“He’s like… a giant!”

I’ve just been upstairs in Jack’s bedroom helping Claire put him into a baby sleep-suit for the night after she had fed him his nightly milk, when Claire pointed out the size of our child, saying “Oh my God, he’s like a giant!”, claiming that “he must have grown… today!”.

Well, there’s a good chance that he has, I suppose, but whether he’s grown the inch or two that Claire’s making out since last night is a little doubtful! And thankful really, as he’s getting through clothes a bit quicker now that he’s growing!

Admittedly though, tonight he did seem to be a fair size, laying face down in his cot, with his arms to his sides and legs straight-ish, compared to the size he was when we first started using that cot with him; back then, he was all small, tiny and scrunched-up anyway, but then he’d sleep in a sort-of vertical foetal position, laying on his front with his bum up in the air, with his arms and knees tucked in. He still does that occasionally when we first put him to bed, but in the mornings, it’s quite random as to the position he’s laying in, let alone the orientation of the bed that he’s wriggled into overnight!

Aside from his height, he’s starting to get heavy too – picking him up and carrying him around the house, we’re starting to notice it a bit more very recently!

Little fattie!!

Nose-job, anyone?

He’s getting more and more entertaining to be around recently. He’s always been a bit of an attention-magnet, but he’s starting to do things, as well as trying to say things, that really make us smile!

Like today for example:

I’ve had a bit of a pants day at work, staying late to get some stuff done, which means getting stuck in lots of traffic on the way home. When I got there, Claire and Jack turned up just minutes after I did, as they had been at a swimming lesson. From what Claire’s said, he should have been absolutely knackered tonight, as he hadn’t slept a great deal and had been splashing around in the pool.

I went out to the car to help bring him in and he’s smiling away and jabbering away as is becoming normal, except he had no trousers on, as once Claire had dressed him, he crawled through a puddle in the changing room and got soaked! When I opened the car door, it was absolutely baking in there, as Claire was trying to make sure he didn’t get cold! She had put a dry pair of backup-socks on him, and wrapped a blanket over him, but he’s a dab-hand at getting socks off, and does so with a devilish look about him too, so he’s sitting there in just a jumper, coat and his nappy!

I brought him in and took him straight upstairs to get some trousers and socks on him and, standing him on the changing unit, he’s raised both hands and landed them on both of my ears, and then comes at me with his mouth wide open, trying to bite my nose off!

Luckily, I survived this time, but he’s getting quicker and quicker each time. Apart from dribbling right down the front of my t-shirt, he didn’t cause any damage, but I don’t think he’s doing it to hurt, but think maybe this is some sort of baby-affection? Who knows.

Or maybe:

At the dinner table, he’ll be chewing away on some strange-looking carrot-based crispy thing, and he’ll offer it to you as innocently as anything and allow you to take hold of it, and then not let go as though he’s changed his mind, again with the devilish look.

It’s not necessarily that because he’s ours that I find some of the little things he does funny, but for a baby, he’s not half bad.

Some random Dad-like thoughts

A year ago, things were starting to seem a little more… ‘real’, with regards to this whole baby-lark.

Claire was, by then, heavily pregnant and carrying the warning label that she could plop-out a baby anytime.

As daft as it sounds now, for someone like me that has had absolutely nothing to do with babies (ever), this was a shock waiting to happen.

Blissfully unaware of what would be happening from one day to the next, little did I know how things worked, when they would happen and the consequences of them happening.

I know that we had been to the antenatal classes and all that, but that was the driving *theory* lesson that I took before I started to learn to drive. Knowledge? Out. Learn by experience? Most definitely, in.

Everything turned out well though. A year on, Jack’s doing great. He’s keeping us on our toes and although he does like a routine, nothing ever seems to be set in stone with him. Some mornings he wakes up early, around 5:30-6:00am, and then some mornings, like the other morning, he was still fast asleep at 7am, and had to wake him up so that we could take him to his Grandparents house whilst we went to work!

It’s good fun being a dad though. I can’t speak for Claire being his mum, obviously, but I enjoy it. Poo-y bums, I don’t. Playing with the toys and teaching him things, yep.

