Drop and give me half

Dot writes: admire the amazing athletic achievements of Frank (aged 12 weeks):

Memory

Dot writes: when I am plunged into gloom over the latest parenting blunder I’ve perpetrated against our firstborn, Ken is wont to console me with the thought that he won’t remember any of it. But it’s interesting to notice how he is starting to remember things, and not just where the chocolate lives when we [...]

natural parenting from xkcd

from xkcd

Zzzz

Dot writes: this is Hugh having his nap last Thursday:

Note that he has nodded off over a book: Baby Touch and Feel: Trucks (Dorling Kindersley), for those interested. As far as Hugh is concerned our sleep situation is really quite good these days. If only he hadn’t had a relapse to 5.50am this morning. And [...]

In which Hugh eats cake

Dot writes: now we’re back in Dublin, here are some of the pictures from our trip to England.
Mum took us to Thrigby Hall Wildlife Park, which specializes in large felines. Hugh was very taken with them and exclaimed “cat! cat!”, pronouncing the t very carefully. You wouldn’t want to offend this particular [...]

Stamps foot

Dot writes: I was writing a post to explain where we are (Norfolk) and what we are up to (trying to make Hugh eat something) but I’m typing one handed with Frank on my knee and somehow I accidentally deleted the whole thing. So I’m giving up in disgust for the present. See you soon.

Testing

Dot writes: am I the only parent who gets desperately nervous before developmental tests? I know they’re meant as a help – an opportunity to pick up any problems so the nice HSE people can say “we see your child would benefit from the early intervention programme, but we’ve just cut the funding” – but [...]

Photos

Janus child

Dot writes: yesterday was awful, awful, awful. Hugh woke at 5.25 (not wet, no apparent reason) and was in a foul mood all day; every possible activity was served with a lavish garnish of crying, moaning and whinging. For example: he came in from a walk, played with a toy aeroplane for five seconds apparently [...]

Dot wonders…

…how people with full-time jobs are supposed to keep up with all the admin needed to hang on to daily life? I sometimes feel it’s a day’s work just to be an adult, own a car and live in a house, even before you get round to cleaning it or cooking dinner. In the last [...]