Hand in pocket
Last week, Aidan was walking around while fumbling around in his pocket for something.
"What have you got in your pocket, Aidan?" I asked curiously.
"Hands!" said Aidan with a grin.
Parenting
Play room
Spend much of the time over the Cup Match weekend rearranging the furniture in our house to try to create a play room for Aidan.
Since we don't have a spare room, we decided to use part of the dining room instead. We moved all the bookcases into the office, and pushed the dining room table into one half of the room, leaving the other half free.
Into the space went his table and a couple of small chairs, a piece of furniture for some of his stuff, and all his toys that were previously scattered across the house. The floor we covered with some interlocking foam tiles, though we need more. We want to buy some low shelving to physically separate the two halves of the room too.
So it's still a work in progress. Nevertheless, the first thing Aidan said when he saw the new setup was a surprisingly enthusiastic "wow!", so we must have done something right!
The happy swimmer
Aidan is getting more and more comfortable in the pool.
He's now quite happy to jump in from the side, something he wouldn't do just a couple of months ago, and most of the photos we have of him underwater show him grinning away!
He can also now comfortably support himself by hanging on to the side of the pool and "monkey" his way round to the steps.
Must be a result of the great swimming teacher he has!
Adjusting to school
Aidan is slowly - and I mean slowly - warming up to school.
I dropped him off again this morning and most of the way there he was moaning "granny and pop, granny and pop" over and over, despite my best attempts to distract him and cheer him up. Once we arrived he started crying and although he didn't resist when I passed him to the teacher, he was still crying when I left. It was heartbreaking, and inevitably makes you wonder whether you're doing the right thing.
Happily, however, when granny went to pick him up a couple of hours later, he wasn't crying, and was apparently sat watching Sesame Street with the rest of the kids. He'd also been paddling in the school's pool too. At one point the teacher offered him a sugar cookie, which he refused with a "no thank you!", but an offer of a brownie elicited a "yes, pleeeeease!", so I think he must have been feeling a bit better by then. If nothing else, at least he seems to be impressing them with his manners.
Hopefully by the time school proper starts in September he'll be settled right in.
Aidan goes to school
Aidan went to nursery school for the first time yesterday.
He's not due to start for real until September, but the school suggested that we might want to send him there for a few hours a week this summer to help him adjust. We debated about whether he was too young (he's only 21 months now and will only just be turning two in September), but in the end decided to go with what most other people we know are doing. Our hope is that it will help to develop his social and language skills, as well as giving granny and pop a break from babysitting duties.
We decided it would be best to break him in gently, so mummy dropped him off at 9am and granny and pop went to pick him up at 10.30am. I thought he'd probably cry a lot to start with, but then be distracted by whatever activities they had the kids doing. Wrong. Apparently he screamed for pretty much the whole ninety minutes.
When I first heard this, my initial reaction was annoyance that the school hadn't called us to come and get him. But apparently Aidan's behaviour was relatively normal. That said, the person who runs the school said she could only remember one child who was worse than Aidan on his first day.
Fortunately, today was a little better. Aidan cried a bit, but it wasn't as bad as yesterday. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better still as one of Aidan's friends will be there then too, and hopefully he'll get some reassurance from that.
(Misplaced) Enthusiasm
One of Aidan's most endearing features right now is the enthusiasm with which he often responds to simple questions.
"Would you like some toast?" we'll ask.
"Yes pleeeeease!" he'll reply, as if you'd just asked him whether he'd like to have a million dollars' worth of Tonka trucks.
It never fails to raise a smile in me. It's even funnier when it's completely inappropriate.
The other morning Aidan stubbed his toe while opening mummy's wardrobe door. His face wrinkled up.
"You're fine!" we breezily reassured, operating under the principle that kids are often more upset by the worry in their parents' faces than by any pain they're feeling.
Unimpressed, Aidan started to wail. Time to go to stage two.
"Did you hurt your toe? Would you like us to cut it off?" we asked.
The sniffles subsided. "Yes pleeeeease!"
The writing's on the wall
Aidan has started drawing on the walls.
He did it for the first time yesterday, grabbing a crayon and scribbling on the kitchen wall when mummy wasn't looking. Then this morning he found a pencil and used it on one of the walls in the hall, covering half its length before mummy disarmed him.
Time to break out the paint...
Happy Father's Day!
Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.
While some of us spend the day on the golf course and others on the water, I'm planning to spend the day in Liberty City.
Still feel a bit guilty about taking so much time to myself, though. Maybe that's because when I was growing up Father's Day never seemed to be as big a deal as Mother's Day. But having been a dad for getting on for two years now, I can appreciate the value of having a day at the weekend to myself.
Of thunder and forks
Aidan's language skills are coming on in leaps and bounds.
He's now pretty good at repeating unfamiliar words back to us, if he's in the mood. For instance, we were outside the other evening when there was a rumble of thunder in the distance. "Ooh, thunder," I said. "Funder!" Aidan replied, and kept repeating his new word for the next hour, whether he heard any or not.
