Telekinesis baby

We've had a busy Easter weekend, and I took two extra days off, so it's been a good long break for me.

We went to the first birthday party of the child of some friends on Saturday. It was a two hour drive away. We'd not had ThingOne in the car for this long before, but apart from a little noise on the way back ThingOne behaved well for her anxious parents. It was odd to see a one year old and babies of various ages, as it gave me an indication of what ThingOne might be doing in the months to come. (Anne sees lots of babies during her days, so it was less of a revelation to her.)

It was good that ThingOne wasn't bad in the car, since on Chocolate Egg Sunday we drove up to Lincolnshire (another two hours) to see Anne's mum and step dad. We stayed there on Sunday and Monday night, and on Monday traveled to Bridlington (Yorkshire) and back to see Anne's grandparent (ThingOne's great grandparents, obviously).



ThingOne has shown a new talent in the last few weeks - telekinetic powers. I know it sounds like a parent's boasting, but really - she has found that she can move her hands using just the power of her mind. She stares at her hands in awe as she moves them through the air. It's fun to watch. (Fun for me, as her dad. For most people it'd be pretty dull.)

Anne spent a small fortune on a handmade wooden rattle. I took the mickey a fair bit but it turned out to be a timely purchase. ThingOne started hitting hanging toys and grabbing things a few weeks ago, and has been able to hold some of her soft toys for short periods. However, she has been holding and shaking this rattle quite well and for prolonged periods of time. Here's a photo of her in her Bumbo seat her Auntie Lindsay bought her, weilding her rattle like a light sabre. The force is strong with this one.

Three months on...

ThingOne's nearly three months old (three calendar months I mean, she hit the three lunar months mark on Wednesday). Has it really been that long? Yes. It has.

She's changed a fair bit recently. Lots of nice smiles and now grabbing at things. She started to go down very easily in the evenings, which meant Anne and I would get a pleasant evening together without worrying that she'd be awake and crying soon. Fairly consistently she'd be up once in the night for a feed, at some point between 11.30pm and 4am. Consistently unpredictable.


Then, around the ten week mark, she dropped her night feed and was sleeping from 8pm through to sometime between 6am and 8am. It was amazing! Anne and I really hoped it would continue, and it did. For nine consecutive nights.

Last night though it fell apart a bit. She wouldn't settle at 8pm, and then was up at 3.30am for a feed. In addition, Anne was ill all night, which may have been connected. Perhaps ThingOne was off her game due to her mum being ill? She took a fair while to settle tonight too, so I'm expecting another night feed tonight (though it'll be Anne giving her the feed, not me). Let's hope the previous NINE NIGHTS weren't a fluke and we get back to the bliss of a good night's sleep soon.

In general, ThingOne's being a little angel. She's very pleasant to be around, and is a pretty happy baby. That makes it sadder when she cries and cries and cries, since we think something must be wrong (whereas before we just accepted she'd cry for no reason some times.)

All the other babies from our ante-natal class are giggling already, and ThingOne isn't. ThingOne's the youngest, but only by a few days. Anne and I are desperate to get a giggle out of her, so we've been looning around a lot to try to make ThingOne laugh. A friend suggested that perhaps ThingOne is more highbrow than us, so I'm going to start reading her some Oscar Wilde quips. I should at least get a wry smile from her.

Char Wars

I'm away from home for four nights on a course. I'm training on a software package, and staying in a hotel in the evenings. After eight weeks of constantly being aware of a helpless child in the house I should be enjoying the time off, but I feel a bit guilty as ThingOne was hard work in the evenings at the weekend due, it seems, to teething. At eight weeks - ridiculous! (I'm pleased to say it sounds like ThingOne's been better since I've been away, so maybe it's me that's the problem.)

Anyway, I've been entertaining myself by watching season two of Deadwood on my laptop, and sleeping (though I've found I keep waking in the night, of course). The hotel is an old Tudor building, with wireless internet access. A nice mixture.

I returned to the hotel for the second evening on Tuesday to find the cleaning lady (I'm assuming it's a lady - sue me) had decided that I'd put things in all the wrong places, and had sorted the room out for me. My bags go in the cupboard, not on the floor apparently, and the bag of laundry doesn't go under the desk - it goes on top of the cupboard. My washbag doesn't go near the sink - it goes behing the loo. I have some photos of ThingOne with me, which I'd put next to my bed, but it seems only the phone is allowed there, so the photos went next to the TV.

I was mildly annoyed that she'd rearranged everything, so put things back where I wanted them. But I decided to relax and have some fun with it. I've been moving more and more things around, and each evening things are back where (the cleaning lady thinks) they should be. I was tempted to move the TV into the bathroom, but came to my senses and realised I had to be mature about this, so I just stuck to putting my property all around the room in odd places.

It's lucky I'm only here for four nights, else this could get nasty.

Lotsa ThingOne

There haven't been many photos of ThingOne posted recently. This is because we had my mum's diggy camera on loan for a few weeks and managed to get some good shots. Since then I've only had my diggy camera, which isn't as good and the photos don't seem as good.

I keep meaning to get a reasonably decent diggy camera, but I can't seem to find the time to read up on them to figure out which one to get. There are so many variables. I don't need a top of the range one - just 4-5 megapixels. That should suit most needs shouldn't it. The important thing is it needs to be able to take decent photos without a flash more often than my current ones. I keep upsetting ThingOne with the flash.

Last weekend Anne's sister Kerry visited with her boyfriend Mark. Mark has a very good camera, and we got some nice shots of ThingOne. So here are a few.

ThingOne likes looking over people's shoulders, so this is a view we see a lot of.


She looks wise beyond her weeks in this one below.

ThingOne seemed to like looking at Mark a lot. Given that she was similar with my brother-in-law, Chris, I reckon she must have a thing for beards.


This one isn't done with Mark's camera. You can probably tell by the quality. However, it shows how much ThingOne likes the new mobile we bought her last weekend.

Logan's Bum

Oh dear, ThingOne's losing her hair. She had lovely blonde/brown/red hair, and it's falling out. The top of her head is now mostly bald, and she has a bald patch round the back too. She looks slightly ridiculous, I have to say. Poor ThingOne.

ThingOne has more nicknames than you could shake a stick at. Well, several, so I guess that depends on the size and weight of your stick.


-The Bean, or Beanie, or Beanster. Obviously.
-Logan, as she looks like Michael York in Logan's Run when she's in one of her white sleep suits.
-Baldy Baby. See above.

I had a fright the other day when Logan did some projectile pooing when I was changing her nappy. It flew across her change table! Amazing. Anne tells me of a friend who knows of a baby whose poo once squirted six feet, so now I'm getting competitive. Come on Baldy - you can do it!