Hurray!
Two nights in a row now that she's slept through the night! I feel normal again! But it looks like it's now poor Alex's turn to catch the bug. Had roast acorn butternut squash for dinner last night. Mmm who knew sprinkling salt and a little brown sugar and spooning a little butter onto it would make such a difference? Definitely having that again soon! Baby actually ate quite a lot of dinner for once too so she must be well on the mend.
31 October 2006
27 October 2006
Off sick again
Well whatever it was poor baby had I'm sympathising because I think she passed it on to me and I spent all of yesterday wanting to do nothing but lie down and sleep so that the pounding headache, backache, stiff neck and chills would go away.
Unfortunately of course it wasn't quite so bad in the morning so didn't ask Alex to stay. So wound up having to drag myself and baby out to the doctor so he could confirm the spots on her back were just some viral infection - another one? - and not something more serious. Which he did. Am afraid baby spent a very long time in front of the TV yesterday as mama was not up for much else. A very long time.
So much so that when she was kicking up a fuss this morning, wanting me to come when Alex was trying to take her down for breakfast, all I had to say was "You go down with papa and watch Cbeebies?", my previously truculent daughter, with her upside-down U mouth and beseeching arms, clocked the word 'Cbeebies', paused and then said "Yeah!"Not a peep out of her as Alex picked her up and they disappeared downstairs to leave me another two hours of precious, precious sleep not interrupted by angry crying.
Because although the infection knocked her out on Tuesday, she appears to have recovered since. The only problem now is her propensity to wake up, screaming in anger, in the middle of the night. The situation was getting quite bad this week because she was doing it up to five times a night at some point and I think it's largely due to the fact that she's got all her molars coming out at the same time. One has already broken the surface and the others are right behind. So not much we're able to do about that although I'm probably going to take up the doctor's suggestion of dosing her more frequently with Calpol. Don't know if it works but last night she only woke twice I think, so maybe it is an improvement.
Well whatever it was poor baby had I'm sympathising because I think she passed it on to me and I spent all of yesterday wanting to do nothing but lie down and sleep so that the pounding headache, backache, stiff neck and chills would go away.
Unfortunately of course it wasn't quite so bad in the morning so didn't ask Alex to stay. So wound up having to drag myself and baby out to the doctor so he could confirm the spots on her back were just some viral infection - another one? - and not something more serious. Which he did. Am afraid baby spent a very long time in front of the TV yesterday as mama was not up for much else. A very long time.
So much so that when she was kicking up a fuss this morning, wanting me to come when Alex was trying to take her down for breakfast, all I had to say was "You go down with papa and watch Cbeebies?", my previously truculent daughter, with her upside-down U mouth and beseeching arms, clocked the word 'Cbeebies', paused and then said "Yeah!"Not a peep out of her as Alex picked her up and they disappeared downstairs to leave me another two hours of precious, precious sleep not interrupted by angry crying.
Because although the infection knocked her out on Tuesday, she appears to have recovered since. The only problem now is her propensity to wake up, screaming in anger, in the middle of the night. The situation was getting quite bad this week because she was doing it up to five times a night at some point and I think it's largely due to the fact that she's got all her molars coming out at the same time. One has already broken the surface and the others are right behind. So not much we're able to do about that although I'm probably going to take up the doctor's suggestion of dosing her more frequently with Calpol. Don't know if it works but last night she only woke twice I think, so maybe it is an improvement.
23 October 2006
Uh oh
Vomit alert. We got sent home from nursery again today. I'd just put baby into her seat for breakfast and Zoe put on her bib when she went 'uuurk' and last night's dinner reappeared. My first thought was oh no poor baby! Then - what brilliant timing! OK it did mean that, having just arrived at work, I now had to turn around and head straight back to London but at least she had the decency to throw up entirely in her plastic bib - which Uncle Vik calls her trough, evil bugger that he is - rather than in the car on the motorway there.
We had breakfast in the canteen while waiting for the jam to London to clear and of course once there babe was on fine form and appeared pretty unaffected. She ate a lot of a small bread roll and had a tiny bite of banana and some milk. Waved to umpteen colleauges and charmed all the restaurant staff.
Then we went to Waitrose to shop for dinner. En route I dropped my keys on the pavement and so spent a good half hour trawling the floor, car park and surrounding pavements. Fortunately babe was still in sparkling form, seemed to rather enjoy being carried around for ages in mummy's arms. Finally found them in a deli, which I hadn't entered, but to which someone had surrendered the keys. Was so grateful I bought a nice box of chocolate and left it for the findee in case she came back.
Babe's behaviour's been quite mixed since we came back. Her temperature has risen quite a bit once or twice and she's seemed a bit tired but has otherwise been alright. Or at least she was until bedtime. I've just spent about an hour trying to work out why she kept appearing to fall asleep before waking and yowling the house down again. Poor Boo. Fingers crossed she behaves wtih daddy tomorrow as he's taken the day off to look after her since he has loads of leave left and I haven't.
