Baby Martin

Wow – our little boy is 2! Well, he’s not such a little boy now.  The big 2 years stats are:

 Height 97cm and Weight 17.2kg – way off the charts for both!

Magnus is a lovely boy and oh so busy! He is now going to creche every Monday and loves it. Right from the first day he would say ‘Mum home’, kiss me goodye and run off to play.  Very sweet!  We have just discovered kindy gym and i am sure that will become a weekly thing – a fun place to run and jump and walk along beams etc – perfect for an active 2 year old boy!

Some things Magnus loves:

• Running and Jumping
• The park is still a favourite – he swings on the big swing now…on his belly… of course!
• If you ask him where he wants to go he usually says ‘the mall’…he loves to run up and down the escalators and naturally assumes he’ll will get an icecream (thanks to Mama!)
• Swimming in our paddling pool
• The Wiggles – his favourite song on the DVD is Dorothy the Dinosaur doing the ballet!  Daddy is taking him to their live show in April…hopefully the Wiggles fad lasts until then
• Icecreams and lollypops

Talking…well…Magnus’s first string of 2 words came back in December when he started saying things like:
Mum’s bed (when he didn’t want to sleep in his own bed)
School bus
Freight train
…the train theme has definately continued to the ‘almost’ sentence phase with:
might see a train
might go through a tunnel
when he sees a fly he says –  ’shoo fly don’t bother me’ , quoting a song from a book we have

We celebrated Magnus’ 2nd Birthday with a Dorothy the Dinasour themed party with a few of his friends – Ethan, Grace, Katie, Georgia, Millie, Noah, Isaiah and Daniel. Magnus was super excited about the whole experience. Daddy made a pinata that Magnus had a go at whacking before we just tipped tons of lollies onto the deck and the kids had great fun scrabbling for them.  After tea and cake the kids flew a kite in the backyard, which was a great present from Grace.

Meant to put this in ages ago…Magnus had his first haircut on 22 July 2008.  He was a very good boy and fascinated by what the hairdresser was doing.  Every time we go past the salon down in Plimmerton he says ‘haircut’ – so was obviously a memorable experience for him!

The long hair before the cut!

Getting his haircut

Checking out the new “Me” in the mirror

What a hansome we toddler

Our little toddler can be descibed as kind and gentle natured and just like a tornado!!! Magnus really is the sweetest boy, friendly with everyone, never phased by another child taking a toy off him and always happy to share, he will happily give you a bite of his last marshmellow. He is also incredibly busy never staying in one spot for long and charges around at the speed of a tornado!

The biggest developments in the last few months has been is awareness of where he is while travelling in the car and his speech.  When we leave home and drive through Plimmerton and he points out familiar places:
“fluffy” – The Big Salami Cafe
“music” – the church where we go to Mainly Music
“train station”
“beach” – where we stop to look at the waves crashing onto the road
“Dr” – unfortunately a place we visit quite regulary
“Milk” – BP station where we buy his Milk

Magnus’s first string of words has to be “MUM MUM MORE MORE”! He is really good at repeating words that you get him to say and his vocab seems to expand every day. Little Mr. active runs around everywhere and likes to try to jump, managing to get a smidgen of air for the first time the other day! The favourite activities these days are going to the park and chipmunks.  He also loves going to the pool with Dad and going down all the big slides…who knows what he will do for fun when he’s two!

Winter has proven to be a bit tough on his little immune system – he constantly has a runny nose and has had 2 ear infections, but is always in good spirits, despite being sick.

Time to go nap time is over – Bronson is waking and Magnus can hear him cryaing, he’s in bed saying “buba buba”   Enjoy some fun snaps.

Magnus and his little brother at 2 weeks old

Painting is one of Magnus’ favourite activities, but it doesn’t happen very often because it’s a lot of mess for 3 minutes of fun! It was straight into the bath after this session!

Out for brunch with the family and enjoying his fluffy

Helping Grandfather blow out the candles

Another trip to Lindale to check out the new baby animals

Remember this shot at 4 weeks old???  Check out the legs and the cheesy smile one year later!!!

 Magnus is now 15 months old, weighs around 14kg and is 87cm tall. 

We made it through a busy period of Keryn starting a new job and me still working 3 days a week and Magnus going to Granny and Grandfather’s for those 3 days. Magnus loves being there and has loads of fun charging around the lovely, well established backyard with chickens and Miss Gracie the cat. Now Magnus goes outside at home and stands around thinking what do I do here! The nice flat back section is a bit boring now, but will be great for sports actions in a couple of years time!

