Not celebrating just yet...

...But last night he went to sleep and 7:30 and didn't wake until 4:30 this morning.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Poorly boy. But a constant deleight.

Well, we've not been good at updating here, but one of the reasons is that poor Ainsworth has been pretty poorly. Starting with a chest infection before his birthday, he's been on two lots of antibiotics (one for the original infection and some eyedrops to help with some conjunctivitis) and still has a lingering chesty cough (that's been waking him at night) and snotty nose (that's getting sore from having us wipe it all the time. Well, I don't want snot on my jumper, thanks very much). And then he picked up a tummy bug which has had him in what looks like a lot of discomfort and has made for some particularly lovely leaky nappies. We kept him off all food for a whole day and his appetite has returned, but the nappies are only slowly retuning to normal. (And now he's gone and passed the tummy bug on to me, and I tell you it's not pleasant.)

But despite all of this - yes, even the extra disturbed nights - he is a constant source of amazement and delight to us every day. He is learning so much and it's a thrill to see him examine things to work out how they fit together. Or more often come apart. (In fact I got home from work yesterday to find beside my bed that he'd taken the cellophane wrapper off a completely sealed pack of - oh, hang on, perhaps I shouldn't say.)

His walking is slowly becoming more confident and he beams with pride as he wobbles from one place to another. He talks constantly. Such an expressive language he has - it would be lovely to know what he's saying a lot of the time because he clearly has a lot to say and wants us to hear it.

And that brings me to one of my favourite things - he's using an increasing number of signs to really communicate with us. We started Sing and Sign classes when he was only about six months old, and we're about to move up to the stage two class. It's only been recently that he's actually started to use the signs himself, but now he's realised they work he seems to be adding more and more to his repertoire. Off the top of my head, he currently uses the following signs fairly consistently and in an appropriate context

• milk
• finished
• hot
• monkey
• elephant (not the official sign
  but one he made up)
• home
• up
• bird
• dog
• music
• bee*
• cat*
• cow*
• rabbit*

(* these last few a only vague approximations, but he's working on them!)

I'm sure there are more - I'll update the list when I think of them. He sees us - especially me - using them much of the time so is beginning to make the connections between the signs, the words, and the objects. And all before he can talk. Well, before he can talk our language, anyway.

A couple of pics

Hi folks. Here are a couple of recent pictures in lieu of a proper post.

Ainsworth has been quite poorly with a tummy bug this week and still has a lingering chesty cough that's been with him for about a month, so his sleeping's been all over the place - even more than normal. It's been a tiring week.

It's a small world

Over the last year I've made a few friends online. There's a list on the side of the page so that you can see their blogs if you want to. Well, until this week they've all been kids I've only met online. But something strange has happened. I've never met Pheobe (I only know her because my dad is friends with one her Mum's best friends), but I was reading her blog and on one post there were some photos of her playing with a friend called Charlie. Well, what a surprise I had when I saw them! I know Charlie! She's in my Sing and Sign class. And it turns out that she has a blog all of her own! So now I have a friend online who's also a friend in real life.

That's all I've got time for just now. Next time I promise to tell you a little about my trip to Scotland (in the car!) last weekend, my growing communication expertise, and my continued experiments with walking. Well, I might remember all of those things. (But you might need to remind me if I forget. I'm easily distracted.)

Advice needed...

Anyone out there got any advice, hints or top tips for successfully administering eye drops to a struggling one-year-old?

These feet were made for walking

Hey everyone - have I got some news for you!

I've been spending a lot of time practicing using my feet lately. Ever since Mum & Dad bought me my toddle truck I've spent a few minutes every day strolling around with it. Okay, so I can only go in one direction, but boy can I pick up some speed when I need to. Well, it had been fun, but to be frank I'd got a little bored with going up and down the sitting room so the time had come to branch out.

So I took my hands off.

And then I put them back on.

And do know what? Nothing dramatic happened in between.

And since then I've experimented with standing. I'd occasionally stand for a few seconds before getting tired - or just a bit wobbly - and quickly sitting down, but over the last few days I've managed to stand for A Very Long Time. And I've worked out how to get up to a stand from a sit - which is pretty clever, let me tell you.

