Babies: the joy, heartbreak and cuteness of a baby's first year

LAST year we introduced you to Generation Alpha, 100 beautiful babies born in 100 days. Now our cheeky little boys and girls are celebrating their first birthdays.

LAST year we introduced you to Generation Alpha, 100 beautiful babies born in 100 days. Now our cheeky little boys and girls are celebrating their first birthdays, and we’re thrilled to bring you this collection of photographs and interviews with their exhausted parents about everything from teething to tantrums.

Isidora Milas

Mother Tamara Milas: She’s getting really cheeky. Discovering lots of new things, always on the go. I’m more exhausted than I was in the first couple of months. She’s climbing on everything, absolutely everything. Just constantly watching her. she puts a lot of things in her mouth. I turn around and she’s gone, especially when we’re outside. We did vaccinate her and she went pretty well, she didn’t have any reactions. I cried on the first two vaccinations much more than she did. My husband wants another baby but i’m trying to delay it a bit — I love Isidora so much and I love our time with her.

20 February 2013

Lulu Mandalis

Mother Liane Mandalis: She’s such a mixed bag of fruit, so different to her big sister (Ruby, four). She’s got this amazing quality of softness and gentleness and tenderness, which is different to the first who was very feisty. I haven’t vaccinated but I am going to put her on a catch up. I don’t like to vaccinate in the first year, so she’ll be on a catch-up. her health has been brilliant. I take her regularly to my physio who gives her connective tissue therapy. that has been an amazing thing for our whole family; it’s like hands-on healing.

21 February 2013

Lola Johnston

Father Alby Johnston: Lola’s really happy. Lots of smiles. She’s always making eye connection and smiling at people. She’s a bit of a drawcard. People come up to her because of her happiness. She started walking at Christmas — and second time round, parenting’s been a lot easier for us. She picks up the phone and says hello. ‘Hello’ was her first word. And ‘mamma’. My advice to men (is): Have a group of other supportive fathers around. Also — be prepared. I worked half-time for six weeks, which was great for me.

21 February 2013

Rohan Floyd

Mother Carolyn Floyd: Rohan is a big baby; both his parents are six foot tall, too. He’s constantly smiling. If he catches your eye, he always smiles. He’s a very, very happy little baby. He likes making a lot of noise, he bangs things and loves chaos. We’ve got one of those shape things where you put the shapes in the lid. He flings it and he has to take them all out and throw the box around, nothing can be in order. I neatly tidy up his area and he just destroys it. He’s so funny.

22 February 2013

Noah and Luca Brewer

Father Jamie Brewer: They are such happy babies. Luca, the firstborn, is very serious and earnest. If he’s trying to learn to crawl or walk he doesn’t muck around and is very serious, whereas Noah — once he realises there could be a game — is much more likely to be carefree and have a joke. If you try and stand Noah up he’ll pretend to flop over. We are deliberately not quiet at nap-time, and we don’t make the room dark. They’ll sleep anywhere now. And if they’re crying in bed, we pat them or give them their dummy. We go back every five minutes and pat them, give them the dummy — and now they sleep from about 10pm to about 5am

27 February 2013

Amelia Trumbull

Mother Jo Trumbull: She’s got a very healthy pair of thighs on her. She’s so happy; she finds humour in the smallest of things. She gets this really proud look on her face when she realises she can do something new. It’s absolutely priceless. the first time she reached out and gave me a hug, your heart just melts. It’s a hard job but the rewards are huge. I’ve started up my own business importing designer baby clothes, working from home. I don’t want to miss out on all the little moments.

27 February 2013

Casey McGovern

Mother Liz McGovern: Casey is a really happy baby. He is a bit of a daredevil. He likes to climb and pull plugs out of baths. He’s just started climbing on things and he gets up high and then looks at you and goes ‘now help me down’. He’s always giggling and laughing and trying to run away. I own my own kid-friendly beauty salon so he comes with me to work. I always tell new parents: follow your own gut instincts and your heart. If you feel something’s not right and you need to get them to the doctor, do it. Take everybody’s opinions with a grain of salt. A lot of times they were parents a long time ago.

28 February 2013

Peggy Manson

Mother Emily Manson: When Peggy turned six months and really started to come into her personality, it was wonderful getting to know her as a person. When we go out, wherever we go she’s always making friends, she engages people with her eyes and she talks to them. It was hard going back to work when she was four and a half months. I resigned in December because I couldn’t handle being away from her. I started my own business, so now she’s at home with a nanny three days a week, but I’m here too.

28 February 2013

Cody Steadman

Mother Liselle Steadman: Cody is a really happy and active boy but his health has been a bit of a nightmare. He was diagnosed with reflux at eight weeks and he has cow’s milk protein intolerance and soy intolerance, so he can only have prescription formula. Also as soon as he could stand in his cot he wouldn’t really self-settle to sleep. One thing I always recommend to my girlfriends having babies — the Love To Dream swaddle. They still feel all snug and tight but you can zip the arms off so they can turn. And always make sure the baby knows how to take a bottle from the start. That really helps.

28 February 2013

Blake Read

Mother Kylie Read: Blake has severe reflux, combined with a milk protein intolerance, so it’s been really hard work. He was vomiting 20-30 times a day. Big vomits, not just a little dribble down his chin. It’s been a rough road for a few months there but we’re alright now. Blake is our reward at the end of every day. He’s so cheeky, a happy, smiley boy. Even when he’d be screaming in pain, he’d still have a smile on his face.

4 March 2013