backcrawl

you know how some adults
swim the backstroke
well i am king of the backcrawl
i can only slide about all over the place
and in a backward fashion
at this rate i will evolve
to have eyes at back of head
here i am trying my best
to get into a starter's crawl position

mama tends to laugh her head off
(yes, how considerate!)
cause my bottom goes all wibbly wobbly
from side to side...

royal life saving... swim and survive

i went to my second
parent and baby swim session
at bold park pool
on saturday morning
and had great fun
splashing kicking and squealing
i am slowly getting the hang of floating
which they teach by toy inducement
and singing this weird ditty
"i'm a little pancake flat on my back"

(*pancake* i say i say
makes me hungry and lose concentration mate)

*bling*bling*

my great-great-grand aunty from singapore
gave me this gold anklet
as a welcome to the world pressie
in australia no baby wears these things
but in asia it is very common
the piece of jewellery has bells on it
which mama claims would drive her insane
so she's taken to cold-storaging it
thank heavens cause i reckon
the mr t look so does not suit moi

the first r

mama reckons i look

guilty

like a child at school

sprung in an act of mischief

(well only if you reckon eating books is not right)

a special friend

this is eamon noonan
who is 3 months younger
isn't he just lovely like a little buddha
eamon has 3 older siblings
joshua lauren and vivienne

mama and papa have seen
all of them grow
from little newborns to
teenager, pre-teen and pre-primary ages
hopefully we will all be able
to grow and play together
as time progresses

haircut #1

it's been coming for a while...
yep, the dreaded haircut
dreaded by mama and papa i.e.
but they finally bit the bullet
and cut only the fringe
(i can see mullet-dom around the corner)
yay hey hey

i think i feel more comfortable
maybe i will stop rubbing my eyes now

(see above for evidence and tool of trade
i.e. ikea scissors!!!)

more peers

more introductions...
here are some of my friends from mothers' group
we meet on tuesday afternoons
for some roly-poly time
grappling and biting of toys
comparison of insomnia stories
teeth showing off
a drink (milk or gin)
and pooling slobber competitions...
this is hayley who is a few weeks younger

and joshua and erin both a month older

2 3 4 5... swim and survive

the folks took me
to parent and baby swim class on the weekend
mama got me these swim nappies
(worryingly named aqua floaties !!!)
and since they were the last pair on sale
she got them anyway
*good grief* pink ones i say i say

(but it gets worse... read on)
and i get covered from top to toe
with a one-piece rashie
legionnaire hat and truckloads of sunscreen
so i end up looking like some sort of water-clown

luckily the pink aqua floatie
is well obscured beneath the rashie
so i figured i was safe
but once again it's happened...
the swim instructress asked papa
"what is her name?" *sigh*

first sort-of word

the other day
whilst shopping for groceries at the supermarket
to keep my shopping-phobia-boredom-so-scream-head-off-in-public
from setting in
papa pulled out my favourite ribbon
for me to play with
thus causing me to exclaim with delight
and i excitedly squealed ai-yah aloud
mum was so stunned
cause that's my first real-ish word
not ma-ma da-da nor ga-ga
apparently if you believe her theory
you can take the mum out of malaysia
but you can't take the malaysia out of her
so i must have inherited my vocabulary
either genetically or by osmosis...

(they are next expecting to hear alamak)

shiny floors

as i am trying to grow my teeth
mum has discovered
yet another new talent of mine
spit and polish -
i literally drool all over the floorboards
then rub my hands all over the mess...
(it makes for a very shiny slippery floor)
she reckons when i start crawling properly
she will affix mop pads to my elbows and knees

(ha ha ha - child-slave labour is illegal here
and aunty alison i'm sorry you have to see this)

a (questionable) favourite plaything

mama is a little perturbed
by my attachment
to this piece of white ribbon
which she placed
amongst other things
in my box of odds and sods
i love playing with it
pulling it, feeling it and munching it
if anyone tries to take it away from me
when i am not finished with it
i tend to go berserky...

fet(oe)ish

mama thinks moments like these
are utterly precious and hilarious
these are times when she feels so privileged
to spend time with me at home

she told me this story
about some princess named
sarah ferguson (aka fergie)
who had a toe-sucking escapade
with her man-friend
whilst on some island holiday
well dear fergie
you can eat your heart out
i'm ever so talented
i can bend over and
suck me own tootsies...

stuck fast

i have been raring to get mobile lately
and have been pretty successful
in crawling backwards
somehow that's the only way i can get about
it's great fun as i can get around
and into things
but tough when one
cannot see what one's backing into

(even more so being a bloke!)

hair raisers

over the weekend
another person
at the supermarket checkout
asked me whether
i was a bloke or a sheila

*sigh*
mum doesn't dare to cut my hair
so she's gone and clipped it up
*ta dah...*

being a baby
i cannot quite yet
communicate what i like
so i can only leave you
the reader to vote for
which look you prefer...

