baby wayne

You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but Otis is shrinking. It’s normal for a baby’s growth to slow down as they head towards 1, but Otis’ weight gains have been very small since he was about 9 months. Of course this isn’t entirely unexpected given his issues with food, but it was slightly worrying to discover at our last appointment that he has lost weight. Ok, so its only 80grams, but still.

A little while ago we had an appointment with an early intervention service; the service provides support to families with children who have developmental delays. Otis was assessed by an intake worker, and she has determined that he is failing to thrive – his development is appropriate for his age, but he isn’t growing as much as he should be.
This has meant that we are now seeing a dietician from the service, and that we can access other health professionals at the service if we need to at a later point. Sally the dietician explained to us that iron is very important for the cognitive development of a 1 year old baby, and this is a major concern for Otis, as there is very little iron in breastmilk. So now we are heading back to the paediatrician to have a blood test to check his iron levels, and then, to find a way to get some into him.

It’s a frustrating and exhausting time, but we are ever hopeful that his first meal is just around the corner.

Food? Nah, I’d rather read a good book.

Monday was otis’ first birthday … it seems almost impossible to believe that it was a year ago that tiny baby otis was born and our life with him began. It seems like such a long time ago but, at the same time, that it can’t really be that a year has passed already.

The day began with the opening of presents. Despite the very loose wrapping of the gift otis needed some help to open them - eventually he was able to start playing with his two new wooden toys. The toys themselves are a yellow bulldozer and a green dump truck, to go with his orange steamroller. Otis gains immense satisfaction from playing with wheels – any of his toys that has any wheel on it can entertain him from long periods of time. He sits with the toy in his lap and rolls the wheel round and round with his fingers.

After a long walk with yuki and a restful late morning sleep, otis celebrated his first birthday with his first trip to the zoo. Otis seemed to enjoy the zoo, although it is not clear that he derived his enjoyment entirely from his first sight of some of the zoo’s inhabitants.

Although the tiger was sadly unsighted and the seals were a little listless otis got to make the acquaintance of a giant tortoise, orang-utan and gorilla, jaguar and snow leopards, meerkats and lions, and giraffes and elephants.

Otis seemed to be curious about the giraffes who were sharing their accommodation with a couple of zebras and and an ostrich or two, and the giant tortoise captured his attention for a while. The giant tortoise usually hides in his bungalow in the colder months, but was lured out with some hay.

By the time we had the opportunity to see the elephants otis seemed to be more interested in the take away coffee cup of someone standing in our vicinity. Even when the elephant sprayed water at onlookers it still wasn’t enough for otis to be sufficiently diverted.

Regular readers of babywayne will notice that we have moved. The move was made necessary by some naughty hacker type people squatting at our old address and using it for some no doubt naughty purpose. In any case, we're glad you found us, and hope you update your bookmarks.

Some very exciting things have happened whilst we were off the air.

Lulu recently celebrated the occasion of turning one!

There was a piggy in the house

Lulu checks out her loot

The happy family

Our dear friends Louisa and Miles celebrated a birthday of a different kind with the arrival of their baby Iris on Tuesday. Otis was very excited to meet his newest friend, and we are all looking forward to spending more time with her and watching her grow.

as regular readers of babywayne would know otis has started to crawl. it's still not quite a hands and knees crawl and there is always one foot and knee that gets stuck under his bum, meaning that he kind of shuffles, kind of drags and kind of crawls from one place to another.

by and large otis doesn't travel long distances in a single journey. unless he is chasing the empty cocoa tin he likes to push around the lounge room and the kitchen, or if the washing machine is turned on. thanks to the absence of a laundry in our house, the washing machine is tucked away behind louvres in the living area. as soon as the washing machine is turned on otis will make his way from wherever he may be to the washing machine. then he will just sit there and watch through the little window in the front. sometimes he reaches out towards the washing machine, but it is unclear what the overall attraction is.

otis in front of the front loader ...

otis reaches out but the machine does not respond

in the end otis is distracted by the camera ... as usual.

in other news otis inserted a hot potato chip into his mouth for at least eight seconds at lunch on wednesday. hot chips are not normal lunch fare for any of us, but as kimberley and i have both been made redundant there was a leaving work lunch which was an enoyable end to a difficult time. now that both of us are at home we hope to have a bit more time and energy for more regular reports from the world of otis.