Sitting

How do you decide when a baby can officially sit? Is it a duration thing, or just the ability to hold themselves up at all?

We have made the call that Nathaniel can now officially sit. He is really quite stable and can lean over and pick up things without over balancing. We were going to take a photo to show off his skills, but he immediately decided that he would rather stand.

He has realised that in order to stand, you have to straighten your legs, but isn't quite sure how to get into an upright position. This means that he spends a lot of time lying down, having straightened his legs from a sitting position.

This is a cheating photo - he's not really sitting unaided. You'll just have to believe us that he can!

More food

Tonight we all ate pork chops, mashed potato and broccoli. Even Nathaniel! The broccoli was a great hit, but got everywhere. It had to be removed from under his chin, behind his ears, under his nails, wedged under the seat of the high chair....

In the house

Nathaniel continues to enjoy doing the washing:

All alone

Last night the Barbarellas (my female barbershop quintet) sang a gig in town and so I got the night off Nathaniel-watch. Although I have been away from him on many occasions - going to choir, when he and Ian go for a walk - they are mostly of quite short duration and I'm normally with other people. Its been almost 6 months since I did something as normal and familiar as walking into town on my own! And I greatly enjoyed it. Never let it be said that having kids doesn't make you appreciate the oddest things!

Anyway, this is all an excuse to post a picture of the Barbarellas that I came accross earlier. This is from last summer when we had our first ever solo concert. A good hour of nothing but Barbarellas - what bliss! The shirt I am wearing is the staple Micklegate Singers pregnancy concert shirt and has been worn by at least three Barbarellas so far!

Real Food

Nathaniel now owns a high chair which means that the task of eating has become much more managable! We have decided to give baby-led weaning a try which suits us rather well because we (well, Ian and I) are pretty lazy (ie don't fancy making millions of purees) and like to play with our food! For those who are not familiar with the baby-led weaning thing, it is basically an approach to weaning that involves just eating the food! As babies are physiologically capable of dealing with actual solids by 6 months, there seems little point in turning everything to mush. So instead, you just offer them real bits of food and they play with it and learn to eat it. It's just working with their instincts and letting them develop their eating skills in the same way as they do their walking and balance skills.

So, here is Nathaniel trying some green beans:

Outside

The weather has started to warm up, and so it is time to play in the yard. Ian spent the afternoon tidying it and hacking everything down to the ground, so soon we might have some good greenery. Nathaniel seemed pretty interested in the whole exercise!

Cooking

Some time ago I proudly reported that I had managed to bake some cakes while Nathaniel was asleep. I had no idea how easy I had it then! Nathaniel is not a big sleeper during the day, so the times of doing that are past. However, now that he can almost sit up, he can occupy himself a bit better and so today I suceeded to making some rock buns.

It was a close call - they almost didn't get finished. Nathaniel sat happily for a bit, but eventually got really upset at the noise of the food processor mixing stuff. Fortunately, after we had taken a break, changed a nappy and had a bit of a play in the other room, we were able to continue for long enough to just about get them in the oven!



Playing with the molecule

Sucsess!

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

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.....

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

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!

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

American Football

Meet Yorkshire's youngest North Carolina Panthers fan (I'm sure there are several!!!)


In other news, we discover that Nathaniel's presentation of his great selection of clothes, will always be hampered by my rather poor coordination skills!

Difficulty with toys

Over Christmas Nathaniel learnt how to pick stuff up, and so for a while we spent hours passing him toys which he waved around for a bit and then dropped. But now he has moved on - everthing has to be put in his mouth so that he can lick it, bite it and generally explore. This means that we have a house full of soggy toys, but has also given rise to a whole new level of frustration, as Nathaniel can't reliably get toys to his mouth! He is just as likely to bash himself around the head, poke himself in the eye or just tantalisingly graze his lips with the toy as actually get it in his mouth and so play time disolves into crying pretty quickly!

This also means that gone are the times when we could just put him on the play mat and he would entertain himself for twenty minutes, happy bashing the various hanging animals. Now he grabs them and desperately tries to insert them into his mouth which is difficult as they are suspended on rather short tethers above his head! Cue more crying!

But he is greatly enjoying his toys, as long as they can be licked and sucked!

This giraffe is very soggy!

