Got a text message today:

 

"Hello Daddy. I've put on 5oz this week. I now weigh 11lb 2.5oz. Love Katie x"

 

It's become a fun routine to receive these messages and as Katie is refusing to take any top-up formula right now it's important for us to know that she is putting on weight. 

 

Urs took Katie to Lizzie's house yesterday.

 

Lizzie is 10 months old and her parents are friends of ours.

 

Lizzie's dad told Urs to be wary of Lizzie's sock snatching habit - she would probably pull off Katie's socks.

 

And indeed she did.

 

She crawled over to Katie and grabbed the socks right off her feet.

 

A dexterous act, certainly.

 

Katie was pretty calm about it.

 

But she would be.

 

She spends a lot of effort kicking her socks off by herself so to have a friend do it for her must have been great.

We've got a lot better at spotting when Katie is tired.

 

Early on we didn't have much of a plan around her sleeping and probably kept her awake for longer than she needed because we were waiting for her to fall asleep before putting her down.

 

Now (on a good day, at least) we spot the areas around her eyes going dark pink, we notice that she stops moving quite so much but might kick or whine and we see her scrunching herself up when held and immediately take her upstairs where we go through a routine including drawing the curtains.

 

She'll whine and cry for 30 seconds (well that's as little as it seems these days) and then she's out like a light.

 

Wonderful.

 

No way of knowing whether it'll be for 45 mintues or three hours, of course...

You get a lot of advice when you're a parent of a baby.

 

From people you know to people you've never met before and will never see again, everyone seems ready to offer an opinion.

 

I was in a queue in the supermarket with Katie a few weeks ago. She was crying. She'd just been fed and simply needed to be taken home for her next nap. "She's hungry," opined the chap behind me in the queue.

 

I smiled and said nothing.

 

The fact is, nobody knows your child as well as you do.

 

One type of advice is official advice be it government (I was given a leaflet that said nothing more than 'Don't shake a baby' in a lot of different languages) or advice from your Health Visitor or midwife. This is well worth following although there's nothing to stop you asking them questions about it - what are the risks, what are the alternatives, what if I don't do it etc. And remember that in years to come government advice will change again as new research is published.

 

Another type of advice is the one you seek out - we've bought a few books, some have stuff in that works for you and your baby and some don't. You have to decide what works for you.

 

And another type of advice is the stuff I'm talking about. People thinking they know best or just wanting to be helpful or meaning well or just saying something for the sake of saying something. You get a lot of it and some is useful but the vast majority is just noise; you have to find a way to filter it without getting too annoyed. If you don't it will drive you to despair.

 

A work colleague who is a dad of many years sent me an e-mail before Katie was born: "The best piece of advice I got was to ignore everyone else's advice."

 

And that's the one piece of advice I do recommend.

Pinky Parrot, the character on Katie's activity mat who is teaching her the elements in the periodic table, has excelled himself.

 

He can now recite up to element 64 - gadolinium, which, yes indeed, is in the Lathanide series, which, as we know, is important when it comes to answering questions on University Challenge.

 

See an earlier entry for more details on the background to all this.

Bank Holiday today so I guess we won't be doing any banking.

 

We have, however, recently set up a savings account for Katie.

 

Children's savings accounts aren't usually the most effective way to build a large pot of money for them - you can get better rates with the best cash ISA in your own name, parents can contribute only £200 a year to their offspring's savings before the taxman starts to take an interest and long-term growth is normally best achieved via stock market investments rather than cash (hello Child Trust Fund, which we have also sorted and which I shall return to on another occasion).

 

But I do think that having an account where relatives' birthday presents (if Katie is lucky enough to receive any) can be deposited and where Katie can see her money grow is a good way for her to learn some of the basics of personal finance. Make sure you fill in and sign form R85 - it ensures you child's savings don't get taxed.

Our friends David, Elayne and Tony visited Katie yesterday.

 

Unfortunately I was at work so wasn't able to see them.

 

They stayed til after 6pm so it sounds like they had a great time.

 

They also bought Katie some nice clothes.

 

How times have changed: we used to meet up and go for drinks and dinner in London, usually involving extremely large quantities of wine.

 

Now you might think that a home visit would therefore be a lot healthier for all involved but Tony clearly had other ideas. He enthusiastically purchased the world's entire supply of cakes and brought them along. However, it did mean that (even after the four of them had enjoyed quite a few) I had an excellent slice of cheesecake when I got home.

 

Which leaves just a pack shortbread, a pack of Battenbergs and a couple of cream slices to get through. And there's a nice-looking box of chocolates in the fridge too, which my mum bought for Urs.

 

Could be quite a calorific long weekend...

Got a text while I was at a company offsite in France yesterday: "Hello Daddy. I've put on 4oz this week. I now weigh10lb 13.5oz. Love Katie x."

It's now a lot easier to get Katie to smile.

 

And what a lovely cute smile she has.

 

Truly heart-melting.

 

Getting a photo of it, however, is more difficult.

 

Get her smiling and whip out the camera and she'll immediately stop smiling because she's focusing intently on the camera lens.

The first FA Cup final that I remember was Man Utd vs Southampton in 1976.

 

I fell asleep during the day and so missed the live action.

 

That meant I was allowed to stay up to watch Match of the Day for the first time.

 

Man Utd lost 1-0.