Vomit alert. We got sent home from nursery again today. I'd just put baby into her seat for breakfast and Zoe put on her bib when she went 'uuurk' and last night's dinner reappeared. My first thought was oh no poor baby! Then - what brilliant timing! OK it did mean that, having just arrived at work, I now had to turn around and head straight back to London but at least she had the decency to throw up entirely in her plastic bib - which Uncle Vik calls her trough, evil bugger that he is - rather than in the car on the motorway there.
We had breakfast in the canteen while waiting for the jam to London to clear and of course once there babe was on fine form and appeared pretty unaffected. She ate a lot of a small bread roll and had a tiny bite of banana and some milk. Waved to umpteen colleauges and charmed all the restaurant staff.
Then we went to Waitrose to shop for dinner. En route I dropped my keys on the pavement and so spent a good half hour trawling the floor, car park and surrounding pavements. Fortunately babe was still in sparkling form, seemed to rather enjoy being carried around for ages in mummy's arms. Finally found them in a deli, which I hadn't entered, but to which someone had surrendered the keys. Was so grateful I bought a nice box of chocolate and left it for the findee in case she came back.
Babe's behaviour's been quite mixed since we came back. Her temperature has risen quite a bit once or twice and she's seemed a bit tired but has otherwise been alright. Or at least she was until bedtime. I've just spent about an hour trying to work out why she kept appearing to fall asleep before waking and yowling the house down again. Poor Boo. Fingers crossed she behaves wtih daddy tomorrow as he's taken the day off to look after her since he has loads of leave left and I haven't.
21 October 2006
Good week with babe
One of my project leaders at work is on leave so I've been ignoring project work and leaving on time a lot this week, haha, which meant I got to play with baby a lot.
On Friday I picked her up at a quarter to five and we left reasonably quickly considering I also stopped to say goodbye to Amy, the nursery manager, who's leaving to manage a bigger nursery of 150. I got her a small bottle of Moet as a present, since I didn't know what else to get and since I figured it was reasonably appropriate because her new job must be what counts as a huge promotion in nursery work.
Part of me felt cheap because I didn't get her a full-sized bottle and because she has to take credit for the amazing way the nursery is run and the way baby has such a ball there every day. But part of me also thinks £30 for a leaving present is a bit much, what?
Anyway so I let baby walk to the car again, since the sun had come out a bit and she had her new walking shoes on. She amazed me by letting go of my hand after a while - I think I grip it rather too tightly - and then toddling off really quite quickly across the tarmac.
The number of times she falls has reduced quite dramatically and you can tell at the moment that they are directly related to how tired she is. When she's fresh she's pretty good at keeping her balance, even on uneven ground. When she's tired however, it's like her bum is magnetically attracted to the ground or something and she can barely get herself up without falling over again and again.
My mistake was to walk her by the gravel path. Because she had to walk on it as soon as she saw it. And even though I guided her away from it towards the grass and the car, she cleverly rounded a bush and made her way back to the gravel.
Crunch, crunch, crunch. She looked so delighted I decided to resign myself to whatever fate had in store for us on Sonning bridge - the bottleneck out of work - and the M4. Mistake. Because after crunching happily up and down the path, she bent down to pick up a piece of gravel. And then a handful. And before I knew it she was sitting on the path, digging her hands into it and letting it stream between her fingers.
Well. Far be it from me to let my deprived inner-city daughter say she'd never seen a gravel path. So we sat there for about half an hour, enjoying the last of the warm evening sunshine, baby digging happily into the gravel, me wondering if you can get toxoplasmosis from what she was doing, both of us greatly entertaining the stream of people leaving work.
When we'd sat there long enough for me to worry she might get cold from sitting on the ground despite it being a pretty balmy 20-degree-celcius autumn day, I picked up the protesting Boo and hauled her off to the bathroom at work to wash her hands.
Then, since we'd have been stuck in traffic anyway, I took her into my office to see if we could find Fardine, one of my Iranian friends, who makes an exceptional fuss over her and who harangues me about bringing her in more often so he can pinch her cheeks. Iranians are all baby mad, I think.
Fardine had left by then but baby got my former teamates and two Iranian girls cooing over her instead - Mike, who has the same birthday, only half a century before, and Marica, who got to bribe her with the chocolate buttons Amy'd given all the children in nursery. Boo wasn't in bad form considering she was starting to tire. She played peek-a-boo with Mike, covering her eyes with both our hands, and with Marica, peeping out from between my legs, which she clung to for a good while at the start.
Work is such a fantastic place to bring babies up. You bring them along and nearly everyone tells you your child is so beautiful, smiles at them, wants to carry them - it's a complete ego boost. Baby often wants to leave long before I do.
Boo's shoes
Today we went and bought her a second pair of shoes because we figured she wouldn't go wrong with having a spare pair. I couldn't believe it though - I'm sure we only bought her last pair (see left, Start-rite called Jelly Tot; why do they name shoes?) a fortnight or three weeks ago. When we measured her feet then, they were size 2.5 G. Today we were told they were 3.5 F. I haven't worked out what the G and F mean, I'm reeling from the fact that her feet grew a whole size in what appears to have been a fortnight.