My folks still have our Scalextric set from when we were 7 or 8 years old (blimey, 22/23 years ago!!) but I’m not allowed to have it until our Jack (and any others we may have) are old enough to play with it. Same for the train-set, but I wasn’t as keen on that as I was Scalextric. (I had a red Ferrari, similar to the one in Jack’s photo flashcard – coincidence? no.)

I remember when we were kids, my dad was always playing with our toys too. I’d build the Lego Forklift Truck that I had for Christmas or my Birthday, to wake up the following morning to find that my dad had “did an A-Team job” on it, making it an armoured forklift truck that was then 4x wheel steered instead of 2x. I didn’t mind too much afterwards, but seeing the thing you’d spend hours building be ‘pimped’ like that wasn’t funny. But it is now, and I' can’t guarantee that I won’t do the same to Jack’s Lego-equivalent!

It’s true what they say, though, in terms of your body gets used to a change in sleep patterns, and surprisingly, you can function on 4 to 5 hours sleep if you need to. That’s not to say that you’re not useless at work the next day, but hey.

Car! Ca! Ka! Kar! Kah! – Part 2

In the first post about this, I said how we’d got the various photos from Google Images of a car, a motorbike, etc and printed them out on 7”x5” photo-cards, laminated them and stuck them around the playroom as flashcards.

Well, actually, he’s not half bad! And, that’s not me or Claire making it up.

Here’s my proof that he knows what things are called, but not necessarily know how to pronounce their names.

If I carry Jack into the middle of the room and hold him whilst I kneel down on the floor, I can ask him where the car is, namely the bright red Ferrari which is in the centre under the window. Easy, really, as he knows these things that drive around outside are called cars, and that’s the one that most resembles a car.

But then, if I ask him where the van is, he’ll look around, seeing the motorbike and the double-decker bus that are to the left of the car, ignore them, swing his head around to the right of the car, sometimes looking around me, to see a white Ford Transit van on the wall perpendicular to the window-wall. Then, you can see his eyes lock onto it, like a bird of prey seeing a mouse, and whilst his smile forms on his face, his hand is already up with his finger extending the best he can, pointing to the van.

Ok, I could have trained him to do that. So, he knows where the car and the van are, but then if you ask where the motorbike is, you can see his expression on his face change, as if to say, “ooh, I know that one… where is it?” and then scan the images again, looking for the Orange County Chopper motorbike photo.

Between the car and the van is the photo of the Land Rover Defender, which I’m calling a Truck, and he can find that too. To the left of the motorbike, is the double-decker bus and he can do that one too.

The others, namely the helicopter, aeroplane, tractor and Eddie Stobart artic lorry, haven’t had much attention from us yet. But in terms of early progress, I think he’s doing great! Claire still gets confused sometimes as to what they’re called! (Joke!)

Admittedly, if you were to ask him what any of them are called, they’re all cars, but I’m working on that!

Car! Ca! Ka! Kar! Kah!

However he’s saying it, he’s saying it when pointing at cars. And vans. Buses… and articulated lorries too.

But he seems to think that things that drive by outside the window of the house are called ‘cars’ and although he’s wrong on a technicality, he’s not a million miles away really.

So, as he’s trying to say words that he can’t pronounce, I thought I’d help him to be clear what we’re talking about with flash-cards of different vehicles.

Claire’s already printed out a load of photos that are laminated as flash-cards that Jack’s got in his playroom upstairs, but hers are of family members that he may not see everyday and that we can get him to point at, etc. I video’d him standing at the door-gate in the playroom, whilst encouraging him to come over and pick put his Great Granny from the scattered photos on the floor, and although you might not believe me here, he did exactly that. Straight over to her photo, no messing, from a selection of about 8 photos of other people. He’s small and dribbley but he’s not daft.

Obviously, one vehicle from each category, without straying into vehicles such as those two wheel contraptions that you stand on and lean forward/backward/etc.

