1st Christmas, 1st Birthday & Moving House!

 

‘He had no idea what was going on, so the time, effort and money on balloons, wrapping presents and party food was purely for the benefit of the adults in his life’

As if Christmas 2014 wasn’t out of the ordinary enough (little man arriving on 24th December – Christmas EVE!), Christmas 2015 kept us on our toes even further. We completed on a new house, moved all our possessions out of one house, into the grandparents’ house and then back out again into our new home. All while having 3 family Christmas celebrations and a very special first birthday! Phew…..The surprises really have kept coming, here’s what I’ve noticed along the way…

Moving house
– When planning to move house I had accepted that all packing would have to be done after baby’s bedtime, unfortunately, I was not proven wrong! Packing + a 1 year old or unpacking + a 1 year is a no go. There were a couple of times when I thought he might enjoy feeling some bubble wrap and watching me box stuff up….no, no, no, he enjoyed trying to eat the bubble wrap and trying to climb inside any open boxes.
– Any attempt to pack or unpack during a nap time resulted in a significantly shortened or non-existent nap time – how do they know you have nap time plans??
– I realised that I was actually a million times more organised than I thought I was. When the nappies, baby grows and Calpol etc are suddenly not in the ‘right’ place, stress levels increase! Its either in a box, or been put in a safe place in a state of exhaustion never be found again.
– A new set of stairs yet to be set up with a stair gate is the most exciting thing your baby will ever have come across, nothing is exciting enough to distract from the enticement of the stairs!
– Baby will find any tiny piece of packing supplies, little bits of plastic, cardboard, bubble wrap on the floor and attempt to eat. He will then pick up on your reaction every time he does this and start ‘pretending’ to pick up imaginary choking hazards from the floor and pretend to place in his mouth……..

Baby’s Christmas and 1st Birthday

Baby: ‘HELP ME!’

– 1 year olds are generally not a fan of Father Christmas, he’s very red, he’s very hairy and ultimately a strange, large man, normally in a room full of other nervous looking babies and over enthusiastic parents trying to get their babies into the ‘Christmas spirit’. All the babies want to do it try and pull the lights of the nearby Christmas tree!
– The toy I was most excited about, was not the toy the baby wanted to play with. The baby wanted to play with the balloons or the wrapping paper.                                                        – Pools of dribble from the baby’s mouth actually work in quite an artistic way on the new Aquadoodle he got for Christmas.
– Although a little puzzled at first by day 4 of opening presents baby had the hang of ripping paper and enjoyed it so much that he may have even enjoyed other people’s presents
– In my experience Christmas dinner was a hit and all other meals in comparison have obviously not quite lived up to the standard, after turkey, gravy and pigs in blankets it’s hard to go back to pasta and mashed up veg.
– Baby’s birthday and Christmas was just like any other day to him, he still poo’ed, he still woke up too early (I guess that is a given at Christmas with kids!), he still napped, he still got grumpy when he wasn’t allowed to hold my iPhone and when we’ forced’ him to get in his car seat. He had no idea what was going on, so the time, effort and money on balloons, wrapping, presents and party food was all purely for the adults benefit.
– Following up from the above, most of the new toys seemed to be very much for the adults benefit too! 24th December saw 3 grown men putting together the VTech Toot Toot Train Station while little man was fast asleep. Only for him to wake up and destroy it in seconds.

Engineering genius?

– A later bedtime, because of arriving home late from family Christmas celebrations, did not lead to a later wake up time. ‘HELLO’ 5am on Boxing Day, when everyone else is still in bed, sleeping off the turkey, chocolate and alcohol. Also, unfortunately Prosecco does not possess any  time travel capabilities in which Mummy get’s extra hours in bed.                                                                                                                                – Last, but not least Chocolate is good and giving it to baby for the first time has been one of my favourite parenting moments so far (the simple things hey?) – he loves it and goes mental for a milky button!