When we took her shoes off to measure her feet again I did think her toes seemed much closer to the front of her shoe than I thought they should be but do you know what this means? This means from now on I will feel guilty about shoving her teeny feet into her size 2.5 shoes which means her shoes cost £10 a week! But you know what is worse? Cheap me is reeling from this fact, most of me is going 'Ah what the heck, she is so darned cute, who cares how much her shoes cost?' This way lies penury and the workhouse.
But you know what is even worse? We bought her the cutest, sweetest little dark purple and brown boots, size 4, (so I am at least a little assured they should last a bit longer) because they were the only things that didn't have gaps anywhere on the upper part of the shoe and I kept thinking all it would take would be for her to step in a puddle and then there you go, she'll lose a toe to frostbit. But her boots cost £30 (see left, so sweet)! My last pair of shoes cost £35 and I have been wearing them for over a year! I previously scoffed at reports saying children cost you a quarter of a million pounds or something to bring up but am now realising that this is because their shoe budget accounts for half of that.
What we did today
It was a pretty good day out anyway. We went for our second studio photography session - part of a package deal that cost £25 for four studio sessions and which will probably end up costing us £400 for the pictures; bought babe and her daddy new shoes; and had lunch at a completely empty restaurant - which baby slept through. So Alex and I were able to have a conversation! Glory be - we mostly spent it boring each other senseless because we were bitching about work as usual, but ah how refreshing to be able to converse! Also managed to visit a branch of the Boots opticians and got them to straighten my glasses again, which baby bent out of shape a month ago. I'm sure my eyesight has been getting worse because they have been so lopsided since.
She's so funny
Earlier this week she was trying to stand up by herself - which involves her spreading her legs and using her arms like a tripod to lift her upper body - when she realised she could kind of stand on her head that way. She giggled and peered out at me, from between her legs and, when I lowered myself to her level to stick my face between her legs, she screamed so hard with laughter she came crashing down. But had to do it again and again, of course. Unfortunately now, when bored, she'll also try to do it in public places, on completely filthy, unwashed floors.
Also, naughty babe, is throwing - admittedly short-lived - tantrums more frequently. I'm sometimes partly embarrased by the emphatic way she says no to everything. Because I know she just says it to be contrary. And sometimes I bait her into saying it because it amuses me. But to other people she must sound like an exceptionally spoilt and contrary baby.
Today in one of the shoe shops we visited, she was very taken with a shoe but they didn't have it in her size. So when we got ready to leave, I told her to put it back.
'No.'
'Boo, we're not buying you that shoe, sweetie. They don't have it in your size. Put it back please.'
'No.'
'Boo...'
'No.'
The nice sales woman tried.
'Could I have it please? Ta!'
'No.'
'Ta...'
'No!'
'Boo, either you put it back or mummy will take it from you and put it back.'
'No.'
'Last chance - are you going to put it back yourself?'
'No!'
So I took the shoe from her and left my daughter lying on her back on the ground, kicking her feet in dismay. Yes, I was a bit embarrased, but mostly I was laughing my head off. Came back to her and she let me pick her up, but kept wailing. I could tell it was a bit fake though so wasn't particularly bothered.
How cute is this set?
Bought for Boo in a despairing attempt to get her to copy me when I cook instead of cling to my leg while making desperate eyes at me to pick her up. I'm more than happy for her to watch me cook and intend to hoodwink her into thinking that helping mummy cook is fun but at the moment it's quite hazardous having her play around my feet and pull the saucepan lids off the shelf - at best - and quite disturbing to have to lay her, wailing on the carpet and tell her not to come over while I cook.
Anyway I bought this wooden vegetable set and at first I wasn't too impressed with the velcro which holds the vegetable pieces together. It's not set terribly tight and so the vegetables all flop like they've been sitting in the fridge for two weeks. But then, aha, you take the wooden knife and cut into the joint and what sound does the separating velcro make? It goes crrr-unch. Pretty darn realistic. Genius!
Unfortunately as with all aspirational intentions regarding baby, reality is failure. She played for about a minute on her set and, as soon as I thumped on a piece of garlic to get the skin off, abandoned her set to thump my chopping board. I'm quite impressed though. Since that day she's thumped my chopping board every chance she gets, even though I've now taken to crushing the garlic instead, in an attempt to get her not to thump the board. Ah well.
Random cute shots of babe after a bath
One of my project leaders at work is on leave so I've been ignoring project work and leaving on time a lot this week, haha, which meant I got to play with baby a lot.On Friday I picked her up at a quarter to five and we left reasonably quickly considering I also stopped to say goodbye to Amy, the nursery manager, who's leaving to manage a bigger nursery of 150. I got her a small bottle of Moet as a present, since I didn't know what else to get and since I figured it was reasonably appropriate because her new job must be what counts as a huge promotion in nursery work.
