Hallowe'en 2013

I have been looking forward to this Hallowe'en since Rowan was born.  I love Hallowe'en, with all the costumes, games, and fun baking.  Whilst I know Rowan is too little to understand all the hype, I still wanted to make his first Hallowe'en awesome.
I spent the night before carving a pumpkin, making pumpkin pies and baking a batch of monstrous mouldy muffins.  Gareth had the idea of using some hand and foot prints from Rowan as the basis of the carving pattern, and I hacked away at the pumpkin with a scalpel (no fingers lost this year. Result!). I have to say the overall effect was really good!

Too little to carve his own pumpkin, but

we still involved Rowan for his first

Hallowe'en 

I was pleased how the hands/feet looked

like a happy face

Rowan went to nursery sporting his 'my first halloween' shirt from his nanny.  When he got home, he stole a piece of pumpkin pie I turned my back on briefly.  

Mmmm... pie...

We haven't had a lot of trick or treaters over the years, but luckily Rowan was awake to see the first visitors. Can't say he was overly moved by the experience, but he stared at them for an uncomfortable amount of time.  

We are now stuck with a ridiculous amount of Haribo. Erg.

Rowan went to bed in his new Hallowe'en baby grow (it glows in the dark!  In. The. Dark! How cool is that? I may or may not have been a child of the 90's...) and I read a scary(ish) story, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson because Stephen King's the Shining was a bit long.

Sleepy bones!

Finally, the monstrous mouldy muffins I mentioned previously were made for Gareth and I to take to our work places.  They were just a basic muffin mix with copious amounts of green food colour. I then added some more drops of food colouring on the tops when they were nearly baked. I added white chocolate chunks, and dollops of jam in the middle.  I'm quite proud of how terrible they look:

The mould effect came out better than I though it would

Trips to the park

When we first took Rowan to the park, aged 8 months (to actually go on the swings instead of merely carrying around a floppy headed baby), he wasn't too thrilled.  Despite an obvious lack of enthusiasm, I was determined fun would be had so persisted with our family trip:

'I want to go home...

... Like, now.'

A good time was had by

all. Really.

Trip To The Park II was marginally more successful, with Rowan at least trying to look like he was enjoying himself.  I believe he cottoned on that if he made the right noises etc. the ordeal would be over quicker.  He cheered up considerably when we ventured away from the park equipment and let him go free-range on the grass.  

Aged 10 months

 A climbing wall that in years to come will give us

heart attacks watching Rowan climb it

'Let them eat grass'

Happiest in a field with his dog.  His mother's son

alright!

Homemade baby toys!

Baby toys.  Wow.  Now they're expensive!  I love to indulge Rowan when I can, but I truly begrudge paying for overpriced plastic that he'll only have a passing interest in.  Then I discovered The Imagination Tree and have been inspired to make my own toys for Rowan.  Making baby toys was something I'd shied away from as I was worried whatever I made would instantly disintegrate, and Rowan would end up choking on my thriftiness.  So, perusing through Anna's website has given me confidence to have a go. 

The first item I made was a ribbon pot since I have an abundance of ribbon (I'm a crafter; we throw nuthin' away):

Bit blurry, but here's my pot

looking very much handmade 

Rowan was fascinated with it, but mostly 

wanted to eat it

I then had a go as making some discovery bottles.   I had a load of Quality Street sweet wrappers that I kept for a few years (again, crafter) and added them to one of the bottles, and it's Rowan's favourite:

The video's a bit dark, but you can hear he's

enjoying the bottle!

  I filled this one with water and added some

glitter, beads and sequins.  I made sure the

lid was securely super-glued before handing

it over!

Bristol Zoo

My best friend from university had a meeting in the South West this week, and so she took the opportunity to visit Gareth, Rowan and myself.  As we both studied zoology, we decided to visit Bristol Zoo.  So Rowan ended up with a zoology graduate and a doctor of marine science as his guides.  It was perhaps a little extreme for him.
I was surprised that he coped with such a long, busy day.  We arrived at 10:30am, and left at 3pm during which time Rowan took a couple of naps in his pram, but apart from that he was enthralled with the zoo.  He particularly enjoyed the butterflies and the aquarium.  And the ducks.  He pretty much ignored the posturing gorillas to watch the ducks. Oh well.

Since I haven't asked my friend if she minds me adding photos of her here yet, I haven't uploaded any.  But she does exist.  I do have friends, really.

Zoo!

The first of many 'your face here' boards

that will appear over Rowan's childhood  

Rowan was mesmorised by the colours

of the fish, coral and anemones in the

aquarium 

The butterflies fluttered very close to Rowan's

face, which caught his attention! 

Busted!

From what I gather, Rowan is unusual in that he will go down for a nap with relative ease.  Last week I put him in his Gro Bag (I keep calling them 'body bags,' which is possibly not the best name for them) and set him down on his back for an afternoon nap.  I had the baby monitor with me whilst I got on with some housework, and heard the mobile lullabies through it.  Initially I didn't think anything of it, until I remembered I didn't turn it on.  Then I heard some happy little chatterings.  I went to check on Rowan and found him like this:

 

Guilty face

I'm not sure how he turned on the mobile, but I suspect some headbanging was probably involved.  Since he figured out this rolling lark a while ago it's all he wants to do! 

Development

Rowan has no interest in learning how to sit on his own.  That's far too sedentary for him.  He's much rather be busy bouncing...

 

...or working out how to stand on his own.  I fear we may be packing our breakables out of his reach in the next few weeks/months.  

Swimming

We took Rowan for his first swim when he was 4 months old.  He took it all in his stride, and nonchalantly floated about in his inflatable chair like a contemptuous king.  Gareth pushed him around making motor boat noises, which Rowan thoroughly approved of.
Unfortunately, due to Rowan having a tummy bug (another first!) and a few other bits, we hadn't taken him swimming for 2 months.  This time he spent the majority of his time out of his inflatable chair, and enjoyed splashing about whilst being supported by me.  I was surprised when half an hour had passed and he was still happy, but ended the session there as I didn't want to push it.  I still haven't dunked him under the water yet, but I will do soon to help boost his confidence in the water.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take photos of him in the pool, but here are a couple of him getting ready.

Unimpressed thus far

Super cool swim nappy!

Unfortunately this one came out

blurry - babies don't keep still

(who knew?), but I still think it's a 

nice shot.