As a result, I'm now taking extra care with the language I use when he's around. Unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that, as Aidan still has trouble pronouncing some perfectly innocuous words. "Fork", for example, often comes out as "fuk", despite our panicky attempts to correct it.
Swinging with grandma and grandad
Formats available:Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)
Going potty
Mummy and granny seem to have decided that it's time to start getting Aidan potty trained. Apparently he did his first poo on a potty yesterday, and everyone was very excited.
Ugh. When I think about all the sitting around we're now going to be doing while waiting for him to go, the clean-up operation required afterwards, and the reliance on finding a sanitary toilet when we're out, I wonder why the rush.
Really, diapers seem so much easier.
"Uh Oh!"
Aidan has a new phrase.
Our next job is to teach him that, however cute he may be when he says it, it doesn't excuse him deliberately throwing stuff on the floor.
Kindermusik
Formats available:Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)
Play gym
Aidan has a workout at an unusually quiet play gym.
Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)
The Ag Show
Took Aidan to his first Ag Show - sorry, Annual Exhibition - this afternoon.
He had a great time looking at all the animals - from the rabbits, birds, ducks and goats, to the horses showjumping in the main arena.
By far his favourite animal, though, was this pig, which obligingly snorted and snuffled at him, snout poking through the gate of its sty. I think he would have watched it all afternoon, if we had let him!
Somersaults and cartwheels
Aidan started gymnastics class at Whitney Institute this morning.
I say "class", but it's really just a more structured version of the play gym he's been going to in St. David's for some months now. There, the kids just run around for a couple of hours playing with whatever bits of equipment they please.
Today, the equipment was grouped into stations, and the kids into groups. Each group of kids was assigned to a station and would follow a (relatively) orderly circuit through each piece of equipment in that group - walking along beams, doing somersaults, running along an inflatable track, and so on. Then after ten minutes a bell would ring and everyone would move on to the next station.
It was as much of a workout for us parents as for the kids!
Beside the seaside
All together now... "Oh I do like to be beside the seaside..."
Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)
No more curls!
Last week, Aidan got his first professional haircut. Apparently, he absolutely hated it, crying the whole way through. On the plus side, at least it meant he sat still long enough for them to cut it!
Holy Trinity play group
Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)
Daddy's shoes
Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)
Animal noises
Aidan puts on his best moo!
Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)
So far so good
Aidan was a great boy today.
After his nap we ran an errand to Godet & Young, then I took him to watch the digger and lifter on Penno's Wharf up close and personal. He would probably have stayed there, nose pressed up against the fence, for the rest of the afternoon, had we not needed to go to Whites for some food. When we got home I had barely put all the groceries away before it was time to go round to our neighbours', Craig and Martine, for dinner. Aidan ate almost all of his big plate of salmon, corn, peas and spaghetti, plus a few grapes and a couple of small forkfuls of chocolate cake. We got home just before eight, whereupon he went down without a fuss.
The only minor drama was a leaky diaper while we were at Craig and Martine's, which I had to run home to change, but happily no poo was involved.
With Bobby now needing a bypass, I'm likely to be looking after Aidan for at least the next week. If the rest of the time goes as smoothly as today, that should be no problem at all. So don't worry about us, mummy!
Home alone
Well, Mandy is now on a plane to Baltimore, and Aidan and I are home alone.
As I write, Bobby is being poked and prodded by the doctors in John Hopkins. They're putting a dye into his blood to help them determine where any blockages may be around his heart. If these are small enough then they may just put some stents in, possibly at the same time. Best case scenario is that they do everything that they need to today, discharge him tomorrow and then everyone comes back on Friday's flight. I should know more later, and will post an update as and when I do.
Here, everything is going smoothly so far. Aidan didn't think much of the peanut butter sandwich I made him for lunch, but ate a load of apple, grapes and strawberries instead. He went down for his nap at 1.15pm without complaint, despite being full of energy, and is still asleep now.
What I worry about, in increasing order of anxiety:
1. He refuses to eat anything I put in front of him, and throws it all on the floor. Ah well, I guess he can live on Goldfish crackers for a few days, if absolutely necessary.
2. Him breaking/burning/cutting some part of his body. I have been known to faint at the sight of large amounts of blood, which would be entirely unhelpful in this situation.
3. Explosive poo that escapes his diapers and ends up all over his sleeping bag/high chair/wall. Or poo in the bath. Maybe I'll slip some Imodium into his dinner tonight, just to be safe.
4. A meltdown when he realises his mummy isn't here and won't be home any time soon. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago when I brought him home from Book Babies while granny and mummy ran some errands. He screamed and screamed and screamed for about an hour straight, threw himself on the floor (smacking his head on the tile in the process, which obviously only made him scream even more), and only stopped mummy came home (apart from a brief lull when daddy called mummy to tell her to get back ASAP before we had a full-scale Chernobyl on our hands).
But if I can avoid all of that, I think it might even be fun.
