Last week: a summary

Gosh it's been a week since my last post, and that was a hastily thrown together picture affair rather than a proper post. So. What have we been up to? Well...

Monday

Isaac & I do our food shopping together; he likes to check out new things so I let him explore stuff  from his perch in the trolley while we're going around the supermarket. Today he decided to sink his teeth into a red bell pepper before we got to the checkout! He looked at me as if to say "I know I probably shouldn't be doing this, but what the hey". Who am I to stop a mini-scientist? And besides. Isn't that the cutest little set of bite marks?

We discovered that Isaac is a BIG fan of cherries.

Nom nom nom

And also of eating bits of carpet fluff. Busted!

Tuesday

We went to a soft play with some NCT chums where Isaac had his first ride on a rocking horse! He loved it.

Wednesday

In the mornings after breakfast & while I'm doing the dishes, Isaac likes to drag himself around and discover new things. This morning he particularly enjoyed removing & replacing a cloth from the gap between the washing machine & the cupboard under the sink where we hang the tea towels. I now truly understand the saying "it's the little things".

Thursday

We were going to go swimming, but Isaac decided to sleep from 9.40am - 12.15pm! This meant there was no point us going (the pool we had planned to go to with a friend is about a 20 minute drive so by the time I'd have got him dressed, booby fed, in the car & there the session would've been over as the baby slot was from 12-1pm). So, no swimming last week. Plans? Forgeddabouddit.

Instead we went to clinic and got Isaac weighed. 17lbs 11oz! At this rate he's putting on 1lb a month which is pretty good going. He's still on the chart & doing what the piece of paper says he should. He sat up on the scales this time. I remember seeing other babies do that when I first started to take him to be weighed & I remember thinking "gosh look how grown up they are". Now our Little Man is growing up just like that, but he's still my baby boy...

Happy post-nap baberoo

Friday

Today was the start of the Just So Festival, but more about that in another post. Needless to say it was a totally insane rush to get everything ready & we didn't end up leaving until 3.15pm. Exactly what we didn't want to be doing. PLAN, ORGANISE & PACK THE NIGHT BEFORE NEXT YEAR! Before the craziness started, though, I managed to snap a shot of Isaac doing something he loves which is sharing his food. He really is a very generous child with his munch, despite putting a healthy sized portion away!

Observation

Since Tuesday Isaac's naps have become more regular. He sleeps for 2 hours twice a day with a good 4 hour chunk of day in between. This is great! We do more stuff during the day; he eats a small lunch  at 1 o'clock now instead of getting stroppy & chucking it about meaning he's full after tea and subsequently he goes to bed later (about 8pm) which means...*drum roll please* he sleeps through & gets up later!!! Between 7.30-8am. OH YEAH! I feel like that bit in The Matrix where Neo finally *sees* The Matrix. Lets see how long it lasts....!

He's going to be a...

As I'm sure all parents do, on numerous occasions we've made a remark (when Isaac has being doing something in particular relating to a job/career) beginning "he's going to be a..."

Here are some of those things that I've managed to capture!

Body popper

Drummer

Conductor

  Food taster

Photographer

 Wine taster?

We've suspicions about construction too, but that one remains elusive in terms of photographic evidence. Of course it's silly to do this and he can be anything he wants, but I wonder, what will he really want to do/be?

Grandad's latest visit and some firsts to boot!

My Pa (Grandad) came to visit last week. Despite his grumbling back he did a sterling job of stripping down and repainting an old rocking chair that I was given by a lady on Freegle. The chair was thought to be pine underneath the white paint, but turned out to be beech & beech ply (?) so we weren't able to strip it & varnish it as we'd hoped. We settled instead for a warm beige colour paint, which ties in quite well with Isaac's nursery. I think it looks fab - thank you Dad!

We went into town one day and stopped for an impromptu cup of tea and Isaac's dinner at Derby Quad (the same trip that set me onto Ikea high chairs). Isaac had his first jacket potato and baked beans. Which went down very well! He just kept eating...and eating...and eating! I think it had something to do with being outside & seeing lots of new things which distracted him from what his mouth is doing because he always eats well  in public. He's such a show off: "Look at me! I'm eating!"