Part of me felt cheap because I didn't get her a full-sized bottle and because she has to take credit for the amazing way the nursery is run and the way baby has such a ball there every day. But part of me also thinks £30 for a leaving present is a bit much, what?
Anyway so I let baby walk to the car again, since the sun had come out a bit and she had her new walking shoes on. She amazed me by letting go of my hand after a while - I think I grip it rather too tightly - and then toddling off really quite quickly across the tarmac. The number of times she falls has reduced quite dramatically and you can tell at the moment that they are directly related to how tired she is. When she's fresh she's pretty good at keeping her balance, even on uneven ground. When she's tired however, it's like her bum is magnetically attracted to the ground or something and she can barely get herself up without falling over again and again.
My mistake was to walk her by the gravel path. Because she had to walk on it as soon as she saw it. And even though I guided her away from it towards the grass and the car, she cleverly rounded a bush and made her way back to the gravel.
Crunch, crunch, crunch. She looked so delighted I decided to resign myself to whatever fate had in store for us on Sonning bridge - the bottleneck out of work - and the M4. Mistake. Because after crunching happily up and down the path, she bent down to pick up a piece of gravel. And then a handful. And before I knew it she was sitting on the path, digging her hands into it and letting it stream between her fingers.
Well. Far be it from me to let my deprived inner-city daughter say she'd never seen a gravel path. So we sat there for about half an hour, enjoying the last of the warm evening sunshine, baby digging happily into the gravel, me wondering if you can get toxoplasmosis from what she was doing, both of us greatly entertaining the stream of people leaving work.
When we'd sat there long enough for me to worry she might get cold from sitting on the ground despite it being a pretty balmy 20-degree-celcius autumn day, I picked up the protesting Boo and hauled her off to the bathroom at work to wash her hands.
Then, since we'd have been stuck in traffic anyway, I took her into my office to see if we could find Fardine, one of my Iranian friends, who makes an exceptional fuss over her and who harangues me about bringing her in more often so he can pinch her cheeks. Iranians are all baby mad, I think.
Fardine had left by then but baby got my former teamates and two Iranian girls cooing over her instead - Mike, who has the same birthday, only half a century before, and Marica, who got to bribe her with the chocolate buttons Amy'd given all the children in nursery. Boo wasn't in bad form considering she was starting to tire. She played peek-a-boo with Mike, covering her eyes with both our hands, and with Marica, peeping out from between my legs, which she clung to for a good while at the start.
Work is such a fantastic place to bring babies up. You bring them along and nearly everyone tells you your child is so beautiful, smiles at them, wants to carry them - it's a complete ego boost. Baby often wants to leave long before I do.
Boo's shoes
Today we went and bought her a second pair of shoes because we figured she wouldn't go wrong with having a spare pair. I couldn't believe it though - I'm sure we only bought her last pair (see left, Start-rite called Jelly Tot; why do they name shoes?) a fortnight or three weeks ago. When we measured her feet then, they were size 2.5 G. Today we were told they were 3.5 F. I haven't worked out what the G and F mean, I'm reeling from the fact that her feet grew a whole size in what appears to have been a fortnight.When we took her shoes off to measure her feet again I did think her toes seemed much closer to the front of her shoe than I thought they should be but do you know what this means? This means from now on I will feel guilty about shoving her teeny feet into her size 2.5 shoes which means her shoes cost £10 a week! But you know what is worse? Cheap me is reeling from this fact, most of me is going 'Ah what the heck, she is so darned cute, who cares how much her shoes cost?' This way lies penury and the workhouse.
But you know what is even worse? We bought her the cutest, sweetest little dark purple and brown boots, size 4, (so I am at least a little assured they should last a bit longer) because they were the only things that didn't have gaps anywhere on the upper part of the shoe and I kept thinking all it would take would be for her to step in a puddle and then there you go, she'll lose a toe to frostbit. But her boots cost £30 (see left, so sweet)! My last pair of shoes cost £35 and I have been wearing them for over a year! I previously scoffed at reports saying children cost you a quarter of a million pounds or something to bring up but am now realising that this is because their shoe budget accounts for half of that.What we did today
It was a pretty good day out anyway. We went for our second studio photography session - part of a package deal that cost £25 for four studio sessions and which will probably end up costing us £400 for the pictures; bought babe and her daddy new shoes; and had lunch at a completely empty restaurant - which baby slept through. So Alex and I were able to have a conversation! Glory be - we mostly spent it boring each other senseless because we were bitching about work as usual, but ah how refreshing to be able to converse! Also managed to visit a branch of the Boots opticians and got them to straighten my glasses again, which baby bent out of shape a month ago. I'm sure my eyesight has been getting worse because they have been so lopsided since.
