Ben, Again

Ben is just over one-month-old now and is a happy little chappy. He likes his milk, a bit of a cuddle, being carried in the sling and is otherwise content to sleep on and off, most of the day.

He has a few alert periods, sleeps soundly in the afternoon, and is up looking for action from about 6pm - 10/11pm. It works out nicely when he follows this pattern because he usually sleeps for 3.5 to 4 hours in one go, for his first sleep.

Dad gets Ben ready for bed

He likes a snooze in his bouncer too

Has a chuckle to himself in his sleep

He likes to lay around looking at the scenery for a bit

"Oh God, Flynn's coming!"

Sometimes he comes in peace

Other times, it's a shove, poke or car in the
face for poor Benjy!

The Wiggles In Concert

Flynn went to see the Wiggles in concert, on June 6th. He went with two little buddies and their dads, and they had a ball! (Flynn is a huge Wiggles fan).

Dad and Flynn in the taxi on the way

Wiggles here we come!

Flynn waits for the action to begin

Here they come!

Flynn busts out some dance moves

A brilliant time was had by all! And to top it off - I have just won him a set of four Wiggles DVDs in a competition that was running to promote the concert - Yay! More Wiggles for everyone!

The Fire Station... Again

Flynn and Blake took another visit to the fire station and this time Flynn was not backward in coming forward to try out all the facilities.

It probably took them an hour to reconfigure the fire engine dashboard, after Flynn pressed every button. flicked every switch and pulled every lever.

Flynn Starts Pre-school

Whoops, we forgot to post a blog when flynn started pre-school!

He started about two months ago at a pre-school nearby. It took three weeks for him to settle in but now he loves it. The first three weeks he was very anxious that I might not come back to get him, but now he just takes off as soon as we arrive and doesn't even look back as I bid him farewell.

He goes three mornings a week, from 9am-12pm.

 Flynn's first day - getting ready for school!

 

He loves the play kitchen with it's toy cakes

More Ben!

We brought baby Ben home on the 20th May and here he is, still wearing his hospital ankle bands, getting some brother-love from big Flynn!

There's a lot a brother-love coming Ben's way... some of it very vigorous. However Flynn does seem to like Ben and loves to shower him with kisses.

Ben went to his first birthday party on the 22nd May (not bad for five days old) - it was Naomi and Tyler's second birthday. See Flynn in the background, getting elevated for a view of the cakes (behind the girl in pink).

Flynn barrels up, delighted with the availability of cool cars
(and fire engines) to ride in!

Ben finds it all a bit much and falls asleep
with his hands over his ears 

The eyes flicker open for moment, to check that boobs are not far away

Flynn likes to be on my lap, especially if Ben is there too

Dad and baby take a quick nap

Lot of napping going on at our place

Flynn dives in for another smooch

Flynn likes to kiss and touch Ben lots - including experimentally pulling his arms and legs, fingers and toes, driving cars on him, and putting his fingers in his mouth. He is usually loving in his motivations, but sometimes curiousity and mischief may be his motivations. 

Ben feeds and sleeps well (sleeping much more than Flynn ever did!) during the day and Flynn's physical attentions tend to wake him up, so we are encouraging restraint.

Finally, the eyes are open!

Ben is very portable and comes everywhere with us - swimming, restaurants, shops, playdates, etc. He sleeps solidly in the afternoon usually, so we just put him in the sling or pram and away we go. He is starting to have longer alert times now, but these are mostly in the day, yay!

At night he can now do up to four hours at once, then usually just one or two hours bursts between feeds - but that seems pretty good after the first week of feeding every hour through the night.

Swim time with the lads

Ben watches from the pram

So our new little lad is fitting in very well in the family, with his cruisy (so far) nature and his sleeping quite a lot. We have taken him out for dinner several times and mostly he just stays asleep, unless coming up for a feed.

I am feeling fine on about five hours broken sleep, as long as I can get a three-hour stretch in there somewhere. It is great not to be pregnant anymore and I feel like a new person without all the aches and pains of carrying a 3.3kg baby in my torso!

The biggest challenge so far is balancing attention between the two boys and not having much kid-free time to recharge - but I guess it's only 2.5 years till Ben will be in kindy... gulp.