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.

Brock Copp

News_Image_File: Brock

Mother Rebecca Copp: Brock is our fourth baby and such a happy-go-lucky kid. He gets pulled pillar to post with sport and whatnot with his elder siblings. He’s so carefree, he just goes with the flow. If we’re out at the kids’ hockey he just goes off to sleep if he has to. With the others I had a routine, they’d sleep at certain times, but he just fits in. He had asthma at about four months and he suffered badly with reflux from birth. We tried everything — then the doctors gave him like Zantac and it really worked. If there’s anything wrong with your baby — get medical help. That’s my best advice.

16 April 2013

Allyra Tabone

News_Image_File: Allyra Tabone

Mother Amy Elslick: Allyra loves to dance. She loves music. I play lots of Wiggles and Disney music and she plays dress-ups with a Princess Sofia costume. She’s a real daddy’s girl. (Her dad) Adam has taught her how to play ball and play with toys and read books which is cute. I’m looking for night-time work; probably packing shelves. I’ll be giving up a bit of sleep but I’d rather that than leave her during the day, because I love seeing her 24/7.

16 April 2013

Aaradhya Patel

News_Image_File: Aaradhya Patel

Father Bipin Patel: Aaradhya is always very happy, smiling and very active and playing around. We have one boy — he’s 10 years old. He’s very happy and he really likes to cuddle her and play with her when he comes home from school. He helps take care of her while my wife’s cooking. When the baby’s crying a lot, we stay calm. That’s our advice. And when they want attention, give them proper attention and a lot of time.

16 April 2013

Jordan Miller

News_Image_File: Jordan Miller

Father Chris Miller: Jordan says ‘mum’ and ‘dad’, and waves his hands when you say goodbye. He’s a happy boy — he has a sister who’s two and a half and they get along perfectly together, although you’ve got to watch her sometimes because she gets a bit boisterous. She kisses him a lot and cuddles him a lot. I’m a stay-at-home dad and we go to a fathers’ program a couple of days a week called Newpin in Blacktown. We tried to get a sleeping routine on quite early. We’re pretty well disciplined about that sort of thing, set a dinner time and a bed time. Kids prosper better when they have a bit of a routine.

13 May 2013

Matilda Bedggood

News_Image_File: Matilda Bedggood

Father Nicholas Bedggood: This is without bias. We’ve been struck — and everyone else has said this about her — she’s the 11th grandchild and everybody says she’s the happiest little one. She started daycare at about 12 months, just two days a week and Lucy’s gone back to work (as a midwife). Lucy’s a smart girl, I do the drop offs and she does the pick-ups. I needed dark sunglasses. It was hell. I got shooed out of the childcare by the manager who could see me breaking up. To new parents: hang in there. It’ll get better. (And) try to take an hour out for yourself, if you can. Take a deep breath.

21 April 2013

Isla Russell

News_Image_File: Isla Russell

Mother Liz Russell: I’ve been so lucky — a really cheeky, easygoing little girl, especially compared to my first daughter. She’s an easy-to-read little girl. I work from home as a cake decorator and it’s OK because Isla’s still on the floor — she’s not climbing yet. I made a conscious effort to not rock Isla to sleep and put her down awake every single time. She goes to bed really easily, whereas with Olive we’d be there for 90 minutes rocking her and putting her to sleep.

22 April 2013

Zoe Taylor

News_Image_File: Zoe Taylor

Mother Victoria Nealie: Zoe wants to get into everything her big sister’s into: she walked at 10 months, whereas her sister (Phoebe) didn’t walk till 14 months. She’s a lovely little thing. We did baby signing with Phoebe and Zoe. I really recommend it. It takes a couple of months of repeating, every time you say ‘milk’, doing the sign and eventually they learn and start doing it too. It’s not just an airy-fairy thing — it’s really good to be able to communicate when they’re really frustrated because they might be gurgling away, but you don’t understand the words.

23 April 2013

Michaela Kho

News_Image_File: Michaela Kho

Father Mark Kho: Michaela is a really happy baby. She loves playing with her brother and sister, and because she’s used to the kids being there, when they’re off to school and she’s alone with mum and mum has to do some chores in another part of the house she cries very loud. There are days when the two elder kids probably suffer a bit because you have to give more attention to the baby — just play there, just watch TV. Ordinarily I wouldn’t let them watch TV — so that’s the biggest trade-off with having a new baby.

23 April 2013

Peace Chukwudi

News_Image_File: Peace

Mother Dupe Osinen: Peace is very good; a very strong personality baby. She’s full of life and happiness with our older kids. She is like her dad. She just started walking, but I think she prefers crawling. She’s my last baby, the last of three. A baby can be a bit challenging — but maybe because I’m a Christian, and we go to church, the fact we’re connected to other families relieves some of the tension. That brings strength.

6 May 2013

Matthew Southern

News_Image_File: Matthew

Mother Jennie Southern: Matthew is such a cruisy little champion. He’s just perfect. I know everyone says it but he is. He’s just been amazing. We’ve enjoyed every minute of it. He’s been a good sleeper and a good eater, all that. We lost a little boy before we had Matthew. we are thankful every day that he is here. We lost him at 38 weeks’ gestation. That’s why, with Matthew, everything’s a blessing. It was a great challenge after Matt was born — we grieved again. we went through two to three months of grief. We couldn’t believe he was here. All the first things you do with that baby you didn’t get to do with your little angel.

6 May 2013

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