Experimentation

Experimentation aplenty today, with little fella getting his very first ball gown sleep sack and his mummy moving from gripe water to the slightly weaker Infacol (for tummy settling).  Gripe water was actually pretty good, but it's for soothing a windy tummy and bottom (i.e. putting out fires), while Infacol is for preventing windypops from actually happening (i.e. preventing fires from happening).  Well, that's what the internet told me this morning and the internet is rarely wrong. The sleep sack was a move to give the little man a bit of freedom to move his legs around as he sleeps - restricted legs is one of the things preventing him from letting out good quality farts in his sleep. No fart = no sleep.  He had a good nap in his ball gown sleep sack this afternoon, but during his evening sleep he kept waking himself up with his own flailing dream-involved arms (I can only imagine that in his sleep he's dreaming of being a fast bowler in cricket - or perhaps a human windmill).

Anyway, as I type this, he's asleep as is his beautiful mummy.

The Quest for New Zealand Citizenship continues, however it seems that the latest delay is our fault (I'm not naming names, but it wasn't me this time).  We need one more form of ID showing that Rachel lives at this address and is known as Rachel in Hong Kong (?!), so to speed things up, our property managers in NZ are going to courier our rates bills to Internal Affairs.  If all goes well, little George should have a passport in about 2-3 weeks. If not... well, we may have to rejig flights.  Hmmm.

I believe it is time for me to bid the kittens goodnight, and to hit the sack. A few photos of the little man this morning - nothing arty farty today, just one of him giving me "inquisitive look #43" and one of him in his bouncy chair (the mustard toilet on the left may give away the fact that he was in the bathroom at the time). I had to get ready for work and Rachel had to have a shower, so little man got to sit in the bathroom for a few minutes where his mummy could keep an eye on him. In return, he kept his eye on the bathtowels (kid has much to learn).

Things we learned this weekend

spacespacespace 1) Little man sometimes just needs a quick burp or a fart in order to get back to sleep.  He had an ok night, except as it drew closer to the morning.  He usually gets a decent sleep after we have our dinner, then a shorter sleep from around 11pm to 2am or 3am, then a shorter sleep to about 4am and the the morning is kind of all over the place (that's just a rough guesstimate - but his naps do get shorter as the night goes on).  This morning after a fairly long stint of non-sleep to 5:30am, I went into his room with my phone and hung out with him while he slept (phone --> so I could surf internet news while he slept).  Whenever he stirred, I gave his bassinet a little nudge and rock, and if he started to cry properly I quickly grabbed him, gave him a burp, and put him straight back down.  He never really got a chance to get into a proper cry, and it meant he got a pretty solid 90 minute sleep when he ordinarily would have been up every 15 minutes.   We had an iChat with Anna (in London) this afternoon, and it turns out that she did a similar thing with Bella (George's potential suitor and "older woman")- she just sat her up and burped her when she grizzled during her sleep.  Hopefully this will help us for future sleep issues... we'll see.

2) Little people between 4 and 6 weeks old have a bit of a grizzly patch.  And he's certainly having a grizzly patch at the moment - it's mostly during the night, but we've been assured that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't far away.

3) The way I walk when wearing jandals annoys Rachel.  Pfffft.

4) George is rather taken with participating in video chats. He's also usually very well behaved when he's sitting in front of the camera.

5) If the nappy is full, it doesn't necessarily mean his bottom is empty (particularly at 3am)

6) Of all of the white noise recordings we have, George likes the vacuum cleaner noise the best.

7) Most babies we know have pooped in the bath.  George has not.  He is clearly more advanced than these other babies.

