31 July 2006
23 July 2006
If I count backwards from her impending birthday, baby must be 46 wks+
Well that's a relief, I can go back to being a parent who's aware of exactly how old her child is by weeks. Yay me.
Anyway...
Haven't updated the blog in a while because the great weekend disease curse struck again. Jyo and Chris visited from Leeds and so we took them to our favourite local, which does really nice food. Except that this time Alex's pasta (tomato-based as well, the worst kind to get sick with) insisted on making a bid for freedom a few hours later. I thought I'd escaped at first but after I'd gone to bed, the urge to speak on the big white telephone made itself felt several times.
So we both had Monday off, and took turns to try to explain to our energy-filled daughter why mama and papa didn't really feel like doing anything except lie down. And did she mind having yoghurt for all her meals today? (Shocked mother, relax. Actually she had yoghurt for breakfast and tea but vegetable fried rice for lunch, and chicken+leek+carrot soup and bread for dinner.)
It's 1748 as I type now and Alex and I are keeping our fingers crossed that, for the first time in a month, we, all three of us, will be well for the whole 48 hours in a weekend. Whoopee!
It's like being back home
The weather this week was as horrendously hot as we'd been warned about. Baby had a grumpy few days at nursery largely, I think, because they still put her to sleep in a pram outdoors! She does sleep in the deep shade of some very large trees but I couldn't help thinking, when I visited her at lunchtime on Tuesday, that maybe she'd been napping for only a half-hour each time, because she was hot, duh!
But apparently although she slept indoors, in the air-conditioned nursery room on Wednesday (at my request, what with all the hottest day warnings), she woke early anyway. Ah well. This lack of sleep at nursery hasn't been a bad thing for me because it meant that each time I picked her up after work, I'd just have to sit with her in the car for about ten minutes, air-conditioning blasting and feeding her, for her to nod off contentedly. She snoozed all the way home each day. Nice.
It was only when we got home that I had to deal with the grumps again. I thought the best thing would be for her to take a bath as soon as we got back, so she'd be nice and cool during dinner, but my what tantrums we had each time.
One time it was because she'd been looking at some cards and I took them out of her hands to put her into the bathtub. The other times I'm not quite sure why she was so upset, because Amy at nursery has been telling me how much she's enjoyed being held over the big paddling pool they have and splashing her feet and hands in it.
Possibly she may have been hungry, I guess, because she hasn't been eating very much at nursery either. More keen on throwing her food around and slinging it out of her bowl with her spoon, a newly acquired skill.
Mama needs her bottle too
I think I finally cracked it by Friday. Came home, gave her a little milk and a biscuit to eat, then put her in the tub. After her bath, sat her howling highness in front of the fan and she eventually cooled down and stopped whining. Then we had dinner. I think it may have helped as well that I allowed her to hold onto the cold bottle of beer I opened to have with our pizza. And er to suck on it.
She's a smart cookie. She quickly realised that she could taste the beer left on the mouth of the bottle each time I took a drink - because I let her suck on the bottle but not tilt any of the beer into her mouth; only mildly irresponsible, me - and once she did, she kept pushing the bottle towards me so I'd take a sip. As soon as the bottle left my mouth, she'd latch onto it with the alacrity of a striking cobra and suck. Seemed to amuse her no end.
What else
Ooh poor baby got stung by a wasp on Friday! She was having tea with the big children and the doors were open on either side of the room to air it and a wasp flew in. She was stung on her chest, just at the base of her neck, poor thing.
Amy, the nursery manager, called to tell me it had happened. She said poor Boo cried of course but they put an ice-pack on it and it'd gone down and she was fine now. She'd had no allergic reaction to it or anything, thank goodness.
Felt so sorry for poor baby when I heard but was very relieved to see her looking completely normal when I went to pick her up. The sting was just a small red bump by then and she didn't even look aware of it anymore.
And this is why I work in a great office - when I told my colleagues and boss what happened after putting the phone down, they immediately said oh go and see her, make sure she's OK . But it was close to 1600 and I figured going to see her and then having to go away again so close to going-home time would probably only upset her.
Is there anything more fun than shopping for a baby?
I can't imagine what - the gratification of consumption leavened with selflessness. It's a winner. Alex and I bought baby a bigger car seat this weekend. Annoyance, it's being delivered only the Monday after tomorrow because there wasn't one in stock at the John Lewis we went to. But I'm hoping that, with the new seat, she'll at least be able to look at the scenery, and that the air-conditioning will be able to get to her faster when she's in the car.
Because she is her father's daughter alright when it comes to sweating. She sweats bullets! She fell asleep in her car seat on the way to a friend's house this weekend so we let her continue sleeping in it when we got there. It was a warm room and when Alex went to check on her after about an hour she had rivulets of sweat pouring down her face and her hair was plastered to her head.
Also, thanks to the amazing sunshine this week, I've looked in the rear-view mirror more than once on our journeys to work and seen poor Boo pouting, unable to sleep and having exhausted all possibilities of the toys I've laden her car seat with, looking bored out of her little skull. It was like fast-forwarding her to teenagehood. I felt very bad.
