Wednesday, August 31, 2005
yoga for sleeping babies
This cannot be comfortable:
(And not to appear like a Bad Mummy, here's proof that I didn't leave him like that:)
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
experiment no. 6
So I thought I'd do a bit of an experiment with Jack this morning; I wondered if Jack would be interested in children's television programmes, as I haven't sat him in front of any so far. I picked one of the kajillion kid's channels at random, and waited for a reaction. Jack rolled over, and promptly became engrossed in Jasper's toes for several minutes:
Needless to say, he didn't look at the TV once. Conclusion: either Jack doesn't care for children's programmes or he finds the Berenstein Bears a tad dull.
We took Jack and Jasper out for a walk to our beautiful park yesterday. I noticed that they had baby swings at this playground, so I plunked Jack in one - and noticed that it was around ten times too big for him. One of us had to hold on to him to keep him in place, and although I got this smile:
he didn't seem terribly impressed. Maybe next year, eh?
Sunday, August 28, 2005
worth 1,000 words
Jack's first finger food (rice cakes or as Paul calls them, polystyrene chips):
Jack fast asleep in my arms:
Why I still haven't managed to capture a "neutral expression" for Jack's passport photo:
Friday, August 26, 2005
little drummer boy
I mentioned in my ultra-soppy 6 month birthday post that Jack likes to see if things rattle. Give him anything and he'll crease his little brow and shake the object several times. If it rattles, foot kicking and arm waving ensues. If it doesn't, it gets shaken periodically just to make sure. Along with this shaking experiment has also been the discovery that if you strike an object against a hard surface or another object, it makes an interesting loud noise. For example, Jack's dummy when struck upon the Winnie the Pooh musical lighty up thingy on the side of his cot makes a really loud bang. Incidentally, it's particularly loud at 6.00 in the morning and gets progressively louder as the banging continues. Also, whenever Jack sits near a table, he slaps his hand on the surface in a "Where's! My! Food!" kind of rhythm.
Lord help me if he ever figures out how to get into the pots and pans cupboard.
nibbles
So I made an exciting discovery at Tesco today: organic, no sugar added fruity yoghurts by a company called Mums 4. "Whoopie", I hear you all say. The reason why I am excited by this product is due to the fact that I've found very few pre-packaged baby foods that don't contain added sugar and are organic. Granted, I almost always make Jack's food myself but there are times when I need something ready made (like when we're out and about). The smallest pots of plain yoghurt I can find are still a bit too large for Jack's meals, so I tend to use about 2/3 of the pot between two meals and chuck the rest because you can't keep open yoghurts hanging around for long. The Mum 4 pots are the perfect size and most importantly, Jack loves them. We give them four thumbs up (two large, two small).
I never used to care that much about the food I ate, just as long as it tasted good. Now that I have a baby to feed, I am far more concerned about what's in our food and where it comes from. Maybe this has something to do with failing at breastfeeding and wanting to make up for it somehow, but it also has a lot to do with being fed up with the junk food marketed at children - and my love of good food. It makes me smile when Jack gobbles down a bowlful of vegetable risotto, lentils or minestrone made with homemade chicken stock, or ratatouille. I love knowing that I can feed him well, and that he seems to be enjoying it. I cannot wait until he's old enough to learn about cooking, and join in when we make our meals.
I honestly don't expect Jack to eat nothing but sugar free organic food for the rest of his life (nor will I throw a hissy fit at other mothers if he happens to down an entire pack of Cheezy Wotsits at a children's birthday party, for example) but I do want to ensure that his first foods are the healthiest possible. Hopefully it will help counteract the pizza and beer years that will come when he leaves home.
Monday, August 22, 2005
halfway there
I love how you always smile every time I look at you.
I love your high-pitched squeals and giggles.
I love the faces you make when you try new foods.
I love how you smell.
I love your monkey toes.
I love your fluffy, spiky hair.
I love how you nuzzle me and rest your head on my heart when you're tired.
I love your big sparkly eyes.
I love the determined look on your face whenever you pick something up to see if it rattles.
I love when you curl your legs and feet around my arm when I rub your belly, trying to settle you during the night.
