Monday 16 March 2009

12 Months - Joyeux Anniversaire!

The big day is here - today Baby JoJo celebrates his first birthday and graduates from being a Baby to a Toddler. In honour of such an occasion, I shall no longer refer to him as Baby JoJo (sniff, I miss my baby!) but quite simply as JoJo.
It seems quite amazing that this time last year we were in London, it was about to snow, I had been waiting and waiting for JoJo to come and finally they set the date for my induction at 16 days overdue. To think that after his birth I was spending my nights on the couch listening to him snuffle and snore away whilst I tried to get a few hours sleep. The next months saw me planning and planning and packing and moving. That in the time it has taken him to go from 3.63 kg and 54.5 cm to 9 or 10 kg and 74 cm (will get the accurate figures on Tuesday for his year check up) we have moved continent and gone through so many changes!
JoJo continues to do well, and be a happy smiley little boy who loves laughing and really gotten into shrieking and screeching ear piercingly (ouch!). Evs would tell him "no!" and he would stop - if I say the same thing with the same voice he just cracks up - no fair!
He loves his mummy so very very much and is very clingy right now, though his daddy comes a very close second. It means I carry him around a lot which is getting rather hard on my back. When he comes to his mummy there is often one thing and one thing only on his mind - milk! He is eating fine but somehow (mostly the strike) I have got into feeding him on demand. Uh oh! I think it is also a comfort for him, as he has never sucked him thumb or a dummy (though he always puts his fingers in my mouth when he feeds). So this month we will be putting an end to that and I have started by cutting his feeds down to three a day - which he is not at all happy about!! I foresee some hard work ahead!
The walking is coming on well - he can go across the patio to get to someone, albeit very wobbly steps, but if he falls down he will generally just crawl rather than get back up again. He is surrounded by family cheering on his progress which is lovely to see.
He loves crawling around or cruising along investigating everything in his path, and particularly likes playing with water (a real no-no here) or mud (ditto!). He is such a happy boy in the sea!
If he sees food, especially that he recognises (fruit and anything sugary now!) he gets so excited and noisy, shouting and grunting till he gets what he wants. He will also put his hand in Papy's bucket from Pika and help himself to a goyave or anything else that takes his fancy! He has 7 teeth now and can eat most things. I always find it funny that today he is not allowed honey and tomorrow he is!
JoJo loves reading books and will sit happily for quite a while looking at pictures and listening to a story, turning some of the pages himself. Unfortunately he is very taken with the tv, which he sees when the girls are watching their daily Dora allowance. He used to try and turn it off but now he prefers to watch it himself!
No words yet but plenty of sounds, mostly mamamama and dadadada and type.
Now when we go to the playpark he will no longer stay in the buggy, but get out and crawl constantly up the slide before sliding joyfully back down again. Time and time again! Great fun to watch but a bit heart-racing keeping him from doing himself too much damage. He has had so many falls and bumps already, I hope he has a very hard head!
I shall try and post a bit more about our birthday celebrations and first year review later in the week.

5 comments:

evie winter said...

I love the way he has gone from a little baby lying next to Luke to eating Luke up!
Poor thing with all the bumps, seen as half of them seem to come when I was holding him he should hopefuly be doing better now:)

Anonymous said...

BF's mum here. Happy Birthday Jojo from us all! Can't quite get over the fact Jojo is no longer a baby. I had forgotten he shares his birthday with BF's grandma. She's 68 today and will be enjoying a homemade carrot cake later (with cream cheese icing, of course). I wonder whether carrots are ever used in cakes in Gwada? Or is Britain the only eccentric country in that respect?

Anonymous said...

Re BF's grandma - don't forget he also shares his birthday with his paternal great-grandpa (who would have been 106 today, nearly twice as old as he actually made it).
No longer Baby JoJo? But bar any accidents(!) he will always be the baby of the family, and therefore you will always say to him, 'you're my baby!'

Anonymous said...

What a handsome wee man! Seems like no time at all since Elleroo was 6 months and JoJo was a bump. Can't quite believe that he's reached 1 already... that makes Elleroo 18 months!

Hevs said...

How lovely to hear from you all!
The bumps continued when you left Evs!
Congrats to BF's grandma - what a lot of links between our families as your little one shares my birthday. I loooove carrot cake, lucky lady! It would be seen as very odd here though.
And a great grandpa too! I had forgottten that. What an auspicious date! BTW I dont believe in accidents, only pleasant surprises...
And Elleroo is onto 18 months, how marvellous but how so very fast!!