Isaac also had his first time in shopping trolley seat, the folding one rather than the plastic-leaning-back one. It was very exciting AND he didn't fall over! Wooh!

Unfortunately I was using my phone camera, hence the car behind is in focus, not my Little Man. Gah.

The weather was (and still is!) warm. I baked cookies and we talked & listened to old soul records. Splendid.

All in all it was a lovely week and Dad even stayed on longer to finish the chair. We love you Grandad! Come back soon!

Bye-bye Bumbo, hello high-chair!

Until now Isaac has been table top in his Bumbo. This has been great because he wasn't the fastest sitter-upper and we needed uprightness for feeding solids. Having had a relatively cramped meal with the girls this weekend (Simon, me, Aoife, Roisin and my Dad all round the table) we decided it was time for a high chair for our Little Man. I'd been lusting after the (nearly £200 - ouch!) Brother Max high chair for some time, but (after a recent trip to Derby Quad for some food with my Pa and actually successfully using a high chair for the first time) I decided to get the same one they use there which happens to be the rather modestly priced (£10.99) Ikea Antilop. Why? Because it does what it needs to, it's super easy to clean and Isaac stays upright in it.

We think he likes it :-)

You say diaper, I say happy nappy

And these are, indeed, the happiest of nappies.

For those of you without children, you may be forgiven for thinking that I've completely lost the plot. Which to a certain extent is true; I can't claim senior moments yet so I'm sticking with hormonal unrest! For those of you with children, I'm hoping you might understand, even if it is only a wee bit?

So. When changing nappies is a regular occurrence, nappy art is a talking point for you and yourself your baby. I was particularly pleased, then, to see the return of the serenely blissed out monkeys that adorn the size 3 Bambo Nature nappies that Isaac wears. We had them on our first pack, but then pandas took over. They weren't anywhere near as good as the monkeys and their activities seemed a little odd, even for pandas.

I've put them into categories (feel free to phone the funny farm anytime...).

Category 1: Monkeys at Work.

Clockwise from bottom left - Learning to Juggle Monkey, Weather Monkey, Hangin' on a Rope Monkey and I'm not sure about this last fellow. He seems to have a telekinetic command over an arrangement of...atoms perhaps? We shall call him God Particle Monkey.

Category 2: Monkeys au natural.

Clockwise from bottom left - Swingin' Through the Trees Monkey, Enlightened Buddhist Monkey, Sitting Down Surfer Monkey and Hooray it's Bananas Monkey.

And finally, my personal favourite:

Monkeys in love <3

A busy weekend!

Isaac and I did quite a lot this weekend! A few firsts too.

On Saturday Simon, Isaac, Rinny and I went for Isaac's first excursion to the Peaks. The Peak District is close to where we live and it's really quite  a beautiful park of the UK. And quiet. I love that countryside silence; only broken by the bleating of sheep and a polite "hello" from other walkers.

We decided to go for a mooch around Stanton Moor in the White Peak, so called because of the light colour of the underlying limestone rock, common around the central and southern parts of the Peak District. I think. Anyhoo, we have a book called Kiddiwalks in the Peak District which we had yet to use. Turns out it's pretty good (especially if you can remember from school how to read a grid reference [thanks to Google for refreshing my rusty brain!] to find the starting point). It allowed 2 1/2 hours for the route we chose, but took us only 1, I suppose because we weren't walking at child speed and didn't really stop to look around/explore much.

I forgot my camera :-(

Even the point & shoot.

All I had was my phone. :-(

So this is all I took before I got peed off and turned my phone off out of frustration.

It was a lovely walk and the book points out lots of cool stuff, like the Nine Ladies Stone Circle with the Fiddler Stone, the Trig Point (from which you can see for miles!), the Cork Stone & an old overgrown quarry that sheep used for resting ledges.  Living in a city, it's marvellous to see such lush greenery and escape (what you don't realise is) contant background noise.

Isaac completely fell asleep in the carrier! I couldn't believe it! Bless him.

We're pretty excited about the rest of the walks in the book and so will be going up into the Peaks again with more planning done next time; it was a bit last minute, but still really nice to spend some time together. What next - camping perhaps?

On Saturday evening through 'til Monday evening Isaac and I went to see his Nanna & Grandpa (my Mum & Step-Dad) at their house in Leamington Spa. He always sleeps well there and likes the change of scenery. Nanna recently invested in a hot tub and so (after adjusting the temperature accordingly) Isaac took his first dip!

