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Harrison has officially took his first steps on his own! He only manages it every now and then but he is so chuffed when he does it, he claps his hands. Although one draw back is that sometimes he puts his hands in the air as if he's going to walk forward but instead he just falls straight back without bending his knees! So we are not completely there yet but it really is just around the corner.

On another note it has been just wonderful to see Emily and Harrison really playing together lately. They have discovered this game of chase, whereby they each have a trike or ride on toy and follow each other around at high speed. Its so funny to see Harrison stop and look around to see where Emily is. He is definitely starting to communicate more clearly and let us know what he wants and doesn't want and sometimes that can be in the form of very loud shouting!

ALso I am trying to keep it together since my the start of my day has changed from about 7am to 5am with Harrison wanting to get up, eat and play. Its a real killer and its taking some getting used to. I have to say that it doesn't spur me on to go to bed early like it should so its no wonder I'm wrecked!

Twelve and a half months on and I have finally stopped breastfeeding Harrison. I honestly felt like it was never going to come to an end but after a few mornings of frantic feeds and him biting my face I decided enough was enough. I can hardly believe I managed to feed him for so long. I actually don't feel that emotional about stopping. I suppose its because I fed him for much longer than planned so I am ready for it.

The only draw back is that, instead of bringing him into our bed in the morning between 5.30 and 6, to doze a bit longer, I now have to jump out of bed and bring him downstairs to be fed as quickly as possible. He is so grumpy in the morning and shouts at the top of his lungs until he is fed! He carries on this shouting lark quite often throughout the day until he gets what he wants. This is generally food (he basically lives on various toast or sandwich based lunches and mashed potato & veg dinners!) but can also be his determination to climb stairs whenever he sees them or grabbing your fingers and telling you which direction he wants to walk.

I am frazzled. This boy knows what he wants!

Its hard to believe he is one already. The time has flown in, sometimes I wish I could get off the roller-coaster and take it all in. Its hard to appreciate all the little things and just how precious they are when everything goes by so quickly.

To think that once upon a time I would've been horrified (harsh but true I'm afraid) at the thought of having a little boy. Yet here he is, my adorable boy and I love him so much. I wouldn't change him for the world and having a boy hasn't turned out to be that bad after all. He is just the loveliest little boy I know, cute, funny, handsome and so good natured - lets hope it stays this way!

We had a family tea for him today, nice and quiet - well not totally quiet but hey at least there wasn't 16 toddlers creating chaos! There were definitely a few issues with Emily. This is the first time Harrison has had a day just for him and I could tell she found it hard. She wanted to open the presents and play with his toys, so it was a big learning curve for her that not everything is centred around her. She has been so good with Harrison since he was born and I suppose we were bound to see some sulky behaviour at some point so we can't complain and especially as generally she is just brilliant with him.

Anyway I am knackered! SO Happy First Birthday my gorgeous little boy! x

Harrison is so close to walking and is so frustrated that he can't just get up and go. He is trying his best to get about and although he is not crawling really (unless you count the dragging himself like a wounded soldier approach) he just wants to be on his feet constantly.

This is pretty back breaking hard work! He just grabs hold of your fingers so he can stand up and off he goes and he certainly knows where he is heading too. So we are temporarily human walking frames! The past couple of days he has worked out that he can get himself onto his feet himself by pulling himself up various levels of furniture then hanging on to either the TV stand or the radiator (so its square eyes and burny fingers! I have turned the radiator off just to be sure).

The scary discovery he has made is that the stairs are just perfect for climbing and just the right height. I heard him huffing and puffing in the hall and went out to find him on the first step, so I stood there to see what he would do and he just carried on climbing up another 4! So the stair gate has to go on, I can see we have a mischief on our hands!

Finally yesterday I moved the cot from our room into the back room, after having about 2 hours sleep the night before. I had reached the end of my tether (again!) and I couldn't spend another night of interrupted sleep. So I hoisted the cot in one piece over our bed, along the landing and into the back room - its amazing what you can achieve when you are desperate!

So Harrison had his first night on his own. I did feel a little sad, but I was comforted by the thought of the possibility of somehow regaining my nights sleep. That and being able to put the light on to get changed for bed and actually read too! He wasn't too keen at first but eventually he fell asleep and although he cried a few times in the night, I didn't go into him and he eventually went back to sleep. So as far as Harrison is concerned the first night went well, I even managed to go a night without feeding him, and I think thats only happened once before since he was born!

Unfortunately for me though, Emily woke twice in the night. Once having a bad dream which I settled her from and then later she came in and woke me up for snuggles! Bloomin typical! I could've screamed. At least its a start though and I am very happy with how things went. Fingers crossed...

I just don't seem to be able to keep up with anything these days and this blog has been so important to us over the past 3.5 years that I hate to not keep it up to date. Even with writing about things there is always something that gets missed. Warren was only just saying today that we haven't taken half as much video with Harrison as we did with Emily. We will just have to try harder and make a point of doing, its so easy to let everyday life take over isn't it?