But the really big news is yet to come: yesterday I was standing at the sofa and fancied getting to my new car seat, which was in the sitting room for some reason but just out of reach even when I took my hands of the sofa. Feeling brave, I decided to pick up one foot, move it closer to the car seat, and put it back down again. And then I could reach! Daddy was so pleased he picked me up and ran upstairs to tell Mummy.

So today I thought I should show Mummy what I'd done, and - feeling a lot more confident about it - took five steps across the kitchen floor to reach her.

I feel a sense of freedom coming on!

The first year

We've reached Ainsworth's birthday already. Can you believe it?



I would so love to update our loyal readers (two of you at most, I would guess) with all manner of things, but time has run away with me once again tonight so you'll just have to keep waiting patiently for an update.

Suffice to say, it's been an amazing year.

Totsgear excel themselves

I wrote about Totsgear last week. Well, the car seat came in one week later, and they phoned to let us know - and delivered it to us the next day. No delivery charge. Amazing.

A true dilemma

I haven't looked up the official definition of 'dilemma', but I'm pretty sure that what we go through at night with Ainsworth is a true dilemma... on the one hand we don't believe leaving him to cry is right and really want to pick him up and cuddle him when he's crying, and on the other, when we know there is nothing wrong and all he wants is to be rocked off to sleep because he can't get himself back off, what should we do?

We've tried 'pick-up, put-down', we've tried rocking him off to sleep, we've tried leaving him, we've recorded every wake-up and looked for patterns, we've screwed ourselves up in emotional knots trying to do the right thing, but still he wakes frequently and sometimes takes up to an hour and a half to resettle - which is very frustrating at 2am.

Then last week, after 80 minutes of trying to settle him, we left him to cry. It was horrid, but it seemed like there was nothing else to do. Does the saying 'cruel to be kind' ring true here? I don't know. What I do know is that after leaving him a few times (and it takes about 45 minutes from mega-screams to whinging to sleep) he does seem to be getting better at settling himself back to sleep. He did it twice the other night and only cried for 10 minutes last night after I left him.

I always go through to him when he cries, but I'm trying to be perfunctory - change his nappy, offer water, brief cuddle - and not stay very long so he gets the message that waking at night is not on. I do hope he's not made less secure as a result of being left alone at night. I do hope he knows we love him and are there for him when he really needs us. But it must be very confusing for him and I wish I knew what the right thing to do was... but then I guess a lot of parenting is like that.

An advertisement...

This isn't really the place for advertising or promotion, but we were so impressed with our local independent nursery shop this weekend that I thought I should tell the world.

We'd just started wondering what Ainsworth's next car seat would be, and had seen an advert for the Bebe Confort Axiss. We immediately thought we'd found what we were looking for, but needed, of course, to check it works in our car. Our local Mothercare didn't have one in stock, so while we were out and about yesterday we popped in to Totsgear, a small, friendly, family-run store in Hitchin which we already knew because it's where we'd bought his Bugaboo.

Well, they had an Axiss on display, and they showed us how it worked. We asked about trying it in our car (which, at that moment, was parked on the other side of town) and it turns out that they come to your house to do it. What's more he could come the very next day (ie, today. Yes, that's Sunday morning). Sure enough, this morning at ten o'clock on the dot, as arranged, the Totsgear van pulled up outside carrying their demo Axiss (and a few alternatives), and the proprietor put it in the car for us, checked it fitted correctly, and showed us how to do it.

We placed an order there and then and it'll be with us within two weeks.

And the really amazing thing? There's no charge for the home fitting, and - despite such brilliant personal service - the car seat is costing us less than anywhere I've found online.

Now that's what I call a shop.

999 emergency

Someone in the house phoned 999 this morning.

I'll give you a clue: it wasn't me, and it wasn't Rachael.

New timetable

Remember I told you about my funny week? Well it's happened three times now and shows every sign of continuing. The biggest clue, apart from the smile on Daddy's face, is the new timetable that's appeared on my bedroom door. Mummy or Daddy show it to me every day to help me keep track of what type of day it is. There are "Mummy Days", "Daddy Days" and - best of all - "Mummy and Daddy Days".