I love playing "Who's That Baby in the Mirror?" with you.
I love making up songs about you and singing them to you, and when my silly songs make you smile.
I love it when you try to catch the trickles of running water as I squeeze the sponge when I bathe you.
I love your in-depth and lengthy conversations with the living room ceiling.
I love waking up to your gurgles and babbles in the morning.
I love it when you fall asleep on me.
I love it when you blow raspberries, even when you've got a mouthful of peas.
I love your sumo wrestler legs.
I love your lobster boy grip.
I love how you make everyone smile.
I love you more than I ever thought my heart was capable.
Happy 6 month birthday, Jack Jack.
Click here to see a slideshow of Jack's first six months on this planet.
Friday, August 19, 2005
other mothers
Kristin went in to be induced yesterday, so please send her lots of happy labour vibes. When I hear the word "induction", my heart sinks slightly. My first thought is usually "Is it necessary?" and then "I hope it doesn't end in a c-section". It's so difficult for me to be objective about inductions because of my experience, but obviously they all don't end up pear-shaped. Still, I worry and I hope none of my friends (virtual or otherwise) ever have to endure a bad birth experience.
Funny how motherhood makes you feel so strongly about...well...pretty much everything. I've never been so opinionated in my life, nor have I ever been so willing to inflict my opinions on others. Again, this is very likely why I never attend mother/baby groups. I'm either worried about how someone else is going to perceive something I'm doing, or I find myself blurting out unsolicited baby advice. I tend to do this about food and dieting too, so maybe I'm just opinionated in general. I really should practice the art of nodding and smiling.
Mom and Dad have arrived safely, and have bestowed huge amounts of attention and presents on their grandson. Hopefully the weather will be kind for our family BBQ tomorrow and the naming ceremony on Sunday. If I'm not back here by Monday, it means I've eaten my weight in cakes and scones and I'm lying under a table at the hotel.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
an important word from our sponsors
I'm passing the keyboard over to Jack for today's entry. Jack would like to say:
omy 6gtbgikmlkm,jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjsx vcvnio t ij r nb hfhyplkl80om,j8uyt 6 gt47 ij6 iikbk. 'ou pl' k]=#l'##\0 .
~G JFBFDZQ
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx j
I'm not entirely sure what this means. I think it's some sort of newfangled hip kid shorthand, like the indecipherable teenage text and instant messages. My kid is a genius, I tell you. Genius!
Saturday, August 13, 2005
that bites
Before I start my usual ramblings, here's a picture of Jack having a jolly ol' time at our company's summer party last week:
Jack's now built up a large repertoire of veg, so I can now actually make him something more interesting than peas that have been whipped within an inch of its life with my Braun hand blender. His first exciting foray into a proper meal was a hearty bowl of vegetable soup (whipped within two inches of its life). Tomorrow: risotto. Oooh aaaah.
On a more serious note, an "acquaintance" of ours follows a raw food diet and has been feeding her daughter raw food only. Let me clarify this for those who may be confused (I know I certainly was the first time I heard about this type of diet) - she only eats raw, vegan food. No meat, no dairy, nothing cooked or even slightly heated. Her daughter has just turned one and apparently she's only been fed raw food (and breast milk). How on earth can a child (and a very young one at that) survive on raw fruits and vegetables? It's one thing to follow a diet in which you can ensure a child gets all the essential nutrients (e.g. Kosher or vegetarian), but to inflict an extreme diet like this on your child seems selfish to me. You chose this lifestyle; your child is incapable of making this decision herself. Words fail me.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
happy days
This afternoon we headed into Cambridge to Glaze to Amaze, a place where you can paint various ceramics yourself and then they will glaze and fire them for you. We needed presents for Jack's "godparents" for his naming ceremony, so we set out to put Jack's footprints on something. We made a mug for his "godfather" and a tile for his "godmother" and to be honest, I was quite happy to sit there and paint for the afternoon. I started a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree way back when (before I switched to the ever-useful BA in English Literature) and I haven't done anything remotely artistic in ages. With a sponge in hand, I merrily dabbed paint in a decorative manner and carefully placed the text around the designs (I'm better with text than illustration, which is why I was in graphic design eons ago). I can't wait to go back to do some more for Christmas. Truly, I am one step away from gluing macaroni to paper plates and enjoying it.
