Age: 10 ½ months
I like: Nanny’s shepherd’s pie, eating on the move, taking apart my food for inspection, goat curry, kissing mummy on her belly, digging in the dirt, boobs
Over the last two weekends Little O has been to two birthday parties, which seems to me to be quite an intense social life for a less than one year old.
The first was that of Little H, who turned three and had a spectacular garden party where Little O went nuts for the many outdoor toys at his disposal. Little H’s dad is Mr O’s closest and oldest friend so it was lovely spending time with them. Little O also bonded with Little P, who is the daughter of the third member of Mr O and Mr H’s teenage gang. The two of them are only three months apart in age so they were fascinated with each other.
Little O loved being loose in the garden and Mr O was there to help. Although we had to follow him around and stop him from eating dirt, stealing toys from other children and cuddling the H’s dogs overly aggressively, I wasn’t too worried he was going to destroy anything or hurt himself.
On Sunday we went to Little CMc’s first birthday party. I met Little CMc’s mum on an app called Mush that helps mums find other local mums in their area and we were maternity leave buddies. For this party we were indoors in the CMc’s lovely home and Mr O didn’t come along as he wasn’t feeling well. While other babies seemed content to play with one toy at a time and sit peacefully with their parents, Little O pulled out his usual trick of wanting to play with twelve toys at once, while trying to crawl in six different directions, stand up under a table, break into the birthday gifts and escape outside. After an hour and a half of us being party guests I was exhausted from chasing him around and somewhat concerned that we’d never be invited anywhere again since Little O had spent part of the party, biting Little CMc’s new Smarttrike. If this is what he is like at 10 ½ months, what on earth is walking going to bring…
It wasn’t only Little O who got to socialise though. On Saturday Mr O and I went out together for the first time since Little O was born. Months ago Mrs CMc invited us to join her and Mr CMc for a charity quiz hosted by the local branch of the WI. At the time I figured Little O would definitely be sleeping better by then and heartily agreed. Of course I was totally wrong so the anxiety became stronger and stronger as the date drew closer. In the end I decided to feel the fear and do it anyway. Mr O and I had a great time. Our team came fourth in the quiz, I won some bath bombs in the raffle and somehow Mr O won £55 correctly predicting a series of coin tosses (I think it was one of the top 3 happiest moments of his life based on his reaction). The O Seniors did a brilliant job of looking after Little O and while he woke up three times after we’d left, he went straight back to sleep with some Nanny cuddles. I think we might even do it again!
Me out, at night time, with adults…
abbiosbiston 
Great to see him enjoying the garden toys, and good to hear that you got out for some proper social time. Before you know it, you will be making more new friends, at the school gates!
Best wishes, Pete.
Oh gosh… school is a whole different ball game. I have very little understanding of the British school system so I struggle to get my head around how it all works.
Goat curry and Shepard’s Pie! What a sophisticated palette for one so young. Cool!
You and your family look great. I’m glad you all got to socialize. BTW, I like your site’s new look!
I was so surprised by the goat curry. Mr O bought it from one of the food market stalls we have in the town centre on Fridays and Saturdays. He shared it with me and Little O was standing at my knee begging for a taste (as he does these days) so I gave him a little. I assumed he’d spit it out and wander off but he just wanted more and more.
Thank you! It’s been a while since I updated it but I am glad you like it.
Well done for going and having adult social time!!
It’s been a challenge getting to this point and I think if we had not made concrete plans with friends it probably wouldn’t have happened. I have to say so far all my experiences of leaving Little O have so far not turned out to be as bad as I thought they would be but it’s hard to get past the initial anxiety.
Two parties, your baby has more of a social life than I do.
And me! I’m only invited because he can’t get anywhere himself!
Haha, excellent point.