Returning from a Big Adventure

Well, where has the time gone indeed? It has been a loooong time since our last post and so much has happened and changed in the life of Lachlan! Most recently, we have just returned from a lovely vacation in Europe. We were gone for over a month and it was really amazing to see how much Lachlan has developed over the period that we were away. He began so many first such as building block towers , balancing things on his head and performing more social gestures such a waving and clapping which he wasn't too interested in before. He meet a lot of new people and formed several close bonds. He was such an amazing traveller also. Not one tear on any of the seven flights. We were very proud of him!

Lachlan was trenched in culture during this trip. In Italy he learned how to say 'Ciao' and eat gelato with the best of them. He also found a love from Italian women and would chase them as much as possible; they were more then willing to stop and say, "Ciao, Bello" which would bring a sheepish smile to his face. In Poland he learned that he likes Polish cheese cake and pierogis. In France he stared curiously at Monet's Waterlilies, chased pigeons in Jardin du Luxembourg, smiled at Mona Lisa and discovered a passion for croissants and blood sausage. It was a very exciting trip for him; it is a shame that he won't remember any of it but we took over 2,000 photos to jog his memory!

Now we are back from our trip and have finally gotten over the jet lag which really took its toll on the whole family. Our little travelling sunbeam turned into a firecracker when we got home. We had almost a week of trying to put him to bed at his normal time only to be combated with screaming for over five hours. He was so used to sleeping in the same room with us or even in our bed during the trip that it seemed as if he was terrified of his bedroom, when he had always enjoyed his time in it before and would always lie down so nicely at the end of a long day. With a lot of patience and persistence, we saw an improvement after four days and after a couple more he was back to his normal self; but there were lots of sleepless nights for us all!

Lachlan also brought back with him six new teeth! He has a little mouth full of chompers now-14 total, two of the newbies being his one-year molars; it just sounds so grown up, doesn't it? The following week after we returned, Lachlan began taking his first steps! That was just last week so he is still building up balance and confidence but he is doing really well. He'll walk the whole length of the house but then revert back to crawling as he knows he can get there much quicker. The second day he learned how to walk, he also learned how to walk backwards. It was a riot to watch! He thought he was pretty cool, though. He's always been a backwards kid though; he still graces us with his Michael Jackson Moon 'Crawl' which he loves to do across our hardwood floors. He literally does look like he is crawling on air.

So stay-tuned for more of Lachlan's journey. I have lots of photos and ideas of things you can do with the special little ones in your life. It will just take me a while to catch up and post everything! Until next time...Happy Parenting!