She's so funny
Earlier this week she was trying to stand up by herself - which involves her spreading her legs and using her arms like a tripod to lift her upper body - when she realised she could kind of stand on her head that way. She giggled and peered out at me, from between her legs and, when I lowered myself to her level to stick my face between her legs, she screamed so hard with laughter she came crashing down. But had to do it again and again, of course. Unfortunately now, when bored, she'll also try to do it in public places, on completely filthy, unwashed floors.Also, naughty babe, is throwing - admittedly short-lived - tantrums more frequently. I'm sometimes partly embarrased by the emphatic way she says no to everything. Because I know she just says it to be contrary. And sometimes I bait her into saying it because it amuses me. But to other people she must sound like an exceptionally spoilt and contrary baby.
Today in one of the shoe shops we visited, she was very taken with a shoe but they didn't have it in her size. So when we got ready to leave, I told her to put it back.
'No.'
'Boo, we're not buying you that shoe, sweetie. They don't have it in your size. Put it back please.'
'No.'
'Boo...'
'No.'
The nice sales woman tried.
'Could I have it please? Ta!'
'No.'
'Ta...'
'No!'
'Boo, either you put it back or mummy will take it from you and put it back.'
'No.'
'Last chance - are you going to put it back yourself?'
'No!'
So I took the shoe from her and left my daughter lying on her back on the ground, kicking her feet in dismay. Yes, I was a bit embarrased, but mostly I was laughing my head off. Came back to her and she let me pick her up, but kept wailing. I could tell it was a bit fake though so wasn't particularly bothered.
How cute is this set?
Bought for Boo in a despairing attempt to get her to copy me when I cook instead of cling to my leg while making desperate eyes at me to pick her up. I'm more than happy for her to watch me cook and intend to hoodwink her into thinking that helping mummy cook is fun but at the moment it's quite hazardous having her play around my feet and pull the saucepan lids off the shelf - at best - and quite disturbing to have to lay her, wailing on the carpet and tell her not to come over while I cook.
Anyway I bought this wooden vegetable set and at first I wasn't too impressed with the velcro which holds the vegetable pieces together. It's not set terribly tight and so the vegetables all flop like they've been sitting in the fridge for two weeks. But then, aha, you take the wooden knife and cut into the joint and what sound does the separating velcro make? It goes crrr-unch. Pretty darn realistic. Genius!
Unfortunately as with all aspirational intentions regarding baby, reality is failure. She played for about a minute on her set and, as soon as I thumped on a piece of garlic to get the skin off, abandoned her set to thump my chopping board. I'm quite impressed though. Since that day she's thumped my chopping board every chance she gets, even though I've now taken to crushing the garlic instead, in an attempt to get her not to thump the board. Ah well.
Random cute shots of babe after a bath
18 October 2006
Good day yesterday
Got off reasonably early; early enough to let her walk all the way from the nursery to the small car park holding my hand. So sweet, as we left one of the trees outside the nursery was shedding its leaves and the leaves look like ivy leaves but are dried and fragile and loaded with a seed in the middle so they spin all the way down to the ground like tops.
I picked a few up and tossed them down to show her and she insisted on holding one all the way across our apple orchard. At which point she realised she'd squashed it beyond recognition and so had to pick up another dried leaf instead. Which she carried to a lamp post, only to pick up a twig instead there. This she used to bash some leaves on a bush before agreeing to relinquish it and sit in her car seat. Not without protest, but we left work before 5pm, which I count as a victory.
Got home, made an easy pasta dinner then sat and played with her some more. Then had a very good time putting her to bed because she was tired but obviously not so tired as to be unable to bop me with her guitar rattle. I over-reacted as usual, going 'Aiya!' and this made her giggle uncontrollably. So of course we spent a good ten minutes doing that.
Bop.
'Aiya!'
Heee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee.
Bop.
'Aiya!'
Eiii!!! Heeeeee hee hee hee hee hee hee.
Bop. Bop.
You get the picture I'm sure.
Got off reasonably early; early enough to let her walk all the way from the nursery to the small car park holding my hand. So sweet, as we left one of the trees outside the nursery was shedding its leaves and the leaves look like ivy leaves but are dried and fragile and loaded with a seed in the middle so they spin all the way down to the ground like tops.
I picked a few up and tossed them down to show her and she insisted on holding one all the way across our apple orchard. At which point she realised she'd squashed it beyond recognition and so had to pick up another dried leaf instead. Which she carried to a lamp post, only to pick up a twig instead there. This she used to bash some leaves on a bush before agreeing to relinquish it and sit in her car seat. Not without protest, but we left work before 5pm, which I count as a victory.
Got home, made an easy pasta dinner then sat and played with her some more. Then had a very good time putting her to bed because she was tired but obviously not so tired as to be unable to bop me with her guitar rattle. I over-reacted as usual, going 'Aiya!' and this made her giggle uncontrollably. So of course we spent a good ten minutes doing that.
Bop.
'Aiya!'
Heee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee.
Bop.
'Aiya!'
Eiii!!! Heeeeee hee hee hee hee hee hee.
Bop. Bop.
You get the picture I'm sure.
