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Friday, June 29, 2007

All better again

Michael is doing much better today. He had a fever all day yesterday and slept for 16 hours (13 hours at night and a 3 hour nap during the afternoon). He has no fever today and is back to his chattering, busy self. You'd never know he had been ill to look at him as he doesn't even have a sniffle. Because of the fever, I'm still going to take the precaution of keeping him away from the playgroup this weekend.

Michael may be full of beans but Phil and I aren't doing quite so well. A combination of not getting enough sleep and the weather being so depressing have led to us feeling rather flat. I think we'll be getting a take-away and watching trashy TV tonight.

Michael and Xinx seem to be getting on very well. We have a baby gate separating the kitchen from the living room and this afternoon Michael was standing against the bars whilst Xinx and I were in the kitchen. Much to Michael's amusement, Xinx kept dashing from one end of the kitchen to the other and meowing at him. Since Xinx is such a tiny little cat (only 3kg) he is perfectly sized to become Michael's sidekick.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

What will today bring?

Michael and I have caught Phil's cold and Michael is really suffering with it. He woke at 5am with a runny nose and wheezing cry. It took about an hour to settle him back to sleep. I was very aggrieved at the time to discover that we didn't have any saline nasal spray for babies in the medicine cabinet. The one thing I needed. Phil went out to get some as soon as the chemist opened this morning. I hope Michael is feeling better after a good sleep but somehow I doubt he will be. At least (so far) his appetite hasn't been affected. He ate and drank enough for two babies yesterday.

It looks like we'll be missing out on going to playgroup for a third week in a row. Argh!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Unprofessional photos

Zita is supervising Michael whilst he learns how to use his new push-along walker. He was a quick study and was soon mowing down the cats with his cheerfully coloured wheels.
















"What? You think I made this mess? Silly Mama!"













Michael celebrates his success at having wedged snap-lock beads on both his thumbs. Hooray!

















This is my spoon. There are many like it but this one is mine.













This is a three-pipe problem.

Little Cheshire cat

I've been wondering lately just how much Michael understands of what we say. I was sitting on the sofa this evening and Michael was playing on the floor. I called him over to me and he obligingly dropped his little toy and meandered over. I praised him and then asked him where Dada was. He looked over at Phil. I asked again and he did the same thing. I then asked him to go to Dada and after a moments pause he cruised along the sofa and then crawled over to Phil. It may have been a fluke but we were extremely impressed. Now if only we can get him to obey the word 'no' ;o) I wish... I've been trying to teach him the concept of give and take with his shape sorter blocks. At first, he would hang on to the block as if his life depended on it when I asked him to give Mama the block. Now he flings it onto the floor. I guess that can be considered progress...

We were supposed to be taking Michael to a playgroup in Amsterdam last Sunday but Phil caught a cold and we didn't want to pass it around the other parents and babies. It was a great pity because we were looking forward to going. I'm crossing my fingers that Michael and I won't catch it and that we can go on Sunday. Phil hurt his back the previous week and if he is really unlucky then the poor guy will get his third dose of bad luck and fall down a manhole or something. He'll do anything to get out of getting Michael ready for bed ;o)

Michael has a new smile. The day before yesterday he turned to me, screwed up his eyes and showed me a big, toothy grin. It is both adorable and hysterical. I was wondering where on earth he picked it up, because it didn't seem all that natural a smile, when I noticed Phil smiling this smile at Michael this morning. If he has started copying Phil then ketchup sandwiches and stealing all the cheese are soon to follow. I'll have to padlock the fridge.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Professional photos

Here is a small selection of the photos we got back from the professional photographer. We are really thrilled with them!


























































Friday, June 08, 2007

I don't get it?!?

How is it that Michael will wake at night if a mouse sneezes but is now happily napping through the biggest storm we've had in ages?!? Someone has a very cruel sense of humour...

...and now he's woken up. Ha ha ha.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Harry is not a glove puppet!

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post so a slap on the wrist for that. I'm so busy during the day that I don't find the time that I used to for posting an entry. Michael is doing incredibly well right now and has momentarily stood without support twice in the last few days. He was standing behind his push-along baby walker and just let go. He didn't even realise what he had done. I guess he'll be walking soon which is very exciting. He has eight teeth now and two more are on the way. The problem with this is that these teeth are MOLARS!

Oh God, no! I thought that the canine teeth came through before the molars but it seems I was wrong. He's been chewing everything in sight during the day, dribbling and has started to bite a lot. He doesn't hurt, but it is quite alarming to see a baby launching himself at your kneecap, all ready for a chomp. Despite all this, he's quite happy during the day. Nights are a different matter. Even with medication he will toss and turn through the night and sometimes whimpers in his sleep. I feel so sorry for him. We managed to get a look in his mouth this evening and can see angry looking points on each side of the top gum making their way down.

Michael seems to have more teeth than most babies of his age so you'd think he'd be streets ahead with finger food, wouldn't you? Not a bit of it! He will happily suck on bread or rusks and if a little bit happens to get pulled into his mouth then he'll chew it a little, stick out his tongue with a big grin to show me, and then spit it out. Ah well, he'll get there in the end. I suppose this is the price I pay for him being happy to eat vegetables. He'll even eat pumpkin without complaint and to me it smells like horse manure. On the occasions when I've had a mouthful to encourage him it has been very difficult not to look disgusted. The sooner he's eating the same food as Phil and I, the better.

I can't believe that he is going to be one year old in just two months! We're going to go to a party supply store in Lisse at the weekend to pick up balloons and other necessary party supplies. It is a pity that he is too young for a piƱata because I really fancy one of them (me? living through my child? never!)

Michael and the cats are starting to interact with each other a little more now. Ron and Zita are still rather terrified of this ham-fisted lunatic but Harry and Xinx will sometimes sit down next to him and allow him to investigate (i.e. pull their tails, squeeze their paws and tug on their fur). We watch very closely and never allow Michael to hurt them. All of my baby books advise protecting the baby from the cats very carefully. I trust the cats implicitly, it is the baby I don't trust! Harry craves any kind of attention which is becoming problematic because he would allow Michael to stick his hand up his bottom and wear him like a glove puppet if I didn't prevent it.

We finally received the professional photos from the photographer who took them back in May. When (if) we get a spare moment they'll get scanned into the computer and I'll post a couple on here. They really do look fantastic and we're very pleased with them. You can never have enough baby photos. I'm sure they'll be an excellent consolation when he is a moody, acne-ridden teenager who only communicates in grunts through his closed bedroom door.

I wonder if anyone actually looks forward to the teenage phase? If you could see the teenager that your adorable little cherub was going to turn in to, would you run a mile? Would you ever have more children? I can't imagine that teenage boys can be worse than teenage girls. My sister and I were pretty good teenagers on the whole, and I would still have run a mile rather than attempt to parent either one of us.

Time to bring this long and rambling post to a close. You might have guessed that I'm a teensy bit sleep-deprived...