While attempting to get “the” calendar shot, I’ve taken a few pics that crack me up.
Is this my best side?
Like a tiger…
In a pensive mood
Of course, I didn’t get the perfect calendar shot. I got some very good shots, and am still learning more about photographing kids, and lighting, and my awesome camera. So I’m glad I persisted, and I am very happy with a couple. I’m collecting so many great pics of the kid, I’m going to have to dedicate a wall of the house to hang Inigo pictures on.
You smile, you giggle like I’m the funniest thing on the planet, you eat like a body builder, and you can shout the house down. The levitation is a new thing. I’m hoping we can patent that and pay all your medical bills.
You’ve got a bigger head than is properly decent for a kid your age, and eyes to match. And the eyes still don’t match.
You can say mama and dada, but either will do. You can crawl, or rather slide, quite effectively, but you only go backwards. Reverse motion is only arrested by furniture, often a chair between your legs.
You love toys, noisy, garish, mirrored, furry, smooth, plastic and wood. Usually the tag is the first thing you will go for, but anything will do, and it is always given a taste test before any play will commence.
Bathtime brings lots of joy for all of us.
We have little conversations, you make an exclamation (or a pronouncement), and I try to repeat what you say. Often I fail to reproduce (you have an extraordinary range), but you have the good manners to continue talking to me even though I don’t make sense.
You are always watching, always paying attention to what is going on around you. Although you love to sleep, you don’t like going to sleep because you know you’ll be missing out on something while you’re out.
You love people, you love hearing stories, and you love being on stage. I think your favourite thing (after food) is playing peek-a-boo with an audience of adoring fans. The more the merrier.
You adore your dad, and your grandparents. There’s nothing better than hanging out with people who don’t believe in over stimulation!
And I think we’re starting to get an insight into your personality. You adore Cocky, Daisy fascinates you, and you can’t wait to make friends with Custard. You stop and look when you hear a bird, and I believe you are becoming quite the animal lover.
You are gentle with other kids, never snatch or poke, and when others do it to you, you bear it stoically.
For weeks, you’ve been putting your hands in my hands so that I can pull you up to sit, then to stand, then I usually throw you up in the air. You love it, and it’s great exercise for the triceps. Yesterday, you grabbed my hands, but didn’t wait to be pulled up – you used my hands to pull yourself up.
And today, while visiting Fiona, you saw a picture on her wall of our wedding. Your face lit up, and the word “Dada” came out of your mouth.
I love hanging out with you Inigo, and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
We visited Richard and Miriam on the weekend, and Min gave the boys some wooden spoons to chew on. Oscar kept taking Inigo’s, and Inigo didn’t resist.
I don’t think Inigo is going to be the boss of this relationship.
A test shoot for a calendar competition I am considering entering. Not happy with any of the shots, but this one shows the singlet beautifully. Thanks Bex!
For the last three weeks, Inigo’s weight gains have been only 40-60grams. It’s on the low side of normal for his age, but it takes him further away from the 50th percentile – that he had been sneaking closer and closer to.
Today, he weighed 8.80kg, up 250gm from last week (8.55kg). That is a pretty massive gain from last week, and fantastic in the light of the past three weeks mediocre gains.
This number takes him closer to the magic 50th – of course in real terms it means nothing, but the number is significant to the paed, as it ‘s in line with his length. And, of course, it means that I can stop worrying that the minimal gains of the past weeks mean that I have to worry about another infection.
My neck feels bruised after a visit to the chiro on tuesday, but my range of movement is much improved. And Inigo had his first unsupervised play date with Charlie, a kid from our playgroup. Charlie’s mum, Liz is great, I liked her as soon as I met her, and she volunteered to take Inigo while I was a the chiro. He also stayed at Adam & Sarah’s for a few hours last Friday while I took Josephine and Owen to the hospital.
My Mr Greenjeans is coming along – after a false start and a trip to the frog pond. I’m now past the armholes and heading for the ribbing, which starts just under the boobs. I might be knitting for some time!
When I was a little kid, I wasn’t very popular. I had only one friend at school when I was eight.
And then S arrived at my school, and I had two friends.
Not so very long after she arrived, her family moved again, and I lost her.
And then last year, I got a message from my brother that someone was looking for me on facebook – she found me!