I’ve printed them out in full colour, all on 7”x5” glossy photo cards and will laminate them ready for Jack to have in his playroom, maybe even stuck to the wall around the room.

We’ll find out how he gets on…

Routines

We always tried to keep Jack in a routine, and haven’t always got it right the first time, but we’re new to this parenting too.

One of the things that we was taught in the antenatal classes before Jack was born, was that “babies need a routine”. I think I might have mentioned about this in the past, but here goes again, a little way down the line this time, as things have changed as he’s grown up a bit more.

Jack has slept through the night since he was about 11 weeks old, which has been fantastic. He started to wake in the night or really early in the morning because of illness, or teething. But recently, he’s been back to ‘normal’ again and so here’s what a typical day might look like.

06:00-06:45

Jack wakes up and usually starts to jabber to himself and then he starts to realise that he’s on his own and starts to fake-cry a little bit. One of us gets up and changes his nappy and cheers him up a little bit by playing with his toys or reading some of his books.

07:00

We’ll go downstairs and get some breakfast for Jack. Recently this means that we make his breakfast whilst Jack pushes the chairs in the kitchen around the room, using it as a means of getting about without having to crawl.

As we've put the child-locks on the kitchen doors, his attention then turns to the dustbin, which then has to be lifted onto the side unit. Claire’s put a stash of toys in the kitchen for him to play with whilst we’re in there, but these are a little different to his normal toys upstairs, as she’s put a selection of (new) kitchen utensils in there, which I thought was odd to start with, but when she explained that they’ve all got different textures, shapes, etc, it all made sense. But no, there’s no knives or anything dangerous, so don’t worry.

He’ll normally have one of a selection of baby porridges that we have for him, each with different flavours, fruit, etc that you simply mix with about 3-4oz of his plastic (formula) milk. After he’s had that, he’ll have some baby yoghurt. Or not, as the case may be.

I tend to leave the mess that Jack makes with his food, as well as his spoons and bowl, etc on the table for later, so it means that he’s not bored whilst I clean up.

07:30-07:45

After breakfast, we get Jack washed in the shower or in the bath. He really likes bath-times and can be in there splashing around for well over an hour before he starts to get bored. He’s got all his toys in there as well, but he’s much rather play with the taps, or even yank on the chain, pulling the plug out meaning more water required.

Once he’s out, he’s fitted with a new nappy and is dressed ready for the day. Providing that nothing messy happens throughout the day, these are the clothes that he’ll stay in until bedtime at night. These are usually a white baby-grow with jeans and t-shirt over the top, with socks to boot. These clothes instantly make him look like a grown-up, as even though they’re small and baby-sized, it gives the impression that he’s older than he is.

08:30-09:00

Assuming Jack’s not still in the bath, this is about the time that he’ll start getting tired; rubbing his fists into his eyes, and stretching his mouth for a good old yawn or two. We get his milk ready and take him upstairs to his bedroom. We’ve been doing this little routine of lowering the blinds and closing the curtains in his bedroom and telling him that it’s bedtime… I think it’s probably more for our benefit than his, but telling him isn’t a bad thing I don’t think.

Sleeping during the day can go either way; 45 minutes in the morning and then longer in the afternoon, or the other way around. Depending on what we’ve been doing with him in the morning can sometimes wear him out more and make him sleep longer first thing, which is good as it means that we’ve then got a good gap in the morning to clean up in the kitchen from breakfast, as well as have a breather generally.

Once he wakes up, we carry on as before and play with his toys, but now’s the time that he’d be going to any baby groups with Claire, such as swimming, or Rhyme-Time in the library in town, etc. Alternatively, now’s a great time to nip to Tesco’s to check out the “honey’s and the mummies”. And possibly get a few bits too.

12:00-12:30

Lunchtime for Jack. Again, he’ll play happily on the floor in the kitchen whilst we’re zapping his food in the microwave. Claire’s still been making good, proper food for Jack and freezing it in ice-cube style blocks in the freezer. His food for lunchtime and evening meals would have been moved from the freezer into the fridge overnight to defrost in time.

