DIY - lesson 1 of 1

Lesson 1: choose your materials carefully.

I am not a natural DIY expert. Here's my latest project: a blackboard for Ainsworth to use in the garden.

I think it went pretty well. Three panels of wood sanded and coated with three coats each of fancy and expensive blackboard paint (magnetic, no less!) carefully attached to two batons and attached to the outside wall. It was fairly level. With no drips. And he loved it.

And then the rain came.

Wood warps when it gets damp. Well, cheap wood does anyway. Badly. And falls off the wall as a result.

Back to the drawing board...

The No-Cry Sleep Solution

This is not really a book review, as I've not read the book. But I do believe that The No-Cry Sleep Solution has miraculous powers. And I really mean miraculous.

A friend had recommended it, and eventually I ordered a copy from the library. When it came in I keenly collected it and took it home. And here's where I believe that the book itself has mystical powers: none of us had even opened it. It was, in fact, still in my bag. But that very night Ainsworth slept all the way through. Its very presence in the house was enough.

Well, okay so it didn't last long, but that was a couple of weeks ago and we're really pleased that he has slept very much better over the last few nights. Whether that's because of the book I don't know (I've still not read it and I've no idea how Rachael's getting on with it) but a slight change in the bedtime routine and he seems to be getting the idea at last.

And now we're beginning to have a bit of a battle with food...

Snippets

• The boy is still a bit poorly. His cough has been lingering for over two months now. Doctors have changed their mind as to whether there's an infection or not; currently there is, apparently. We dodn't want him on antibiotics again, which out GP understands, so he's currently on something else to loosen up his airway (but not Ventolin Syrup, which we also wanted to avoid).
  
  
• His signing is coming on and is proving to be a really useful tool. There are moments of confusion, such as when he walks around signing "where?" but we have no idea what he's looking for, but overall it's been a great benefit to understanding each other and I'm very very glad we've done it.
  
  
• Sleeping is still not his favourite pastime.
  
  
• He loves to play "housey" type of games like cooking and playing with a toy tea-set. It's what he sees us doing, I guess. Sometimes he'll sit quietly for ages concentrating hard on sorting things into piles by colour or shape or unspecified criteria, or seeing how many of something he can get into one hand. His concentration levels seem excellent.
  
  
• Our part-time pattern of working - Rachael having him three days a week and me two - is working brilliantly. There are some differences between Daddy Days and Mummy Days (how does she manage to get so much done while she's with him?) but he's developing a relationship with us both as individuals as well as within the family group. So glad we've been able to work things this way. We know several couples who've said they envy us.
  
  
• And much much more.
  
  
• If you've explored the links on this page, you'll have seen that I'm also keeping a separate personal blog, originally about my alleged spiritual life. Well I wasn't posting there much either, so have decided to open that blog up to whatever grabs my attention on any given day. If you're interested, do feel free to pop in for a look. (I'm also using it to see how Wordpress compares with Blogger. So far I can see advantages to both systems.)
  

A welcome break

Just back from a great short holiday in the Lake District celebrating Rachael's Mum's 65th birthday. If you're interested there are plenty more photos here.

All sorts of stuff.

Mums and Dads, eh? What are they like? I've been busy busy busy learning new things and generally being as clever as I can, confident in the knowledge that my Mum and Dad regularly tell the whole world all my exploits by detailing every little thing here, and now I check up on them again and what do I find? Very little. Poor show, Mum and Dad; poor show.

You see, the last few weeks have seen a huge increase in my confidence. My walking, let me tell you, is now super-confident and I like to stay on my feet as much as possible. Until recently I still preferred to crawl if I wanted to get somewhere quickly, but no longer! I am now a man on a mission: to stay upright as much as I can. Unless, of course, I have a particularly tricky obstacle to negotiate.

Stairs are a special kind of obstacle, so I've had to learn a special strategy to manage them, but I'm pleased to report that not only can I crawl up the stairs at super-fast pace, I'm now pretty confident about crawling backwards down them. Mum even leaves the gate open sometimes knowing I'll make my own way down the stairs safely if I really want to. (But she does still keep a close eye on me to check I'm doing it properly.)

Daddy did mention a while ago that I've started to use a few signs to communicate. For some reason I seem to have been born speaking a different language from everyone around me so a few signs are indeed proving useful until I can get them to learn my language. I've recently realised that it might be easier for me to learn their language so I'm trying to copy a few bits of what they say, but my tongue can't quite work out how to do it yet. I'll get there, I'm sure.

Here's a few recent pictures. I'm told there are even more on Daddy's Flickr page.

Here I am taking the sofa to pieces.
I love jumping on the cushions.



I loved rocking out to daddy's band at a friend's party!
(That's daddy on the drums, but I was most
interested in all the wires and buttons.)



Helping with the cooking is one of my favourite things.
I'm not sure what recipe this was, but mummy gave
me all these bits to use so it must be delicious.



Dad said I used to sleep in this basket and have plenty of
room to roll around. Silly Daddy: baskets don't shrink!



I love to help with the tidying up. Here I am trying
out a new broom at the local garden centre...



...and here I'm tidying the house
after grandma's been for a visit.