We also bought her a cunning little baby-sized fork, spoon and knife set. I say cunning. I actually mean hideous because it has bright pink and purple rubber handles. But the alternative was bright blue and green rubber handles and, in the end, I let baby choose which ones she wanted. She picked up both sets, but went for the pink and purple first. And after a minute she threw the blue and green ones onto the floor. So that was that.
I hope they please her. Although she's been quite satisfied with being allowed to eat with her plastic spoons so far, she's always envious of our forks and knives when we have them. After she gets bored with her spoon or has flung enough of her food out of the bowl with it, she almost always starts trying to climb out of her seat to reach our cutlery. We'll see how she gets on with her own fork now. Please god, surely this can only mean less food on the floor.
Well that's a relief, I can go back to being a parent who's aware of exactly how old her child is by weeks. Yay me.
Anyway...
Haven't updated the blog in a while because the great weekend disease curse struck again. Jyo and Chris visited from Leeds and so we took them to our favourite local, which does really nice food. Except that this time Alex's pasta (tomato-based as well, the worst kind to get sick with) insisted on making a bid for freedom a few hours later. I thought I'd escaped at first but after I'd gone to bed, the urge to speak on the big white telephone made itself felt several times.
So we both had Monday off, and took turns to try to explain to our energy-filled daughter why mama and papa didn't really feel like doing anything except lie down. And did she mind having yoghurt for all her meals today? (Shocked mother, relax. Actually she had yoghurt for breakfast and tea but vegetable fried rice for lunch, and chicken+leek+carrot soup and bread for dinner.)
It's 1748 as I type now and Alex and I are keeping our fingers crossed that, for the first time in a month, we, all three of us, will be well for the whole 48 hours in a weekend. Whoopee!
It's like being back home
The weather this week was as horrendously hot as we'd been warned about. Baby had a grumpy few days at nursery largely, I think, because they still put her to sleep in a pram outdoors! She does sleep in the deep shade of some very large trees but I couldn't help thinking, when I visited her at lunchtime on Tuesday, that maybe she'd been napping for only a half-hour each time, because she was hot, duh!
But apparently although she slept indoors, in the air-conditioned nursery room on Wednesday (at my request, what with all the hottest day warnings), she woke early anyway. Ah well. This lack of sleep at nursery hasn't been a bad thing for me because it meant that each time I picked her up after work, I'd just have to sit with her in the car for about ten minutes, air-conditioning blasting and feeding her, for her to nod off contentedly. She snoozed all the way home each day. Nice.
It was only when we got home that I had to deal with the grumps again. I thought the best thing would be for her to take a bath as soon as we got back, so she'd be nice and cool during dinner, but my what tantrums we had each time.
One time it was because she'd been looking at some cards and I took them out of her hands to put her into the bathtub. The other times I'm not quite sure why she was so upset, because Amy at nursery has been telling me how much she's enjoyed being held over the big paddling pool they have and splashing her feet and hands in it.
Possibly she may have been hungry, I guess, because she hasn't been eating very much at nursery either. More keen on throwing her food around and slinging it out of her bowl with her spoon, a newly acquired skill.
Mama needs her bottle too
I think I finally cracked it by Friday. Came home, gave her a little milk and a biscuit to eat, then put her in the tub. After her bath, sat her howling highness in front of the fan and she eventually cooled down and stopped whining. Then we had dinner. I think it may have helped as well that I allowed her to hold onto the cold bottle of beer I opened to have with our pizza. And er to suck on it.
She's a smart cookie. She quickly realised that she could taste the beer left on the mouth of the bottle each time I took a drink - because I let her suck on the bottle but not tilt any of the beer into her mouth; only mildly irresponsible, me - and once she did, she kept pushing the bottle towards me so I'd take a sip. As soon as the bottle left my mouth, she'd latch onto it with the alacrity of a striking cobra and suck. Seemed to amuse her no end.
What else
Ooh poor baby got stung by a wasp on Friday! She was having tea with the big children and the doors were open on either side of the room to air it and a wasp flew in. She was stung on her chest, just at the base of her neck, poor thing.
Amy, the nursery manager, called to tell me it had happened. She said poor Boo cried of course but they put an ice-pack on it and it'd gone down and she was fine now. She'd had no allergic reaction to it or anything, thank goodness.
Felt so sorry for poor baby when I heard but was very relieved to see her looking completely normal when I went to pick her up. The sting was just a small red bump by then and she didn't even look aware of it anymore.
And this is why I work in a great office - when I told my colleagues and boss what happened after putting the phone down, they immediately said oh go and see her, make sure she's OK . But it was close to 1600 and I figured going to see her and then having to go away again so close to going-home time would probably only upset her.
Is there anything more fun than shopping for a baby?
I can't imagine what - the gratification of consumption leavened with selflessness. It's a winner. Alex and I bought baby a bigger car seat this weekend. Annoyance, it's being delivered only the Monday after tomorrow because there wasn't one in stock at the John Lewis we went to. But I'm hoping that, with the new seat, she'll at least be able to look at the scenery, and that the air-conditioning will be able to get to her faster when she's in the car.
Because she is her father's daughter alright when it comes to sweating. She sweats bullets! She fell asleep in her car seat on the way to a friend's house this weekend so we let her continue sleeping in it when we got there. It was a warm room and when Alex went to check on her after about an hour she had rivulets of sweat pouring down her face and her hair was plastered to her head.