I am now at home full time and Magnus and I are having lots of fun enjoying our last few days of being ‘just the 2 of us’ at home. Baby Martin number 2 is due next Monday (16 June) so we’re all set for an arrival any day now.  We spend lots of time in the baby’s room and trying our best to prepare Magnus for the big change around the corner. We think he will be just fine and love having a baby in the house – we’re just not sure how he will go having to share his Mummy!

The latest phase has lead Magnus into being a read-a-holic! I am sure we spend at least 2 hour of each day reading, which suits Mum just fine as it gives me a chance to rest. He will read the same book over and over and over and then go off and get another book.  We go to Mainly Music in Plimmerton and Magnus is getting used to going there once a week.  The first couple of sessions were pretty full on as he charged around the church checking out all the sound gear and touching all the things that he shouldn’t be touching!  But now he will sit down for most of the time and listen, watch and sometimes participate in the singing and actions. Keryn still takes Magnus for their weekly ‘Father and Son outing’ to the Big Salami Cafe on Saturday morning to meet some of the other local Dads. Magnus is now well accustomed to the cafe scene and loves his ‘fluffys’!

We have made a couple of trips to check out the animals at Lindale and Staglands (pics below). Magnus is sooo great with animals – always really interested, but walks up to the slowly and cautiously so to not scare any of them off.  He loves visiting the horses just up the road from us and going to feed the ducks. He is quite happy to hold out food in his hands for ducks or horses to take from him.

Bath time with lots of bubbles is always a hit and has become a great little activity for Mummy and Magnus to do at the end of each day while waiting for Daddy to come home – nice and relaxing for me and entertains Magnus for at least half an hour.

Well, the next entry here will be to introduce Baby Martin number 2. Until then, enjoy the latest photos of our smiley wee man.

Magnus managed to demolish this icecream on his own before i had finished mine and he was asking for ‘mmmm’ (more)!

Blowing kisses

 Great Aunty Dene FINALLY came to visit in March!!!

The belly at 32 weeks – it is quite a bit bigger now, so i’ll try to get another shot taken and upload shortly.

 ONE YEAR OLD

 Wow, how the year has flown, yet it feels like Magnus has been in our world forever and we couldn’t imagine life without him!

The stats:

• Weight – 12.5 kg (95th percentile)
• Height – 83cm (1cm above the 97th percentile)

We’ve found Keryn’s Plunket book and at 1 he was 12.9kg and 83cm…interesting

We have had 2 great celebrations for Magnus birthday which has involved Magnus’ first real indulgence of chocolate and chocolate cake and he sure did make the most of it!  The second time around Magnus probably ate just a bit too much cake, had his bottle and Mama passed him over to Great Aunty Diana who wore the brunt of quite a good vomit! Makes for a good story and Diana was a very good sport about it all.

Our wee man is such a smart cookie…so here’s a run down of his latest tricks:

• Words – Mum, Dad, truck, duck, hot, hat, head, naana (banana), brooom brooom (car), oh oh, oooooh
• Favourite things – bed time duckie, driving the car, any water play, zooming up and down in the hallway on upside down table or laundry basket, choo choo train with balls rolling around, squeals in excitement when he sees planes and helicopters in the sky
• Favourite books – The Animals of Farmer Jones, I’m a little Frog, Little Bear and Spot Goes to the Farm
• Favourite Food – blueberries, pineapple and steak

Tricks:

• Can walk very well now (and fast) and only falls over 50 times a day instead of 100 times!
• Sloppy kisses on the mouth
• Some of the actions to ‘incy wincy spider’ and hands on the head for ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes’
• When we say ‘where’s the baby’ he pulls up his shirt and points at his tummy (or anybody elses tummy!!!) – we now need to reteach that its ‘tummy’ not ‘baby’ and the baby is only in Mummy’s tummy
• Going to the door and saying ‘broooom brooom’ to tell us that he wants to go out. The other morning Keryn and I were talking and I said something about the car which Magnus heard and quickly started saying brooom brooom. He went over to Keryn to be picked up and then turned to wave goodbye to me with a big smile on his face thinking he was going on an outing with Daddy – too cute!  So we have started the ’spelling’ thing already and have to be careful about what words we say that he can interpret.
• Blowing bubbles with the bubble trumpet from Uncle Toby
• He likes to pick up our hands and direct them to do things – like bang on the window or open the toy box

I think that about captures what Magnus can do and what he loves as a 1 year old!

Playing in the dirt the night before my First Birthday

Mama and Dada came all the way from Ireland for my First Birthday

Playing with his birthday pressies

Magnus was keen to get his hands on this yummy looking cake that Daddy decorated

Yay…clap hands

Blowing out the candles with Mum and Dad

Eating my first Birthday Cake

Yum…chocolate makes me smile!

The sugar rush is hitting and I’m climbing on my highchair table!

