Every day you are more of a little boy. I’m certain you can understand a whole lot of what we tell you, even though you’ve only got limited ways of communicating with us.  You’re quite tall now, and people who haven’t seen you in a while say how much you’ve changed.

Here are some highlights over the last two months:

• Walking! We were lucky enough to both be there when you took your first unassisted steps. Coming up to the start of your fifteenth month, you’re getting quite fluent, and can balance and walk with heavy things such as an outdoor broom and a basketball.
• More communication – mainly “no”, “nein”, “ja/yeah”, “look”, “book”.  And plenty of pointing!
• A Christmas where you knew something special was going on (your first Christmas didn’t mean much to you.)
• The swimming pool is now a go to destination. And you’ve started swimming lessons. Your first lesson today was brilliant, you loved it!
• You’re loving daycare. In fact, some days you don’t want to leave. And Friday’s with Grandma are a real treat too. This week she took you to the Art Gallery of NSW and the MCA, in the one day!
• Generally being fun and charming! Though you can be a bit of a fussy eater.

Good times Freddo, good times.

Lots of love,

Mum and Dad

• “uh oh” – you repeated this back to Nick last night, and our jaws hit the floor! Not sure if this counts as a first word, but it was pretty neat.
• You started day care, which has actually been a lot easier than we expected. The carers there love you!
• Crawling really fast, and standing all the time. You even “push-walk” things, so real walking is probably only a couple of months away at most.
• Fridays are with Grandma, which is fun. She likes it (we think), and you like it too!
• Exploring the garden. We try and keep it pretty neat, but you always seem to get to the parts we’re trying to keep you out of.
• No swaddling at bedtime anymore. So now you try out a whole heap of different sleeping positions. Very entertaining for us.
• You also love the dust pan and brush. Can’t explain this, aside from you watching us clean up so much. Whatever makes you happy, kid!

And here is a birthday note from your Aunt, which is worth keeping for later:

One year old today! Happy birthday little fella!

It sounds like you’ve had a massive year. I can’t wait to see you at Christmas and catch up on all of your news. I know, I was a tiny little bit scared of breaking you last time we hung out, but I think I’ve gotten past that now. I have spent a lot of time hanging out with kids this year. And I’ve discovered that kids are a lot tougher and less breakable than I thought they were.

You should see what the kids in Timor get up to! They work so hard, pushing big carts of water bottles from the village water pipe to their homes, going to the market at dawn to buy food for their families’ breakfast, collecting firewood, walking five kilometres to school everyday. But they also find time to play. They don’t have many toys, but what they do have brings endless hours of joy. Often it’s something as simple as inner-tube tyre races down the street, or little cars made out of a water bottle body and bottle top wheels tied to a piece of string that they will run up and down the road pulling behind them. They will play hacky sack with a flower or marbles with bottle tops for hours on end.

And boy do they love to swim. In the river, in the sea, in the fast-flowing irrigation channels in Maliana, where the kids have just as much fun, if not more, than your Dad and I used to have at the Amazons waterpark when we were kids. When it rains it pours, and the streets are full of kids running around going nuts for the big fat raindrops which wash all the dirt and dust away.

One of the great things about being a kid in Timor is you’re never alone. You always have a gang of friends, cousins, brothers and sisters to play with. And goats and monkeys and roosters and dogs.

I’m not sure about goats and monkeys and roosters in Stanmore, but it sounds like you’re going to have lots of big friends and little friends to celebrate your birthday with tomorrow. I hope you have an awesome party! Birthdays are the best, aren’t they?

I’m looking forward to celebrating many more with you.

Big hugs and big kisses,

Aunty Sal

You’re almost one! But before we get to that, plenty happened over your eleventh month. With mum going back to work, you were booked in to start daycare, so there were frequent trips to check it out, before the first big day. I was lucky enough to spend a morning with you there, and it was pretty good. Patrick and Maverick came and gave you lots of cool toys to play with, and the carers were very … caring! When your first day came, I was given the job of dropping you of, to minimise any tears. But you barely even noticed me once you saw all the exciting little people! The carers said it was the best first day they could remember, which made us happy.

Other notes from this month:

• You’re very happy feeding yourself most bite sized foods now. You like to hold a spoon or kitchen toy, and you’re constantly thirsty.
• Standing and cruising furniture is old hat now. Your balance is getting better and better, so we could seem some first steps in the next couple of months.
• Macho arrived! Possibly a little traumatic for him to be chased all around the house, but you love having another four legged friend at your height. Macho has taken to hiding in my cupboard, but we’ve got some grainy footage of you rousing him there too.
• Your hair continues to amaze everyone, as did your Houdini escapes routine through the back door.

Next update you’ll be one year old!

Lots of love, Mum & Dad

• Crawling up five stairs in St.Ives — pure determination!
• Pulling yourself up on furniture and in the bath, surely walking can’t be far off!
• Saying Dada and Mama (we’re pretty sure that is what you’re saying)
• You’re a little bulldog — so determined, and you don’t let too much get you down.
• Separation anxiety has started, you’ve had many a clingy day recently.
• First day at the beach — this was so magic.  I can’t wait to get the photos of this from Nick & Blathneid.  You loved every second, and even a monster wave knockdown barely rattled you.

My predictions for this month: more furniture cruising, more confidence, and perhaps …. a real pet.

Lots of love,

Mum & Dad

Freddie, over the last two months, you’ve done a whole heap of new things:

• Your hair has grown long, yet still stands straight up (ala Bart Simpson.)  A couple of months ago you barely had hair.  Will try and put some photos here.
• Your crawling is really fast.  But you still crawl by dragging yourself across the floor.  I think you’re so succesful this way that you’ve no incentive to learn hands and knees crawling.  Also, you’ll have massive shoulders from the dragging motion.
• Just yesterday, your mum called me at work to tell me you’d pulled yourself up on the side of the bath, all by yourself!  So it can only be a few months more till you’re running around everywhere like a little rascal.
• Still sleeping like a champ.  As I write this, you’ve been asleep for twelve hours without a peep.  Great work little man.
• I’ve become a bit less busy at work, so we’ve had some really fun weekend activities together.  Daddaday is a hit with mummy.
• The baby pterodactyl scream.  Hatching from a dinosaur egg.  Your way of getting attention now.
• You’ve started to feed yourself a little.
• Also, your food habits have been blogged about elsewhere: Freddie the Foodie