Disco Knitter

You brought him over again???

Let’s see how he looks with a hood ornament.

It’s been a big week.

Saturday morning Mark took him to his second swimming lesson, and then we went to a party for James’ first birthday. On Saturday night, there was no sleep. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but none of us got much.

And in the morning, there was a tooth.

We had to hold him upside down to get the picture, but he likes that a lot, so it’s all good.

On Sunday, we caught up with my dad’s extended family for a christening, and he charmed one and all.

On Monday, there was crawling.

Tuesday brought clapping, and pulling up to stand in his cot, all the better to hear the echo of his screams when the evil mama confines him.

On Wednesday, today, there was another tooth - popping out between his 2 hour morning nap, and his 2 hour afternoon nap.

He is adored by one and all, and getting more and more adorable by the second.

Stay tuned for the 11 month update, in the meantime, here is his latest fashion statement. Fabric found by the fabulous Emily at Spotlight (in the quilting section (((shiver)))).

I love the comments - just need to apologise about the way things are working at the moment. I like to respond to comments when it’s appropriate, and until recently all comments were emailed to me for moderation, and the emailed again once they were approved.

Mark (AKA the Husbeast Sys Admin), has moved the site to a new server, which resulted in a few changes. The random pictures in the top right hand corner aren’t working, the stat counter is broken, and the way the comments work has changed.

The new host doesn’t have an email server, so wordpress can’t email me when comments need approval (so sometimes they wait quite a while because I don’t think to check), and it doesn’t email me the comments, so I can’t respond by email easily.

None of this is a big issue (please don’t stress about this darling!), but I feel I should explain to regular commenters (you know who you are!), why you might feel like I’m ignoring you…

I put Inigo in his Pastafarian Onesie (that he got from Adam and Sarah for Christmas last year) after aqua aerobics today, and we have had a small miracle.

We left him with Bev for a few hours this afternoon, and when we came back, she informed us that he was definitely on the move.

So out came the mobile phone, and here he is exploring his new powers.

I hope he uses them only for good, but I have my doubts.

Apple donates $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign.

Thanks to David Reidy for the link.

The Theme to the “Muddy Mudskipper Show” from Ren & Stimpy.

Who’s the greatest mudskipper of them all?
Who can skip thru the mud with the greatest of ease?
What kind of wonderful guy?
Who can crawl like a dog without scraping his knees?
Who’s got seg-ment-ed eyes?
It’s Muddy Mud-Skipper!
It’s Muddy!
Mud-Skipper
It’s the Muddy!
Mm-ud Ski-pper show!!

So far, his favourite songs are “The Philosopher’s Song“, “Galumph Went the Little Green Frog”, and “Happy Together”. Happy Together was the song that Mark sang to me as I walked up the steps of the Rotunda at Observatory Hill to get married, so it’s special to both of us. The Philosopher’s Song has always been a great favourite of mine. It may not be orthodox to introduce the kid to a drinking song at such a tender age, but it should do wonders for his curiosity about the history of philosophy when he is of an age.

And we’ve been able to calm him when he is having a fit of pique since he was about six weeks old by singing a rousing chorus or two, so I think a little philosophy won’t do any harm.

That’s how much less fat I had on this saturday than I had last saturday!

And I was feeling really good about that until my friend and WW support buddy told me that she had lost 4.3kg.  She is clearly a legend,but I am still impressed with myself.

And while we’re on the subject of weight, the kid is 9.7kg as of last Thursday.  And the head is back above the 97th percentile.

This is a new business, but it seems like a great idea - loan a range of nappies for your baby to try them out, and see what works for your kid before making a huge investment.

Great idea, I wish it had been around when we first started with cloth.

Has a points value of 0.

So if I don’t have any bread with it, I can have 17 1/2 glasses of wine tonight.

The Australian reports that being vegetarian is cheaper and greener, but “dieticians urge caution with the study, produced by the manufacturer Sanitarium, which is owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, saying going meat-free is not necessarily better“.

The CSIRO Total Wellbeing diet was funded by the meat industry, so I suppose they have to attack vegetarian diets just to be balanced ;) 

In all my years of vegetarian living, the only health professionals that have questioned my diet have worried about my knowledge of nutrition, and my ability to eat a balanced diet that includes non-haem iron, and combine it with vitamin C so that I can metabolise it correctly.

To be fair, it is a little harder to have a balanced vegetarian diet, because you have to think about what you are eating more than your standard omnivore. But anyone who does give that extra bit of thought to their diet is likely to have a better diet than someone who eats an unexamined diet. 