Also, thanks to the amazing sunshine this week, I've looked in the rear-view mirror more than once on our journeys to work and seen poor Boo pouting, unable to sleep and having exhausted all possibilities of the toys I've laden her car seat with, looking bored out of her little skull. It was like fast-forwarding her to teenagehood. I felt very bad.
We also bought her a cunning little baby-sized fork, spoon and knife set. I say cunning. I actually mean hideous because it has bright pink and purple rubber handles. But the alternative was bright blue and green rubber handles and, in the end, I let baby choose which ones she wanted. She picked up both sets, but went for the pink and purple first. And after a minute she threw the blue and green ones onto the floor. So that was that.
I hope they please her. Although she's been quite satisfied with being allowed to eat with her plastic spoons so far, she's always envious of our forks and knives when we have them. After she gets bored with her spoon or has flung enough of her food out of the bowl with it, she almost always starts trying to climb out of her seat to reach our cutlery. We'll see how she gets on with her own fork now. Please god, surely this can only mean less food on the floor.
12 July 2006
10 mths+
Sound the all clear
Baby is well again. She was pretty much back to normal yesterday, which I'd taken off to ensure that she had breastmilk if she wanted it. Introduced some formula feeds as we went along as well and I had an inkling that she was fine again when she grabbed some bread and butter to feed herself at breakfast, then proceeded to wolf a little bowl of porridge with pork and peas for lunch, as well as a bowl of mashed potato and a piece of roast sweet potato for dinner.
Today Alex stayed home with her and apparently she had muesli and bread and cheese for breakfast, bits of tortellini for lunch, yoghurt for tea and more pasta with spinach and garlic for dinner. For dessert she had her new favourite fruit: cherries from Turkey (from Waitrose). She loved them so much she practically had a heart attack from overflowing joy when I brought out a second helping for us to eat.
As I type I can hear her wailing in the bedroom - because Alex is trying to make her go to sleep - after a good fifteen minutes of the two of them gambolling around the room like overexcited puppies. I think she was on a sugar high from the fruit. Maybe we should start limiting her intake.
Anyway so she's fine and no longer letting her little tongue hang pathetically out of her mouth. And her tongue is mostly pink again, so it's back to nursery for her tomorrow!
O joy, posh food!
This Saturday we will be back at the new farmer's market that's opened near us, to forage for more organic farm-fresh vegetables. I was a bit sceptical of organic produce before, but this one stall of vegetables looked so good I was actually moved to buy two bunches of beetroot last Saturday. I like borscht, but I haven't so far otherwise seen the point of beetroot.
Anyway I roasted them and had them in a salad with smoked trout, some apple, watercress and salad potatos - from the same stall - and it was gorgeous! The potatos were especially gorgeous. May have had to do with the fact that I boiled them and then fried them in butter but I don't think so. They had a nutty sweetness like no supermarket potato I've eaten before. Not even in-season jersey royals.
We also bought some pig trotters and pork belly. Braised the trotters with some of the belly in soya sauce, garlic and chilli and roasted the rest of the pork belly. Mmmm. We've braised some very superior pork belly before from great butchers in London - the Ginger Pig and Wyndham House to name two - but I've not bothered adding trotters before and it's really amazing the difference they make to the braise. It's only a little gelatine but what a difference in mouthfeel!
And this time I will hold off buying any more fruit from the supermarkets in the meantime because last weekend our fridge was stuffed with melon, cherries, peaches and bananas. This time I'm making sure we have nothing so I can get my hands on the strawberries, raspberries, loganberries and other such lovely seasonal fruit I saw last weekend.
Did I mention we also bought some sweet, yellow unsalted butter and a dense spelt loaf made with apple chunks and cider, which tasted delicious four days after buying it without any warming up in the oven? I don't get out much anymore.
Sound the all clear
Baby is well again. She was pretty much back to normal yesterday, which I'd taken off to ensure that she had breastmilk if she wanted it. Introduced some formula feeds as we went along as well and I had an inkling that she was fine again when she grabbed some bread and butter to feed herself at breakfast, then proceeded to wolf a little bowl of porridge with pork and peas for lunch, as well as a bowl of mashed potato and a piece of roast sweet potato for dinner.
Today Alex stayed home with her and apparently she had muesli and bread and cheese for breakfast, bits of tortellini for lunch, yoghurt for tea and more pasta with spinach and garlic for dinner. For dessert she had her new favourite fruit: cherries from Turkey (from Waitrose). She loved them so much she practically had a heart attack from overflowing joy when I brought out a second helping for us to eat.
As I type I can hear her wailing in the bedroom - because Alex is trying to make her go to sleep - after a good fifteen minutes of the two of them gambolling around the room like overexcited puppies. I think she was on a sugar high from the fruit. Maybe we should start limiting her intake.
Anyway so she's fine and no longer letting her little tongue hang pathetically out of her mouth. And her tongue is mostly pink again, so it's back to nursery for her tomorrow!
O joy, posh food!
This Saturday we will be back at the new farmer's market that's opened near us, to forage for more organic farm-fresh vegetables. I was a bit sceptical of organic produce before, but this one stall of vegetables looked so good I was actually moved to buy two bunches of beetroot last Saturday. I like borscht, but I haven't so far otherwise seen the point of beetroot.
