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.

Having a ‘smashing’ time

The other morning, I managed to wangle a lie-in whilst Claire got up with Jack, as he was having ‘one of those mornings’ where he wanted to get up early.

I managed to sleep-in until about 8 o’clock in the morning, which for me at the best of times is a fantastic lie-in; When I got up, I wandered into spare bedroom, which has now transformed itself as Jack’s second bedroom/playroom, to find Claire and Jack playing quite peacefully. Although Claire looked quite bemused, thinking that I knew what had happened so far that morning.

It turns out that Jack had been a bit ‘playful’ earlier in the morning during their breakfast and had managed to reach up at the kitchen table and grab at the cloth placemat that Claire was using for her breakfast and pulled at it, bringing it and everything that was on it, onto the floor, including a plate of toast and a three-quarter-full glass of orange juice!

As Jack’s toys were already on the floor from him playing earlier, these added to the carnage that I saw when I nipped down for a peek, as Claire couldn’t clean up properly, as Jack is getting quicker with his crawling. It was as though Jack had been through the cupboards and smashed every plate going, as it looked much worse than it really was.

It has made us realise that he’s also getting taller and things that were previously out of his reach are now potential targets of destruction!

Kitchen mayhem

As Jack is old enough now to move himself about, and quite quickly too, he’s also able to reach up and grab at the kitchen cupboard door handles, which was funny to start with, as he just used to hang onto them, but now he’s more curious as to what’s inside, it’s a job to keep up with him!

I’ve just been right through every ground-based cupboard in the kitchen and have fitted those little latches that only a grown-up knows how to get in, just to be told by Claire that Jack’s worked out how to get into the cupboard in the utility room. Great.

Apparently, he pulls the door twice in quick succession and the latch gives way. This is a problem, as there’s all sorts of horrible stuff that babies shouldn’t get to see, such as bleach, or washing powder and other boring cleaning stuff like that, but it also made me smile, as you can almost see that he’s going to be trouble when he’s older.

He does things sometimes and looks at you with ‘that look’ as if he knows exactly what he’s doing and that he also knows that he’s not meant to do that, or his mum might not approve. As the token-responsible parent in the house, you can’t laugh or seem to encourage him as he’ll certainly do it again next time. But I certainly wanted to.

I mentioned something about this to my mum a little while ago, and she said they had to hide their smiles and laughter at stuff we did as kids during a telling-off, all them years ago. Personally, I can’t remember any hint of them wanting to smile or laugh, so they must have done it well, or had plenty of practice, as I do remember being told off quite a lot…

Distractions

Bit of a wide-ranging topic/title, but still quite appropriate, and here’s why:

Jack is getting to that age whereby he’s listening to what you’re saying, and although he can’t talk back, he pretty much knows what’s going on.

He’s able to point, or at the very least ‘stare’ at various objects in the room that you ask him about, such as the clock hanging on the wall in the kitchen, the telly on the sideboard, where his high-chair is, and so on. And they’re things that he understands what you’re talking about and will move to look for them.

These objects in the room have come in quite handy when he’s been having a tantrum or not eating his food, distracting him from what he was doing and allowing you a moment’s breathe to win the fight. Dirty tactics? Maybe. Does it work? Mostly.

On the other hand, there are those other distractions in the house that take Jack’s focus away from what Claire and I want him to concentrate on. The main culprit for this happens to be our friendly pooch, Alfie, who must know when to come marching into the kitchen when we’re trying to feed Jack, or stand there whimpering by the front door wanting to go out and bark at something. Jack is quite taken by Alfie and we’re really glad that they’re not scared of each other, etc, but when you’re trying to get things done first thing in the morning before getting ready yourself to go to work, it’s not the best of help you could expect from the dog.

In terms of me, this blog site and distractions, I’ve had a little too many of them myself recently. (Hence the radio-silence on here and then all of a sudden a burst of activity!) I think it’s too easy to let something like blogging slip, especially when tired after getting up at silly-o’clock in the morning with Jack and then going to work, etc, etc. Excuses, I know, but I know I enjoy writing these posts, so I’ll try to make a conscious effort!!

Maybe another problem, is that we’ve started an internal blog at work and I think it’s fair to say I’ve contributed to it enough recently, and maybe that’s taken away my blogging concentration-quota recently, (or at least the desire to blog at home), despite the topics being totally separate.

In addition to all of this, the actual amount of spare time I have is significantly reduced; something that I was fully aware would happen, and I’ve ‘tried’ to cater for it, but it’s not until you literally have *no* spare time that you appreciate it. So, when I do get a little spare time, I’ve got work/projects that I want to get on and do, and this ‘playtime’ comes mostly at about 8pm – 10pm.

I’m not moaning or complaining about any of this, it’s just that I think that this is a key area of being a parent that I think is worth highlighting for those who have not yet had the joys of being a parent. Maybe this is why parents look forward to shipping their children out when they’re old enough to move out, as the spare time factor returns? Only another 18 years left then…

The snow is falling…

Snow. Great when you’re inside looking out, but horrible when you’re out in it.

The last time it snowed here, was on the 5th February, the day after Jack was born. Why do I remember that? Well, that was the day that the nice policeman closed the road that took me to the hospital, and my dad ended up taking me later on his 4x4 truck.

I just had to go outside and stop the side gate banging around in the wind, and that was quite bad. It appears to be settling too, which might mean it stands a chance of causing havoc tomorrow, seeing as we seem to fall apart at the sight of snow here in the UK.

December already??

It sounds strange to say, but it really doesn’t feel like it should be December already. The weeks and months have disappeared; Jack is now 10 months old and his first Christmas is literally just around the corner, adding weight to they “they grow up fast” argument.

So, what’s happened in the past month since I last blogged? Lots, but where to start.

Jack is doing really well. He’s growing taller and filling out a lot more now, as he’s doing much better with his eating. He’s still eating the food that Claire’s been making for him, which is great. Despite all the work that making the food for him is, I think we’re both really pleased not only that we're able to do that for him, but also what he’s actually getting is exactly what Claire puts in the pan; no extra salt, preservatives, etc.

As he is relatively tall for his age, I think at one point we were a *little* concerned that he was a slightly under the weight-line on the graphs, but when comparing your little baby against a line on a graph, working in percentiles of the countries’ babies, it’s a little easy to get tied up in it all. Stats are just that, in my opinion and as long he’s not off at an extreme, he’s doing ok.

There are some areas of baby-life like this that make me wonder: Just how did people survive years ago without charts and averages etc? People seem to have managed without know what percentile their little bundle of joy is in, and they’ve obviously grown up just fine.

As I said in the last blog post, we all had a helping of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, which was nice. We’re all good now and to be honest, I’m glad to see the back of it. I hate feeling ill – it seems so… unproductive!! It’s not that we’re *blaming* Jack for us getting it, but he did have it first and managed to get rid of it quickly too…!

He’s not far from walking now, we think. We keep sitting opposite each other on the floor in his playroom, and encouraging him to take a few steps towards one of us, and he’s getting there. He does try, but gravity is a constant force, and one that Jack hasn’t quite come to grips with yet!! He’ll gladly scale the stairs if you let him. And fairly quick too, seeing as each step is chest-height and there’s loads of them, he doesn’t do too badly.

His crawling has improved also. He’s been commando-crawling for as long as he could crawl, but the past week maybe, he’s been crawling ‘properly’, as one would imagine a baby to crawl.

What else can I think has happened? Brain-mush. I might have to post this blog item and get another one posted when I remember what else has happened, as otherwise, this will never get uploaded!!