Vacuuming
Aidan has long been fascinated by our Dyson vacuum cleaner, so when we spotted a toy version in Atlanta, we couldn't not buy it for him.
We finally gave him it on Easter Day, along with several leftover presents from Christmas. It was a runaway hit, with most of his waking hours since then being spent pushing it back and forth across the floor. Yesterday he refused to go down for his lunchtime nap until it was parked next to his crib.
If only it picked up the dirt too!
Good Friday at Horseshoe Bay
Aidan spends a traditional Good Friday at Horseshoe Bay, but isn't too excited by the kites.
Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)
Shopping cart
One of Aidan's favourite toys is his shopping cart. This footage of him pushing it around Granny and Poppa's house was shot at Christmas, but I only recently rediscovered it, still on the video camera. Enjoy.
Remembering the BBC Micro
The news that the creators of the BBC Micro are getting together again this week at London's Science Museum has got me feeling all nostalgic.
The BBC Micro was the machine that started my love-affair with computers (if you exclude the Commodore PETs that I occasionally got to play with at school). I can still clearly remember the day I came home from school one Wednesday afternoon (for some reason, in my junior school we got Wednesday afternoons off) to find this wondrous new machine that my dad had brought home.
Initially, we mainly used it for playing games (the early Acornsoft titles being the ones that stick out in my mind: Snapper, Monsters, Planetoid, Rocket Raid and, of course, Elite). But it was also the machine that I did my first programming on, the listings for one of my games even appearing in a national computer magazine (back in the days when computer magazines printed program listings instead of putting the compiled game on a cover disc). Indeed, it was probably responsible for the career that I'm following today.
I'd love to be able to give Aidan a similarly wonderful experience when he's a bit older. But sadly, I think the world is a different place today. The BBC Micro was one of the first home computers, but now, of course, they're commonplace, as are gaming consoles. And I think that writing even a simple game on a PC today would be a lot harder than it was back then on the BBC Micro.
"Wass dis?"
Aidan currently spends about 90% of his waking hours pointing at things and asking, "Wass dis?"
It's very cute, and exciting to hear him put his first words together, but after the 100th time of responding to him, it does start to get a little tiring. He still isn't repeating any of the words back to us, but most of the time he'll correctly identify an object if we ask him to point to it.
Progress may be slow, but it's progress all the same.
The broken windows theory of parenting
Our house always used to be a pretty organised place.
I'm a neat freak, who can't stand clutter, and Mandy feels the same way about dirt. So between us, we usually had no problem keeping the house clean and tidy.
Then Aidan came along, however, and the place hasn't been the same since.
The funny thing is, it's not just Aidan's books and toys that are now cluttering the place up. I've started leaving my own crap lying around too. Subconsciously, I seem to be thinking, "well, the place is a mess anyway, so what difference does another item make?". As for cleaning - well, it's well known that parenting and cleaning are mutually exclusive activities.
So that's our house these days: dirty and untidy. Without doubt one of the most difficult realities of parenting to get used to.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood
Aidan's still not making much sense when he talks, and his vocabulary doesn't seem to be growing very fast. Nevertheless, it's clear that he understands a lot more than he can communicate.
"Close the door, Aidan," we'll say, and he'll go and close it.
"Go and get a can of corn," we'll tell him, and he'll go and get it.
"Point to the cow," we'll say while reading one of his books, and nine times out of ten, he'll point to it.
It's really pretty amazing.
Tongues!
Aidan has just discovered his tongue, and will now happily stick it out at the slightest provocation. He's also fascinated by other people's tongues, and will try to grab yours if you stick it out at him!
Cuddly toys
Aidan hasn't been particularly taken with stuffed animals... until now. This wide-eyed cat is the first cuddly toy he's taken a liking to.
Poo in the tub
Question: What do the bath and the toilet have in common?
Answer: they're both made of white porcelain and filled with water.
Guess that's why, when Aidan was having a bath last night, he saw no problem with taking a crap at the same time. He didn't even have the decency to do a solid one.
Needless to say, the cleaning-up operation was not pleasant. Thank God for Clorox Clean-up and a kitty litter scoop!
Book Babies
Yesterday, while mummy was working out her aggression at kickboxing in the gym next door, Aidan and I went to the first Book Babies of the year.
Held every Saturday at Hamilton’s Youth Library, it’s a free, half-hour session for under-twos (or thereabouts). One of the library staff reads a couple of books, and the kids get to listen to some songs and play with a bunch of toys too. It’s short, but fun.
Aidan usually occupies himself by trying to run out the door, stealing the other kids’ toys, or walking around with the plastic pole from the stacking rings toy in his mouth (leading daddy to alternately worry about the number of kids who’ve had it in their mouth before him, and his sexuality).
Good times.
Ball boy
Got home this evening to find Aidan hurling a small, hard, plastic ball up and down the hall with a force unseen before now.
When it bounced into our bedroom and was nowhere to be seen when he went in to retrieve it, he was even smart enough to get down on his hands and knees and look for it under the bed.