Anyway I roasted them and had them in a salad with smoked trout, some apple, watercress and salad potatos - from the same stall - and it was gorgeous! The potatos were especially gorgeous. May have had to do with the fact that I boiled them and then fried them in butter but I don't think so. They had a nutty sweetness like no supermarket potato I've eaten before. Not even in-season jersey royals.
We also bought some pig trotters and pork belly. Braised the trotters with some of the belly in soya sauce, garlic and chilli and roasted the rest of the pork belly. Mmmm. We've braised some very superior pork belly before from great butchers in London - the Ginger Pig and Wyndham House to name two - but I've not bothered adding trotters before and it's really amazing the difference they make to the braise. It's only a little gelatine but what a difference in mouthfeel!
And this time I will hold off buying any more fruit from the supermarkets in the meantime because last weekend our fridge was stuffed with melon, cherries, peaches and bananas. This time I'm making sure we have nothing so I can get my hands on the strawberries, raspberries, loganberries and other such lovely seasonal fruit I saw last weekend.
Did I mention we also bought some sweet, yellow unsalted butter and a dense spelt loaf made with apple chunks and cider, which tasted delicious four days after buying it without any warming up in the oven? I don't get out much anymore.
08 July 2006
Er 10 mths today
Sick baby update
How dopey, I had the wrong dates in my mind; baby is 10 months old today (9 July), not yesterday. The food poisoning, it turns out, is actually a viral infection! How relieved was I to learn I hadn't poisoned poor baby!
She spat up again this morning but had no diarrhoea, then hurled again later when we were out on the green, strolling through a church fair. When we changed her shirt, I suddenly noticed a rash all over her tummy and back. And I realised it was over her forehead too - something Alex had spotted earlier when changing her nappy but which I thought was just her being a bit warm.
My wait-and-see attitude quickly turned to slight panic and we hot-footed it home and pressed a glass bowl (no glasses) to the rash to see if it disappeared - the test for meningitis. I didn't think baby really had meningitis because she seemed quite awake and alert for it, but you never know. Damn pigeons everywhere. Couldn't tell if it was disappearing or not.
So we took her to Charing Cross Hospital, which has the nearest walk-in centre open on a weekend. They then referred us to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which has a paediatric ward. The visit to Charing Cross only took about 30 minutes in all, a pleasant surprise, but we waited about an hour and a half for the paediatric surgeon to show up at C&W.
She said it was likely to be a viral infection following baby's chicken pox and pointed out that she also had thrush in her mouth, poor thing, something which had completely escaped Alex and I. Which explains why she hasn't been keen to eat at all and why she keeps sticking her tongue out. I thought she was just practising and that her tongue was just a bit coated because she was ill.
So anyway we now have some medication for that and will be keeping an eye on baby's progress. The good news is that there was a solid poo in the evening and she hasn't hurled since before lunchtime. So hopefully she is on the mend! We also nicked two fetching bowls made out of soft cardboard, which hospitals use to catch vomit and catethered pee, to keep for baby's use. They double as very fetching cowboy hats on her for our amusement.
Sick baby update
How dopey, I had the wrong dates in my mind; baby is 10 months old today (9 July), not yesterday. The food poisoning, it turns out, is actually a viral infection! How relieved was I to learn I hadn't poisoned poor baby!
She spat up again this morning but had no diarrhoea, then hurled again later when we were out on the green, strolling through a church fair. When we changed her shirt, I suddenly noticed a rash all over her tummy and back. And I realised it was over her forehead too - something Alex had spotted earlier when changing her nappy but which I thought was just her being a bit warm.
My wait-and-see attitude quickly turned to slight panic and we hot-footed it home and pressed a glass bowl (no glasses) to the rash to see if it disappeared - the test for meningitis. I didn't think baby really had meningitis because she seemed quite awake and alert for it, but you never know. Damn pigeons everywhere. Couldn't tell if it was disappearing or not.
So we took her to Charing Cross Hospital, which has the nearest walk-in centre open on a weekend. They then referred us to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which has a paediatric ward. The visit to Charing Cross only took about 30 minutes in all, a pleasant surprise, but we waited about an hour and a half for the paediatric surgeon to show up at C&W.
She said it was likely to be a viral infection following baby's chicken pox and pointed out that she also had thrush in her mouth, poor thing, something which had completely escaped Alex and I. Which explains why she hasn't been keen to eat at all and why she keeps sticking her tongue out. I thought she was just practising and that her tongue was just a bit coated because she was ill.
So anyway we now have some medication for that and will be keeping an eye on baby's progress. The good news is that there was a solid poo in the evening and she hasn't hurled since before lunchtime. So hopefully she is on the mend! We also nicked two fetching bowls made out of soft cardboard, which hospitals use to catch vomit and catethered pee, to keep for baby's use. They double as very fetching cowboy hats on her for our amusement.
07 July 2006
10 mths
Poor baby...
... turns 10 months with some food poisoning. Either that or this round of teething is really nasty. But I think it's more than teething. Today she threw up her feeds three times and, just before we put her to bed earlier, even hurled the few mls of Calpol Alex gave her.