 

Yesterday was Katie's first final and she followed in her dad's footsteps. Man Utd were in it and Katie fell asleep, thereby missing the action.

 

But frankly, the first 20 minutes were so dull and that even the players seemed to be asleep.

 

I took Katie out in the buggy and listened to the rest of the game on the radio. We wandered around for more than two hours with Katie fast asleep (we even managed a trip to the hardware store where we bought some roof felt for our shed - I do take her to all the nicest places).

 

Man Utd lost 1-0.

 

I felt like I had made the right decision to go out rather than watch what was a poor match - not the ideal way to mark the official opening of the new Wembley stadium but at least Drogba's extra time goal was quite good.

 

Katie did not stay up to watch Match of the Day. We saw the goal replayed when we got home and let's face it there was nothing else in the entire game that was worth watching. Giggs' 'goal' was not a goal - yes, it went over the line but only because Giggs collided with the goalkeeper (otherwise known as a foul), so no whining please Reds fans.

 

Katie hopes that when she grows up she'll be able to watch Wycombe Wanderers in the final.

 

It's good to have dreams, isn't it?

I forgot to mention that a few days ago Katie was sick on our new sofa.

 

It is reasonably wipe-clean so the smudge doesn't show.

 

Too much.

I took Katie to be weighed today.

 

She has put on a few ounces and now weighs 10lbs 9.5 ounces.

 

This is in line with the current percentile thingy she seems to be on, which is good (apparently).

The Pinkster is at again.

 

He's now reached element number 40 in his recital of the periodic table.

 

I'm sure Katie is taking it all in.

 

 

You will recall, of course, that to prevent Katie ending up in the Asbo generation (according to a recent report kids who go to nursery, which she will do in a few months' time, are apparently more likely to become anti-social - a claim I do not take seriously, as you have probably worked out) it has been decided that she will improve her brainpower, sociability and chances of answering questions on University Challenge by learning the periodic table of elements. And Pinky Parrot, a character on her activity mat, is the one chosen to recite the table to Katie. Unfortunately he has to learn the elements too so progess is fitful.

Been away for a few days.

 

We took Katie to a cottage in Berkshire that a friend of ours had hired so we could all meet up.

 

Good fun.

 

Took Katie a while to settle in - new surroundings and people etc.

 

She's sleeping well during the day but night times are problematic again.

 

We wonder if the formula milk we have been topping her up with is causing her a bit of unrest.

 

It's certainly making her nappies smellier!

Katie marked Tony Blair's announcement that he would be quitting as Prime Minister next month - by being sick over all the sheets in her cot in the middle of the night.

 

Draw your own conclusions as to her political views.

Katie was weighed again yesterday and had lost an ounce.

 

Not ideal but not time for panic stations either.

 

Urs has been on some antibiotics recently which have diminished her appetite. The course is now over.

 

The good news is that Katie is expending less energy crying now than before - we can put her down in the cot and she tends to drop off to sleep within about 10 minutes.

 

And Pinky Parrot made it to element 20 of the periodic table yesterday - calcium, important for healthy growth, coincidentally.

Yes, it's true.

 

There was sleep.

 

There were visitors.

 

On the same day.

 

Four of the footie girls (former team mates of Urs) paid Katie a visit, which was nice.

 

Usually being passed around from stranger to stranger is fun for Katie but a bit too stimulating. We often find once visitors leave she kicks off big time and doesn't sleep.

 

But not yesterday.

 

She had gone to sleep minutes after being put down in the cot - twice - before her guests arrived.

 

And although her other naps were short she settled down in the evening and got a good few hours in.

 

And one her visitors kindly gave her a nice new change bag.

 

Plus: we actually got a few things done over the long weekend - booked a holiday, put our books on shelves, cut the lawn, went shopping, ordered a new printer for our PC, caught up on some CSI episodes. As a new parent you suddenly find you don't have a lot of time to get some of those basic things sorted that you used to feel you had all day for.

 

All in all a very good long weekend.

Katie has a fascination with books on shelves.

 

When we take her over the street to visit our neighbours she's always calm when held in front of the bookcase.

 

And now that we have finally unpacked our books and put them on our new bookcases in the lounge Katie is having the same fun in her own home.

 

Her eyes do not stay fixed on the same book, you can see them moving as she scans the massed ranks of rectangles in front of her.

 

I wonder which book will become her favourite...

The snooker World Championships are on TV at the moment.

 

And Katie loves it.

 

If I hold her so she can see the screen she watches the action for long periods and is quite calm.

 

The picture does not move a lot, which I am sure helps.

 

But you'd have thought it wasn't particularly captivating because at this age she shouldn't be able to discern between all the colours, so really she's watching it mainly in black and white.

 

Maybe I can get a refund on my colour TV licence!

I'm delighted to say that Pinky Parrot can now recite the first 19 elements of the periodic table (that's from hydrogen to potassium).

 

And is likely to be doing so with alarming regularity.

 

You will recall, of course, that to prevent Katie ending up in the Asbo generation (according to a recent report kids who go to nursery, which she will do in a few months' time, are apparently more likely to become anti-social - a claim I do not take seriously, as you have probably worked out) it has been decided that she will improve her brainpower, sociability and chances of answering questions on University Challenge by learning the periodic table of elements.

 

Top work, Pinky.