He's growing up fast.
How to piss me off
Should you ever want to really irritate me, there is one question that you can ask that I guarantee will do the trick every time:
“So, when are you going to get going on number two then?”
Or, worse,
“Wow, Aidan’s almost fourteen months old already, eh? Isn’t it about time you were getting to work on number two?”
Don’t be so damn presumptuous. If you really must know our thoughts on this, the correct question to ask is:
“So, any plans to have a second?”
Thank you.
32 steps
Today Aidan set a new record for the number of steps he's taken without hanging on to anything for support: 32. Unless, that is, you count the swimming goggles he had in one hand and the toy broom in the other (which I don't, since he was waving the broom around rather than leaning on it).
It's bizarre, but he's still much more inclined to walk, and tends to go further, when he has something in his hands. It's as though he needs something to distract him from the act of putting one foot in front of the other.
Me and my broom
Because of Aidan's fascination with brooms (there are now signs that "broom" may be his second word, after "cat"), granny bought him this toy one a week or two ago. It's now one of Aidan's most treasured possessions!
"My books!"
The first thing I knew of the destruction that Aidan wreaked on my bookshelf early last month was when I came across this picture while downloading some photos from Mandy’s camera this evening.
“F***ing hell! My books!” I yelled as this picture popped up on the screen. Laughing, Mandy claimed that Aidan had already done all this by the time she walked into the room. I remain unconvinced.
Sliding the screen door
One of Aidan’s favourite things to do at granny and poppa’s is to slide their screen door open… and shut… and open… and shut… He’s been doing it ever since he’s been able to stand and is still showing no signs of getting bored of it!
Baby Boom
Congratulations to Mike and Jill Davidson, whose daughter Gwendolyn Jane was born at 3.02am this morning (7lb 10oz), and Craig and Martine Rothwell, whose daughter Grace was born at 7.50pm this evening (6lb 1oz). A busy day on the maternity ward!
First steps
It doesn't take long for Aidan's clothes to get from the dresser to the washbasket!
Overslept
So when our alarm went off at 7am this morning, I accidentally hit the “off” button rather than “snooze”.
I knew I’d done it, but let myself dozily slip back into sleep, secure in the knowledge that our other alarm – Aidan – would be waking us up imminently anyway.
Of course, this was the morning that he chose to sleep in until 8am.
Birth order of children
I'm not a big fan of "funny" email forwards, since my (odd) sense of humour isn't shared by most of the people I know. This one did make me laugh, though.
Maternity clothes1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.Preparing for the Birth
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth monthThe Layette
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?Worries
1st baby: At the first sign of distress - a whimper, a frown - you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swingPacifier
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.Diapering
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.Activities
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.Going Out
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.At Home
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.Swallowing Coins
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance!
Happy Birthday, Aidan!
It’s hard to believe, but Aidan was one year old today.
On one hand, the last twelve months seem to have flown by. On the other, I can’t remember what life was like before him. What did we do with all that time at the weekend?
I took today off work so Mandy, Aidan and I could spend the day together as a family. This morning we went to Baby Gymnastics in St. David’s for the first time, which was a huge amount of fun. I may even have enjoyed myself more than Aidan, rolling around on the mats and playing with him on the equipment. Lunch was at Mulligans, gazing out over the ocean and St. George’s golf course while Aidan happily wandered around and played with Mandy’s keys (much more interesting than any birthday present). Then this afternoon we had a mini birthday celebration for him with some of the kids from Mandy’s swimming classes (with cake, natch), followed by a barbeque with Granny and Poppa.
Aidan didn’t get a huge pile of presents, and I’m glad. I hate to see kids getting showered with gifts at birthdays and Christmas, barely glancing at each before rushing on to the next. That said, both Mandy and I are feeling guilty that the one toy and four books that we got Aidan really wasn’t enough. I think we’ll probably pick something else up for him on our next trip to town.
We didn’t get him a birthday card either. The Oatleys aren’t big on sending cards on special occasions anyway, and since moving to Bermuda, I’ve all but given up the tradition too. Most of the cards sold here are American, and thus unimaginative, unfunny or sickly sentimental. I really wanted to send Aidan a “Happy birthday son” card, but couldn’t find anything remotely suitable. Next time I go to the UK I’m going to have to stock up, I think.
Nevertheless, Aidan seemed to really enjoy his day, and wasn’t at all grumpy or fussy. And with another pool party with some of our friends planned for Saturday afternoon, the celebrations aren’t over yet!
One small step
When he was born, Aidan was pretty much immobile.
First, he learned to lift his head – just a little, initially, then more and more. Next, he figured out how to roll over and sit up. Then he began to crawl – hesitantly at first, then more confidently. Then he discovered how to pull himself into a standing position. Next, he began to stagger along while holding onto the furniture, or when someone held both his hands and walked with him.