She's also pooed about two or three times today. The number of poos was probably kept down only because she's spent most of today - when she was awake, that is - with her lips pursed, refusing all food offered and sleeping most of the time.
While she's been a bit cheerful after one or two long naps, the poor thing has mostly been very manja (Malay word meaning er longing for affection, also affectionate); insisting on being held on my lap most of the time and sometimes refusing to fall asleep unless I am cradling her.
Feel very guilty now as I have been trying to work out how on earth I have given her food poisoning. Suspects at the moment are: the tomatoes/peppers/cucumber bits I gave her for dinner on Weds night and the mouthful of bath water she swallowed on Thursday before I could stop her.
For a brief moment earlier today I was very, very afraid she might have botulism because we ate salmon in a honey and soy-sauce marinade on Thurs night and, while she didn't have any of it, I was feeding her rice noodles from my chopsticks so was worried she might have caught it that way. But one of the symptoms of botulism is constipation. And baby is definitely not constipated. Not by a long shot.
Fingers crossed she'll be better by tomorrow.
Poor baby...
... turns 10 months with some food poisoning. Either that or this round of teething is really nasty. But I think it's more than teething. Today she threw up her feeds three times and, just before we put her to bed earlier, even hurled the few mls of Calpol Alex gave her.
She's also pooed about two or three times today. The number of poos was probably kept down only because she's spent most of today - when she was awake, that is - with her lips pursed, refusing all food offered and sleeping most of the time.
While she's been a bit cheerful after one or two long naps, the poor thing has mostly been very manja (Malay word meaning er longing for affection, also affectionate); insisting on being held on my lap most of the time and sometimes refusing to fall asleep unless I am cradling her.
Feel very guilty now as I have been trying to work out how on earth I have given her food poisoning. Suspects at the moment are: the tomatoes/peppers/cucumber bits I gave her for dinner on Weds night and the mouthful of bath water she swallowed on Thursday before I could stop her.
For a brief moment earlier today I was very, very afraid she might have botulism because we ate salmon in a honey and soy-sauce marinade on Thurs night and, while she didn't have any of it, I was feeding her rice noodles from my chopsticks so was worried she might have caught it that way. But one of the symptoms of botulism is constipation. And baby is definitely not constipated. Not by a long shot.
Fingers crossed she'll be better by tomorrow.
10mths-1 day
No more red foods!
Today I gave her home-made baked beans for lunch. Baby refused to eat anything I offered her but was jolly happy to be allowed to stir the contents of her bowl round and round with two spoons for quite a while. Then, having dropped both spoons on the floor, she proceeded to pick up the beans with her fingers. Some went into her mouth, some on the floor. Then she picked up the bits of tomato in the sauce and squished them in her palms.
When I groaned and went 'Baby, what are you doing?', she looked at me and then, very deliberately, used her tomato-covered palm to pat the side of her face. And her hair. Repeatedly. I would have taken a picture but too much of my time this afternoon was spent wiping down the dining table and her chair and bathing the tomato-covered urchin.
I think she is teething again. She's had a bit of a temperature and runny poo for two days now and was drooling a lot yesterday. When she's being cranky and I ask what's the matter, she sometimes pats her head or the side of her face (not just when her hands are covered in tomato), which I think means ouch.
No more red foods!
Today I gave her home-made baked beans for lunch. Baby refused to eat anything I offered her but was jolly happy to be allowed to stir the contents of her bowl round and round with two spoons for quite a while. Then, having dropped both spoons on the floor, she proceeded to pick up the beans with her fingers. Some went into her mouth, some on the floor. Then she picked up the bits of tomato in the sauce and squished them in her palms.
When I groaned and went 'Baby, what are you doing?', she looked at me and then, very deliberately, used her tomato-covered palm to pat the side of her face. And her hair. Repeatedly. I would have taken a picture but too much of my time this afternoon was spent wiping down the dining table and her chair and bathing the tomato-covered urchin.
I think she is teething again. She's had a bit of a temperature and runny poo for two days now and was drooling a lot yesterday. When she's being cranky and I ask what's the matter, she sometimes pats her head or the side of her face (not just when her hands are covered in tomato), which I think means ouch.
05 July 2006
9 mths+
Escape!
Yesterday I decided I was safe enough to assault the shops of London without infecting random pregnant women with chicken pox, so off little Boo and I went to John Lewis, in the hope of finding nice bedlinen on sale. Alex believes our student duvet covers are still serviceable; and so do I, but I also think that now that we can afford something nicer, something less technicolour, they are hideous.
Was an idiotic mistake to stir from the house though because it was boiling yesterday. Absolutely boiling. So any resolve I had to shop evaporated once we left JL's air-conditioned environs. Was also feeling absolutely guilty as poor Boo had fallen asleep in her sling. Although I'd been pumping her with copious amounts of water and fanning her with the wooden folding fan I carry with us everywhere - my look now is amah chic: messy pony tail; slippers; and fan out for the little miss - I still felt bad for bringing her out.
So we caught the next tube back and I satisfied myself with a brief perusal of the shops around our area instead. The fancy schmancy greengrocers near Turnham Green is turning out to be a big disappointment. Some baby plum tomatoes I bought there a couple of weeks ago were delicious - sweet and juicy - but they had been more expensive than some cuts of steak I think. So I decided to give it another go.