(my hair is in your hands)

sofa so good

papa and mama got me
a flip-out sofa
over the weekend
i like sitting on it for a little while
before i start rolling about
and then reverse crawling off it
i suspect they are hoping
i can nap in it during the day
while they nap on their big sofas
all of us together
in the lounge room

(the lazy sods)

another letter

dear aunty alison
i thought you might be
particularly impressed with this picture
if you look hard enough
you can see
my droolly splotches
on the playmat
which i am sure you will appreciate
not being anywhere near your proximity
lots of love
the-ever-so-thoughtful-jamesy
xoxo

(slobber...slobber...)

my girlfriends

i just wanted to show off
a couple of my girlfriends

this is ella who is the older woman
she was born 6 weeks before me

and here is clarissa
who is 5 weeks younger


at this stage i am still playing the wide wide field...

(papa is quite pleased with my social progress so far...)

my favourite things: part 3

here is my tiny love 3-in-1 crawl/playmat

which mama acquired off ebay again

i've started to get into it lately

as i can sit in the middle

and play with the different panels

among which there's a fishy aquarium pat mat area

a mirrored sun and squeaky star

assorted shapes velcroed on which i love chewing

and cow, chook and dog sounds

(mama reckons it keeps me entertained for a bit so she can find time to daydream...)

avo addict

i went through a stage
where all i only wanted to eat
was mashed avocado and banana
it may sound strange
but trust me it's truly yum!

(even mum reckons so
since she scoffs my leftovers...)

eighth month

it's the 12th today
which means i am 8 months old
another milestone for me
mama says that in the early days
while she was suffering
from her broken ankle and pnd
she could not imagine
she would get to this stage
where i bring so much joy to their lives
she feels as if her heart could burst
so well done to mama and papa
through the normal, tough and fabulous days
we manage to live and feel each minute
to it's fullest capacity - we are truly blessed

(notice i am kinda stuck in a sit/crawl position?)

play till you drop

papa and mama
laugh a lot at this picture
they took it sneakily
wjhen i fell asleep in my car seat
well i was so tired
i actually crashed into zzzzzzz-land
whilst playing with my teething rings
that's why they're still in my hand

(by the way i have 'graduated' to
forward facing car seating!!!)

cool cat

as spring heralds summer
the days are getting warmer
longer and sunnier
papa and mama like doing things
al fresco with me
so in the interests of sun protection
mum got me these baby bandz
which have a neoprene velcro strap
(instead of the usual grown-up style arms on the side)
it's weird getting used to the feeling
of sunnies on my face
so i tend to yank them off my head all the time
thus the folks try to con(vince) me that
i look like a right bond - the one with my namesake... what do you reckon?

(note the i'm-too-cool-i-cannot-smile-expression!)

get well soon

dear great-aunty marion
i heard from poh-poh
that you were unwell
and have lost your voice
you don't know how often
mum wishes i have temporary 'voicebox paralysis'
so better you than me
anyway i hope you will be
feeling much better after reading this
and a speedy recovery too
love from jamesy
xxoo

simple pleasures

mum has learnt from watching playschool
that there's sometimes no need for expensive toys
as evidenced by my enthusiastic eating
of the cardboard toilet roll
(wait till you see what else she's created...)
i am also just about able
to sit steadily and unassisted for quite some time
today being a sunday
we took our usual hour's walk
down to the beach and back
with papa and mama
eating their choc-top ice cream cones
aaaah... the simple heavenly pleasures in life

(does papa look greedy or what?!)

greenie botty : part 2

here is my other cloth nappy
that mum's been trying out
it's by a company called pea in a pod
and dad chose the colour (trust him!)
i don't think it's that flattering
in fact it makes my botty look quite saggy
and my legs short and stumpy
i think i need more uplift and elongation
(as an offside, the insert part of the nappy
is made from hemp
apparently it's very absorbent )

(well if i drive the folks mad enough
they may just decide to smoke it!)

art in bloom

mum received a pass to the recent
art in bloom exhibition at the wa art gallery
a couple of weekends ago
it was a lovely treat for her birthday
so she brought papa and i along
to have a look
various local personalities were assigned artworks
from the gallery and asked to interpret them
using flowers since it is springtime
well mum had a fantastic time enjoying the art and blooms
but i was more interested in eating the flowers
so papa and i lolled about by ourselves
as mum walked around and had a lovely day

(as you can see i am more interested
in getting my foot onto the table than anything else)

tetchy teether

i think my teeth are itching
(no pun intended) to come through
(but this has been going on for weeks and weeks now)
and thus i have been a tad irritable of late
well you would too if you had
to contend with copius amounts of drool
interrupted sleep patterns
and sore-achy-gnashy-gum-feelings
(err.... i'm talking about myself, not the parents!)
so mum thought this freebie t-shirt i received
summed me up pretty aptly...

(hello aunty kalen, glad you think i'm cheery)

i'm baaaack...

hello everyone
i hope you haven't missed me too much
after a short hiatus
mum finally got her act together
with a new computer
(thank you aunty erin for your computer
and all your tech support)
i am growing stronger each day
and am trying desperately to crawl
i can somehow manouver myself backwards
and am slowly managing to pull myself forward with my little arms
i will eventually learn to utilise my little legs to crawl
but until then i have to be content with caterpillar bum jumping...

(see i need to be restrained all the time already...)