Several weeks ago, Aidan started walking when only one of his hands was being held. He also started standing unsupported for a few seconds, sometimes longer if he was distracted and didn’t realise what he was doing. At first, he would drop quickly back down on his bum. More recently, his descents have been more controlled. The other day he did a good impression of a ballet dancer, slowly bending his knees outwards as he went from standing to squatting, then straightening them again as he stood back up.
Yesterday, he hit the final milestone, taking his first step forward unassisted. He did it once with granny, then again with mummy, then twice with me. Taking Aidan’s hand in mine, we began to walk down the hall, then I counted down from three and let go. Aidan stopped, standing unsupported, then took one step forward. After the applause and cheers died down, he slowly sat down.
Going from that first step to running down the hall is now just a matter of degree, it seems to me. Time for me to start growing those eyes in the back of my head.
“Ca–!”
I think Aidan’s first word is going to be “cat”.
He occasionally mutters “mumumum”, but does so indiscriminately. The chance of him saying “dad” seems as remote as ever. But whenever Aidan sees one of our three cats – Dark, Stormy or Black – the reaction is immediate.
“C–! C–! C–!” he’ll stammer, or occasionally, “Ca–! Ca–! Ca–!”. He hasn’t quite managed to put the final “t” on the end, yet. But I’m sure it can’t be much longer before he does.
It’s not surprising, as Aidan absolutely loves our cats. The feeling isn’t always reciprocated, however, largely due to Aidan’s tendency to grab a fistful of fur or an ear whenever one of the cats let him get close enough.
A couple of weeks ago Aidan was stood wobbily next to one of the kitchen cupboards when Dark brushed past him. Excitedly, Aidan grabbed Dark’s tail, hard. With a yowl, Dark raced off, pulling Aidan with him, who whacked his head against the cupboard as he fell.
Aidan has been a little more cautious since then, but it didn’t stop him cornering Dark in the bookcase the other morning, while the cat was trying to take a nap. Aidan ended up with a couple of claw marks on his head for that mistake. Surprisingly, that was the first time any of the cats had actually taken a pop at him. Generally, they’re amazingly tolerant of his rough treatment.
Perhaps I should try to teach him the word “gentle” next.
Broom boy
Aidan is peculiarly fascinated with brooms. It began when he started using the broom out at granny’s to help him walk (with one of us holding it to keep it upright), but now whenever he sees one, he has to have it or the tears quickly follow. He’ll amuse himself for ages sitting near the end of the pole and passing it back and forth over his head.
Actually, any implement on the end of a long pole seems to hold a similar attraction. The other day while we were having lunch at Barr’s Park, he was just as intrigued by the rake one of the gardeners was using as he was by his broom.
Who needs toys when everyday items are as exciting as this?
Forward-facing
A week or so ago we realised that Aidan was getting too big for his old, rear-facing car seat, so we had to replace it with a new, forward-facing one. It’s black and burgundy and looks very sporty.
Installation was straightforward once I figured out the crappy diagrams in the manual, although we’ve had to leave the tether strap from the top of the seat unattached. The anchor point in our Liana is right next to the place where the boot latches, so with the strap attached we wouldn’t be able to get the stroller in. Yeah, great design, Suzuki. The base of the seat is strapped in good and tight, however, and I figure that with the speeds that we drive at in Bermuda, it’s no biggie.
Aidan hated his new seat the first time he rode in it, but he’s now used to it. I thought he’d find it much harder to fall asleep in than when he was facing backwards, but thankfully that’s proven not to be the case. The only problem is when he decides that he doesn’t want to get in and does his “arch-my-back-and-go-rigid” trick. Previously, he couldn’t really go anywhere, but now he can slide down into the gap between the front and back seats, which makes the struggle to strap him in just that little bit more difficult.
Calling a spade a spade
Efforts continue to teach Aidan to say “dad”.
Me (patting chest): “Dad! Dad! Dadadadada. Dad!”
Aidan: (blank look)
Me: “Dadadadadadadad!”
Aidan (catching on): “Geek!”
Me: “No! Dad! Dadadadad!”
Aidan (grinning broadly): “Geek! Geek!”
Satisfied at his ability to identify his father, Aidan then crawls off, happily exclaiming “Geek! Geek!” as he goes.
Sandcastle competition
Yesterday we took Aidan to the annual Sandcastle Competition at Horseshoe Bay beach. As usual, there were lots of great entries, particularly from the professional sandcastle- building team that was in attendance again.
I'm not sure Aidan really appreciated them - but he certainly had a whale of a time crawling along the beach by the water's edge and getting all wet and sandy. Mummy even took him swimming in the ocean for the first time, but there was a lot of surf and I don't think he enjoyed that quite as much!
Getting around
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to produce a video of Aidan that was a bit more fun that most of the ones I've done so far. This was the result.
I'm very proud of the way it turned out. Hope you have as much fun watching it as I did putting it together.
Sea legs
Last weekend, we took Aidan out on Thistledew for the first time, to cheer along Victory in the dinghy races. He was quite happy on the water, finding his sea legs in no time at all!