It stands to reason that a thought out vegetarian diet would be healthier than an “anything goes” omnivorous diet, no?

My life is being closely examined right now, and the diet is under a microscope.  Weight Watchers have given me 32 “points” to eat every day, and I haven’t had more than 28 in a single day so far.  And I don’t feel hungry.  I wonder if I’ll have a loss this week?

PS. Just found out about a new book examining the source of our food. I have read “The Ethics of What We Eat” by Peter Singer, but that was written from an American perspective.

I took the kid to “big kid” playgroup this morning, and then off to the pool for water aerobics. I only got to do about half of the class, because Inigo wasn’t happy sitting beside the pool, and when I got him in the water I was worried about him getting too cold. The water is heated, but the wind was quite chilly.

So that’s two classes in one week. Hopefully I’ll make it on Friday as well - as long as it’s not cold!

Inigo is nearly 11 months old, and all the kids we know around the same age are already crawling. Even William, who is 2 months younger than Inigo started to crawl last week.

I’m not in the least bit worried, he’s still completely within the normal range, and my gorgeous nephew Alex didn’t crawl till he was almost one.

Inigo is confidently picking up food and shoving it into his mouth, he’s waving, he’s babbling, he’s engaging - he’s on or ahead of the curve in most things, so I’m confident that there isn’t anything to worry about.

You can see forward motion, but it’s not exactly orthodox…

I joined up to Weight Watchers (again) today.

And yesterday I went to Aquarobics at the local pool.

Roll on Summer!

For a while now I’ve been thinking that eBay is not good value. With the exception of my gorgeous new backpack, of course.

When I decided to buy a Bumbo a few months ago, I looked on eBay, and found they were going for between $40-$50, and considering the recommended retail price is about $90, that’s not too bad. But then I found one on special for $48 at Big W.

So Mark and I are thinking about getting a Wii Fit at some point, but I had no idea what they cost. A quick google found one on eBay with a current bid of $122.50 + $20 postage, another one for “buy it now” $159.95 + $24.95 postage. Big W has them on special this week for $124.

So now I just have to decide if I’ll use it, or if I’ll be better off not going to the gym than not using the wii fit

Get Up have started a new campaign for relationship equality.

70% of Australians want relationship equality - sign the petition and make the pollies pay attention.

The Federal government is undertaking a review of maternity services.

Now is our chance to put alternative models of service delivery on the table. The Health Minister has expressed interest in funding home birth and expanding midwifery led models of care so our submissions, as consumers, can make a real difference.

PLEASE:
Write a brief submission explaining what you valued your homebirth/midwifery led care OR why you would have liked it but were unable to access it.

Length - 1 page (or less if you don’t have time for more)

Due date: 31 October 2008

Send it in:

Email: Maternity.Services.Review@health.gov.au

Post:
The Secretariat
Maternity Services Review
MDP 94, GPO Box 9848
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Yesterday, I went to a Cloth Nappy Advocacy event in the city, and felt like a complete outsider. Most of the people there lived in the inner city, and many of them knew each other already. I tried to start conversations with a few people, but just felt like the new kid in the funny clothes.

There were a few people that I knew from other events who were friendly, but busy, and a couple of unexpected meetings. I recognised Harriet, the daughter of two friends we hadn’t seen for years. The kid has a very recognisable face, so when she and Cass sat across from me, I knew it had to be her. It was lovely to catch up, if only briefly.

A little later, Meg introduced herself to me as a reader of the blog - chatting with her really lifted my spirits, we both had a little laugh about how odd it is to meet a blogger you’ve been “following” for a while, but never met in the flesh before.

Today, our little playgroup resumed after a two week break for school holidays, and I went from being the new kid who dresses funny, to being the cool kid that everybody wants to talk to. Liz (one of the mums from my parents group that I really connected with) has found an aqua-robics class at the local pool, so a group of us are going to go on Friday and share child minding. We’re also going to go to Weight Watchers (usually referred to at Granville Grange as “Club Lard”, and sometimes “Fat Fighters”) together - with the hope that we can support each other and keep each other on track.

And when I got home I got an email form another new friend, who is going to come over to our place for a play date next week.

And all of a sudden, I am part of a community.

This kid has ZERO conversational skills! Do I really have to play with him?

Bib on backwards and he thinks he’s a superhero - he can’t even undo a zipper!

Do as I say, or the bunny gets it!

Scotty, one to beam out.

Use WYD Backpack for new nappy bag?

Priceless.

(This is not a pisstake on Catholicism. It may be a wee dig on the commercialisation of organised religion, but I honestly didn’t apply a lot of deep thought to the issue. Really, it came down to “garish colours, want!)