A First Birthday We'll Remember for Dan

Firstly thanks to everyone who travelled from all around Edmonton, St Albert and Sherwood Park. We really appreciate you making it over. And of course it was great to see all the kids and I think they enjoyed it even though they did not know all the other people.

Now things are quiet, the guests have left and Jacqui has taken Dan out for a walk. I'm sitting here about to watch the oilers drinking a beer and finishing off Jenn's spicy chicken dip

Thanks also for all the presents, Dan has so much new stuff to play with, wear, ride and read. And we have a good reason to get out for a meal. Thanks guys. I'll post some pics soon.

Week Two in the Big Miller Household

All in all we're pleased with how last week went and this week is starting pretty well.  I got as much done yesterday as I did all of last week so that's cool.  Dan seems happy, he played on his own yesterday for half an hour while I did stuff and he's good today too.  Naps still going well, I put him down at the weekend as well and that gave Jacqui some lovely, lovely time off.

Today is the last library group thing and tomorrow a Halloween party!  The world is an exciting place.  I still need to organise some more stuff and I'm hoping to meet some people tomorrow who want to go out and do things.  Without putting words into Jacqui's mouth I think work's going well, she's definitely right back in it although quite tired, as the munchkin is a sleeper of dubious effectiveness at the moment.  More pictures in the next few days hopefully including the new star of Halloween.

Aah the weekend......

Wow, that's my first thought. I don't know that I have ever appreciated a weekend so much. It's not been a nightmare week but I was obviously more tired than I thought. It must be the dashed responsibility and some actual physical effort ;)

The lovely Jacqui has given me a lot of time to myself which has been marvellous, thanks bird. Time to go get him up, he's cute when he wakes.

Progress report..... Dad at Home middle of week 1:

Things seem to be going well. He's napping really well during the day. Less than five minutes to get him down then he goes for two hours or more. Managing to get out every day, it's not cold yet but I feel sure I can keep that going. And generally things are going well. We've even got a Halloween party next week, scary indeed.

On a personsl note I must admit that I ache and I am quite tired but this week has gone about as well as could be expected. Although tomorrow I take him for a flu shot. Just in time for his mum time over the weekend!

More importantly here are some pics of the monkey

Down at the farm.

Applauding loudly while stamping on Grandpa Braby :)

                                             Slightly older bath pictures

Oh crap I hit something.

First Day Home Alone with Dan

Now as most of you know Jacqui and I have had a year together at home with our little sprogglet.  You'd have thought that during that year I would have prepared fully for the time when it would be just Dan and I.  You would be wrong.  As it was I was only getting the most important safety things done last weekend and we have both been concerned about getting him down for his daily naps, something that has become Jacqui's domain ever since we came back from the UK in March.

So of course this morning arrived and suddenly Jacqui had to get up early and I awoke properly at 7:45 alone with the munchkin.  I started well, getting up and showering before he awoke, i also managed to get the breakfast stuff ready.  Then he woke up and I got him up and changed.  Breakfast was fine as was getting him dressed.  A short blast of baby einstein then we went out shopping.  Of course we took our time shopping, he likes people smiling at him and many do.

Got home around noon and then we had our first tears when mum wasn't there to greet us.  Luckily these passed swiftly and we had some lunch:
Cream Cheese and cucumber rolls
Baby puff things
Couple of spoons of mush
Grapes
Carrots
Yoghurt
OJ + Water
Not a bad mixture for our first try I think.

After lunch we approached the tough time, getting him down for a nap.  The last time this was tried Jacqui came home to find us both in tears after a failed night time attempt lasting hours.  This time I tried first laying him down and leaving him, not very successful.  Second try was laying with him and putting my hand on him while he cried for a bit.  He was tired though and fifteen minutes later he fell asleep, I'm writing this at just before 2pm and he's been down around twenty minutes, fingers crossed......

All in all things have gone very well today.  The next challenges involve overcoming confidence issues and taking him out into social situations, playgroups etc.  I'm sure it'll be fine but those women are scary :)