Grossed out
I used to think that the grossest experience I’d have with Aidan would be dealing with the after-effects of an explosive poo that had splattered halfway up his back. This evening, I learned that there’s something much worse.
I had just arrived at granny's and as is often the case when I get home from work, Aidan was more interested in what he was doing than saying hello to me. So in an effort to get some attention, I scooped him up, hoisted him into the air above my head and mouthed an enthusiastic hello.
I had a split-second to wonder why my antics hadn't produced the usual grin before Aidan threw up, his puke dropping straight into my open mouth.
It didn't taste that great. Somehow I managed to resist the urge to add my own vomit to the gobbet now dripping off my chin and running down my shirt. However, I lost no time plonking Aidan back on the floor and racing for the bathroom. Yet even now, after applying liberal quantities of soap and water, I'm sure I can still smell it. I think maybe some of it went up my nose.
Diarrhoea-filled nappies come back, all is forgiven.
One step closer
This weekend, Aidan took another step – literally – towards walking unassisted. While I held only one of his hands, he tottered down granny’s hall and back with a look of great concentration on his face, before plonking down on his bum again. He’s also been walking while hanging on to his high chair, using it as a kind of zimmer frame. It surely can’t be much longer before he’ll be staggering around on his own.
No parent should be without one
Looking back at the photos of Aidan that I’ve taken recently, I realise that the vast majority have been taken with my camera phone.
Yes, the quality of my Nokia 6131 is vastly inferior to my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, its memory capacity is tiny, and the delay between pressing the button and it actually taking the picture is agonisingly long. However, those limitations are more than offset by the fact that it’s about twenty times smaller and lighter and I carry it with me wherever I go. When it comes to snapping pictures of Aidan doing something unexpected, the portability of a camera phone is unrivalled.
Every parent should have one.
“Throw it!”
Aidan is figuring out how to throw things.
First it was the toys he sometimes plays with while he’s sat in his high chair. He doesn't so much throw them as drop them, wait for mummy or daddy to pick them up, then drop them again.
Next came his pacifiers. When he doesn’t want to go to sleep he stands up in his crib, grabs the pacifier from his mouth, hurls it on the floor, then cries until mummy or daddy comes to pick it up for him.
Today, however, was the first time I had seen him throwing a ball. We must have spent at least ten minutes tossing one back and forth to each other across granny’s glass-topped coffee table. Finally, something we can actually encourage him to throw!
A new trick
For some reason, Aidan has taken to arching his back and going rigid while trying to change him or put him in his car seat.
As you can imagine, this makes those activities much more difficult than they would otherwise be, particularly when you’re trying to change a pooey diaper...
Asleep in my arms
There’s nothing nicer than having your baby fall asleep in your arms while you’re giving him his evening feed.
Aidan used to do this quite often, but as he’s grown older it’s become less frequent. Which just makes nights like tonight, when he did it again for the first time in months, even more special.
In the swing
Thanks to granny and poppa, Aidan now has a bright red swing hanging from the branches of the loquat tree in our yard.
It was getting late by the time it was ready for him to try out, so he was tired and generally didn’t seem too impressed by it (the excitement on display in the photo requiring ten times as much enthusiasm from us to generate). But he loves the swings at the playground and granny’s house, so I’m sure he’ll enjoy this one too when he’s feeling more awake. I’ll certainly appreciate having one more activity to choose from when I’m trying to entertain him at home!
Eye on the ball
I’m hopeless at sports, and loathe the vast majority of them, but one of the things I’m most looking forward to with Aidan is playing football with him in the yard.
Today we had our first practice session together. Aidan may not be able to stand by himself yet, never mind kick the ball, but that didn’t stop us having a lot of fun knocking it around together on the grass.
Noises
Aidan’s still not talking, but his vocabulary of sounds continues to grow. In the last few weeks he’s started saying ba-ba-ba (which we continue, “…black sheep, have you any wool?”) and ma-ma-ma (though he’s not associating that with Mandy yet). Then yesterday he started blowing through his lips to make a funny, high-pitched, “brrrrr!” noise, which sounded not unlike a motorbike. So naturally, we grabbed his hand and made revving motions with it, much to our own amusement.
And there I was hoping he wouldn’t show an interest in bikes until he was in his teens.
Crawling
The biggest piece of news in the two months since I last updated this site (I know, I know) is that Aidan is now crawling. He started slowly, about a week after his 7-month birthday, but is now racing around the house at a great rate of knots. His new-found mobility means we’ve had to install a gate at the top of the stairs, put latches (as adult-proof as they are child-proof) on most of the cupboards, plug up all the electric sockets, and now have to keep an eye on him pretty much the whole time.
His favourite thing to do right now is opening and slamming shut the drawers and cupboards in the bathroom (we’ve put elastic cords around the cupboard doors to keep them shut, but there’s still a bit of give). He finds this enormous fun, except when he gets his fingers caught in the doors, or smacks himself in the face with the drawer as he’s opening it. But he’s learning!