Blah, the beefsteak tomatoes and peppers I bought yesterday were a total loss. The tomatoes were watery and tasteless; the peppers a bit wrinkly. And they cost a bomb. The only saving grace was some cheap peaches I'd also bought there. They are quite sweet and were £1 for five; much a step up from the horrible sour, bouncy things I bought in a punnet from either Sainsbury's or Waitrose a few weeks ago. Boo enjoyed sucking on a few slices for tea today.
And speaking of tea...
Ah all the meals nowadays are so exhausting. Boo eats well for the first few bites and then she wants to hold everything. The compromise is usually that I'll let her hold something that isn't so messy while continuing to feed her the messy bits, but she's a smart cookie. Sooner or later she'll want to handle the spoon with the messy stuff and then, before you know it, the stuff goes down her shirt, around the room...
We were at Ikea a weekend ago, where we finally bought a nice extending dining table and grown-up crockery (also to replace our just-out-of-studentship junk). We picked up these cute froggie bibs and matching baby plates and drinking cups at the same time. Except of course she doesn't like them. Sigh, such a shame because she could really use bibs wth the troughs at the bottom. After eating couscous for lunch the other day, I changed her nappy and there was a hail of couscous on the mat after I'd done.
Oh dear meant to actually list some of the things Boo's been doing - like her ever-growing confidence in standing up and crawling out of the bedroom to the bathroom when I'm washing up - instead of just whinging, but there you go. She is getting to be very fun though.
Feed me, baby
When we eat, if she has a spoon, she has to pretend to feed me as well. It tickles her no end if I pretend to eat from her spoon and go 'Umm yum yum yum...'
And she is trying to use spoons now. She's not content with picking food up with her hand. She's happiest if you give her a little bowl and a spoon to eat from it. Though of course she's not very particular about how she's using the spoon; whether she's eating from the handle or the spoon and whether the spoon's upside-down and dripping stuff on her or not.
She does hate to have you try and guide her hand or rearrange the spoon in it though. I've found that very stiff yoghurt is probably the best thing for her to try to eat with as it clings reasonably tenaciously to the spoon and so she can progress a little without getting into a hissy, frustrated fit - which she does after a while if she realises that she's not getting to eat anything.
When she's crawling on the floor, if you either chase her or pretend to run from her she just shrieks with laughter. I don't know what it is, must be some fight-or-flight adrenaline rush, because the shrieking is of a seriously ear-piercing quality and you can see she's poised to react quickly. I have to keep making sure we don't play this game anywhere near a wall or something because I'm so afraid she'll turn quickly and smack her little face on it.
Uh-oh
Oh and lastly I admit, with some shame, that baby has connected with the damn Teletubbies. She waved to one of those misbegotten creatures when they were on the other day. It's so much easier you see... if she's watching the TV while having breakfast, I do have to prompt her to chew every now and then but at least she's not grabbing for the toast or the cereal or the yoghurt, to stir things with her fingers, squish them and then rub it all in her hair. But I realised when she waved to the Teletubbies (to be fair, only the second time she'd seen them I think) that I might have gone too far.
Escape!
Yesterday I decided I was safe enough to assault the shops of London without infecting random pregnant women with chicken pox, so off little Boo and I went to John Lewis, in the hope of finding nice bedlinen on sale. Alex believes our student duvet covers are still serviceable; and so do I, but I also think that now that we can afford something nicer, something less technicolour, they are hideous.Was an idiotic mistake to stir from the house though because it was boiling yesterday. Absolutely boiling. So any resolve I had to shop evaporated once we left JL's air-conditioned environs. Was also feeling absolutely guilty as poor Boo had fallen asleep in her sling. Although I'd been pumping her with copious amounts of water and fanning her with the wooden folding fan I carry with us everywhere - my look now is amah chic: messy pony tail; slippers; and fan out for the little miss - I still felt bad for bringing her out.
So we caught the next tube back and I satisfied myself with a brief perusal of the shops around our area instead. The fancy schmancy greengrocers near Turnham Green is turning out to be a big disappointment. Some baby plum tomatoes I bought there a couple of weeks ago were delicious - sweet and juicy - but they had been more expensive than some cuts of steak I think. So I decided to give it another go.
Blah, the beefsteak tomatoes and peppers I bought yesterday were a total loss. The tomatoes were watery and tasteless; the peppers a bit wrinkly. And they cost a bomb. The only saving grace was some cheap peaches I'd also bought there. They are quite sweet and were £1 for five; much a step up from the horrible sour, bouncy things I bought in a punnet from either Sainsbury's or Waitrose a few weeks ago. Boo enjoyed sucking on a few slices for tea today.
And speaking of tea...
Ah all the meals nowadays are so exhausting. Boo eats well for the first few bites and then she wants to hold everything. The compromise is usually that I'll let her hold something that isn't so messy while continuing to feed her the messy bits, but she's a smart cookie. Sooner or later she'll want to handle the spoon with the messy stuff and then, before you know it, the stuff goes down her shirt, around the room...
