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July 29 Hanging aroundWhen Katie's playing in her bouncer I try to get her to kick an object in front of her - she's going to have to learn to be a football superstar at some point, after all.
My success so far has been patchy. In the video below she does a great job of ignoring me as I try to get her to kick a soft cube (the very same cube that she has previously launched across the kitchen floor with ease).
Nappy count: next stop 900Week 23 is over and we've reached 887 on the nappy count (see box top left of this blog).
By this time next week we'll be through the 900 barrier.
We're on course to reach 1,000 on the weekend of Saturday August 25.
Now there's a date for your diary, eh?
We've got a bottle of champagne in the fridge but I suspect we'll have drunk it before then as we are planning a picnic with some friends (including Tony the cakeman) for next month. Foot and mouthAbout a week ago Urs told me that Katie grabbed hold of her own foot and stuck it in her mouth.
It's taken a week for her to repeat this achievement in my presence: this morning she did it for me.
And she can do it with either foot.
By the way, Urs can still do this with her own feet, which is impressive.
I know I cannot. So, solids accrueFirst weaning steps were taken yesterday.
Urs was eating a pear and let Katie suck on it a bit. It was a very hard conference pear so she couldn't bite anything off it.
Later in the day Urs let Katie nibble one of the sweet potato chunks I had cooked. This was soft enough for her to get little bits out of. Time for more TeletubbiesI bought four more Teletubbies videos from charity shops yesterday.
I realised I'd rather watch new adventures than replay the old ones. July 27 Time for TeletubbiesMy experience of the Teletubbies started disastrously and has now improved.
I bought Katie a Teletubbies video (from a charity shop, obviously). I put it in the video player. It didn't work. We had to throw it away.
Undeterred, I bought six more (from a charity shop, obviously). The first one I put in the video player got chewed up and the tape wrapped itself around the innards of the player. Urs rescued the situation by cutting the tape and binning the video.
Two videos, two in the bin.
However, the other five do work and I'm pleased to say they keep Katie calm in the evening at the point when she would otherwise start a bit of whinging.
They keep her dad calm too, truth be told. Gas and airThis week's University Challenge featured some more questions about the periodic table of elements, including one about halogen gases which, I'm proud to say, I got right.
July 24 Pinky Parrot reaches element number 75Which is Rhenium.
Katie paid attention this time so I assume she's learning.
Background:
Regular readers will know that with the help of Pinky Parrot (a character on Katie's activity mat) I am teaching our daughter the periodic table of elements so she will not end up joining the Abso generation and will be able to answer questions on University Challenge, particularly about the Lanthanide series.
Regular readers will also know that all the above is basically done in jest because I got annoyed about a government-sponsored report that said that kids who go to nursery are more likely to become anti-social (and because I wanted to learn all the elements because I'm a bit sad like that). July 22 Family visitKatie's granny (Urs' mum), her uncle Rob and his fiancée Leo visited yesterday.
Granny's house had a leaky roof so despite not being in a flood area (and there are plenty of those around the country this weekend) it still ended up rather wet, what with water streaming down the walls.
Katie, as usual when she has visitors, was on her best behaviour, smiling and charming. July 20 The next NCT nearly new saleThe next NCT nearly new sale that takes place close to where we live is not until September but as usual my mind is racing ahead and thinking of tactics to ensure we do better than we did last time in the whirlwind of parents trying to bag a bargain.
Is this good planning or just a bit sad?
You can answer that.
A few peope have told me that they read my previous note about NCT nearly new sales and took my advice of getting there early when a sale cropped up near them. See? This blogging thing works, doesn't it? July 18 New weightJust got a text message: "Hello Daddy. I've put on 6.5oz in two weeks. I now weigh 12lb 10.5oz - still less than a parasol base. Love Katie x." Playing...with my mindI put Katie on the activity mat when I got home last night.
I put things just out of her reach, the idea being that she had to roll to her side to get them.
Try as she might she couldn't get the rolling technique working, despite my best encouragement.
Then Urs called me outside to admire our new parasols (see entry below about Health and Safety).