14 October 2006
Boo's latest pix
Remember I mentioned her attempt to work out buttons?
Boo's still terrible eating habits
Peach, she's back to eating whole rather than chopped-up pieces of chicken, and that last one is of her munching delightedly on a square of Green & Black's chocolate.
But look! She also eats vegetables. Sort of. A few bites of some anwyay.
Barnaby visits
Boo tries to tie her hair herself after a bath
Remember I mentioned her attempt to work out buttons?
Boo's still terrible eating habits
Peach, she's back to eating whole rather than chopped-up pieces of chicken, and that last one is of her munching delightedly on a square of Green & Black's chocolate.
But look! She also eats vegetables. Sort of. A few bites of some anwyay.
Barnaby visits
Boo tries to tie her hair herself after a bath
13 mths+
Peace at last...
Baby is finally taking a nap after a doozy of a tantrum earlier. She got up reasonably late today at 9am, because she has started sleeping at 11pm again this week. It all kicked off when we got stuck in a horrid jam coming back one day, which resulted in her sleeping in the car for two hours, from 6.30 till 8.30pm. Great for the jam, but nightmare when we came home and she refused to lie down. Especially since I now have to get up around 6am to make sure I get to work for 8am.
Anyway so she and I got up and went to the farmer's market nearby to pick up breakfast and lunch and dinner, while Alex, who has been a bit of a wage slave this week, had a nice lie-in. Then we came back and had breakfast and lunch (most of a potato, cheese and onion pasty, two small plums and half a small carrot for her; chicken pie for us).
As usual though, after eating, she wanted to sit on my lap. And play with my spoon and knife. And I wouldn't mind so much if she didn't always want to bang them very loudly on my plate. So after a while I handed her to papa to manage. Cue tantrum one. So gave her another spoon, a few dried beans and a couple of plastic containers to play with. So she was happy until she tried to eat a dried bean and papa pulled the spoon away from her. Cue tantrum two.
Brought her a bottle of milk and let her drink it on my lap as she vigorously resisted attempts to deposit her on Alex's. And then I decided was mummy's turn to have a break, especially since she was starting to get tired. so we brought her upstairs to sleep and I waved ta-ta. Cue humungous tantrum three which ended in her bringing up lunch.
Most exasperating and it was the first time I've heard Alex scold his beloved princess. Had half a mind to come up but heard good papa going "You know mummy isn't going to come up." So sat downstairs and guiltily finished my coffee and the paper instead. Then came up and had a nice, long hot shower. Aah the small pleasures.
Dammit guess who's just woken up?
Who drank all the slivovic?
Anyway so baby is getting better and better with the walking. Four weekends ago she was toddling with the walker. Now she's extremely confident with the walker and is getting quite good at walking without any support at all. She does weave a little, but is surprisingly good at putting one foot steadily in front of the other.
Not so good with changing direction or turning around, but I was extremely surprised at how much better she's gotten in just this week. And at least she's not doing so much of the leaning towards her target and then launching herself at it at a dead run, so you have to catch her before she bashes into your chest or a piece of furniture.
Last night there were leaving drinks for three colleagues (one Czech, hence the slivovic, a plum brandy produced in various east European states) and they held them down by the pond on the grounds at work. I'd forgotten all about them but then met Sam - baby's beau - and his mom on their way to them as we were setting off to the car. Decided to join them since I knew that babe would have some company.
At some point we walked with Sam all the way across the lawn and then, on our way back, I let baby walk too, holding onto one of her hands. It was only then that I realised how much she interacts with other children - or maybe it's just Sam. Sam was running up and down the lawn of course, and baby kept straining to join him, trying to walk as faster than her little legs can go, and pulling me in his direction and and chattering to him every time he called to us.
"Izzy, Izzy, do you want to come here?"
"Yaaah!!!"
"Yin, can Izzy come up here?"
"Mamamaamaa yaaah! Yayayayaaaah!"
She barely deigns to answers her father and I when we talk to her but with Sam, you can see she wants to hold long, complicated conversations. Ah sharper than a serpent's tooth...
At one point, Sam came running up to her and kissed her on the forehead, and she kissed him on the chin. To which Simona, his mom, and I could only coo aaaw. Maybe that is why she deigns to talk to him.
Later on he asked us to follow him under the low branches of a huge pine, and I had a really hard time hanging on to babe because she wanted to follow him down the slope of the ground to where he was digging a big hole in the bed of pine needles with his shoe. She only agreed to come out from under the branch once Sam left it too. No wonder the nursery just lets them cuddle each other. It's too tiring to do anything else.
Barnaby comes to visit
So anyway last weekend turned out way busier than we anticipated first because Marcus came to town on another flying visit and second because we needed to shop for baby after the first few frosty autumn mornings shocked me into realising that baby doesn't have much beyond a few jumpers that still fit her to ward off the cold.
