Misc

Sorry for the radio silence from me of late - things have been rather busy! Here's a selection of a few pictures which I've saved up over the past month...

I quite liked this shot of Naomi having a seat on one of her more cube-shaped toys, combined with having a bit of a dance with her dolly (who is still very well cared for)

I thought these two shots were classic "child eating" material. Just a suitable amount of food on her face - though really she's getting pretty good at eating now. She's getting the hang of a fork, although we quite often have dropped food being picked up with fingers and put back on the fork for consumption. Very cute.

Here's dolly being looked after, being changed into a plastic fridge magnet (I got this printed up as a YFC promo for our car at some point a few years ago). I'm sure it's quite comfortable. On a similar vein, Dolly received a dunk in the bath last night (complete with clothes - needless to say it caught me by surprise). I asked Naomi if she'd been needing a clean, to which I got a definite nod! Naomi then helped me dry Dolly in a towel.

 Ever the independent girl, Naomi can now climb unaided into her high chair and buggy. The operation looks quite precarious but she's quite good at it and sits down nicely once done, usually looking very pleased with herself. Apparently the act of climbing up/down is the best part; after meals she often wants down, only to climb back in again.

A little update on work. Loughborough University is the preparation camp for the UK and part of the Japanese Olympic teams. Consequently there's been a bit of a lock-down - with massive security barriers appearing all over the place - like this one, which blocks the road access next to my building:

(it's less impressive than it looks - mesh boxes filled with bags of soil - though elsewhere there's proper steel and concrete barriers in place - and they all do the job) I'm a little surprised I've not been searched yet! Perhaps "the look" I seem to have at airports doesn't carry over to my work day.

There's also a bit of a shuffle happening in my office. In contrast to my old department at RGU, there's a much larger research budget here, built up over several decades. There's something like 40 research staff - about 10 times as many! Though I see RGU's School of Computing is expanding research funding all the time, and well deserved that is too. Anyway, there has been a bit of an influx and we have some more people coming in here at LU, so on Tuesday I was told to work away from my desk while furniture was moved. I returned on Wednesday to find my desk hidden by a big pile of boxes!

Hopefully these will be gone soon - though I'm somewhat glad I'm out of the office for most of next month (holidays and a conference) - so there should be plenty of time for my "castle" to disappear again.

It's also been a bit wet here today - as it has been across more of the UK - and I can see some pretty impressive lightning from my office. Our department's lab building (home of a massive ram) is flooded. Of course, this is where all the computer servers and our experiment running machines are kept, and currently I can't access them over the network. Hopefully they're all okay! Today is an exciting day, as NESYFC is launching its cage project - this has been in the making since a year before we left Aberdeen and it's good to see it really happening - though I suspect it may be a bit wet for those who venture out to see it tonight. Still - long term I'm sure it'll be a great resource and more importantly, will open avenues for reaching out to many young people.

Finally a short clip of Naomi trying to whistle. She's gone off this again now, but a couple of weeks ago she noticed me doing it, and gave it a shot. She even managed to make a bit of a sound a few times, but unfortunately I didn't manage to capture that - so all you see is her giving it a quick go (silently) and me whistling out of shot (and tune).

Scan

I'll let Lieutenant Commander Data introduce what we did today...

Yes, we were back at Leicester General having our 20 week scan. Lots of fun- I find this stuff just amazing - and this baby is considerably more compliant than Naomi was; we didn't have to go for a walk to make this one lie in the right position. A good sign of things to come, as Naomi's been discovering how much mischief can be of late...

Anyway, here's the pictures. The one with the arm up was really good in video, the baby must has had an itchy head and was having a good old scratch.

Playing

My baby is growing up and can now do more and more for herself.  As you can see here she can now go on the slide all by herself. (However, for the record, I am closer than the video makes it looks and ready to catch her at a moment's notice.)

Also, we still very much like going on the swing, though not for too long as it is far too sedentary an activity.

First haircut!

Naomi has had her first haircut!!  Clearly all this meant was I chopped a tiny bit off her fringe, but I can't believe what a difference this has made to her face, though!  She seems to quite like it.

How Do You Find The Time?

I've been tagged by Mrs JC in this #meme started by Sex, Drugs, Rocker and Stroller.

RULES

• Please post the rules.
• When answering the questions, please give as much detail as possible.
• Leave a message on Sex, Drugs Rocker and Stroller, baby, so we can keep track of the meme and I can totally steal your routine tips to make my world a happier place.
• Also if you want (and I'd really like you to) add a little paragraph at the bottom to give a general summing up about your weekly routine.
• Tag 3 or more people and link to them on your blog.
• Tweet tweet tweet #howdoyoufindthetimetomeme

Righty-o. Lets crack on, shall we?

How and when do you find the time to...

... do your laundry?

