There’s so much more to it than I ever thought possible.
Inigo and Toto
Boo and Inigo
The gorgeous Fe came over for a Majong night the other week, and brought her beautiful young men. We don’t have nearly enough of this family in our lives, and it was just amazing to see the boys with Inigo. Two better role models could not be hoped for.
Mum has decided that she wants the kids to call her Nanna, and dad doesn’t care. Adam and Sarah have Alex calling him Granddad, though I suggested that “Sir” had a nice ring to it.
But Granddad has kinda stuck (when Alex isn’t calling him Peter), and now that Alex is learning how to talk in earnest, he’s trying to say Granddad.
Except, when he says it, it sounds like…
Gonad.
I haven’t stopped laughing in two days.
I was holding this post until I could add some pics, but the computer drama is ongoing, and he’s now 15 months old, so bombs away!
We saw the paediatrician again on the 15th. Kid is just shy of 11kg – that’s 500g in a month.
HC 49.2cm
L 79.6cm
W 10.96kg
He had to have a blood test (rock swallowing is a sign that iron levels are low), for which he was very brave.
I had a blood test, and a chest x-ray. Doctor wants to be sure that the cough I have had for 6 weeks isn’t consumption. ETA – it wasn’t consumption, it was Whooping cough…
So, back to the kid.
Lots has happened since our last update. We have independent standing, we have much babbling, and much actual talking. He has mastered “ta”, and “more”. We’re still working on “please”. Though the favourite, favourite, word/sentence is “giggle, giggle, giggle, giggle, giggle, OH”. Giggle is sometimes pronounced Gayggle. It’s very cute until the final OH – which is often VERY loud, especially in the car.
He is loving all types of music, and dances in his funny “I can’t move my knees without falling over” way.
He’s got a few new nicknames. As well as Squishy, Squidgy, Squirt, Squirty, Iggy, The Igster, and Mr Yellington, he now also gets “Leon Grotsky”. Leon for short.
He’s started to actually wrap his chubby little arms around me for a cuddle, which melts my heart every single time. Even when he grabs a handful of hair and pulls.
Sleep is back on track. Apart from today, when both his naps were too short, and he was ratty all day, he usually gets enough sleep to be charming for the rest of the day. Touch wood.
Today he we tried self feeding with a spoon for the first time. It wasn’t an unmitigated disaster, but I did put a stop to things when he put his whole hand into the bowl for the third time.
Once, he molested another kid at playgroup, pulled his hair and made him cry. Once. Every other altercation between him and another kid has ended up with the other kid coming out on top. Inigo seems to be very calm, and centred, and perplexed about the universe conspiring against him. Very accepting though, and he hardly ever gets upset when another kid steals his toys, pushes him over, or tries to ride him.
He’s still obsessed with things in the air. Birds, helicopters, aeroplanes, balls, stuffed pink elephants, whatever. Especially when he is tired, objects flying above his head lead to increasing hysteria.
He’s mastered waving (though usually not until you’ve turned your back and walk away), and is taking lots of steps as long as he has a hand to hold along the way.
Last night Inigo slept all through the night, with no night waking, no needing a feed, and no screaming. At all.
That was the third night in one week. Not consecutive nights, but what the hell. Three nights of unbroken sleep, three miraculous nights I didn’t have to drag my sorry carcass across the hallway, and then back to my bed to hope that I could get back to sleep.
It’s been almost five months (since he started crawling) of horrible nights, and I am hoping against hope that these three nights represent an increasing trend.
In fire news, both Paige and Andrew are still safe, but apparently today is going to be another bad day.
Today I went to an ABA meeting to learn about how to become a breastfeeding counsellor or community educator (the people that give talks at Child Health Centres, ante natal classes, etc.).
During the early days of my breastfeeding journey, the support of the ABA was invaluable. Firstly, having done the course that they run for expectant parents gave me the confidence to know that I was doing my best, and that I would be able to succeed if I persevered. Secondly, when things were still not going well after 6 weeks of struggling, I knew there was backup available when I needed it. And when I did contact them, the support and information I got was exactly what I needed to hear at the time, and I will appreciate the time the counsellor took to help me out ’till the end of my days.
I’ve been thinking about furthering my education for a long while now, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I have an interest in far too many things to be able to narrow it down to a particular field of interest, and I’d need to be passionate about whatever I study to make sure that I actually do the homework! The course is structured so that all study is self directed, there are no exams, only assignments, and there are training sessions run once or twice a month where modules are examined in detail. Kids are welcome at the training sessions, and you can do the training at your own pace. And when you finish, you have a government recognised Certificate IV, the same as if you had studied at TAFE, and useful as “Prior learning” if you decide to do further studies in a related field.
So this opportunity is a bit of a no-brainer. I get to give back to an organisation that has given so much to me and my little family, and I get to ease myself gently back in to the rigours of formal education.
http://video.google.com.au/googleplayer.swf?docid=-7424780901256095667&hl=un&fs=true
Although I find this heartbreakingly cute, I am mainly impressed at how far he has come in such a short period of time. From a cooing baby, to a rabble-rousing kid of the world in a few short (but also very long?) months.
For the longest time, I’ve ben seeing the resemblance to my side of the family, but not so much Mark’s.
The first picture is of Mark at about 12 months, the second, Inigo at about 9 months.
Reason #327 that I adore my husband –
He supports me in my crazy endeavours.
On Friday night, I came home from my ABA meeting (which was a whole ‘nother story), so find this –
Which, when peeled open, revealed this –
Which allowed me to take this –
And this –
Now, the kid is pretty gorgeous normally, but in the above pic he was actually throwing a whammy. Pretty clever lens!
And in the last picture, you’ll see a very ordinary entree starting to look like glamourous food photography. Taken in available light at the restaurant that mum and dad shouted us Valentines Day dinner at. Free babysitting, a bottle of wine, and a free meal, the perfect ending to a fab day.
If you are ever in the vicinity of Pennant Hills, and fancy a bit of Indian, check out Spices on Pennant Hills Road. The entree was a bit ordinary, and I wasn’t thrilled with the Masala Dosa, but the tomato chutney was killer (I almost asked for some to take home), and the mains we had were really lovely. I think they thought I was a restaurant reviewer when they saw the camera, they made a big fuss of the fact that we didn’t finish our meals (ordered too much food!), and then the chef came out to chat. So I feel a bit of a responsibility to talk them up a bit 😉
Health officials in Leeds are in search of knitters to knit boobs for teaching aids.
New Yorker article – what’s more important, the milk, or the mother?
Women who breastfeed are less likely to abuse of neglect their children.
Salma Hayek (again) breastfeeds a child whose mother is unable to breastfeed. I wonder what will happen to the child when she goes home?
1. After giving blood this week, I decided that I was invincible, and took on the top shelf of our fridge, which has not been cleaned/sorted/organised since we moved in in August 2007. Brilliant.
I discovered some miso paste that expired in 2005. Two years before we moved into this house.
2. I discovered a some really, really sharp knives a few years ago in an Eastwood $2 shop. As a big fan of sharpness in knives, I now have quite a collection, and give them to friends as housewarming presents.
Apparently, I also left one in reach of a small child, and then turned my back for 15 seconds. I turned back to find the kid holding the very, very, razor sharp knife in his meaty little fist, with about 4cm of the blade INSIDE HIS MOUTH.
No babies were harmed today. Touch wood.
Disco Knitter 