Jack's journey into the world of solid foods continues to go well. So far, everything has been met with smiles and open mouth except for apples (I think they're too acidic) and regular peas (petite pois are fine, though). I'm slowly getting smarter about this baby food thing, like realising that there's no point in buying special baby porridge when I've got organic rolled oats in the house. I blitzed the oats up in a food chopper, cooked them, then blitzed it up again, and Jack thought it was fabulous. Now I've got a bazillion little ice cube-sized portions of various purees in the freezer, and a long list of things he's eaten so I can throw the ingredients together to make him something more interesting.
Tomorrow we're off to our company's summer party at our Chalfont office, where several of my female workmates have threatened to kidnap Jack. I'm checking your pockets and bags before you leave, ladies! Anything wriggling and smelling like Johnson's baby wash is going to be confiscated.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
babelfish just won't do
Can anyone please translate the following from baby to adult for me, please?
"Bee bah bah! Dadadada duh. Buh buh buh buh buh BAH. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Aye-eeee ah."
Jack's been saying this to me for the past couple of weeks, with a very serious look on his face. I think he's trying to tell me something important.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
spin me right round, baby
2.57 pm:
2.59 pm:
He never does this when anyone's actually looking.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
abs of jelly
I had my first pilates class yesterday. It was a beginner's class, mostly comprised of mums and people over 70. Feeling confident that I would be able to keep up (if old people can do it, surely I can too), I got my yoga mat and settled myself in. It's been so long since I've taken a fitness class that I had forgotten about horrifying things like wall-to-wall mirrors. It was like a traffic accident; I truly did not want to look at myself struggling to bend to one side while all my fat gathered itself up like a doughy accordion, and yet I couldn't turn away. I was fine with the stretches and surprised myself at how flexible I still am, but when it was time for the serious pilates work, I made a terrible discovery: doctors must have stolen my abdominal muscles when they removed Jack from me.
I tried to curl myself up using my stomach muscles, but the only way I could do it was by using my neck, shoulders, and legs. It wasn't like my abs were struggling to do the exercises, it was like I had no muscles there at all. On the other hand, I must still have something there because my stomach is killing me today.
No one's going to be bouncing a quarter off my stomach anytime soon, but it's nice to finally get back into classes again. I don't feel strong enough to return to yoga yet (don't be fooled - it's a lot harder than it looks), so I'll just stick to pilates for the time being. And hope that the old people don't laugh at me.
Monday, August 01, 2005
tickertape parade
Some of you may have noticed that I added a weight loss ticker below Jack's age ticker. I promise not to litter my page with dozens of countdowns to things like holidays, birthdays of obscure relatives, or Jack's next poo (if you're curious, that should be today). I just like having a visual reference to see how much weight I've lost and how much I've got left to lose. I'm a simple gal - I need big, colourful pictures in my life. I've managed to lose almost all the pregnancy weight (which, surprisingly, was only around 25 lbs. and 14 of that came off the week after Jack was born), now I've just got to lose all the weight I've put on since meeting Paul. Yerrrs.
On Saturday, I had a lovely conversation about our babies with a friendly mum, and after a few minutes I decided to introduce myself. I think I may have committed some sort of Mum Faux Pas because she looked a bit startled, quickly gave her name, and the conversation ended shortly thereafter. We met a lot of really friendly people on Saturday, but I still have no clue who any of them are. I know everything about their babies, how they were born, what the babies are eating, and their sleep patterns but ask me who X's mummy is, and I haven't the foggiest.
I know all the names of the babies in our swimming class, but I have no idea what any of the mums are called. I am "Jack's Mummy", and likely will be until he leaves home. I remember a friend of mine saying that she rang another mum and had to identify herself as her child's mummy, because the other mum had no idea who she was based on her first name. I suppose this is preferable to "that mad Canadian woman who keeps trying to be friendly with the English", and to be honest, I'm more than just a little bit proud to be Jack's Mummy.