Obscured parental faces
Sleep in
Whoops. We slept in by half an hour this morning, and when I went in to get George from his bedroom he was lying on his side with his eyes open, happily sucking his finger. Bless. Had a lovely morning, during which I read him "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" for the first time. I think he took most of it in (before proceeding to cover the pages in freshly manufactured drool).
Also took a few photos of the furry ones last night (with the borrowed lens I've been experimenting with). Here's one of Ben. Clearly he's starving and weak and has been deprived the necessities of life. Or... he had just hoovered up a small dish of tuna and whitebait and was feeling a tad lethargic.
Bumbo time!
Kylie very kindly lent George a little Bumbo seat - it's a foamy seat which supports small people and gives them a chance to strengthen their little (puke covered) necks. Here's BIg G enjoying some Bumbo time this morning:
And here's one of the munchkin just hanging out:
A few random photos
Have been testing Philip's 80-200mm f2.8 lens (I want to get something similar for facey* photos, so he's kindly letting me use his for the week), so here are a few of the test shots. I've also been going a bit potty with Photoshop, so these are quite experimental.
*facey = face photos. I refuse to say "portraits" in the same way I refuse to call lenses "glass" and flashes "guns
A typical George morning: another workout at his gym
Back to work
Honestly, the older George gets, the more delightful he is during waking hours... and the faster the weekends go. We had a great long weekend, topped off with a lovely lunch with Emma, Mark and Sam B, who came over to Chez Narly for a long lunch. I got to smack the BBQ up again, and we had some delicious lamb chops which clever old Rachel prepared. This photo of George was taken this morning (I think). Now that his sleep routine has settled, he gets up at 7am in the mornings. While Rachel feeds him, I have a quick shower, and then I get about 45 minutes with him before he goes back to sleep at 8am. I can then get ready for work and take off while he's asleep. I love that bit of time with him in the mornings, and he's usually in a fantastic little mood after a nice long 8 1/2 hour snooze*. This morning we read "A Lion in the Meadow" by Margaret Mahy together. If I'm being honest, I don't think George was really into it - but he did sit there quietly on my lap and look at the pages as I turned them.
As for the second photo - Rachel took that tonight. I don't usually like photos of myself, and this is certainly no exception - but I think George looks really sweet here, and so for once I'll post a photo of my face without a camera obscuring it.
It's actually quite a useful photo for seeing just how pale our little Gmonster is. He got his colour from his mummy, obviously.
The hair is mine though. Of that we can be sure.
* George's mummy is insisting that George got 12 hours of sleep rather than 8 1/2 hours of sleep. She's partially correct - George did go to sleep at 7pm, but in fairness, he was woken up for a 10:30pm feed. Without that feed, he would probably be up at 4ish for another one. And George's mummy would be all grumpy due to a lack of sleep.
I am a pirate. Gaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr me hearties. Or something like that.
A few Saturday photos
One with mummy:
...and one in his new doggie t-shirt. Which in hindsight, Daddy probably should have used a different background for:
George's new hat
He needs to grow into it a little bit.
Don't try this at home...
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And a special photo for Team Davies (who provided the shoes) and Team Landells (who provided the cute little pirate bib):
Labour Day
Aaaah, a three day weekend. George has already been up and is now back asleep - not a peep last night, and when I went in to wake him this morning, he was happily sucking on his finger and rolling around in his little sleep sack. I don't think we have much planned today, but given that Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be "hazy" (read: "Smoggy and Polluted"), it might be nice to go out to town for a few hours later on if the little fella gets a good sleep this morning.
Here are a few photos from the morning. Nothing too exciting - just a few of him hamming it up for the camera in his "gym", and one of his mummy reading him a story (Hairy Maclary from Donaldsons' Dairy).
He knows that he has to smile for the camera
After cropping this one, I quite liked the expression on George's face. He's such a ham when he sees a camera:
George of the Jungle (Gym)
After another pretty good night of sleep, the little man decided to hit the gym this morning, and then posed for a photo with his Daddy:
Holiday tomorrow - it's officially Labour Day, which means Daddy gets to hang with the monster tomorrow. And also with George.
A good night's sleep
George had a pretty good night's sleep last night - went from 6:45ish to his 10:30 topup, then until 5:15am. He grizzled for a little bit, and then after about 10 minutes of "George talk" (to himself), he went back to sleep until 7am when I woke him. All very civilised. In the way of photos, I got one of him supervising Rachel as she made the coffee and one of him doing his "coy but cute" look, which he seems to have perfected at the ripe old age of not-quite-14-weeks
Does my butt look big in this?
It sure does, little fella. One downside of George's cloth nappies is that they are absolutely massive compared to the size of his relatively puny torso. Which means that tummy time often turns into a bit of a farce, and he rolls around like someone dressed in either a novelty sumo costume or a fully inflated Swiss Ball. I mean, seriously - look at him:
Rattle and jump tiiiiime
Little dude has started to grip stuff and is now quite friendly with his cane rattle. Check out his mad skills and his opposable thumbs:
Then mummy discovered that some anti-gravity action makes the little dude giggle like a loon (not recommended immediately after feeding - Mr Milk Volcano is bad enough without random G-forces acting on him):
Monday morning with Aunty Kirstie
Short week this week - for some reason we get a holiday on Friday, solely due to it being the first of May. No complaints from me. Only one photo this morning (and I think it's a tad out of focus to be honest). Little dude had a lovely cuddle with Aunty Kirstie before she and Uncle Robin went out this morning:
The couch. It does not fit me yet.
Saturday, Saturday
Even as we frantically clean the house in anticipation of the Challis Delegation from Singapore, I managed to get a few photos of Chez Narly on this delightful Saturday morning. After his breakfast, the little man visited our bed this morning and had a fine old time, gurgling and smiling and vomiting on himself. Delightful.
Then the little man had his first nap in his cot (he's been in his laundry hamper bassinet. I managed to take a little photo of him snoozing and showing off his forehead's "blue vein of discontent")
Also - a photo for my sister... with the Challis family arriving, Rachel just made up the spare room, and used the gorgeous pillowcases that you and E gave us at Christmas:
You can see two pictures behind the bed - the top one is Eliot's wedding present to us and the bottom one was a wedding present from Simon (Pope) and Kate (Pope-Barker? Naaaah that sounds a bit strange).
Anyway, I leave you with a photo (taken from our lounge) of the delightful weather we get to experience today. Aaaah delicious Hong Kong smog. How I love the way you invade my lungs and make me hack and cough. Never fear, the government (no capital 'G' necessary there) is holding lots of meetings and writing lots of initiatives for fixing the air quality. They aren't actually doing anything, but just knowing that they are talking about it makes me feel all warm inside (although that warm feeling could actually be my lungs pleading for mercy).
Edit: While I'm having a mini-rant, this is from the HK Government website: "Hong Kong's air pollution is mainly contributed by motor vehicles and power plants".
It's worth pointing out that to combat motor vehicle emissions, the government is building more road, refusing to allow cars to convert to LPG, and refusing to allow electric cars on roads (the word "baffling" doesn't even come close...) and to "punish" the power plants (conveniently owned by HK's richest man), the government contributed HK$300 towards every household's monthly power bill for a year. I guess putting the money directly into the power company's account would have been a little suspicious.