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.
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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.
Lola McKay
Mother Amelia McKay: She’s a delight. She’s wonderful; she’s been tearing around the house pushing her walker trolley. We always say she’s got FOMO — fear of missing out. We’re both airline pilots and we took her to the USA a couple of months ago. She had eyes like dinner plates, didn’t want to miss a thing. I’ve just gone back to work (and) we have hired an au pair. White noise really helped us. We play ocean waves, rain, a vacuum-cleaner. It’s an app but in the early days we used a real vacuum cleaner one day when she was going bananas with her reflux. She was instantly happy. The noise just distracted her.
4 March 2013
Benjamin Zeller
Mother Fiona Zeller: Benjamin’s a really easygoing soul, and seeing our three children play together is wonderful. My six-year-old can speak Benjamin. He translates for me. Advice? I’d invest in a recording device on the TV — or get Foxtel. I’ve been watching a lot of Seventh Heaven and Charmed, which is on at 3 o clock in the morning — but it would have been good to be able to record programs so I could watch something I enjoyed.
8 March 2013
Tilly Dawson
Mother Jade Bruce: Tilly is full of character. We call her our Tillymonster. She’s into everything. She’ll get up in the bathtub and fall down and it doesn’t bother her, she gets straight up again. Healthwise the first few months she was a bit of a nightmare. She had a lot of pains, she didn’t want to be put down during the day. I’d say to other mums: Be honest. Everyone needs to know no one’s perfect. I feel if everyone was able to pull their head out of their butts and be honest, instead of trying to sugar-coat everything, everyone would cope better. There’s a lot of mums trying to make everything rosy and perfect.
11 March 2013
Tori Coates
Mother Marnie Coates: She’s got a great little sense of humour — but she chucks some pretty good tantrums. She was born with hip dysplasia, so she’s been in a brace. It was the same with our first, so we’re pretty used to it. Advice? I make the cot up with a sheet, then a mattress protector, then another sheet. so if you have to change it in the middle of the night you whip off the mattress protector and the top-sheet and there’s another sheet ready to go.
11 March 2013
Atticus Fetterplace
Mother Rachael Fetterplace: Atticus is very cruisy, a very happy little boy. He’s not fazed by too much. I don’t know whether it’s a third child thing or a boy thing. I didn’t get the baby blues this time, but with my second child I had a lot of trouble feeding her, I was a bit down about that till we got her feeding sorted out. Atticus seemed to thrive from the start.
13 March 2013
Dylan Gibbs
Mother Kelly Pearce: Dylan knows what he wants. He’s got an older sister. He’s a happy little boy but if there’s something that he wants and he doesn’t get it, he throws a tantrum. He throws his hands down on his legs and gives you a really strong look and bangs a toy really hard. I’m the disciplinarian. (My husband) Tony has problems saying no. Tony got whooping cough 12 months before I fell pregnant with Paige, so we all got vaccinated. I’ve made sure that everybody who’s around my kids has got vaccinated.
13 March 2013
Charlie Halpin
Father Michael Halpin: Charlie’s really, really happy. He’s got a bit of meat on him. He likes to graze in a good paddock. Karen Halpin: Charlie had a tongue-tie and (the procedure to fix it) was trauma enough for us — although he was smiling within 20 minutes after it. We walked in, the doctor said yep he’s got a tongue tie, he put a clamp in his mouth and it was done. Every day with him is better than I thought. Parenthood is the best thing. He’s just such a happy boy and I hear about a lot of people having a lot of problems with their kids.
13 March 2013
Dorian Grant
Mother Valerie Grant: Dorian is a very happy baby. He’s no trouble at all. That’s being honest; I’m not just biased. I think it’s because we’re so laid back ourselves. You can tell he’s loved a lot. My family came out from Ireland and we renewed our vows in front of them. Everyone has an opinion on how your baby should be — do what makes sense to you and don’t listen too much to people who judge or want to give their two cents on how your child should be raised.
13 March 2013
Isabella Castell
Mother Luziane Castell: We had a little party for Isabella’s first birthday — we took her to the Gumball festival in the Hunter Valley. It was very kid-friendly. She was dancing and wearing fancy-dress, rocking her head to all the music. Every little thing she does is magic for me. I love everything she does; I love showing her things for the first time and seeing the amazement on her face; the shine of interest in her eyes. I love watching her laughing, seeing her smile when she wakes up and taking a big breath when she arrives at a playground.
14 April 2013
Arlya Mathison-Wood
Mother Lisa Mathison-Wood: Arlya crawled backwards for ages. Just after Christmas she went for my shoe, and went forwards for the first time. It was beautiful. She’s a very social and smiley baby. Whenever we’re out at a cafe she lights up the room. Everyone wants to touch her and squeeze her cheeks — she’s got chubby cheeks. She likes to clap her hands and play peekaboo. To new mothers, I’d say use what you read as a guide, not as rules. I definitely read too much. I over-read and got stuck in my head rather than looking at what was in front of me. Also — in the first few months get a cleaner and delegate — friends and family, call them all in.
13 April 2013
Video: Amazing flying MLB helmet
MLB star Jose Ramirez was so quick between bases he lost his helmet but they were somehow reunited.
Video: Hayne gets mad, confuses teammate
JARRYD Hayne was mic’d up for 49ers v Packers. The Aussie got mad at a Green Bay tactic and his Aussie accent may have been to blame for confusing a teammate.