So I joined facebook, and she sent me a message that left me in floods of tears. She had remembered me for all those years, and thought so much of me that she still wanted to know me after all those years.
I think she’s pretty cool, and I wish she lived closer so that I could tell her in person.
Happy Birthday. I’m amazed that I was such a good judge of character in primary school 😉
This saturday the Macquarie Centre has an “Environment Expo”, and the Australian Nappy Network has a stall there. I volunteered to spend a couple of hours talking to people about the benefits of real nappies over single use nappies, and I thought I’d better brush up on my knowledge.
I came across this page, which claims (and links to a scientific journal article to support) that the rise of scrotal temperature in disposable nappies may be party responsible for slower testicular development and reduced sperm counts. Far out!
When I was a kid, mum used terry cotton nappies, with plastic over pants on me. Nappies were soaked in bleach, washed in a twin tub washing machine, and hung on the hills hoist to dry. And there really wasn’t any other way of doing it. Then slowly, disposables were introduced, became more affordable, and eventually became ubiquitous, and quotidian.
They also point to a link between airborne emissions from single use (disposable) nappies to an marked increase in childhood asthma.
– The gels used in nappies were banned from tampon use because of the link to Toxic Shock Syndrome
– Chlorine bleaching is still used in many disposables, adding dioxins to the nappy.
– Polypropylene covers and liners and made with the use of PCB’s.
– Most people don’t bother scraping solids from a disposable nappy into the toilet, meaning that it’s going into unstable landfill, and leaching into the water table.
Add to this the fact that each single use nappy uses about a cup of crude oil in its manufacture, and I’m feeling even better about using only minimal disposables.
I’ve been feeling like I am challenging the dominant paradigm by choosing cloth over disposables. I have felt a couple of times like I am pissing people off, they seem to take our choice to be a personal challenge. But I think it’s really interesting to take something as mundane as nappies, and really examine the issues involved. And as I am notoriously crap at not coming over like a bulldozer, I’m wondering if this is the right line of volunteering for me to get into…
Anyway, I’ve agreed to do it, and to back out now would leave them in the lurch. Wish me luck!
*Note that the bum in this picture is quite a bit plumper than the one in this picture.
I finally finished the Melon Scarf (from “Victorian Lace Today”), the night of Kerry’s going away party (August 2nd, 2008). I think this project took a year from start to finish, and was even lost for a few months. I had intended it to be given to Kerry for her birthday in December 2007, and then for her last speech, but it was finally ready a couple of days before she went to Timor.
I’m really happy with the final result, but the border really kicked my butt. The scarf itself was a pleasure to knit, but this was my first attempt at a knitted on border, and I really wasn’t prepared for it to take longer to knit than the body!
The yarn is OnLine – a Croatian Tree Wool (cotton) and Viscose blend. It has a gorgeous lustre, a fabulous drape, and the colour is rich and splendid, but it was splitty, slippery, and a bitch to join one ball to the next. The whole thing will probably degrade into a pile of knots the first time it is washed or comes across a harsh breeze, but I have come to terms with that and am glad to have the thing out of my life.
The invisible omnipotent being only knows how many balls of yarn I used on the project, what needles, and all that other juicy knitting blog content that you get on real knitting blogs. All I know now is that it is done…
…and I rock!
Note: I apologise for the dodgy background. Photographs were taken in the bathroom, due to it having the best lighting in the house at 8pm, as we were due at the party at 7pm. The scarf was not blocked, and probably still smells of stale beer from a pub knitting accident.
Note Also that the model for this shot is the ubiquitous bathroom bottle of Passion Pop. But that is another story.
As a celebrant, I have an obligation to do ongoing professional development every year, and today is the day. I arrived at the venue early, after dropping the boy at Bev & Ted’s (they were there, I didn’t leave him in an empty house!), and tried to find a park.
I thought I would find a park behind Glebe library, and went up a narrow laneway towards it, only to find that the entrance was at the other end of the carpark. Reversing, I encountered an unexpected telephone pole.
The car bumper is scratched (but it was already scratched), and I have whiplash. But at least Inigo wasn’t in the car!
Inigo at nearly 9 months, Alex nearly 19 months.
Disco Knitter 