The past week has been a busy one and a week of visits! We don't see anyone for ages then everyone comes at once! Lucy & Si came to see us for the weekend and finally met Harrison, which was lovely. It was great to see them and we even managed to walk up a local restaurant for tea. They left o Sunday then Jackie, Sean and James came on Monday and stayed over till Tuesday. James is about the same age as Emily, just a little older and bedtime was interesting! We borrowed a camp bed from next door for him and first of all set it up in the back room, then after request we moved it into Emily's room as a special treat. First of all Emily tried to get into the camp bed with James because 'she wanted a bed like that', when that didn't work we moved James into the bottom of her bed, but they started annoying each other in various ways we reverted to James and the camp bed in the back room and finally they went to sleep! Emily was so sad to see everyone go and she said she missed them all and so did we! Its hard not being able to see everyone more often.

Then on Wednesday our friends, who are living in Germany, were over and popped in for a visit, which was lovely, although very quick too. I just wish we could see you all more often, but thank you for taking the time and effort and expense to see us - we really appreciate it!

On another note Emily and I had our first proper day trip today on our own, just the girls! We left Warren & Harrison at home while we went to the cinema to see Shrek 3. It was so lovely having the time together, I really miss the one to one time with Emily and hopefully as H gets bigger Emily & I can do more girl things together.

I was going to put up a photo or even update the photos section as we have some cracking ones, but even as I started to write this Harrison gave out a big squeal and I had to run. I feel like I need to hurry to even get writing this, let alone preparing photos, so they will just have to wait for now. The time just seems to be flying in and I I can hardly keep up with the general day to day stuff let alone recording what is happening!

But just thought I would keep you updated and of course keep a record of things for ourselves, so here goes...

Harrison
His one tooth is well and truly through now but there are no signs of more, apart from the red cheeks and chewing on things. He seems to have turned a corner with the weaning, thank god, and now he is eating three tiny ice cube meals a day, sometimes more - lovely banana and porridge for breakfast, some fruit compote for lunch and so far sweet potato & carrot and butternut squash for tea. All of which he loves. He is so active it is unbelievable and he is really into all his toys and anything within his reach. While he was lying on the floor today, he was even stretching himself trying to get into one of the pockets of my bag! He gurgles and talks constantly and is such a giggler! But still only mommy milk and I'm afraid this is just going to be how it is. When he has been on the solids for a bit longer I am going to try introducing him to a cup, so we will just have to see.

Emily
She has got her place in nursery for September!! We are so lucky as a lot of people didn't get a place anywhere. She will be in from 9 till 12 every day. When I first read the letter I could hardly stop myself from crying, it made me so emotional. The thought of being without her for some point every day when we have been together constantly since she was born. I suppose her going to Playgroup two mornings was as much for me as for her getting used to Nursery! She seems so grown up, even her Playgroup leader commented on how mature she seems and said she had a great general knowledge - probably comes from talking non-stop and asking constant questions! She is just my adorable little girl who is growing so quickly its frightening. I will miss her when she is in Nursery - god knows what I will be like when she goes to primary!

Warren make sure you add anything I have missed - I just can't keep up with anything these days!

Harrison has finally cut his first bottom tooth! You can't see it, but you can certainly feel it. Its so exciting reaching the various landmarks and I know Emily had already reached this stage before Harrison, as this is one of the reasons I stopped breastfeeding her (getting bitten is not nice let me tell you!).

I am just hoping that Harrison manages to avoid biting me, as getting him onto a bottle is just a no-no. I am resigning myself to the fact that he just won't do it. I am hoping that when the weaning is a bit more established that he might eventually drink milk from a cup, but we're still a way off here.

On the weaning front, we have discovered that he readily eats away and opens his mouth for Warren but it is a different story for me and its a lot trickier to feed him - maybe he knows I have something a lot nicer available to him! So far he seems to like pear and banana, he's undecided about porridge, rusk and butternut squash. Although I bet if Warren was to feed him these things he would love it!

Well I had been giving Harrison baby rice for a few days and just didn't feel too happy with it as I thought it might have been making him constipated. So yesterday I thought I would try him with a carrot puree instead. This wasn't that successful and most of it came back out again!

I was almost going to give up but I thought I would try him with carrot again today and although a lot got spat out, he did seem to take more of it. So now I am feeling a lot more happier to persevere and keep on trying. In fact I was feeling that positive that I did up a big batch, got the old ice-cube trays out and filled them up ready for the week ahead. You know, I can hardly remember doing this for Emily, it seems so long ago.

After a hard day of constant feeding and unsettledness yesterday, I decided to try Harrison with some baby rice. The consensus now is to wait until 6 months, but he has always been very hungry and we are approaching 6 months so I feel fine about it.

So he had a couple of teaspoons of baby rice. Not overly exciting but its a big step for us, moving him onto his next stage. Its funny because I don't feel half as confident in my knowledge this time around as I did with Emily. But maybe thats because I don't have the time to read everything there is to know about the developmental stages and everything I do in the day is so rushed.

But he seemed happy enough with it and smiled away, so I will keep up the baby rice for a week or so I think before trying anything else.

On another note he is such an unbelievable wriggler and we really can't take our eyes off him. He was in his bouncy chair this morning and I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea and when I came back he was half out with his legs dangling in mid air!