Right, it's time for the daily dose of ludicrous cuteness.  Note that the photos starring Rachel were taken during George's video chat with his possible-girlfriend Bella in London:

Cute overload

Kiddo was in a great mood this afternoon:

Impersonations

spacespacespace I used to think I did a pretty good Donald Duck impersonation, but this morning I really outdid myself - I did my first womb impersonation.  The little man - fresh from a night where he got all of about 45 minutes of sleep, refused to respond to the usually reliable "Sssshhhhhhhh" noises, so I resorted to making the noises that I remembered from the day that Rachel was in labour. For most of that day we had a fetal heart rate monitor set up, and when you flicked the volume switch on, it made this "waaaaor  waaaaoooor waaaaaaaaoor" noise  (make alternating "OOO" and then "ooo" shapes with your mouth, and blow out loudly as you're doing it).

Anyway, I tried this just now and it seemed to calm him pretty quickly... until he started crying again and flipped out.  After a bit of feeding, shushing, womb impersonating and hair washing (someone managed to puke milk in his own hair), we ended up going into town - which was a brilliant move.  I bought some new clothes (none of my old ones fit - I've shed about 8kg in the last 3 months with all of the lunchtime running), we had a lovely lunch at an Italian place (even George got some lunch, although his mummy provided it) and George had a lovely sleep in his stroller.

Oh - someone asked what stroller we are using (sorry, I can't remember who).  We have a Bugaboo Bee and a Maxi Cosi car seat to go with it. the Bee is pretty good - easily popped up and popped down, the seat bit comes out so you can make it face you or even travel with the car seat only, and it folds down into one piece - which means we can take it right to the aircraft door when the time comes (most airlines require you to check a stroller in if it folds down into more than one part).

Right - enough wibble.  Here's some cuteness from this morning (including some fake-Holga work on Poppycat).  I took another few photos about 2 minutes ago, which have actually defied the Laws of Cute, but I'll psot those later when he's asleep.  He's awake now, and I want to go and have a little play with him...

One day, one month

After the thrill of his one month birthday (he literally pooped himself with excitement), little fella had a nice quiet morning.  He came for a walk to work with me, and from what I am led to believe, had a quiet day.  Naps, feeding and sleep.  Lucky little sod - sounds like a good life. We've just had bathtime (bearable, it seems) and Rachel is currently either feeding him or putting him to sleep. Sometimes the two events are simultaneous, as the little man has a penchant for falling asleep on the job. Wait - I can hear some "Sssssssshhhhhhh" and a little voice registering his displeasure with his mummy's decision to put him to bed - the real question is whether Rachel can finish in 33 minutes - when the final episode of Masterchef is on.

Speaking of stupid reality tv, was anyone else totally and utterly confused with how American Idol's new format works?  I didn't think they could get more ridiculous that little Frodo Seacrest's effort last year: "You, stand over here. You go and stand over there. You, stand waaaay over there.  Now you, go and join him over there, and then two of you go and stand over there.  No, wait - stand here.  Then stand over there.  Now, you - standing over there. You're eliminated."   Now they've managed to turn hacking the number from 36 contestants down to 12 contestants... into a four week exercise (I could do it for them in about 3 minutes). And then presumably it's another 12 weeks after that until they crown the winner of what really should be called "The American Under 35 (but over 16) Karaoke Championships".  I must admit, keeping the talentless prozac-filled Tatiana in the final 36 was a masterstroke.  Painful to watch, but brilliant car crash television.

Right - back to George.  A few photos from this morning.  He was of course asleep for most of it (he was actually asleep in my arms while I was eating my breakfast - bless!), and I got a few of him before we took off to work.  Before you ask - yes, I think he's smiling (he does it a lot these days), and no we haven't put rubber bands around his neck.  They are his newly developed neck folds.  They're all the rage, you know.

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, the little fella finally hit the big O-N-E.  One month, that is. it's quiet in the house - Rachel and George are both asleep, and having done the dishes and edited today's photos, I thought I'd pop up a quick entry here before scooting to bed.