Washing is my nemesis.  I can just about keep on top of the dirty stuff by throwing a load on each morning but I often comment that I feel like I am drowning in clean washing.  I try to make the most of time when Sandy is around or when I have friends round so that someone can keep Naomi amused while I get some washing away.  I've tried putting away the washing while also amusing Naomi but she just 'helps' by adding or removing from any piles I've made or adding to or emptying drawers but not necessarily with the correct things!  Of course using cloth nappies adds to my washing but I now have enough nappies that I only have to wash those every other day, so one day is nappies and the next is clothes.  Living in the sunnier climes of England make it easier to get things dry but I find that quite a challenge too, as I don't like to use the tumbler too much but I don't really have anywhere to keep a clothes horse.

... write a blog post?

I'd like to write more blog posts than I do, this blog is obviously mainly for news about Naomi and The Child II but I have another blog which I have ideas for all the time but it just doesn't happen.  That said, those I do write are normally written during nap time, I'm already terrified for the day that Naomi gives up naps, or when the baby comes and I might not be able to get them to sleep at the same time!!

... look after yourself (ie; wash your hair, paint your nails, take a bubble bath etc)?

I try to get a shower/wash my hair before Sandy goes to work in the morning, especially if we've got up a bit earlier so aren't in quite such a rush.  It's just easier to do if I am not also trying to make sure Naomi isn't shoving a toilet roll down the loo!

Thankfully I'm not the kind of person to spend a long time on hair and I never wear make-up (unless I'm going out) so as long as I can find enough time to pull a hairbrush through my hair I'm content!

Sometimes if I want a bath or something like that to relax then I do it in the evenings, Sandy is left in charge of the baby monitor and I get some time in the bath.  I'd like to do it a little more than I do but a separate issue is that our hot tank is in Naomi's bedroom and it is not unheard of to wake Naomi while running the bath!!

... spend time with your other half?

Date night!!  We schedule a night every week where laptops, phones and other such technology are not allowed and we just spend quality time together.  We also try to have a "going out" date about once a month, though we're aware that this is made more possible because we know lots of very generous people who are willing and able to babysit for free.  It can be hard not to get stuck in a rit but we like to watch films together (on DVD or at the cinema), play games or cook together.

... do fun stuff with your LO?

I make a point of taking Naomi to groups so that she can have fun with me and also other children and we go to something at least 3 times a week.  She also loves being at the park so we do that quite often too.  If we're at home we just spend time reading together or playing with some of her toys.  We have a little garden too so can go outside to kick a ball around or play with her water table.

... spend time with family?

I'm interpreting this as extended family and this is something we don't get to do nearly enough, not so much because of time but more because of distance.  That said, Sandy gets a reasonable amount of leave and I managed to get some extra (unpaid) leave when I started my job so that we can normally manage 3 trips back to Aberdeen that allow us to split our time between the two families.  We try and make the most of being closer to the England-based family too, by going to visit sisters and Aunts/Uncles as much as our schedules will allow.

 ... socialise with friends?



Most of my friends have children so we have quite a few play dates, this is sometimes more successful than others, mainly depending how well behaved the children are feeling on the day.


Sometimes I'll invite friends round in an evening to hang out once Naomi is in bed, particularly if Sandy is out in an evening and very occasionally I leave Sandy at home and go and hang out with my friends at their house.



... prepare an evening meal juggling a baby/toddler routine?

Bulk cook everything (two family portions of everything) and freeze!  Again, during nap times.  Or doing the same at the weekend when Sandy can look after Naomi while I cook.  Though, as Naomi gets older it easier to give her some books or puzzles or similar and get some cooking done, or indeed let her into the kitchen with her own bowl and spoon and she will mix away while I cook.

... deep clean your house?

yes, I do that!  It is well known in my family that cleaning is not my favourite activity (you can imagine the hilarity when I got a job as a cleaner!) and as such we tend to clean each room once it gets to the point I can't cope with it any more.  This is normally a nap-time activity (every nap time sees me drink at least one cup of tea and complete at least one chore).  I try and keep on top of things by having a tidy round once Naomi goes to bed at night, though in time I'll try and include her in such activities as I don't want her to think that tidying is something that magically happens but indeed is something that people do!

... do the food shopping?

  Naomi loves being out in the buggy and going for walks so if we have nowhere to go we go to Tesco, this means we buy a few things every other day so we can fit it all on the buggy to get it home and she doesn't have to be in the shop for more than about 5-10 minutes.  If we get there earlyish in the morning (before 9.30am) I even let her get out and walk around, she thinks this is an amazing treat!

... bulk ironing?

  I only iron things that I am sewing (as in making rather than mending) it is not an issue!


Allllllrighty then. Who shall I tag...?
I pick Dad and Proud , Mother Scuffer and Stupid Girl
Take it away, ladies x