We had a really good Mummy and Daddy day this weekend, when we went to visit a small zoo not far from here. There were tigers and ponies and and lemurs and donkeys and parrots and pigs and lions and fish and bats and GIANT guinea pigs and snakes and raccoons and goats and lots of other animals. Oh, and a llama who kept aiming his sneezes at me. Daddy ran away to keep us safe. My favorites were the macaws. They were talking to me so I tried to talk back. I need to practice my macaw noises though because I don't think they understood me. The goats were shouting at each other as well and that made me laugh.

Mummy and me feeding a pony

There was also a huge ball pool and not many people there so I had it all to myself for ages, which gave Mum and dad the chance to eat their sandwiches.

I've just read what Daddy's been saying about me. It's true I did use my potty a few times, but I think Daddy was a bit too proud (and why should he be proud when it's me that's being clever) so let me tell you I've decided very definitely not to use it since then. I am not sitting on the thing. No. I. Am. Not.

Anyway, I must go and get some sleep now - I think I've got a Daddy day coming up and I want lots of energy to keep him busy.

Planning my next special day

Ten-month (and a bit) progress report

I keep thinking about things I should post here, and then they slip my mind or time passes, and I end up thinking that a post covering everything would be far too long. So here's a few highlights off the top of my head...

• Food
  Since he's been on solids, virtually all his food has been made by us (okay: mostly Rachael), almost exclusively from one of Annabel Karmel's recipe books. We tend to give him some finger food (bread, rusk) and spoon the rest in ourselves. Just recently he's started to push our hands away even though he's hungry; he wants to feed himself rather than be fed like a baby. We've started giving him a spoon and are keeping a very close eye on what's going on. Things are starting to get messy!
  
  
• Movement
  He's now developed a really good proper crawl, on hands and knees. At first he'd get up on his hands and knees but drop to elbows and tummy to get anywhere, but now he's really going for it. He's been pulling himself up to his feet for a while, and now cruises around the furniture fairly well, although our sofa arms are too high for him to get past so he gets a bit stuck. We bought him a "Toddle Truck" - one of those old-fashioned trays full of building blocks with wheels and a handle - thinking he'd play with the bricks for now and use it to walk later. On day one he was happy walking along with it while we held it (to stop it rolling away too quickly), but the next day he pulled himself up on it and promptly walked across the room without any help at all. And, boy, did he look pleased with himself! He's also - once only - stood entirely unsupported for about 20-30 seconds; We really couldn't believe our eyes.
  
  
• Sleep
  Now here's an area where we really needed to see some progress, so I'm very pleased to say we're beginning to. Rachael had been keeping records of every time he woke and for how long, to see if we could identify a pattern. Sure enough, we decided much of his waking was not out of discomfort, hunger, wind, teeth, or anything else we could think of, so it must have been simply habitual. So we changed our strategy again (settle him in the cot and only pick him up if absolutely necessary) and after a fairly short time the wakes have become shorter and now less frequent. We've even had a few "through the nights" which is fantastic.
  
  
• Other physical development
  He has two teeth, and still very little hair. Everyone tells us how beautiful he is, and we agree with them. The potty has been an astonishing success: we does a wee in it most days, and has even done a poo in it several times. We're keeping quiet about that in case it sounds too boastful! And today he had an eye test because we thought we'd seen a bit of a squint in one eye, but he passed with flying colours, picking out faint shapes on the paper that usually defeat older babies. The last one I couldn't see without my glasses!

I'm sure there is much more to tell, but I started by saying I didn't want the post to be too long, so I shall stop here.

A different kind of week

Something funny happened this week, and I think I quite liked it - although I was a bit confused at first. It started on Tuesday morning: when I woke up, Mummy gave me my milk as normal but then she went out to work and left me to look after Daddy by myself until it was nearly my bath time. I had to explain to him what we like to do on a Tuesday, and he must have understood because after breakfast he took me to the library where I meet up with a group for some singing. I was pretty tired after that so I got Daddy to walk me around in my pram for an hour and a half. I find the movement helps me to sleep, but I think he might have stopped for a coffee at some point. We spent the afternoon playing at home and I practiced walking with my new toddle-truck. I surprised everyone last week by pulling myself up on it and strolling right across the room without anyone's help.

Mummy was very pleased to see me when she finally came home, so I gave her an extra-big cuddle on the sofa. She looked like she needed it.

