Six months ago today, Hayden arrived head first into this strange world. Since then, we have been a family of three humans and two kittens, and our lives have consisted of tears and broken sleep as well as play and laughter. It’s been tough (though easier than a PhD) yet also fun, and I’m so glad that Baby Hayden is here.

Hayden continues to show more and more interest in his surroundings, and actively engages anyone who holds him. This means that he is becoming worse at drinking milk. He will now only breastfeed when really sleepy, and even when bottle-feeding he wants to stop often and look around and chat. This isn’t too bad, as pumping is going well, and I really enjoy nursing him at night, especially during the week when we’ve been apart all day. Adrian continues his marvelous job of taking care of Hayden during the week. I can see how much Hayden adores his daddy – his face lights up with joy whenever Adrian walks into the room.

Hayden has had several coughs and colds, two 24 hour fevers, and a rather persistent case of ringworm, but luckily nothing too serious yet. Though his constant colds means that Adrian had been constantly sick for about six months, which has been an additional source of exhaustion for him.

At the creche they have started trying to feed Hayden some purées. He likes potatoes and pumpkin. One day he came home completely covered in orange stains, and there was a small note in his diary – “doesn’t like carrots”. We are trying baby-led weaning at home, but at the moment he likes to just mash the vegetables into the table rather than eating them. He is showing indications of being left-handed, but his motor skills are so poor it’s hard to know for sure. My favourite part of the day is when we all sit down to dinner together, and Hayden sits in his highchair with us and tells us all about his day in enthusiastic babbles and expansive hand-waving gestures.

After dinner we have a short play together until he is tuckered out and falls asleep. He still wakes up hungry several times a night, so now that he is six months we will try some “Good Night formula” with extra cereals to see if that will fill his hungry belly overnight. Still, there is something quietly magical about that middle-of-the-night feed. Nursing him in the dark, with his little hand curled around my thumb, seeing him look so peaceful and cute, especially when his head lolls back once he has finished eating, well, I can’t help but feel anything but so lucky to be his mummy.

He can now roll over and will do so if left for a few minutes on his back. He can’t yet figure out how to get from belly-to-back, though. He still prefers standing, and entertains himself bouncing in his rainforest bounceroo – his favourite toy is the very noisy gecko spinner filled with tiny balls.

And because I am a hypocrite, here is some video snippets from his first half-year on Planet Earth.

Two thousand and eleven was an eventful year.

On 30 May 2011, Adrian’s brother Russell had an accident and passed away on the first day of his holiday in North America. Such a shock, a such great loss, such a gap left in the world by this energetic and generous man. We last saw Russell in 2009 when he joined us for a trip through the UK.

On 30 July 2011, baby Hayden was born. The first four months were tough, but now he has matured into a delightful little guy. He is full of smiles and always talking, so snugly and cute. I have watched Adrian become a great daddy, and I am at my happiest when the whole family is together.

Adrian and I also celebrated publications, promotions, grants, bonuses, and awards, travelled to Cyprus and Malta for our babymoon, and showed baby Hayden the countries of Norway, the Netherlands, England, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.

The events of last year remind me to treasure every moment that I have with my family. After so many years of effort and struggle – finishing a PhD, completing a post-doc, moving to a new country, purchasing an apartment, acquiring a MPH, attaining a permanent position, and achieving a successful pregnancy, I think it is time to slow down. 2012 will be a year of resting on my laurels.

When Hayden’s parrain JT flew over from NYC, we took him to the quirky towns of Dutch Baarle-Nassau and Belgian Baarle-Haartog, all tangled up within each other like a jigsaw puzzle. Located across the Dutch border, twenty Belgian exclaves can be found here, with seven Dutch exclaves within the Belgian exclaves. This meant that Hayden could stand with one foot in the Netherlands and one foot in Belgium:

There is a “front door rule” that means that the position of the front door determines whether a house is classified as being in Belgium or the Netherlands. The nationality of the home is also indicated by a flag next to the house number. We visited the house in which the border goes straight through the middle of the door, and thus has two addresses (and two doorbells):

Loveren 2
2387 Baarle-Hertog
Belgium

and

Loveren 19
5111 Baarle-Nassau
The Netherlands

There was even a divisive border across my lunch, separating the savoury cheese and potato pancake from the sweet cherry crepe. I ate each in isolation and they were delicious.

Plus, JT hand-delivered to us a delicious Black & White cookie, all the way from New York City. Hayden is still too little, so I ate it for him.

I was on holidays for three weeks of December, so Hayden and I were able to spend lots of time together. This was exhausting and wonderful. He continues to be a great flyer, happily sleeping in our arms or the bassinette. With a dummy to suck on, the change in altitude doesn’t seem to bother his ears too much, and the flight attendants usually comment on his excellent behaviour. Strangely enough he hates the high-speed trains, though, and often needs lots of soothing on the Thalys and the Eurostar.

He is very sociable, and will most often burst into an enormous grin when he sees someone smiling at him. He was a big hit at Santosa Island and during immigration lines, with many Indonesians and Singaporeans asking to hold him and take his photo. One girl on the Tiger Tower simply held out her hands and tried to take him without even asking.

He is also very verbal, talking constantly in loud vowels, especially if other people are also talking. He loves being sung to, and being read to. My mother sent over some of my favourite books, and we are currently reading The House at Pooh Corner together.

His eyes are really turning from grey to brown. I think he will have the same colour eyes and Adrian and myself. I think I have some recessive blue eye alleles in me that I might have passed on, but it looks the brown eye alleles will dominate in him.

He is not yet rolling over or sitting up unassisted. He seems like a very uncoordinated baby for his age. He is still not that interested in eating food when we give him something to munch on. He gets a small cold every couple of weeks, but so far his health has been excellent, especially considering all the people to which he is exposed.

He is still waking up at least once during the night, but considering all the time zones he’s been through, I’m a little forgiving. For the past two nights he’s slept seven hours in a row, which has been wonderful. He still happily switches between formula, expressed milk, and breastfeeding. He loves his dummy.

Adrian continues to be his primary carer. Washing him, preparing his bottles, taking him to creche, picking him up from creche, soothing him, changing him, singing to him, rocking him in his bassinette with his foot as he works on his laptop. They have such a strong bond, and I love the way Hayden watches Adrian as he moves around the room. It is so fun co-parenting with Adrian and I really enjoying the fact that he knows Hayden as well as I do (or better).

Hayden has really blossomed from a screaming machine into a delightful baby boy. He is a pleasure to be with, and every day I look forward to the time in the evening when the whole family is reunited.