All posts by Martin

Lots of words

Nice, door, moon, stars, juice, more, home, man, doggie, kitten, baby, po, bob, dizzy, muck, scoop, Jez (his teddy), bear, pooh, fine, again, nana, peas, beans, phone, clock, cot, nigh-nigh (night-night), boo!, ta-da!, foot, knee, butt, pee-pee, hand, nose, cheek, eyes, chin, ears, face, hat, mama, dada, money, up, down, caw-caw (all gone), book, tubbies, on, off, dark, swing, boing, bye-bye, ball, bath, shoe, sock, uh-oh, mess, yuck, assint (elephant), frog, bus, car, spoon, fork, buppy (button), bag, box, ready-go!, voom-voom!, head, nama (grandma), banda (grandpa),no, yes, A-Eh (Alex!).

September Photos

Visiting Grandma and Granda Sutherland is fun!


Grandma and Granda 1
  

Grandma and Granda 2
  

Grandma and Granda 3
  

And they’re teaching me to play golf, too!


Golf 1
  

Golf 2
  

Golf 3
  

Golf 4
  

So when are you going to show me my nose, dad?


Nose 1
  

Nose 2
  

Oh, that’s where it is!


Nose 3
  

Nose 4
  

Uh… I think I know now…


Nose 5
  

Braemar in the sun


Braemar 1
  

Braemar 2
  

Alex with mommy and Grandma McLean


Ballater
  

Alex and mommy on the swings


Swings 1
  

Swings 2
  

Alex and mommy on the roundabout


Roundabout 1
  

Roundabout 2
  

Alex and mommy on the slide


Slide 1
  

Slide 2
  

Yay! Top of the slide! (Now what?)


Slide 3
  

Slide 4
  

Okay, down now. I think I enjoyed that. What do you think?


Slide 5
  

Slide 6
  

Friends, Romans, Countrymen…


Emperor Alex, age 17 months...
  

So are you going to come along, or what?


The seducer
  

Nigh-nigh!


Nigh-nigh 1
  

Nigh-nigh 2
  

Nigh-nigh 3
  

Riding with dada


Riding with dada
  

Hanging out at the bus stop in North Queensferry


Bus stop 1
  

Bus stop 2
  

Bus stop 3
  


Bus stop 4
  

Bus stop 5
  

Now I know I’ve seen dada using these musical bobble things, but did they go in my ear, my tummy, or my mouth?


Earphones 1
  

Earphones 2
  


Earphones 3
  

Earphones 4
  

More words

We haven’t been keeping Alex’s vocabulary up to date very well. This is at least party due to him learning so much so quickly that is’ getting hard to keep track of, but here are some recent favourites:

  • “Deddy…Go!” (Ready…Go!) He loves saying this, and loves playing it. He expects us to do something exciting, like toss him up in the air, run with him, or tickle his tummy whenever he says “Go!”
  • Nigh-nigh. When he gets tired, he’ll pull the cushions and a blanket down from the sofa, and make himself a little nest. Often, he expects someone to lie down next to him as well.
  • Round and round! He doesn’t say this yet, but if you say it to him, he’ll do his spinning round-and-round dance.
  • Close your eyes. Connected to the nigh-nigh game, he will now close your eyes if you ask him nicely.

Also, he now know many more body parts, and will point them out on other people and even pictures, as well as on himself! What a clever little boy 🙂

Row, row

Yesterday and this evening, when I was rocking Alex to sleep I sang him one of his favourite little songs: “Row, row, row your boat…”. We often do this when he sits in our laps. We’ll grab him by the hands and row him back in forth to the time of the song. He loves this.

But in the dark, with him well on his way to sleepyland, I just sang the song without the actions. He lay in my lap, with his head in the crook of my arm. And then he reached up and grabbed my hand with both of his. He clenched it tightly, then started pulling my hand towards him, and pushing it way. Row, row…

And then he started singing behind his noo-noo: “Voo… voo… bow… seeeah!” His eyes were closed, but by the yellow glow of the nightlight I could see that his brow was all furrowed in concentration.

He sang to me!


And he’s getting many more words now. He seems to be reaching the point where he will hear a word and try to imitate it. He doesn’t do this consistently yet, but he has given it a couple of tries. He now knows all about his cheeks (“zhee”), his feet (“foo”) and his shoes (“zhu”). And he’s getting better with “dada”, too. 🙂

July and August photos

Baking with mommy.


Baking 1
  

Baking 2
  

Baking 3
  

“They call me baby driver….”