Fortunately Gap had a mid-season sale so she has enough jumpers to last each week at nursery as well as a cute navy blue and shocking pink quilted jacket. By some insane stroke of luck, I realised after we brought her new clothes and shoes home that baby's colours this season are going to be navy blue, white and shocking pink. Er all together.
I know - if you've known me since forever, you're going, what the heck, Yin is colour-coordinating her daughter's clothes? Unbelievable. And if you don't, you're going what the heck Yin colour-coordinates her daughter's clothes? Unbelievable. Anyway I only mention it because I couldn't believe the serendipity.
Her shoes and coat are both navy blue and pink, for one. One of her new jumpers is pink and white and my current favourite t-shirt on her is a blue-and-white striped pirate one. It was a birthday present and represents the ruffian in her so well.
But getting back to my original point - so we had all that and then on Friday one of the nursery girls asked if I'd like to take the nursery bear, Barnaby, back with us for the weekend. I thought sure, whatever, I suppose baby will enjoy playing with him. And they pointed out, yes, Isabel might be a bit young so if I didn't want to take him don't worry. But I thought it's just a bear.
Until I got home and opened Barnaby's backpack of clothes. There were instructions! Barnaby has a diary you have to write in and people stick pictures of him and their children doing activities! The children draw and write in it too if they can. It started off nice and easy: Barnaby visits the local playground, has breakfast, paddles in the pool... then before you knew it Barnaby was baking cookies, playing 'Sur Le Pont d'Avignon' on the piano, mountain-walking, bird-spotting, riding in a real fire-engine and riding a pony. Good grief.
Well I didn't intend to start out that way but as it turned out, with us, Barnaby ate sushi, saw a lion and dragon dance in Chinatown and visited the British Museum. If I'd had it my way he'd have visited a Chinese art installation at the Battersea Power Station but we didn't know anywhere nearby to work in lunch. Alex thinks I'm too competitive.
Baby knows her nursery songs
Only realised last weekend that baby is getting quite good at 'Incy-wincy spider'. She can't quite do the spider action properly yet but she does put the tips of her index fingers together and waggles them about a bit. And she knows to put her hands up for 'Down came the rain...' and stretches them out for 'Washed the spider out'.
She open and closes her hands for 'Twinkle, twinkle little star' and rocks back and forth for 'Row, row, row your boat'. And is only too happy to oblige for any song that mentions clapping hands. But she particularly likes 'If you're happy and you know it'. Now I have to go find out the actions to 'Wind the bobbin up', to which the children at nursery only too accurately sing 'Wind your mummy up' instead. She's sweet when we sing to her though because she applauds (not sure if it's herself or the singer) after each song.
Peace at last...
Baby is finally taking a nap after a doozy of a tantrum earlier. She got up reasonably late today at 9am, because she has started sleeping at 11pm again this week. It all kicked off when we got stuck in a horrid jam coming back one day, which resulted in her sleeping in the car for two hours, from 6.30 till 8.30pm. Great for the jam, but nightmare when we came home and she refused to lie down. Especially since I now have to get up around 6am to make sure I get to work for 8am.
Anyway so she and I got up and went to the farmer's market nearby to pick up breakfast and lunch and dinner, while Alex, who has been a bit of a wage slave this week, had a nice lie-in. Then we came back and had breakfast and lunch (most of a potato, cheese and onion pasty, two small plums and half a small carrot for her; chicken pie for us).
As usual though, after eating, she wanted to sit on my lap. And play with my spoon and knife. And I wouldn't mind so much if she didn't always want to bang them very loudly on my plate. So after a while I handed her to papa to manage. Cue tantrum one. So gave her another spoon, a few dried beans and a couple of plastic containers to play with. So she was happy until she tried to eat a dried bean and papa pulled the spoon away from her. Cue tantrum two.
Brought her a bottle of milk and let her drink it on my lap as she vigorously resisted attempts to deposit her on Alex's. And then I decided was mummy's turn to have a break, especially since she was starting to get tired. so we brought her upstairs to sleep and I waved ta-ta. Cue humungous tantrum three which ended in her bringing up lunch.
Most exasperating and it was the first time I've heard Alex scold his beloved princess. Had half a mind to come up but heard good papa going "You know mummy isn't going to come up." So sat downstairs and guiltily finished my coffee and the paper instead. Then came up and had a nice, long hot shower. Aah the small pleasures.
Dammit guess who's just woken up?
Who drank all the slivovic?
Anyway so baby is getting better and better with the walking. Four weekends ago she was toddling with the walker. Now she's extremely confident with the walker and is getting quite good at walking without any support at all. She does weave a little, but is surprisingly good at putting one foot steadily in front of the other.
Not so good with changing direction or turning around, but I was extremely surprised at how much better she's gotten in just this week. And at least she's not doing so much of the leaning towards her target and then launching herself at it at a dead run, so you have to catch her before she bashes into your chest or a piece of furniture.
Last night there were leaving drinks for three colleagues (one Czech, hence the slivovic, a plum brandy produced in various east European states) and they held them down by the pond on the grounds at work. I'd forgotten all about them but then met Sam - baby's beau - and his mom on their way to them as we were setting off to the car. Decided to join them since I knew that babe would have some company.