We were at Ikea a weekend ago, where we finally bought a nice extending dining table and grown-up crockery (also to replace our just-out-of-studentship junk). We picked up these cute froggie bibs and matching baby plates and drinking cups at the same time. Except of course she doesn't like them. Sigh, such a shame because she could really use bibs wth the troughs at the bottom. After eating couscous for lunch the other day, I changed her nappy and there was a hail of couscous on the mat after I'd done.
Oh dear meant to actually list some of the things Boo's been doing - like her ever-growing confidence in standing up and crawling out of the bedroom to the bathroom when I'm washing up - instead of just whinging, but there you go. She is getting to be very fun though.
Feed me, baby
When we eat, if she has a spoon, she has to pretend to feed me as well. It tickles her no end if I pretend to eat from her spoon and go 'Umm yum yum yum...' And she is trying to use spoons now. She's not content with picking food up with her hand. She's happiest if you give her a little bowl and a spoon to eat from it. Though of course she's not very particular about how she's using the spoon; whether she's eating from the handle or the spoon and whether the spoon's upside-down and dripping stuff on her or not.
She does hate to have you try and guide her hand or rearrange the spoon in it though. I've found that very stiff yoghurt is probably the best thing for her to try to eat with as it clings reasonably tenaciously to the spoon and so she can progress a little without getting into a hissy, frustrated fit - which she does after a while if she realises that she's not getting to eat anything.
When she's crawling on the floor, if you either chase her or pretend to run from her she just shrieks with laughter. I don't know what it is, must be some fight-or-flight adrenaline rush, because the shrieking is of a seriously ear-piercing quality and you can see she's poised to react quickly. I have to keep making sure we don't play this game anywhere near a wall or something because I'm so afraid she'll turn quickly and smack her little face on it.
Uh-oh
Oh and lastly I admit, with some shame, that baby has connected with the damn Teletubbies. She waved to one of those misbegotten creatures when they were on the other day. It's so much easier you see... if she's watching the TV while having breakfast, I do have to prompt her to chew every now and then but at least she's not grabbing for the toast or the cereal or the yoghurt, to stir things with her fingers, squish them and then rub it all in her hair. But I realised when she waved to the Teletubbies (to be fair, only the second time she'd seen them I think) that I might have gone too far.
01 July 2006
9 mths+
Pox update
Baby's: Pretty much on its way out now, with only a handful or two of very obvious scabs remaining. They are mostly on her scalp, that one big one between her eyes, and elsewhere on her chest. Basically everywhere within reach of her cunning little hands
Mine: How come my spots look like pimples and baby's didn't? Still multiplying as of today, but the first few are also beginning to crust over, thank goodness. The itching is still not as bad as I first feared. I have been scratching myself more inadvertantly than on purpose. Sometimes I forget I have it and think a random insect from our garden has bitten me instead and am only reminded when a light scrathing produces a sting instead of relief.
The only really annoying aspect of it at the moment is the dull aching headache that's lingering. This only comes on when I've been lying down or if I bend down and then suddenly stand or straighten up again. It's like having a hangover. Except that it's worse than any hangover I've ever had - even the one from my first office Christmas party, where I had completely underestimated the amount of cheap booze that would be pressed on me. At a time when I was too stupid, as well, to order anything but cheap booze.
Putting baby to bed
Alex has been doing this on and off this week and I did it tonight. I think I will start making it a more regular thing for him to do if baby's present behaviour continues because it can really take a while. For some reason, she seems to gain a second wind once she's had her bottle of milk. She may have been all cranky, rubbing her eyes and running her hands through her hair beforehand but, once she's had a good suck on a bottle, watch that little bottom go.
Tonight Daddy's appearance in the bedroom with her bottle of milk brought out a dreamy smile. So I assumed she was ready to sleep. We put her down on the pillow and gave her the bottle. With me, what usually happens is that she drinks it all and then pushes the bottle away before falling alseep, or she falls asleep before finishing the bottle and I just ease it out of her mouth.
This time, however, like Daddy has complained, she had a good amount out of it, pushed the bottle away and then sat up with a happy grin, despite the fact that her eyelids were already half-shut. For the next 20 minutes or so she then groggily attempted to crawl out of the bedroom; to haul herself to standing position, using the me and bed for support; and to climb over me into her cot to play with the toys there.
I was quite amused because she was practically sleepwalking doing all this. You could see her eyes were half-closed and she was moving like she was punch-drunk. And everytime I picked her up and put her back on the pillow, she'd lie still for a few seconds - instead of howling blue murder, which is what she'd do if she were awake - before bouncing back up again.
Amusing as it was, it was also quite trying because baby is indiscriminate at the best of times as to what constitutes a useful body part in her endeavour to become bipedal. I can see how my face, glasses and breasts might seem the most convenient handholds and I usually put up with her buffeting, but when they are all repeatedly assaulted by a half-asleep baby with no awareness of the heightened sensitivity of chicken pox spots, I begin to understand a little what it might be like to be mauled to death by a (heavy) teddy bear.
Trying it on
She tried to throw a hissy fit again at dinner tonight. We had lamb in pitta bread with yoghurt and salad, tomatoes and cucumbers. So baby had a good selection of everything except the salad on her plate. Towards the end of the meal though she reached for the bowl of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. When I said no and held them out of her reach, she looked at us, very deliberately, and screeched her disapproval, her little round face turning deep red with the effort.