Rachel has started coming to meet me at work after I've finished - for those of you that don't know, I work about 15 mins walk from home.  Meeting me after work serves two most excellent purposes.  Firstly, I don't really see George much during the week, and it gives me a chance to see him and hang out with him for the 20 minute walk home (it's uphill, hence the extra 5 minutes).  Second, between 4 and 6 (just pre-bathime) is George's grizzly session. He's not quite day and not quite night - and is apparently a bit of a handful at home at that time. So, popping him in his stroller after a quick feed is a brilliant way to knock him out for an hour, and calm him pre-bath (which he seems to like now - go figure).

His sleep is still a bit iffy, but he is sleeping - just not for the long stretches of time he used to, and not exactly when we want him to.  Apparently this is the growth spurt time, so his sleep and feeding patterns are supposed to be slightly out of whack.

I leave you with a million photos from this morning, of course taken on the morning of his one month birthday:

50 minutes

That's how long it's been since Rachel disappeared into George's room for post-bathtime changing and dinnertime.  Unfortunately there has been a lot of crying (from George) and it appears that he's just not ready for bed yet.  Unfortunately, he doesn't feel like doing anything else either.  I'm sure that he'll get back into a good evening routine soon, but at the moment, he's just not following the night time rule book.  He's taking quite a long time to settle after some feeds and is rather disinterested in his bed after dinnertime. All good things in time...

Here are a few photos from this morning - I got a good half hour with the little monkey, and he obligedby dutifully posing:

A very short window of opportunity

spacespacespace I had all of about 30 minutes this morning to get a photo of the little fella, and I'm not particularly stoked with the photo I did get.  Still, it's better than no photo...

In two days George will be one month old - and my mission to get a photo of him every day for the first month of his life will be complete.  I'll still take a crapload of photos of the poor little fella (he still thinks his daddy has a lens sticking out of his face), but I might have to be less obsessive about getting a few and posting them everyday.  Especially on days like this, when I get about 30 minutes with him in the morning and then it's bathtime as soon as I walk in the door (followed by feeding time and then sleepybyes). Thirty minutes in the morning isn't a long time, and although I love taking photos of the little monster, I'd rather just spend time with him.  Weekends will of course be a different story, but weekdays - I'm pushing it to get a decent photo or two of him every single day.

That said, the aim of month one was to get a photo of him every day so that I can do a little book of his first month (we can get it beautifully  printed and bound over here really easily).  Almost there!

Anyway, here is today's little George snap.  That's his Mummy holding him, of course.

EDIT:  Forgot to mention, George has put on 160 grams over the last week.  If I was a betting man, I'd say most of it is in his cheeks...

George finally accepts that bathtime is not the same as "waterboarding"

Little fella had a pretty good day, from all accounts.  He came to work with me in the morning and then went to the supermarket with his Mummy.  He was awake when we left here, but by the time we hit the supermarket he was out cold - he does love his stroller. Good thing too - it was pretty damn expensive...! I got home in time for bathtime - it would appear that bathtime is no longer his idea of medieval torture time, and he actually seems to enjoy his little evening dunk in the big green tub.  We still haven't had a "poop in the bathtub" moment, but given how much more relaxed he is in there, I suspect it's only a matter of time.

Final note for today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOMMY! Some special photos for you (including one of your favourite cats cuddling up to each other):

Sleepless in Hong Kong - epilogue

Well, I'm pleased to report that the little fella had a much improved day.  He seems to save his biggest tantrums for his Mummy and Daddy, as he was impeccably behaved for video chats with Sarah & Simon and Anna & Kieran, as well as a visit from Kate and John.  When the camera was off, or when the lounge was devoid of visitors - the little monkey let loose again.  Bless him though - he's been great this evening. All he really needed was a good solid sleep. He even cruised through bathtime with no stress tonight. I took a load of photos today, as the light was particularly nice, and thankfully George had his cute pants on (when he wasn't bright red and screaming at me...)

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The "Father, I have had enough of photos today, thank you. Please stop" look:

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And finally, the "Dad - this toy is f#@king scary" look: