every minute.

But I’m going to attempt it again :) No promises – and will be using both my iPhone and DSLR to take the images. Not all images will be processed either – some will, some will be straight out of the camera. Lets see how we go :)

So I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately. As we are now a few days into the new year, I’ve had a bit of a chance to reflect on what 2011 brought to me, what I brought to 2011 and what I want 2012 to be like. What I want to keep doing, what I want to change, and overall how to make sure life stays good.

Giving back is one of those things I’ve been thinking of. This does cover a huge range of area’s in my life. Plus it’s good karma to give as you take.

I do try to give back where I can. It’s not something I talk about much because I don’t think about it as something that needs to be talked or bragged about. It’s just something that should be done. And giving back doesn’t need to be big things either. Giving back can be as simple as helping someone by sharing some of your knowledge, teaching a skill. It could be giving a compliment to someone or leaving a comment on a blog post you really enjoyed reading.
You can give back by doing some housework for someone that’s been unwell or been through a tough time. Donate some blood, empty the coins in your wallet for a good cause, donate your time. And as my parents often remind me, do something helpful without being asked.

I’m not one for resolutions, they are often gone within the month. But one thing I would like to start doing is giving back on this blog. I haven’t decided how to do this yet, quite how I want to do it or what I want to give back, but I’ve taken a lot from the internet so it only seems fair to give back. And even if it only helps one or two people I feel it will be worth it. I doubt I’m going to create world peace, but you never know aye?

If you have a quiet moment – oh wait, most people who read this are mummies and my family aye? – but steal a quiet moment if you can and think about someway of giving back in 2012. What might be a little thing can make a big difference to someone else.

We celebrated the end of 2011 this week and the beginning of 2012. We went and hung out with some friends at their flat, just sitting around and chatting for most of the night. Matthew almost made it till midnight (not by our choice) but clonked out about 11.30pm. We got home about 1am after Matthew woke back up, but then convinced him to sleep in till 10am the next morning (read the above about no routine). It was a pretty uneventful New Year, and even if we had done something big it’s not like Matthew would really remember it anyway.

Matthew is starting to understand simple words and simple actions. When you say ‘clap’, he’ll drop everything he’s holding to clap for a little bit. And then he giggles away. But he’ll only do this trick if not much else interesting is happening. Other interesting things tend to get priority. And especially if someone is over. He doesn’t do his party tricks for just anyone. I’m currently trying to work on him associating bye bye with waving.

1. Taken when Matthew was 6 days old. I wanted to make sure I captured the wrinkly skin and smooshed look while he was still so small

2. At about 9 days old. This reminds me of how Matthew slept on either Rob or myself for the first 4 months of his life. Lots of cuddle time.

3. I love the interaction between Matthew and his Grandad in this photo. Also love the colours – but thats because I am a photography geek

4. Taken when Matthew first learnt to roll over. The adventure starts.

5. Was doing a photo shoot with Matthew at 6 months when Jock wandered into the photo. Love Matthews expression.

6. When Matthew had first started pulling himself up onto things. Cutest look on his face.

7. Love this photos of Matthews eyes, shows the true colour of them.

8. Once Matthew learnt to crawl he very quickly discovered the dog door leading into the garage. Endless entertainment (until he found the second door leading from the garage to the outside world)

9. Our family photo shoot. Taken by me using a wireless remote and tripod

10. I LOVE his grin
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11. Running away with the Christmas lights

 
 

Matthew had Christmas morning at home with Grandad, Grandma, Mummy, Daddy and Aunty Sarah. He got to try a bit of waffle for breakfast as well as some berries. We then headed over to Rob’s Mums house where we had more presents and hung out with Nana, Aunty Lyndsay, Aunty Miriam and Matt. Matthew kept running off to play in the kitchen, but soon got distracted with toys. We then drove up to Aunty Jacqui and Uncle Jasons place where we met up with the rest of my immediate family plus Jasons family. Jacqui and Jason got a new kitten for Christmas, and Matthew laughed and played with the kitten for ages. He got to try more Christmas food and spent most of his time running around and babbling to everyone.

In the evening, after Christmas lunch (which is about 4pm for us) we took Matthew down to the beach for the first time. Got him all dressed up in his new togs, Grandad and I also put our togs on, and walked down. The tide was out but it’s quite a long beach so there were lots of little pools of water still in the sand. Put Matthew into one of the pools of water and sat down with him. And Matthew just sat there. No splashing, trying to get up and run off, no crying or babbling. Just sat. And looked a little worried. Then he tried to climb up all over me, and between Dad and myself, we managed to get him doing a few steps before climbing all over us. Probably managed about 10 minutes in the water before Matthew had had enough and started crying. Once we took him off and dried him I tried to put him back onto the soft sand, but the moment I lent over to put him down he’d burst into tears again so we just left it at that. Will take him back another time and try again :)

The rest of Matthews first Christmas was pretty uneventful. We were thinking of staying the night up in Snells Beach but chose to come back home instead. I ended up sitting in the back of the car with Matthew as he was tired, and a bit hungry, but once we got home, gave him some food and went to bed he slept quite well. Only one more year till the next one!

We caught up with Courtnaey and Max at Tin Tins last week. Matthew was able to run around and do all the big kid stuff that he wanted too, including climbing up the slide then down the stairs (I guess this sorta makes sense). But we took both Matthew and Max onto the bigger kids play area, and Matthew had a great time climbing up the ramp then going down the slide backwards. He was giggling away. So cute!

We have had a few mini milestones recently. Matthew is starting to get the concept of in/out – he stole something from my bedside table, wandered over to the bin and threw whatever he had in. Then retrieved it. Luckily we keep our bin empty now, purely because of Matthew.
Matthew also has taken some steps backwards. Thought it might be a fluke at first, but he’s done it a couple of times now. He also taps one foot when standing, and stomps on the spot.
And he’s discovered how to open the heavy drawers in the kitchen and bathroom, which mean things are now coming out of the cupboards at Matthews will. Luckily it’s still only drink bottles and tea towels which are the main choice, but he’s just yet to discover the rest.

Matthews First Santa Photo. He didn’t cry, but wasn’t too sure about it either.