They don’t take long to heat in the microwave, and that’s a good thing, as sometimes he can get a little hungry and present this in form of whining and fake-crying. His favourite food at the moment tends to be fish-based; I know that when I open the pot to see what he’s got for the day and am faced with what literally looks like deep-green-coloured slime, (cod and spinach) he’ll love it and scoff the lot.

For dessert, again, more food prepared previously by master-chef Claire, but usually fruit-based. Again, his current favourite is a blend of apples, pears and vanilla-pod extracts – it smells delicious. And again, he loves it and will usually have the lot.

12:30-13:00

Depending on how well lunchtime goes, this is normally the time that we’ll keep Jack in the highchair where he’s just had his lunch whilst we have ours. Of course, he won’t just sit there and be silent, so we’ll give him some fruit to eat, such as grapes sliced in half, or a slice of a apple/pear/nectarine/etc. Either way, he’ll chew his teeth into it, extracting the juice whilst simultaneously mushing the food to a pulp and spitting it into his bib that has a scoop-section to catch the falling waste. Also, we might give him some pieces of a breadstick, or some of his special baby-biscuits or baby-crisps, (made from real babies).

From here on, we’ll play or do stuff around the house with Jack, trying to keep him entertained and, more importantly, quiet. He’s got more toys in his playroom that Toys 'R’ Us stock for Christmas, so there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be busy.

14:30-15:00

Jack will start yawning and getting tired by about now, so the same process as before, we’ll start getting his milk ready and take him upstairs, close the curtains, feed him and put him to bed. By the time he reaches the end of the bottle, his eyes are almost completely closed and he’s been rolling himself over on our chests to snuggle-in whilst we’re sitting in the rocking chair with him. Snuggling means ‘proper-whacked, get me to my bed’.

As I said earlier, depending on how long he slept for earlier will usually mean he sleeps the opposite this time.

15:30

If Jack is still sleeping by about now, we tend to get and gentle wake him up, as if he’s allowed to sleep a little too long, then he either won’t go to bed on-time in the evening, or will want to wake up at silly-o’clock the following morning.

Once he’s awake, we’ll carry on playing with his toys, or take the dog for a walk down the road and into the village. When we do go for a walk, especially in this freezing cold weather, Jack’s got a sleeping bag-type attachment for his pram that keeps him warm even in arctic conditions.

17:00-17:15

Tea-time for Jack. Again, food that Claire’s prepared earlier is zapped, and served, followed by dessert.

17:45-18:00

As before, we try to keep Jack in his chair whilst we have our meal, this time he’s given foodstuffs that might be a little more messy, such as strawberries or tomatoes and he squishes them and slams them into the table on his high-chair before sucking the guts out of them. And spreading them around a bit more. And then slamming them a few more times.

Whatever’s leftover is then dangled perilously over the edge (without even needing to look at it) and whilst he gives you an angelic-and-then-evil sort of smile, he simply releases his grip allowing the food to be pile-driven into the floor and discarded forever. Alfie, our dog, normally likes to check out what’s fallen and scavenge anything he can.

After food, Jack is usually a right mess. He might have strawberry or tomato stuck in his hair, certainly all over his clothes and all over his lap as it fell from his mouth after the mushing. This is the time that we’ll carry him at full arm’s length upstairs to get changed and get his bed-clothes on. As soon as he gets his all-in-one outfit on, he’s a baby again. But still the same little monster.

19:30-19:45

Bedtime! No ifs, no buts: Bed. We’ll just put him in his cot like that and he’ll pull his legs and arms into himself with his bum sticking out as babies do.

Peace and quite for most of the evening, allowing us time to clear up the mess from his tea, as well as doing our our dishes etc.

21:30

We’ll go in and get Jack up to change his nappy and to feed him his last bottle of the day. He tends to fake-cry when we’re changing his nappy, but that’s to be expected when you’re all asleep and then someone wakes you up.

Once the bottle is done with, we put him back in his cot, but this time in a baby sleeping-bag, which has straps over his shoulders and a zip down one side. This will keep him toasty all night.

That’s it until the next morning, when it all starts again: Rinse and repeat.