I feel like this is all I ever say, but it’s been another week of teething here. Toby now has his two first molars half through on the top, a corner of one of the bottom ones and the other bottom one on its way so he’s been pretty miserable. And he’s been waking up in the night a lot too which is no fun for anyone.

Toby turned 13 months old last week as well but I’ve decided not to do monthly updates any more. Although I did get him weighed and measured when he got his vaccinations last week – he’s 24lb 10oz which puts him above the 75th centile (a massive jump considering he was in the 9th when he was born), and at 84cm he is still off the top of the height charts! Other than that there haven’t been many changes since I wrote his one year update – still no walking but I’m sure that will come when he’s ready.

So, to this week’s Living Arrows photo. This one when we were out for a walk on Saturday to a local gala/fun day thing (although it wasn’t that much fun!). As you can see, Toby wasn’t too impressed either….

We’ve had quite a busy week this week. On Monday we went to our swimming lesson – I swam nearly a whole length (of admittedly a very small pool) with Toby holding on to my back all by himself! It was awesome. He’s ridden on my back before but I’ve never let go, and I didn’t expect him to keep holding on while I kept swimming. He’s been quite clingy at swimming lately though so perhaps it actually helped him for this one!

On Wednesday we had Toby’s first settling in session at nursery – it was only for an hour and I stayed with him but he seemed to enjoy it. He just spent the whole hour crawling round the room and picking up all the different toys! He didn’t really seem to notice whether I was there or not and only came back to me a couple of times so hopefully he’ll be OK when it comes to staying there on his own. He’s going again today for two hours and then three hours tomorrow and I’ll leave him there (I’m planning on going shopping for some new work clothes while I have a chance!) and then on Wednesday he is going to do a full day. I don’t start work until next Monday but we wanted to do a proper practice run (for us as much as for Toby) to make sure we all know what we’re doing and can get up and out of the house on time. Getting up and being dropped at nursery at 7am is going to be a massive shock to the system of my wee boy who normally sleeps until 8 or 9!

We also saw a couple of friends from our NCT class on Wednesday who we’ve not seen for a while – Toby is definitely massive compared to them! It was lovely to see them though – I can’t believe our babies are all one now.

Wednesday’s busy-ness finished with Toby getting his one year immunisations – he doesn’t seem to be having any ill effects so far but I know a reaction to the MMR can come later so we’re still keeping an eye out.

Thursday and Friday were fairly quiet. On Saturday we went for a walk along part of the Fife Coastal Path near where we live which was very pleasant. It’s not somewhere we’d been before but I’m sure we’ll be going again.

This weekend also brought more teething with it though – I am so fed up of these teeth now (and I’m sure Toby is too!). Both the top first molars are half through now and I’m fairly sure it’s one of the bottom first molars that is really bothering him too. Teething just makes Toby really grumpy and whiney. He’s not been eating very much either – he keeps putting food in his mouth, chewing it a bit then spitting it out again, which is very frustrating (and messy!). It’s really hard though, because although he’s clearly miserable he rarely wants to be comforted with a cuddle. He moans if you put him down but just wriggles like mad to get away if you try to pick him up. Anyway, it hasn’t been affecting his sleep too much this time so fingers crossed that continues at least.

This week’s Living Arrows picture does capture Toby in a rare moment of peace (and it’s actually a bit of a cheat because it was taken last Saturday). He does like cuddles sometimes, and when he does they really are lovely!

Another reasonable quiet week for us. We were back at swimming on Monday enjoying the Turtle Tots summer school. Toby was a bit clingy in the pool but we didn’t have any crying. I’m still holding out hope that he will actually start enjoying swimming soon! On Wednesday I left the boys at home while I went off for my job interview (and I was offered the job, which means I’ll be going back to work and Toby off to nursery very soon), and then at the weekend Toby had his first experience of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (in the rain, as is typical for Edinburgh in August!)

It’s another picture of Toby’s cheeky face that I’m sharing with you for this week’s Living Arrows. He is such a little boy now, always chattering and babbling away – I do wonder if he is actually trying to communicate yet, or just practising using his voice!

There is another picture I wanted to show you this week too though – Toby is a happy and smiley boy most of the time…but not always!

At the beginning of this week my brother and sister-in-law were up visiting from London. They haven’t seen Toby for months and apart from a brief wobble (and some tears) when we first picked Mark up from the station Toby got on great with his uncle and auntie. On Tuesday we went to visit the Kelpies – massive horse head statues that have just opened in a new park outside Falkirk. We had a look at the horses, a lovely picnic lunch and very melty ice cream. I managed to set the camera up on the timer on a wall and get this photo of us all (Claire and her twins came too).

In the evening we went for dinner to a new pub that has opened recently near us. Toby is so good when we go out, as long as I keep him topped up with breadsticks until the food arrives! I can’t actually take credit for this week’s Living Arrows picture – my sister-in-law Becca took it while we were waiting for our meals to arrive. She’s a photographer by trade and always takes such great pictures, even when it’s just an iPhone snap!

