May 2004 Archives

The more I look at Emily the more she looks like a little girl. I can hardly believe how quickly the time has gone by, it only seems like yesterday that we had this ickle teeny weeny (albeit 9lb) baby.

Now she laughs and sings and says dadadadadaaaa all the time. What about mamamamama?! She can practically sit up unaided, shouts a lot - especially in public places and wants to eat everything that I am eating!

So here are some more pics to keep you all updated.

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. Which is partly due to spending all day feeding, changing and entertaining the little lady and most nights working till well past midnight, with a brief break for dinner.

About a week ago Em slowly started to get more and more grizzly and clingy until one morning she woke up coughing and sneezing and hey presto got her first cold. Poor thing didn't know what was going on and absolutely hates me coming near her to wipe away the massive bogies that are permanently hanging from her nose. But despite everything she has been in suprisingly good form.

So I was hoping that I would actually bypass this cold, especially in the middle of my hectic freelance schedule. But wouldn't you just know it; I went to bed last night feeling pretty icky and woke up this morning wanting to stay in bed all day with lots of tea and warm things and with my head under the pillow. But nope - us parents aren't allowed to get sick. No matter how yucky we are feeling we still have to plough on and look after our little ones.

Oh to be a little one.

So, of course, wanting the very best for my little cherub (coupled with being a gadget freak), when responsibility was bestowed upon me to select our baby monitor, I chose the fancy one with a little digital thermometer which would tell us the temperature of Emily's room at all times.

Now as all recent parents out there should know, the recommended temperature for your baby's room is 18° (which truth be told feels a bit nippy, but hey, the experts know best).

Our monitor allows room temperature to rise to 22°, after which it begins to beep, as a warning to us. Which is fair enough, and kinda the point of getting it in the first place.

Yesterday was REALLY HOT. At bedtime the temperature read 24°, despite open windows all day. So of course, when we put Em to bed and turned our listening end on, it beeped. And beeped. AND BEEPED.

About every 10 seconds, in a loud, irritating beep. We KNOW ALREADY! IT'S TOO HOT! WHAT CAN WE DO??

We had every window open, but to no avail, while the constant beeping made us want to turn the monitor off, which kinda defeats the purpose. Eventually I remembered a hidden switch to stop the beep, and switched it just before it drove us psychotic.

So, as the summer evenings roll on, what do we do when the room is too hot, barring installing air-conditioning? Should we let little Em sleep in just her sleep suit? Should we store her in the fridge at night? Stuff her gro-bag full of ice-cubes? And what do people who live in Mexico or The Bahamas do when they have babies?

It won't be long now before I'm dishing out curry and chips with a nice big glass of tiger beer...hmmmmm ok maybe not, but it only seems like yesterday all she needed to survive was good old mommy milk and now its fruit, veg meat and anything she can get her hands on (particularly socks, which seem to be especially tasty).

So the day before yesterday was her first adventure as a carnivore, with yummy homemade turkey and a baby friendly bolognese sauce (after a couple of hours in the kitchen making monster batches of food for the freezer!). She previously loved all the tomato-y sauces I have made and she seemed to like this too, although there was a little uncertainty.

Although she has been a bit off colour the past few days and we are not sure if its teething or just a bug she might have. Warren frantically shouted me while he was feeding Emily last night and I went into the living room to find both him and Emily covered in sick (hmmm a nice image!). She had projectiled what seemed like a bucketful, much more than could fit into her little tummy.

So now we are in a quandry...is she just a bit unwell at the moment or is she destined to save all the cute animals and be a vegetarian...?

Holy cow, I'm turning into quite the doting dad. Pictures on desktops, pictures on key rings, pictures on mobile, pictures and video on Palm...

So how could I not share this clip with you all? You'll need Quicktime installed (but come on - it's the 21st Century already!).

Tell me this isn't the cutest kid you ever saw? (Even other parents - be honest with yourself!). ;)

Medium Size Version (2.1 Mb)
Small Version (812 k)

P.S. And Hey Em! Stop getting more teeth! Two teeth is scientifically proven for maximum cute factor!