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.

The bouncing game

Rowan is a very active baby, and especially enjoys physical games.  His particular favourite is being bounced and he will try to encourage you to continue the game by continuously bending his knees.  The bouncing game was perfectly fine when he was smaller.  Now he's nearly one stone in weight it's not quite so easy but it's a brilliant workout!

I apologise for the orientation of the video below.  I need to download some software so I can edit it, but that sounded suspiciously like work so you'll have to content yourself with either tilting your head or laptop.

If you turn on your speakers, you can hear Rowan's squeal of delight!

Weaning

We've started to wean Rowan as he was giving several cues that he was ready for 'real food.'  He was getting angry after finishing a milk feed, suggesting he wasn't getting enough; he went back to demanding feeds every 2 hours and watched us with intense fascination whenever we ate in front of him (he nearly swiped a chicken goujon from Gareth's hand, such was his determination to eat. Although babies grab anything and everything at this age, so not really a testament to his readiness for weaning).

So far he has tried carrot; parsnip; banana; peas; pear; porridge and baby rice and he hasn't refused anything so far.  We seem to have the opposite problem and run out before he's had his fill.  We're not sure if we should stick to the recommended portion size, or just give him more.  He does get topped up with milk, so he's not exactly starving.

It's great fun watching him explore new tastes and textures.  We've learnt to have a damp cloth on standby to mop him down, and to use two spoons so he can hold one to avoid situations like this:

A downside to weaning is that the contents of his nappy are no longer the inoffensive deposits of a breastfed baby.  Hopefully this will calm down once his digestive system has got used to these new foods.  I'm not sure I can cope with 3 years of handling toxic waste that smells like it could be used to strip paint.  Actually, that would be useful considering the amount of decorating we still have to do.

First family meal

Happiness is a pureed carrot

Making sure the spoon doesn't go anywhere but

his face 

Food coma