Alex and I contained our laughter and I just said 'No, eat what you've got on your plate first,' and pointed to it. To my surprise, no bout of crying followed. She sat down, looked at her plate and actually began eating it. Alex too engrossed in France v Brazil to notice I think, but I was very pleased so made a big show of praising her once she did. 'Good girl, Boo. That's a good girl.' Then of course she tried it twice more - once when she had no more cucumber or tomato on her plate so I did allow her to take some - and each time it was so funny because you could tell she was calculating that scream in her head before it came.
Mommy takes the bowl away. Look at Mommy in surprise. Pause. Compute. Yoowl. Mommy no reaction. Hmm. Look at own plate. Eat something off own plate.
Yay me.
PS
Rooney, you doofus. Frankie, what a rubbish tournament. Sven: Is this revenge for the sheikh? Anyway it was a bizarre feeling supporting England against Portugal today (the idiot Sven should have played for a goal in the second half of extra time"). Thank goodness they lost, I don't know if my constitution could have taken the strangeness of it all, after years of making fun of our host country.
Pox update
Baby's: Pretty much on its way out now, with only a handful or two of very obvious scabs remaining. They are mostly on her scalp, that one big one between her eyes, and elsewhere on her chest. Basically everywhere within reach of her cunning little hands
Mine: How come my spots look like pimples and baby's didn't? Still multiplying as of today, but the first few are also beginning to crust over, thank goodness. The itching is still not as bad as I first feared. I have been scratching myself more inadvertantly than on purpose. Sometimes I forget I have it and think a random insect from our garden has bitten me instead and am only reminded when a light scrathing produces a sting instead of relief.
The only really annoying aspect of it at the moment is the dull aching headache that's lingering. This only comes on when I've been lying down or if I bend down and then suddenly stand or straighten up again. It's like having a hangover. Except that it's worse than any hangover I've ever had - even the one from my first office Christmas party, where I had completely underestimated the amount of cheap booze that would be pressed on me. At a time when I was too stupid, as well, to order anything but cheap booze.
Putting baby to bed
Alex has been doing this on and off this week and I did it tonight. I think I will start making it a more regular thing for him to do if baby's present behaviour continues because it can really take a while. For some reason, she seems to gain a second wind once she's had her bottle of milk. She may have been all cranky, rubbing her eyes and running her hands through her hair beforehand but, once she's had a good suck on a bottle, watch that little bottom go.
Tonight Daddy's appearance in the bedroom with her bottle of milk brought out a dreamy smile. So I assumed she was ready to sleep. We put her down on the pillow and gave her the bottle. With me, what usually happens is that she drinks it all and then pushes the bottle away before falling alseep, or she falls asleep before finishing the bottle and I just ease it out of her mouth.
This time, however, like Daddy has complained, she had a good amount out of it, pushed the bottle away and then sat up with a happy grin, despite the fact that her eyelids were already half-shut. For the next 20 minutes or so she then groggily attempted to crawl out of the bedroom; to haul herself to standing position, using the me and bed for support; and to climb over me into her cot to play with the toys there.
I was quite amused because she was practically sleepwalking doing all this. You could see her eyes were half-closed and she was moving like she was punch-drunk. And everytime I picked her up and put her back on the pillow, she'd lie still for a few seconds - instead of howling blue murder, which is what she'd do if she were awake - before bouncing back up again.
Amusing as it was, it was also quite trying because baby is indiscriminate at the best of times as to what constitutes a useful body part in her endeavour to become bipedal. I can see how my face, glasses and breasts might seem the most convenient handholds and I usually put up with her buffeting, but when they are all repeatedly assaulted by a half-asleep baby with no awareness of the heightened sensitivity of chicken pox spots, I begin to understand a little what it might be like to be mauled to death by a (heavy) teddy bear.
Trying it on
She tried to throw a hissy fit again at dinner tonight. We had lamb in pitta bread with yoghurt and salad, tomatoes and cucumbers. So baby had a good selection of everything except the salad on her plate. Towards the end of the meal though she reached for the bowl of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. When I said no and held them out of her reach, she looked at us, very deliberately, and screeched her disapproval, her little round face turning deep red with the effort.
Alex and I contained our laughter and I just said 'No, eat what you've got on your plate first,' and pointed to it. To my surprise, no bout of crying followed. She sat down, looked at her plate and actually began eating it. Alex too engrossed in France v Brazil to notice I think, but I was very pleased so made a big show of praising her once she did. 'Good girl, Boo. That's a good girl.' Then of course she tried it twice more - once when she had no more cucumber or tomato on her plate so I did allow her to take some - and each time it was so funny because you could tell she was calculating that scream in her head before it came.
Mommy takes the bowl away. Look at Mommy in surprise. Pause. Compute. Yoowl. Mommy no reaction. Hmm. Look at own plate. Eat something off own plate.
Yay me.
PS
Rooney, you doofus. Frankie, what a rubbish tournament. Sven: Is this revenge for the sheikh? Anyway it was a bizarre feeling supporting England against Portugal today (the idiot Sven should have played for a goal in the second half of extra time"). Thank goodness they lost, I don't know if my constitution could have taken the strangeness of it all, after years of making fun of our host country.
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