He. Loved. It.

Splashing his little arms all over the place, playing bongo on the filter cover, floating on his back (with some support from Mummy of course). He face planted the water a few times, but got over the initial shock quite quickly. I couldn't take pictures of him in there because it was just me and him at the time, but here's the cheeky scamp afterwards...

 ...and after dropping the towel on the floor for the 6th time, just to watch it fall...

I can't believe we're having such good weather at the moment and that we've made the most of a weekend when we don't have other commitments! I'm so pleased and am really looking forward to more; Grandad's come to stay with us for a bit so we'll see what else we get up to :-D

Introducing...

...Isaac's tongue!

Today, Isaac has been [mostly] introducing his tongue to the world and using his mouth to make a clicking sound; hilarious! Today is the first day he's really done this & he CAN'T GET ENOUGH! He finds it very amusing, as do I if I'm honest.

Over the past few weeks he has started to really like to passing things to you, as long as you give them back. Well, I don't think he has any expectations, but he's always pleased to get the item in question back. What a generous wee chappie young Master Turner is!

We also went to TinyTalk for the first time. It's excellent! The woman that runs it is possibly the most enthusiastic woman in the world, which is a good thing when teaching babies to sign. We learned the signs for hot, cold, rain, heavy rain, water and look/see. I also picked up the signs for all gone, water and happy from Steph (NCT chum). We're going back & even bought a CD of songs. There are only 3 more classes this term so will have to make the most of them. I'm glad we've finally gone - it'll do us good and Isaac seemed to enjoy it!

On a sunny June afternoon...

Finally!

After a few weeks of dadadadadadadaDADADADADADA...(you get the idea) I heard the long awaited mumumumumumumuma! My eyes prickled and my heart swelled. I know they're just sounds for now, but I was truly bowled over by how it made me feel and was reminded that one day my baby boy really will be calling me Mummy :-D

Isaac and his Nanna.

We've come to visit Isaac's Nanna and Grandpa for the weekend and today Mum, Isaac and I went to Stratford-upon-Avon for the afternoon. I'd forgotten how lovely it is. In fact, I'd forgotten how lovely most of Warwickshire is. All the little black and white beamed houses, groaning under the weight of age and history, keeping  locked in the walls and doors their secrets of lives past.  Not something I appreciated as a child growing up there, but now...it's just so charming. I could sit by the river for hours and watch the people go about their meanderings.  Heck, am I getting old?? Anyhoo I digress. Massively into my own musings. Apologies.

What I wanted to show you was this...

It's so incredibly terrific to see Mum with a smile this big on her face. She's been through a hell of a lot in recent years and it's not over yet. It makes me  happy and so utterly proud that our Little Man can instigate a beam like this.

I love you Mama and so does your wee grandson, he just can't say it yet.

6 - 12 month review

We had our 6 - 12 month review today. He's doing everything he *should* be doing (i.e.: sitting on his own, passing objects from hand to hand, eating solid food regularly and other such NHS check list items).

The biggest news is that Isaac is now officially [just] back on the WHO breastfed baby weight-for-age chart! He had dropped off, which was of course, a concern (!) for my local HV team, but not so much for me. I adopted the stance that he's always been healthy, extremely happy and doing everything he should, while being a little on the small side. I'd much rather he was underweight (within reason) than overweight; there are so many awful diseases and illnesses connected with childhood obesity. Childhood obesity; it's just not right, but that's a whole other post on a whole other blog!

So, as of 9 months (ish), Isaac is 16lbs (approx 7.25kg). Which is still on the small side according to a piece of paper, but at least the crazy [almost] vegan lady's son isn't a worry for the Abbey HV team anymore. He didn't even cry on the scales! I speak to a fair few Mums who mostly all tell me the same - their breastfed babies were "small".

Anyhoo, he looks good enough to eat to me!

Orlando part III: The never-ending last day

We knew it'd be a long one and so decided to make the most of it. We'd only been to Universal for a few hours this trip and I really wanted to see Seuss Landings (being a fan of Dr Seuss since my own childhood [Islands of Adventure weren't built when I was there last]). So, after a final mad packing scrap, breakfast & Isaac's morning nap we toddled off to Universal to see as much as we could in a short time. It was so worth it.

