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 piñata 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...