Alas, now that he can get around on his hands and knees he seems to have lost some of his interest in walking. Whereas previously he would be quite happy to walk around if you held his hands, now he usually just lets his knees collapse beneath him.
Shopping
Entertaining a 9-month-old in the house all weekend can be sanity-crumbling affair, so any excursion, however banal, is now something to be relished. As such, today’s grocery shopping trip to Whites would have been something to look forward to anyway. However, this was the first shopping trip that Aidan and I have been on since Aidan has been old enough to sit in the cart. We had a great time whizzing up and down the aisles and checking out all the products, and are looking forward to doing it again soon!
Unchristened
One of the things that we were planning to do while my parents were in Bermuda was have Aidan christened. We booked St. Peter’s church in St. George’s several months ago, and arranged to get together with the rector, the Reverend David Raths, the week before to discuss the details. But when we finally met him, things didn’t quite go to plan.
My main reason for wanting to meet was to discuss what my role in the ceremony would be. Mandy doesn’t believe in the Christian God, but she does believe in some kind of divine spirit. Because of that, and because she felt it was still “the done thing”, she wanted Aidan to be baptised. As an agnostic/atheist unwilling to promise to bring Aidan up as a Christian, however, I wanted to explore whether it would be possible to use an alternative form of words. I was hoping for something that would allow me to be involved in the service, but not compromise my beliefs.
When we met Rev. Raths, however, it was immediately apparent that the format of the ceremony was not up for discussion. As Mandy and I started to explain our religious beliefs (or lack of them), Rev. Raths listened with what seemed to me to be mounting horror. He seemed like a nice, quietly-spoken man, so when I had to look him in the eye and tell him I was an atheist I almost felt guilty, like I had insulted him personally. I told him that if I might be able to consider speaking the words in the ceremony and meaning them in a metaphorical sense, but that I couldn’t mean them literally. However, Rev. Raths was clearly unhappy with that.
I explained that I had no intention of bringing Aidan up to be a Christian exclusively and would be exposing him to all faiths and encouraging him to make up his own mind about them. I see nothing noble in promising to bring my child up according to the teachings of one particular faith. To me, that’s just indoctrination. Growing up in Bermuda, Aidan is already going to be exposed to enough of that. What I did want to know, however, was whether Aidan could get himself christened later in his life, if he chose to do so. Rev. Raths confirmed that he could.
Mandy did an excellent job explaining why she wanted a christening despite not being a Christian, and Rev. Raths was sympathetic. However, he stressed that a baptism was a very serious thing, “not just a photo opportunity”. Although he said he would perform the ceremony if we still wanted him to, it was clear that he would prefer not to.
Before we met Rev. Raths, Mandy had thought that he would welcome the opportunity to christen Aidan, despite our lack of faith, for Aidan’s sake. But during our chat it became clear that that was not how he felt at all. To him, a christening was about the parents pledging to bring the child up as a Christian, and if we knew in advance that we weren’t going to honour that pledge, he didn’t understand why we would want to make it. So in the end, we didn't.
More and more parents seem to be making a similar decision these days. Some of our friends who have babies have also decided not to have them christened, so Aidan will certainly not be unusual in this regard. And the more stories like this that I read, the more certain I am that we did absolutely the right thing.
Meeting grandma and granddad
A couple of weeks ago, Aidan met his grandma and granddad – my parents – for the first time.
We’ve been doing video calls over Skype since Aidan was born, but this was their first face-to-face meeting. Needless to say, my folks were very excited about finally getting to know him. They had considered flying over shortly after he was born, but decided against it to give Mandy and me time to get used to our new arrival.
I think it was a good call. At six months old, babies are much more interesting than they are for the first few months after they’re born. They smile, they react and they’re just starting to learn to move around under their own steam. Indeed, for most of the three weeks they were here, my parents hardly left St. George’s, being content to spend as much time with Aidan as possible. Having someone else around to entertain Aidan was nice for Mandy and myself too.
Naturally, my parents took a ton of photos of Aidan while they were here, the best of which I’ve added to the Aidan set on flickr.
Locomotion
Aidan is now almost seven months old, but he still can’t crawl. As he hasn’t really done any new tricks for a couple of months now, I’m getting impatient. I was rather expecting him to be writing dissertations on sub-atomic physics by now.
He is getting awfully close, however (to crawling, that is; I think the disserations will have to wait for a couple more months). He can now sit unsupported, which I understand is a necessary precursor, although he can’t get into a sitting position himself and has to kind of fall over to get back onto his hands and knees. He’ll occasionally do a bunny-hop, or even move one knee forward, but he hasn’t yet figured out that he needs to move his hands as well. When he tries, he usually just collapses in a heap with a frustrated cry.
Frankly, however, he seems more inclined to skip the crawling and go straight to walking (and apparently some babies do). He much prefers standing up to any other position and his legs are strong enough to take his own weight (although they can be a bit wobbly at times). As a result, I’ve started walking him around the house while hanging on to his arms. He’s taken to it like a duck to water, happily plonking one foot in front of the other as I call out, “Left! Right! Left! Right!” like some demented drill sergeant.