At some point we walked with Sam all the way across the lawn and then, on our way back, I let baby walk too, holding onto one of her hands. It was only then that I realised how much she interacts with other children - or maybe it's just Sam. Sam was running up and down the lawn of course, and baby kept straining to join him, trying to walk as faster than her little legs can go, and pulling me in his direction and and chattering to him every time he called to us.
"Izzy, Izzy, do you want to come here?"
"Yaaah!!!"
"Yin, can Izzy come up here?"
"Mamamaamaa yaaah! Yayayayaaaah!"
She barely deigns to answers her father and I when we talk to her but with Sam, you can see she wants to hold long, complicated conversations. Ah sharper than a serpent's tooth...
At one point, Sam came running up to her and kissed her on the forehead, and she kissed him on the chin. To which Simona, his mom, and I could only coo aaaw. Maybe that is why she deigns to talk to him.
Later on he asked us to follow him under the low branches of a huge pine, and I had a really hard time hanging on to babe because she wanted to follow him down the slope of the ground to where he was digging a big hole in the bed of pine needles with his shoe. She only agreed to come out from under the branch once Sam left it too. No wonder the nursery just lets them cuddle each other. It's too tiring to do anything else.
Barnaby comes to visit
So anyway last weekend turned out way busier than we anticipated first because Marcus came to town on another flying visit and second because we needed to shop for baby after the first few frosty autumn mornings shocked me into realising that baby doesn't have much beyond a few jumpers that still fit her to ward off the cold.
Fortunately Gap had a mid-season sale so she has enough jumpers to last each week at nursery as well as a cute navy blue and shocking pink quilted jacket. By some insane stroke of luck, I realised after we brought her new clothes and shoes home that baby's colours this season are going to be navy blue, white and shocking pink. Er all together.
I know - if you've known me since forever, you're going, what the heck, Yin is colour-coordinating her daughter's clothes? Unbelievable. And if you don't, you're going what the heck Yin colour-coordinates her daughter's clothes? Unbelievable. Anyway I only mention it because I couldn't believe the serendipity.
Her shoes and coat are both navy blue and pink, for one. One of her new jumpers is pink and white and my current favourite t-shirt on her is a blue-and-white striped pirate one. It was a birthday present and represents the ruffian in her so well.
But getting back to my original point - so we had all that and then on Friday one of the nursery girls asked if I'd like to take the nursery bear, Barnaby, back with us for the weekend. I thought sure, whatever, I suppose baby will enjoy playing with him. And they pointed out, yes, Isabel might be a bit young so if I didn't want to take him don't worry. But I thought it's just a bear.
Until I got home and opened Barnaby's backpack of clothes. There were instructions! Barnaby has a diary you have to write in and people stick pictures of him and their children doing activities! The children draw and write in it too if they can. It started off nice and easy: Barnaby visits the local playground, has breakfast, paddles in the pool... then before you knew it Barnaby was baking cookies, playing 'Sur Le Pont d'Avignon' on the piano, mountain-walking, bird-spotting, riding in a real fire-engine and riding a pony. Good grief.
Well I didn't intend to start out that way but as it turned out, with us, Barnaby ate sushi, saw a lion and dragon dance in Chinatown and visited the British Museum. If I'd had it my way he'd have visited a Chinese art installation at the Battersea Power Station but we didn't know anywhere nearby to work in lunch. Alex thinks I'm too competitive.
Baby knows her nursery songs
Only realised last weekend that baby is getting quite good at 'Incy-wincy spider'. She can't quite do the spider action properly yet but she does put the tips of her index fingers together and waggles them about a bit. And she knows to put her hands up for 'Down came the rain...' and stretches them out for 'Washed the spider out'.
She open and closes her hands for 'Twinkle, twinkle little star' and rocks back and forth for 'Row, row, row your boat'. And is only too happy to oblige for any song that mentions clapping hands. But she particularly likes 'If you're happy and you know it'. Now I have to go find out the actions to 'Wind the bobbin up', to which the children at nursery only too accurately sing 'Wind your mummy up' instead. She's sweet when we sing to her though because she applauds (not sure if it's herself or the singer) after each song.
11 October 2006
13 mths+
Where does the time go?
Plans for quiet weekends have been blasted two weekends running. Marcus visited us from Kenya again this weekend so we wound up doing a bit more shopping and eating out than anticipated but that was also nice because we got to buy a number of things for babe that she needs: new outdoor shoes and an autumn/winter coat. Can you say Gap mid-season sale, baby?
Where does the time go?
Plans for quiet weekends have been blasted two weekends running. Marcus visited us from Kenya again this weekend so we wound up doing a bit more shopping and eating out than anticipated but that was also nice because we got to buy a number of things for babe that she needs: new outdoor shoes and an autumn/winter coat. Can you say Gap mid-season sale, baby?
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