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A couple of weeks ago, Aidan’s hair suddenly started to grow.
It started with a soft tuft at the nape of his neck, as if Aidan was embarrassed by the birthmarks and general blotchiness on that part of his head and wanted to cover them up. But in the last week the rest of his hair has started to thicken too.
Worryingly, however, some of the wisps seem to have a gingery tinge.
Do they sell baby-safe hair dye?
This Christmas, Aidan’s godparents gave him a kit for making prints of his hands and feet.
We’ve been wanting to take his prints for some time. The two baby books that we have both have spaces for them, but we didn’t have any ink and weren’t sure what kind would be safe to use. Handily, the kit Aidan received included an ink pad, as well as two frames in which to mount the results.
This evening we decided to give it a whirl. Figuring that getting his prints was probably going to be a messy business, we decided to do it just before his bath. Good job we did.
Getting his foot-print was easy. Mandy dangled him over the counter, while I daubed his foot in the ink. Suitably blackened, Mandy lowered him onto the paper while I pressed his foot down to make a clear impression. Within no time we’d got three good ones. Happily, the ink was water-soluble, and easily washed off when we held his foot under the tap.
The next job was to get a hand-print. With Aidan’s hands both clenched tightly, we could immediately see that this was going to be more difficult. I had to pry his fingers open to ink them, a tricky manoeuvre that left me with as much ink on my hands as he had on his. And by the time Mandy had swung him across to the paper, he’d clenched them again, making getting a clear print a real challenge!
It took us five tries to get three halfway-decent prints, all the while guarding against any attempt by Aidan to start sucking his inky thumb. By the end, Aidan had ink half-way up his arm and on his chest, and had started to cry as a result of our manhandling.
By the time he got out the bath, however, he was clean and calm again, and we had three respectable sets of prints.
In the last week, Aidan has developed the ability to roll from his back onto his side.
I saw this new trick for the first time today. I had momentarily plopped Aidan down on the floor, on his back, while I was showing Mandy something on the computer. When I glanced back, Aidan was lying on his side with his head craned back, checking out his reflection in the play mat’s mirror.
He was obviously trying to roll all the way onto his front, but he couldn’t quite manage it. I can’t see it taking him much longer though.
Yesterday, Aidan went for his first swim in a pool, out at his granny and poppa’s.
Alas, it was less than successful. Although the pool was heated, Aidan screamed pretty much the entire time (which was all of thirty seconds, given the volume of his protests). We figured that the water, although 81 degrees, wasn’t quite as warm as he was used to in the bath, so we turned the heater back on and resolved to try again today.
By this morning the pool was up to a very pleasant 94 degrees. But as soon as Aidan’s body slipped into the water, he started screaming again. Apart from a few brief pauses to draw breath, he didn’t stop until we lifted him out.
Presumably the problem was the air temperature, which was probably only in the high 60s. I think we’re going to have to wait until things warm up a little before we try him in the pool again, lest we put him off swimming for life!
