Saturday 28 February 2009

Food

For a series of complicated reasons, we ended up spending this week in Abingdon where Ian tried to fight off the plague and watched all three Lord of the Rings films in about 3 hrs (with lots of use of the fast forward button!).

However, being at home meant that we could make use of Mf's great camera and take lots of photos. Here are some of the nicest:






Nathaniel has been showing an increasing interest in food lately, so we thought that it might be time for him to try some. We happened to be eating some rather fine homemade pea and ham soup at the time of the conversation, so a finger dipped in soup seemed to be a good start. He wasn't phased by it at all! He looked surprised at first when my finger tasted of something more interesting than finger, and then was keen for more and more and more. The next day he had some mashed potato all of his own, which also went down rather well. The only real down side to the experiment was that later that day, when sitting at the table while we ate, Nathaniel got rather irritated when finding that any finger he was able to get to his mouth didn't taste of anything interesting! Steak and chips next!!


Nathaniel is keen to have more soup-covered finger

Thursday 12 February 2009

Perks of the job

There are some times that I miss sitting in my cosy office with the paper and a cup of tea thinking complicated thoughts about science outreach. And then there are times when I'm really pleased that I am not!

Today Nathaniel and I went for a walk in the park with two friends, one baby and one dog. We had fun playing catch and met a crazily large newfoundland called Yogi. It started to snow and we played on the ice on the pond. Then we went and bought veg for supper and sat on the bench outside the rather posh coffee shop drinking amazing coffee, feeding the dog treats and watching the snow. Surreal, but fun.

Then we went back to a friend's for lunch and met some other friends for a walk. We walked along the racecourse and across Hob Moor in the blizzard and amused ourselves by trying to push buggies through the drifts and having to un-block the wheels when they got full of snow. Except our buggy's wheels, coz it is a great buggy! We stopped in Acomb and had more coffee and cake and then walked back in even more snow!

That's a pretty good day. Pictures to follow.....

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Getting Anywhere

Everything has slowed down. Not because Nathaniel has a cold. Not because I am sleepy. But because Nathaniel has to look and explore everything.

Just walking through a door is a long job because Nathaniel has to feel, lick and generally explore the door frame, door knob and anything else that is hanging around. Drinking tea while holding him has become an absolute no-no because he likes to feel the cup and preferably put his nose inside it! All cutlery has to be kept at arms length (which results in tantrums) because he likes to brain himself with it and then gag when trying to swallow it! Even feeding him is complicated because he likes to combine eating with feeling my nose and sticking his fingers into my nostrils!

It was cute to start off with, but now we are starting to wish that he was still occupied by a cuddly toy!

Nathaniel gets irritated that he can't eat the washing basket

Saturday 7 February 2009

The cold

It has been properly cold here and we have had proper snow. A good few inches!



Those who are abroad will not be surprised to hear that Britain has pretty much shut down, travel is not advised and the media is claiming that the economic downturn is somehow related to the snow and it will all end in tears (go figure.....!)!

I have greatly enjoyed tramping in the snow, but my favourite Ocean Fest wellies have met their demise and so I am having to enjoy it in boring green wellies! Ian has enjoyed the snow less, due to having to walk to work in gaiters and walking boots and changing when he gets to the office, and Nathaniel is pretty unbothered by the whole snow situation. He doesn't yet know that the world isn't normally fluffy and white!

Nathaniel has properly grown out of his snuggly pram suit, so we bought a new one labeled 3-6 months from Mamas and Papas using the vouchers that we have been given. I put it on him, and was somewhat surprised to find that it was rather too snug. When we held it up against the old suit we found that it was pretty much the same size as his old, 0-3 month Next suit! Moral of this story - Mamas and Papas babies are freakishly small! So at the minute he is wearing the suit that Alex and Julliet gave him for Christmas. Its officially 6-9 months, so its pretty big, but it still keeps him rather warm and has the added advantage of making him look like a bear!

Sunday 1 February 2009

Looking at things

Nathaniel's new interest is the bathroom taps! When you go into the bathroom he leans down and wants to look at and then play with the taps in the sink. Its probably because they are so shiny!

Of course, once you are playing in the sink, there are many other fun things to explore. This led to the sad demise of my 12 year old jelly babies mug - it didn't bounce when it hit the floor.


Yesterday we took advantage of the sunshine and went for a cold walk near Castle Howard. It really was cold! Nathaniel had two hoods as well as a hat and he still decided that the best bet was to snuggle down against Ian and go to sleep! But even if he wasn't that impressed with the scenery, we very much enjoyed getting out of York and seeing hills. The haziness made everything look like it was really frosty so it was really beautiful.
Nathaniel decides to sleep rather than look at the view