"I'm sure I can just push them all in!"

Some things just aren't great for babies

If all else fails, there are always fingers

Nothing

Apart from snow, attending various Mums and Babies groups and drinking lots of tea with friends, not much happened this week. So here are some photos of Nathaniel doing not much....

Demon baby


"Can I get my whole fist in my mouth?"

Snow

This is Nathaniel's second lot of snow. Shame he's not big enough to make snowmen yet!

9 weeks old

Its been a fun week. On Monday we went on a cold walk with some friends along the solar system to Bishopthorpe. We braved dazzling sun and driving sleety rain and so when we got to Bishopthorpe we felt that we deserved a cup of tea at one of the pubs. That quickly turned into lunch (with a very fine pint of Bombardier), and the babies sat contentedly and made faces at all the little old ladies!

Clothes again!

On Friday we had coffee with four different sets of babies/toddlers and their parents, and so to celebrate our social whirlwind, we made raisin cakes! Actually, Nathaniel decided to have a 20 minute snooze and I figured that that was just enough time to make cakes and so prioritised cake over washing up. A very sensible decision!

Cakes!

A highlight of the week was Nathaniel deciding to sleep until 5:15am. Thats 9 hours sleep! He can do that again whenever he fancies! Obviously he hasn't repeated it!

Clothes

This week we experimented with clothes! To be honest, they are not what they are cracked up to be. It takes ages to take off and put on trousers when you are changing nappies, and socks are a total waste of time. At least sleepsuits are warm and their feet don't fall off.


A jolly moment wearing the jumper that Philippa knitted


A potatoey moment in the buggy


It has been a very smiley and grinful week, and Nathaniel has generally found everything rather exciting. He has a particular preference for watching toddlers and and laughing at them, and when we went to the cinema he liked looking at the other babies and frowning at them if they cried! Here are a couple of the least blurred pictures that I took when he was enjoing being tickled. He's not actually smiling, coz its hard to tickle and take photos at the same time, but he looks pretty contented!

Two months on!

Nathaniel is 8 weeks old today! He celebrated by sleeping from 8pm until 2am and then again until 6am. Thats almost civilised! It meant that we could have Chinese with Rosie and Pete after he had gone to bed and still get a good night's sleep! Horray!

Interested Nathaniel

Nathaniel has started to get much more interested, and hence interesting! He looks at things for a serious amount of time, and finds them all very interesting. He is still a big fan of his Old Macdonald mobile - he lies in his cot and wiggles his legs and arms and coos at it!

He favourite times of day are first thing in the morning when he has eaten, and 5pm-ish when Ian comes home from work and it is nearly bath time. But he also enjoys singing loudly to himself at convenient times such as in the library and while I am on the phone!

These photos are from first thing in the morning, hence the general lack of light. I'll try and lighten them at some point.....

Growing up

Nathaniel is really growing! He started off at 50cm, now he is 57cm long. He even has started to fit into some of his clothes. Doesn't change the fact that we are mostly too lazy to bother with clothes when there are babygrows available!


I assume he is not planning on becoming a boxer!

Raaaaaahhhhhhh!

...and then he smiled!

Now he is grinning at everything (especially us!)

...and then he waved his arms....

Suddenly, everything has become very exciting!

...and then blew his nose....

Even the gas man who came to service the boiler has been giving me lectures about how we can't take enough photos!! So here are some more:
At two weeks

We share an interest in sleeping!

On the play mat at 4 weeks

But still not big enough for the 0-3 months clothes!

Geocaching

Many moons ago we collected a travel bug from the deep south and had every intention of dropping it off somewhere in Leeds in the hope that a slight;y more ethnically diverse location would aid it in its quest to get to India. And I did try! Several lunch times saw a shifty looking pregnant woman prowling St George's Field with a GPS. But there were always far to many pesky students around for me to actually locate the cache, and so the bug is still with us.

We realised that this wasn't really on, so we made the most of today's glorious autumnal weather to introduce Nathaniel to geocaching. Admittedly, he fell asleep in his buggy minutes after we left the house, but we enjoyed an easy find in a little out of the way graveyard which we knew off but had never been into, and a lovely sunshiny walk.

Nathaniel finds his fist geocache (its rather camoflagued against his buggy)