Monday, October 31, 2005
hurray for pumpkins!
Congratulations and WOOOOHOOOOO to Steve and Dina on the birth of their beautiful little pumpkin, Naomi. We are so thrilled for you and cannot wait to meet Naomi and her big brother in December.
Wheeeeeeee I've got an excuse to go out and buy newborn girl things now!
Friday, October 28, 2005
trailer park boy
What do you do when you're not feeling well? Why, you sit around in an undershirt and tracksuit bottoms and watch television, of course.
All he needs is a bag of Cheezies and a can of beer. I'm not sure if Jack's got another tooth coming in or if he's got a bug of some sort, but he's been an unhappy chappy lately. His little nose has been very runny, he's been crying a lot, and let's just say that his nappy contents have been diabolical. I have a feeling that he's got a cold, so he's been on a bland diet and plenty of Calpol. To top it all, he absolutely hates having his nose wiped, so he screams like a banshee whenever I go near his nostrils. It must suck when you've got a cold but you don't know how to blow your nose. Poor little guy.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
octobaby
You can almost crawl and you can sit up by yourself.
You've got three teeth that we brush every morning and every night.
You can eat lumpy food, but you're not very fond of jelly.
You can fall off the side of our big bed (and give me a heart attack), but manage to escape injury.
You know who mummy, daddy, and doggy are.
You like pausing after a long drink of milk to give the bottle a little shake.
You always smile when I look at you, without fail.
You are the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me.
Happy eight month birthday, Jack-Jack.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
swing swing swing
We've just returned from a lovely morning/lunchtime with Ruth and Naomi, and we tried out their brand new park. The toddler swings that were far too big for Jack at the end of August are now fine.
Before:
After:
Scary, eh?
An upper tooth has just broken through the surface, so this makes a grand total of three chompers. Is it just my imagination, or do the top teeth make babies a lot more miserable than the bottom ones? Over the weekend, Jack started commando crawling (which isn't to say that he creeps around without wearing underwear, which I suppose is technically true) so he can now get across the room in the time it takes me to blink. A friend's daughter can crawl and pull herself up on furniture to walk around the room - and she's only a week older than Jack. I've said it before, I'm in no rush to get Jack crawling. I find it tiring enough chasing a rolling baby around the house, let alone a crawling and climbing baby. I'm too old for such things.
Yesterday, Jack rolled and crept around a roomful of mummy friends and their babies, and tried to snog all the girls - and baby Joe. I'm not sure what this means.
Monday, October 17, 2005
i'm like kate moss, but with boobs and without a drug habit
I'm very excited to reach two milestones today - I've lost 30 pounds and I now have exactly one more stone left to lose. Whee! Eating what I wanted during pregnancy was fun. Really, REALLY fun. I often reminisce about Green and Black's ice cream, fish and chips, Burger King, and family sized bars of chocolate. On the plus side, this is the first time I've lost weight without counting calories, measuring portions, or keeping a food journal of some sort. I *heart* the GI diet! It's common sense, really - cut out the sugar, switch to wholegrains, and don't eat insane amounts of food in one sitting. That's it, honest. It's also the first time I've lost weight every single week (we'll pretend that our weigh-in after Devon didn't happen, mmmkay?); I've lost at least 2 lbs. each week. Although so far Paul has lost more than me (typical male!), I'm thrilled to bits with my progress. My goal is to lose that last stone by the end of the year, and try not to put it all on again when we go home for Christmas. Heh.
Oh and despite losing 30 lbs., I still have these comedy pregnancy boobs. Do they ever go back to normal?! Bigger boobs was NOT what I needed.
Friday, October 14, 2005
wazzup!
So, what's new in the world of Jack? He is perfectly capable of sitting up, but it bores him. Why sit when you can roll, roll, roll your way to fun and excitement! He almost sat up from lying down and almost crawled today. He's so very close, and each day he figures out another element of crawling. It started out with getting up on all fours, then pushing himself with his feet (which resulted in launching himself face first into the floor - he wasn't amused), realising that one knee needs to go in front of the other and one hand needs to do the same, and today he very nearly choreographed all of his moves together. I am not in a rush to get to the crawling phase, mind you. I don't fancy chasing a fuzzy blur with spikey hair around the house all day long.
Jack sings and babbles so much more now. He's graduated from endless "mama dada buhbuh gaga" conversations to all sorts of noises that sound vaguely like baby dinosaurs. (Or Jodie Foster as "Nell".) I think he's starting to repeat sounds I make to him, but it's hard to tell if it's just coincidental. Sometimes when I speak to him, he stares intently at my lips and he moves his mouth silently as if he's mimicking me. There is an alarmingly disproportionate number of "dadas" to "mamas" in his current vocabulary - that's the thanks you get.
Jack tried cottage pie for the first time tonight and wolfed down a huge bowl of the stuff. I made the mash topping with both sweet potatoes and regular potatoes, and crammed several veggies into the meaty filling. How much is one serving of fruit or veg for a baby, anyway? They're supposed to get five servings a day, but what constitutes a serving?
6-9 month clothing is too small, but 9-12 month sizes are too big. 'Splain that one to me.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
happiness is...
...having a little boy on your lap while his monkey arms are wrapped around your neck and he's singing in your ear.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
gobble gobble
Jack enjoyed his first Thanksgiving dinner on a very special plate:
Sadly, the plates didn't include Jack-Jack on them. Bah. He had a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, peas, and broccoli (we thought stuffing and gravy might be a tad much for a wee person), with pumpkin pie for dessert.
The whole meal was a hit, and like a true (half) Canadian, he promptly fell asleep after stuffing himself with food. Mmmmmmm pie.
I was really pleased to discover that there is another swimming session in November; I assumed that this would be my last one before I return to work. I'm thrilled to know that I will have another six weeks of splishsplashing about with Jack. At the end of the month, we're attending an underwater photo shoot. You read that right - it's being organised by Merbabies (who run our swimming classes) and will be shot by Zena from Little Urchins. (Do check out the Little Urchins site because the photos are amazing.) We'll do a half hour session with five other babies, and they aim to take around 12 pictures of each baby and baby/mum/dad combo. I can't wait to see the pictures of our Aquaman!
Monday, October 10, 2005
mwah!
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Elton John!
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
little merman
Monday, October 03, 2005
a toast
Yesterday, Jack tried toast and scrambled eggs for the first time. I put a tiny bit of Marmite on his toast fingers, which seemed to cause a bit of confusion at first.
Like father like son, Jack likes Marmite. Bleah.