Riding my new trike from Granny and Grandfather

Granny, Aunty Nic and Grandfather

The stats…he just keeps on growing…as all babies do!

Weight – 12kg (90th percentile) and Height 82cm (off the charts!)

This last month Magnus has very quickly gone from just learning to stand on his own to walking! He started walking around furniture early Jan, could stand himself up unassisted and stand for about 20seconds on the 11th of Jan and could easily walk along holding our hand in mid Jan.  On the 19th of Jan he took his first step and on the first of Feb took 10 very wobbly steps.  Today his record is 20 steps!  If you stand him on his feet he takes off and wants to run, so he only gets a few quick steps in before he falls on his face.  But when he stands, steadys himself and takes slow steps he walks really well!  But he still prefers crawling and is super fast.  He’s also adapted his crawling style to bum in the air and hands and feet on the ground, so he doesn’t hurt his knees on rough surfaces and can still go fast.

Magnus makes lots of sounds and talks away non stop to his little duckie in bed.  He can say uh oh and brooom brooom!  I’m sure he’s trying to say lots of other things but we are just not that good at interpreting yet! He points at everything and definitely knows how to get you to go where he wants to go. He’s got all the switches sussed and tries to get plugs into the wall sockets.  He is also pretty good at shapes – when you show him where the shape goes. He can now blow kisses which is just the cutest!

Magnus definitely has a thing for trains (it runs in the Cameron family!) and loves when we’re in the car and have to stop at the train tracks with the bells going and the train going past.  We went on our first real train ride last Saturday and he was fascinated by the loud noise and movement. We have been making the most of summer enjoying evening swims and all the summer fruit – blueberries are definitely Magnus’ favourite.

 We have been blessed with a great little sleeper who still has 2 big sleeps during the day, sometimes up to 5 hours, as well as sleeping 11 hours overnight! So life is all good when you get a good night’s sleep…we’ll enjoy that for the next 4 months anyway and then all will change again!

We had our 20 week scan last week and are pleased to announce…we have another little BOY on the way!  Yay…brothers!

Enjoy the pics of our baby…that’s the last time I can say Magnus is a baby because next month he’ll officially be a toddler!  Lots of love and hugs from Keryn, Marissa, Magnus and boy bump! xoxoxoxo

This one is to show off the muscles!!!  Just like his Dad (according to Keryn)

A fun picnic at Avalon park with the family with a great little train to ride on!

Magnus (on the right) and cousin Jonty (6months older)

On a real train for the first time!

There’s endless hours of fun playing with the hose while Dad waters the garden

Magnus still loves his Christmas paddling pool – just crawls straight on in…clothes and all!

Magnus and his friend Riley (14months)

In the pot eating the dirt

Magnus loves helping hang out the washing and is good at passing Mum the pegs!

Magnus took off for his first summer holiday on Boxing Day. We went down to the Sounds to spend some time with Sally and Olly and Sally’s parents.  Magnus had his first trip on the ferry and a couple of rides in a smaller fishing boat.  He enjoyed the small boat so much that he fell asleep every time, mesmerized by the water  - the first time in a long long time that Magnus has fallen asleep in our arms! We cruised around Picton and went for a ride on a cute wee train – 20 cents a ride – how crazy is that! One of Magnus’s highlights was probably sharing an ice-cream with Mum – he learnt very quickly how to hold on and suck and definitely ate most of it! Magnus also braved the very cold water for a couple of swims and enjoyed chewing on the salty rocks.  It was a fun few days and Magnus had no problem adjusting to a new place and new bed etc – he really is such a cruisy baby and seems happy anywhere with anyone. Check out the holiday shots below…

The past month has been lots of fun with Magnus’ first Christmas and first Summer Holiday.  Magnus has been a very social boy and enjoyed all the festivities and spending time with lots of family and friends.

The Stats at 10 Months:

Weight: 11.7kg (80th percentile)
Height: 80cm (off the charts!)

Magnus is still a busy little boy crawling around and checking everything out.  We’ve discovered that anyone with food will automatically become his ‘best friend’.  If you’ve got food – look out! He’ll be standing at your feet in no time waiting for his share

Magnus loves being read to and will wait patiently until you say ‘turn the page’ and he’ll turn the page.  He has a couple of lift the flap books that he has sussed…lift the flap-turn the page-lift the flap-turn the page…very clever really!

Christmas was lots of fun. Magnus happily sat on santa’s knee and had his picture taken and tried to have a tug at his beard of course.  He enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper on Christmas day and his favourite pressies were the green crawling tunnel (photo below) and a ball choo choo train.  He also got the royal treatment with the best vege thinnings from Granny and Grandfather’s garden and had his first taste of turkey. Magnus also got a paddling pool that we just couldn’t wait for Christmas day to use, so it was put up a couple of days before to make the most of a gorgeous sunny day.