Toby has been a bit happier and sleeping better this week too. I was definitely right about the teething though – both his top first molars have cut this week. We’ve only got a tiny corner of each one so far though so there’s still plenty more upset to come I’m sure!

I feel like I’ve gone rather quiet on the blogging front lately. I just seem to have lost my mojo a little bit so I’m just giving it a bit of a rest until I get my inspiration back. Nothing sinister, I’m just not feeling the blog love at the minute. I couldn’t miss a Living Arrows post though!

This week has been all about teething and it’s been pretty horrendous. Toby has been refusing to nap, taking hours to settle at night and generally just being grumpy and crying most of the time. I really wish we could do more for him but apart from dosing him up with Calpol and Nurofen there doesn’t seem to be much else we can do. He won’t let me put a finger in his mouth to apply teething gel, he doesn’t want cuddles but he doesn’t like being put down either. We have had to resort to a few long buggy walks and even a drive in the car to get him to calm down and have a nap. He does seem to have been a bit better the last few days so hopefully he (and we!) might get some respite for a little while.

I don’t think the heat has been helping either, although we’ve not had it quite as hot as those of you down south. In an effort to distract Toby from his teeth, and cool him down, I got the paddling pool out that we had bought for Toby’s birthday. He wasn’t sure about it at first and he actually got chilly quite quickly, even with warm water, but I think he enjoyed it – especially when I got the bubble machine out too.

It’s been a very busy weekend for us – Toby turned one on Friday and on Saturday all his grandparents came to visit for a BBQ party. I’ll be telling you all about that in another post but what with shopping, organising food, baking a cake and generally planning the weekend I’ve not had time for much blogging this week!

We’ve had a very mixed week sleep wise too so everyone has been feeling pretty tired. I think a combination of getting over last week’s cold and teething (possibly a first molar coming through!) has been disturbing Toby’s sleep; he’s been resisting naps and then waking in the night. On Wednesday night he was awake from half past two until nearly five o’clock! I can’t remember ever having a night like that before. There have been nights when he’s woken up a few times but he usually settles again fairly quickly after a cuddle and maybe some milk and medicine if he’s teething but on Wednesday night we tried everything and he was just wailing every time we tried to put him down. He then had two nights of sleeping straight through to eight o’clock but then last night he was awake for ages again. He refused to nap this afternoon and has already woken up once since he went to bed an hour and a half ago so I’m not feeling confident about a quiet night! You never know though, there never seems to be any logic to when he’ll sleep through or when he’ll wake. Fingers crossed for sleep though.

So to this week’s Living Arrows photo – this is Toby on his birthday having his first go on his new SmarTrike. Safe to say he likes it!

It’s been another fairly quiet week here at Toby Goes Bananas HQ. It’s the school holidays here in Scotland now so most of Toby’s activities have finished for the summer. We have had some nice weather though so managed to get out for a walk with my friend Claire and her twins (and a had a sneaky McFlurry!) on Tuesday. The end of the week has been mostly about staying in as Toby has come down with a cold. It’s his first proper, snot running down the face, cold but he seems to be feeling OK in himself. He really doesn’t like me wiping his nose though and in his efforts to escape always seems to manage to spread snot all over his face. Lovely! The snot-sucker has had to come out again too and we’ve had some delightful results there… Can someone tell me at what age they learn to sniff (or even wipe) rather than just letting the snot trail down his upper lip into his mouth?!

Moving on, on a slightly less disgusting note, we did manage to get out for a walk this afternoon. There’s a fun fair on the park near us at the moment so we went to have a look. But at £6.99 just to get in (it did give you unlimited rides but we didn’t actually want to go on anything) we decided not to bother. A short stroll in the fresh air and a go on the swings for Toby was more than enough fun for us this afternoon!

And lastly, I’ve just realised that this will be my last Living Arrows post with a baby under one! It’s Toby’s birthday on Friday and with all his grandparents coming to celebrate on Saturday, hopefully we’ll have some party snaps for next week.

I can’t believe we’re on week 26 of The Living Arrows – past the half way point in the year! I couldn’t choose just one picture this week so you’re getting three! I’ve noticed that quite a lot of my photos seem to show Toby in his play pen  – I promise he’s not in there all the time but it’s often the only way I can get him to stay in one place long enough to take a photo!

His hair is going a bit bonkers again these days – it’s so fine and fly away (just like mine), it just seems to have a life of its own!

That pesky eighth tooth has finally cut through this week so a good chew on Jemina (I refused to called the giraffe Sophie – we do like to be different!) always helps!

And lastly, I had to include this one. Since Toby learnt to pull himself up to standing on holiday at the beginning of the month this is usually the sight that greets me when I go in to get him up in the morning or after his naps. I can’t believe how big he’s getting though – I swear he’s grown another 10cm in the last month. We’ve dropped his cot right down to the bottom but you can see how far above the rail he is – I wonder how long it will be before he starts trying to climb out?!