I’ve also started teaching him to cruise. The coffee table in our living room is the perfect height for him, and I’ve been encouraging him to stand while hanging on to it. Admittedly, he still hasn’t quite grasped what he’s supposed to do with his arms, preferring to use them to bang excitedly on the table instead of holding on. Hopefully he’ll figure this out before he whacks his chin on the table edge when his legs go out from under him.
Teething
In the last few weeks, Aidan’s teeth have started coming through. The consequences:
1. More fussing. We’ve got some stuff for his gums that seems to alleviate the discomfort for a while, but putting it on can be hazardous, because of…
2. More biting. Biting down on things seems to make Aidan’s gums feel better, whether they be soft toys or daddy’s fingers. Ouch. What's more, he bites like a lion devouring a gazelle, putting the object in his mouth, biting down on it, then pulling it out while his jaws are still clamped shut. No vegetarian tendencies here.
3. More drooling. Aidan has always been a bit of a dribbler, but it’s now reached Niagara Falls-proportions. Within minutes of putting him in a long-sleeved outfit, his cuffs are usually wringing wet.
All in all, though, the little guy's handling it well.
Just no-one mention the word dentist.
Ha bloody ha
“Babe!” said my wife excitedly, as she came into the room this morning. “My period’s a week late”.
I stared at her.
“But… how is that possible?” I stammered. As far as I could recall, she hadn’t forgotten to take her pill in the last month.
A week late. That seemed like a lot, but I was sure she had been that late once before. Hadn’t she?
I fought back the panic. Perhaps two kids wouldn’t be as bad as I thought. And anyway, even though I was far from certain that I wanted more than one, I had never really expected to win that argument, had I? This was inevitable. It had just come a bit sooner than I was expecting.
“April fool!” grinned Mandy.
Oh, God damn it...
Six month update
It’s Aidan’s six-month birthday today, and I figured it’s high time I updated everyone on how he’s getting on.
First of all, apologies for the lack of updates in the last six weeks or so. Since going on sabbatical from A Limey In Bermuda at the beginning of February I’ve found that blogging has lost much of its appeal (or perhaps it was the other way round). I’ve found myself wanting to spend more time doing things and less time writing about them.
Last month I was in London for ten days on a business trip too. That was the first time that I’ve been away from Aidan, and the first time that I’ve been away from Mandy since we got married. I enjoyed the chance to wander through Borders and HMV, grab a latte at Starbucks and dinner at Pizza Express, and catch up on some great movies that I would never see here. Nevertheless, London felt like a young person’s city, the people I passed on the streets reminding me of myself ten years ago. But I’m not young or single any more. I missed Mandy and Aidan. I was ready to come home about 24 hours after landing.
The one thing that struck me about Aidan when I got back home was how much brighter his eyes were. They seemed to dart around much more than before, and there seemed to be more intelligence behind them. While I had been away he’d also discovered his feet, and as with everything new, was now investing substantial time and effort in trying to eat them.
He had become much more proficient in rolling onto his front too, and now does so at every opportunity. The only thing he still hasn’t figured out is how to get onto his back again; so once his arms get tired he usually starts crying until someone comes and rolls him back over (typically, he then immediately rolls back onto his front again).
I wasn’t with Aidan for his most exciting new experience, however. On the same day that I got on a plane to London, Mandy and Aidan got on a plane to Atlanta.
The prospect of getting on an airplane with a baby is about as appealing as stabbing myself in the eye with a pair of blunt scissors. I’m in no rush to do it even with Mandy along to help, let alone on my own. So I was flabbergasted when Mandy suggested that she take Aidan on a shopping trip to Atlanta while I was away. Even though she was to meet her parents there, I couldn’t believe that she was so sanguine about struggling with both a baby and her baggage on her own. That said, I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t going to be there to see Aidan’s reaction the first time the plane took off.
Since babies can no longer travel on their parents’ passports, Aidan had to have his own passport for the trip. This seemed slightly daft. In the few weeks between submitting the application and getting his passport back from immigration (a process made longer because, bizarrely, we had to resubmit the document to immigration to get the stamp identifying him as a Bermudian put in there), Aidan had changed sufficiently that he bore only a passing resemblance to his photo. Even dafter, he can travel on that passport until he is five. I imagine pretty much any white baby could travel on his passport without anyone in immigration batting an eyelid.
As for the flight, apparently Aidan took it all in his stride. Mandy’s parents met them at the gate in Atlanta, and they spent the next three days maxing out the credit card without me being around to tut at them. Which, come to think about it, probably goes a long way to explain Mandy’s willingness to get on a plane with Aidan on her own.
All the way over
Just over a month ago, Aidan discovered how to roll from his back onto his side. Today, for the first time, he managed to roll all the way over onto his front.
Typically, I was on my way to work when it happened, but Mandy caught it on camera, including Aidan’s manly expression of pride when he was done.
Very exciting!