P.S – For those of you who don’t know or can’t tell by the growing bump in photos of me…Baby Martin Number 2 is on the way…yay!!! All is going well and bubs is due 17 June 2008

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH!

The left one popped through on Christmas Eve and the right one on the 27th. You can just see them in this photo.

Magnus’ first nasty ’egg’ on the head – shot by Dad…Mum was at work thankgoodness! Looks nasty but he was over it in seconds.

Wow – he so can’t be just 10 months old!!!

9 Months Old - 77cm and 10.88kgs

Magnus is definitely an expert crawler now and is getting pretty quick.  You can always here him coming by his excited little sounds and squeals. He is always pulling himself up to standing and has very steady legs.  He usually stands just holding on with one hand, and they he likes to let go and see how long he can stand on his own before plonking on his bum! The longest he has stood is about 10 seconds!

Clever things Magnus can now do:

• Turn the tap on and off and pull the plug out – so bath time can sometimes be short lived!
• Crawl into the kitchen, stand up at the stereo and push all the buttons until his music comes on. He also found the volume button and blasted the music right in his ear…which ended in a few tears… naturally!
• Now tries to stack his building blocks instead of just knocking them over
• Can babble mum mum mum and da da da (who knows if it is directed at anyone in particular!)
• Is trying hard to clap, has all the right motions, just doesn’t quite connect the hands yet
• The other night after his dinner we said “bath time” and Magnus crawled off straight to the bathroom, leading the way and passing right by a million distractions – it was very cool to see he understood what we were saying!
• He loves to push things along while he’s crawling, anything that will slide easily
• He can easily crawl up stairs and can get down one or two – head first.

We went to a play group and guess what Magnus’ two favourite toys were…a dolls pram with a baby in it and a toy kitchen – he spent ages playing beside a little girl taking things in and out of the cupboards!

We went to the beach one evening last week and discovered Magnus loves the ocean! He’s been at the beach once before – hated the sand and didn’t like being in the water and cried all the way home! This time we sat Magnus on a blanket near the water and he crawled straight into the water, head first into waves and sat there splashing around happily for half an hour. It was so cute.  He even ate some seadweed and didn’t mind the little waves splashing his face.  So Dad constantly pouring water on his head has paid off and Magnus is very content in the water. Just as well when we live 2 mintues from the beach!

Lots of fun shots below – he’s really not a little baby anymore!

MY NEW TEETH!

Whoops, I’m a bit late in writing this post…Magnus is almost 9 months old.  But I will stick to the monthly scoop and write the 8 month gos now and the 9 month gos next week!

Well the 8th month was huge development wise!  Everytime we turned around Magnus had a new trick. On the 28th of October he started crawling (text book style) and he was off! He can push himself from all fours to sitting, can kneel and uses that as a good way to reach for higher things. He started waving on 24 Oct while Mama was visiting from Ireland.  That was exciting because Dad had decided Magnus needed a new trick and set out to teach him how to wave, and now he is.  Although, not always on queue!   He also likes to shake his head from side to side and thinks that is pretty funny.

Magnus is 74cm tall and 10.8kg. He’s really shot up with his weight and is no longer average, but near the 95th percentile. He got his first bottom tooth on the 9th of October while at Granny and Grandfather’s house.  There was lots and lots of dribbling, but absolutely no fussing, so seemed to be a fairly painless process.  Sometime over the next week the other bottom tooth appeared too.

Favourite things this month are swinging, blowing raspberries, screwing up newspaper, and he absolutely loves playing peek-a-boo…always guaranteed to get a few giggles! Magnus is starting to put a few more sounds together and can say la la, blah, be and da.

We had Magnus’ dedication with family and friends on the 28th of October.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we all had the best time.  Our dear friend Andrea took care of the official dedicating and did a wonderful job – making it meaningful and heartfelt.  The Dedication was Keryn and I promising to bring Magnus up in God’s ways, to pray for him and to always do our best as his parents.  Thank you to all of you (present and not) who also promised to support and pray for us and Magnus on this journey. 

 And what you’ve all been waiting for…the photos of our gorgeous wee man!

Magnus’ Dediction

Mama and Magnus

Playing in the backyard

Andrea dedicating Magnus

The Plimmerton Crew (some of them)!

I look cute, but i’m not sure about those other 2 funny looking men!!!

Magnus with Granny and Grandfather

My first bath with my cousins – loads of fun!

Me, Mum and Dad, Granny and Grandfather, Aunty Nic and Uncle Stephen, Uncle Matt and crazy Aunt Rebe.

The 3 of us!