I was out the room for fewer than two minutes but when I came back all the items I had placed out of Katie's reach were suddenly in different positions. Some that had been to her left were now to her right, another was just above her head etc and she was just where I had left her.
How did she manage that? Health and Safety gone madWe recently ordered some parasols so we can spend time with Katie in the garden without the sunburn worries.
We also bought some bases - usually a good idea if you want your parasol to stand up.
They all arrived yesterday.
Each base came in its own box with a bright yellow sticker on it: "Two-person lift. Caution. Extremely heavy load. Customers should seek assistance from staff to lift this item."
How much did this "extremely heavy load" weigh?
9.5 kilos (about 21lbs) - less than double Katie's current weight.
How much does your baby weigh? Is s/he an extremely heavy load? Is s/he a two-person lift? Are you seeking assistance from staff? July 16 Awash with difficultyIn the first few weeks I was getting bad back pain.
This was due to my bending over the bath in which I was washing Katie.
We fixed this by buying a bath stand. The stand is set up on the floor of the bathroom and the bath placed on top so I can bath Katie while standing.
This made a huge difference to my back.
But last week a small incident occurred.
I unwittingly got my finger caught in the loop of the bath's plastic plug and when I moved my hand water started flooding out of the bath onto the floor.
I yelled "Help!" and Urs came running in, presumably fearing the worst.
But the good news was that I hadn't thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
She took Katie and I mopped up.
On a separate note, baths had been fine for months until one day Katie decided she was going to go through a week or two of just whinging, crying and generally being very difficult about the whole thing. It made it a lot less fun.
We tried changing a few things but nothing in particular seemed to make the difference.
A couple of weeks later she calmed down and it's gone back to being a pleasure to bath her and put her to bed every night. July 14 Daddies SauceSince Katie came along the range of culinary delights that I can make has widened - Urs plays with/feeds Katie, I make the dinner and I've started doing more of the things that Urs used to make.
One of these is a cheese sauce.
The recipe works quite well but best of all it gives me the opportunity to call it "Daddies Sauce". Of course, because I make it and there's only one of me and it's not a brand I actually call it "daddy's sauce" but let's not split hairs.
I did some searching for the original Daddies Sauce (that brown spicy sauce that goes well with a cooked British breakfast) - Heinz moved production from the UK to the Netherlands, apparently, but you can still get it in most supermarkets.
It also features on quite a few shopping sites for Brit expats. July 10 Roll play - another updateThe second full roll was reported this morning - and she wasn't unhappy about it this time.
Crikey, she'll be crawling and who knows what else before we know it... Dirty activityGot an e-mail from Urs:
"We've had a bit of a dirty disaster on the activity mat. She dirtied her nappy while lying on her back. No seepage so I continued with breakfast. She then turned herself on to her front. Ok for a bit and then distressed. Her white vest had turned mostly yellow... Mat dirty too :-( "
That's the activity mat that Katie's uncle Rob bought. He probably won't be laughing now... Silent nightLast night was the first night that Katie has slept the whole night through. Yippee!
No wonder I'm feeling vaguely awake today.
It was not without its challenges, though. She went to bed overtired and cried/screamed for half an hour or so before finally settling down. Made it very difficult to concentrate on watching Tour de France highlights, let alone answering questions on University Challenge  .ElementaryLast night the new series of University Challenge started with a good contest between Nottingham and Lancaster (well, between four students from their respective universities).
As the familiar theme tune kicked in I said to Urs that I hoped there would be a question about the Lanthanide series of chemical elements.
Regular readers will know that with the help of Pinky Parrot (a character on Katie's activity mat) I am teaching our daughter the periodic table of elements so she will not end up joining the Abso generation and will be able to answer questions on University Challenge, particularly about the Lanthanide series.
Regular readers will also know that all the above is basically done in jest because I got annoyed about a government-sponsored report that said that kids who go to nursery are more likely to become anti-social (and because I wanted to learn all the elements because I'm a bit sad like that).
Lo and behold, barely three minutes into the quiz Jeremy Paxman asks: "Often called rare earth metals..."
Urs actually got the answer out - Lanthanides - before I did.
See, all that work does pay off. |
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