Sarah - ridiculous mega grin - Isaac, not really sure

It really is exactly like the books, from the Fox In Sox to Circus McGurkus :mrgreen: Can you tell I was a bit excited? Anyhoo, this blog is about Isaac, not my childhood nostalgia.

We walked around as much of the islands as we could, which was pretty much all of it without going on any rides, not easy with an infant unless you leave beb with one of you & join the lonely looking single rider line. Bad planning there. Note to self: wait for Isaac to be old enough to A) enjoy it himself or B) be old enough to stay with Nanna for an afternoon while parents go on big scary rides!

Having had enough of getting hot & sweaty for one day we went back the apartment to cool off & Isaac & Mummy had a little snooze (Mummy's was unplanned & sort of knocked her out!) Next thing I know it's time to go to the airport! Which we did. No delays & we'd pre-checked in so just had to rock up & get to the gate. We sort of forgot to feed Isaac (whoops), but he was so busy watching everything that it didn't matter & worked out quite well because it meant he had something to do while we sat for the final 35 minutes by the gate before boarding. Got on the plane, Isaac slept most of the way. Simon & I tried to sleep, but having a baby does something funny to you in that, neither of us could. We were checking on wee man every 5 minutes & generally couldn't sleep.

So, come landing time we're both shattered & I'm actually drinking coffee to stay awake for the drive home! I don't do coffee. Felt very weird! We stopped a couple of times on the motorway to give Isaac some stretching time & us all some food time. Thought we should capture the highly amusing hair (badly on a mobile phone):

Several different kinds of sweat in there:
Universal sweat, sleeping blanket sweat
& car sweat. Who needs gel??

VERY glad it was sunny at home :-) The drive seemed to take forever, but Isaac was very good & didn't peep once. Goodness knows we were grateful for that. We landed at 8.30am & got to bed at about 11 so I was up for approximately 34 hours (I couldn't get back to sleep after Isaac woke for his early morning feed at 4.30am), give or take the odd snoozeroo here & there.

So now we've been home for 4 days and he's just about getting back onto UK time although he has more teeth coming through. So we're all over the place anyway!

Verdict: lovely holiday, but might stick closer to home next time so less trauma for Isaac in terms of time difference. No doubt we'll go back again in the future when he's old enough to drag us around the different parks!

2 minutes with a smiler

I've been inspired by mamarazzi and co. to try storyboards. So (with Photoshop help from Mr Turner) here is my first attempt:

Not a Wiggle in sight!

Between reading mamarazzi & co. & Becoming Sarah I am more determined to stop being lazy and to use my D200 rather than my point & shoot. Although the P&S is much easier to wield in public!

Beware - storyboards are addictive and may take over my life.

P.S.: These were taken in his pushchair! He's been in the Xplory more this week, not because I want to get rid of him - nothing could be further from the truth). It's the least sweaty option for him when we are out in Florida's sweltering heat and carrier or pushchair are the choices. Ideally we could travel in an air-conditioned bubble at all times (!) We use it as a high chair in restaurants too. I LOVE how high the Xplory is; it really is great for Isaac to be able to see everything going on around him - he's such an inquisitive little fellow. We get LOADS of positive comments about it and how good it is.

Big up Stokke.

ScienceFingers™

ScienceFingers™

ScienceFingers™ 1. noun - the moment when the thumb and forefinger of the infant human male forms a pincer like position which is then used for precise selection of objects of interest. (Such objects can include: pens, toys, Mummy's eyelid, Daddy's nose, expensive technological items, dog hair, food, own toes etc.) 2. exclamation - The cry made by the parents of said infant human male when the ScienceFingers™ appear; usually accompanied by massive excitement about developmental dexterity evidenced by wide grins and wild  gesticulative pointing .

ScienceFingers™ in action!

Isaac's favourite toy

With dried mung beans in it, of course. It makes some fab noises! I tell ya, these home made toys are priceless :-D

I’ve been naughty…

I went into Polarn O. Pyret today...there wasn't a sale on...BAD SARAH!

I couldn't resist these, aren't they the cutest?!

So, that's me & Simon eating beans on toast for a week!