If I thought Tuesday was odd, though, you should hear what happened on Wednesday: I woke up and Mummy had already gone out! I called out for Daddy, and he had to give me my milk and my breakfast. We went out shopping in the morning (some people might think that's pretty boring, but I quite enjoy it because there's always lots of interesting stuff to look at), but because Daddy wanted to get back in the car to come home we had lunch at a funny time and I didn't really feel very hungry. It was okay though, because in the afternoon I took daddy along to Sing and Sign with some of my best friends. (I haven't really got the hang of any of the signs yet, but I do like to point at things and have lately started to clap and wave, too.) I slept in the car after that, and then my supper was late.

After all the confusion it was good to wake up on Thursday and find things back to normal. I wonder what will happen this week?

Photos - and a video!

I've neglected Ainsworth's photo site lately, and hadn't uploaded any new shots for the whole of December. Finally I've taken some time out to get things up to date. Here's a link to the site, and here's one to a slideshow of the December shots.

Way back in April I mentioned that we'd put together a video for the grandmas to enjoy. Well, we've continued with that and have done five videos so far, the latest of which was given as an extra Christmas present. When I get around to it, I'll put them on so you can watch them here if you feel so inclined, but there is one short extract of Ainsworth and his Grandma that I just had to share. It makes us smile so much every time we watch it. Make sure your volume is turned up...

More new tricks

And what a gorgeous little boy we do have! I always known all parents are proud of their children, but words cannot describe the loveliness of that feeling as I gaze in wonderment at our offspring. He is truely awesome...

It's a good job he's so adorable during the day, because, as previously documented, nights have not been easy. Then when tooth number one appeared on Friday 14 December, I felt surprisingly relieved - maybe teething was the issue that had unsettled our sleep pattern, and it wasn't just that I was a useless parent. Then tooth number two appeared on Monday 17 December and we had a few better nights. He did give us the Christmas present we asked for - a whole night's sleep on 24 December :o) Alas, last night I committed a cardinal sin (in some peoples' eyes) and brought him into our bed because I couldn't face getting up and down any more :o( The thought of returning it work in less than two weeks time, with nights as broken as they are right now is fairly daunting. But I'm trying not to dwell on this issue (partly in the hope that it will go away and partly in the hope that positive thinking will work).

He is crawling much more efficiently now and on 23 December he went from crawling to sitting up all on his own - so clever! He is beginning to want to spoon feed himself - this is clearly going to be a very messy affair. He is having little 'tantrums' - head falls forward and bottom lip comes right out - when he is diverted from doing something he wants to do. I actually find this quite cute and I will have to be very careful not to openly laugh when he does it! And, yes, he did a poo in his potty this morning - not that we will shout about that too loudly as we're aware we're only at the start of what could be a two year journey.

He has spent a lot of today pulling himself up on the sofa, toy box and television unit and standing (very wobbly) trying to reach things. The energy he must be expending surely means he will sleep well tonight... I am watching him now, entertain himself beautifully at his toy box. He turns objects in his hands so precisely, presses buttons so deftly and makes connections between objects and ideas all the time - he is truely awesome!

A wee? That's nothing!

Mummy and Daddy seemed to be pretty pleased with me when I did a wee in my potty last night, so this morning I thought I'd really show them how clever I am by doing a poo in it. Now that did get them excited!

Wee-hee!

Today we bought a potty and tonight he did a wee in it before getting into the bath! Pretty good for nine and a half months, methinks, so we've started the long road to getting rid of nappies :o)

So much else has happened recently, but I'm not going to do a Trevor and sit here until midnight typing...

Christmas letter 2007

To save the planet - and, to be frank, money - we've not sent Christmas cards this year except to those we can't reach by email. To avoid annoying everyone by attaching a large file to an email, I put a copy of our 2007 Christmas letter online and just emailed a link. Seeing as it's there, feel free to take a look.

....or maybe not

Perhaps I spoke to soon. Rachael tells methis morning that last night was "The Worst Night Ever". And I slept through the whole thing, knocked out be some pretty hefty antibiotics I'm on for an infection in my elbow.

Don't know what else to say, so here's one of my favourite recent pictures.


Look at this face. Who'd have thought nights could be so hard?