Baby driver 1
  

Baby driver 2
  

Baby driver 3
  

Making music with a tear in his eye


Making music
  

Hey–no photos here


No pictures
  

A boy and his juice


Juice 1
  

Juice 2
  

Style knows no age limits


Style 1
  

Style 2
  

Style 3
  

Sorting clothes pegs


Clothes pegs 1
  

Clothes pegs 2
  

Dad! You can’t take a photo of me like this! I’m in my underwear!


Underwear
  

On the train


Train 1
  

Train 2
  

Train 3
  

See? That’s my tummy!


Tummy
  

Daddy and Alex in the backpack


Daddy and Alex 1
  

Daddy and Alex 2
  

Words

On a lighter note than the barfy illness… Alex is doing a lot of talking now, and is starting to understand a lot of words. He is also imitating us more and more. As we were playing upstairs earlier on, I put my hands over my eyes to play peek-a-boo, and he immediately put his hands over his eyes! Very cool. I think the imitating is also helping him pick up the words more quickly.

Words he really knows the meaning of, and can say and point out:

  • Bye!
  • Ba (ball)
  • Nana (banana)

Words he can say, but hasn’t really completely connected with the real world thing:

  • Mama
  • Dada

Words he knows the meaning of, and can point out, but not yet say:

  • Nose
  • Mouth
  • Ear
  • Foot
  • Head
  • Tummy

Barfman

Alex was sick again last night–all over me. He hadn’t been himself most of yesterday. His cheeks were red, he was very warm, and he had very little appetite. We’d thought he was teething (there’s a canine and a molar both pushing through right now), but it looks like it was more of a tummy bug instead.

We put him to bed very early (about 19:30), and I was quite surprised that he didn’t wake up later on in the evening. But at just after 01:00 he started to stir and cry. I went through to soothe him, and as soon as I lifted him out of his cot, he barfed all over my shoulder and back. I rushed him through to the bathroom and into the tub, but not before he’d had another few heaves. By this point he was awake and obviously feeling really horrible.

Abi got up as well,and we stripped him and I took him into the shower with me (while Abi cleaned up the barf in the hall). Now, when he and I first started showering together in Rome earlier this year, we called him a shower monkey because of how he clung to me. But that was sheer ameteur clinging back then. Last night I could have taken away my arms and he would have stayed attached to me. Alex is getting to be very strong.

So today we kept him home from nursery. This morning he was still quite warm, but only slightly fevered, I think. He was very floppy, and wanted to do a lot of huddling and cuddling in my arms on the sofa. (I wasn’t feeling too great myself at that point, so I was quite happy for this to be the state of things. We reckon that Abi had the same tummy bug on Saturday, and I think that maybe I caught the weakened, tail end of it today.)

But this afternoon he is doing a good bit better. He was more cheerful after some toast and a little bit of cheese for lunch, and right now he’s upstairs having a nice long nap. I hope he feels okay when he gets up!

June stuff

Alex, a multi-faceted little boy.


Multifaceted boy
  

Hanging out, watching TV.


Just hanging out
  

At Edinburgh Museum


Edinburgh Museum 1
  

Edinburgh Museum 2
  

Edinburgh Museum 3
  

Out on a walk towards the tannery


Tannery 1
  

Tannery 2
  

A little noder meet: easterbunny, evilrooster, sef, fuzzyandblue, jongleur.


Node meet
  

Grandma’s walkman is so much fun!


Grandma's walkman 1
  

Grandma's walkman 2
  

Grandma's walkman 3
  

Bollards to that.


Bollards
  

It’s cold and it’s windy. You expect me to smile?


Cold and windy at Musselburgh
  

Alex practices for his auditions:


Audition: coy
  

Audition: sad
  
Coy Sad

Audition: wistful
  

Audition: imperious
  
Wistful Imperious

And on drums we have…


Alex on drums 1
  

Alex on drums 2
  

Alex on drums 3
  


Alex on drums 4
  

Alex on drums 5
  

Is it just me, or is gravity working a bit sideways today?


Gravity sideways
  

Yaay! Roundabout!


Roundabout 1
  

Roundabout 2
  

Train ride


Train ride 1
  

Train ride 2
  

Train ride 3
  


Train ride 4
  

Muffin. No muffin. Any questions?


Muffin boy 1
  

Muffin boy 2
  

Daddy and Alex share a joke


Shared joke
  

Alex update

Just a quick update on Alex’s developmental status:

  • He now walks properly. Rather than just walking the odd steps to get from A to B, he is now seems to realize that it is faster and more efficient for him to walk from place to place instead of crawling. He still likes to use an adult’s hand, but he does much more toddling on his own. He really is a toddler now.
  • In addition to all his front teeth, he now also has a chunky molar on the bottom left side. And in the last week or so, a top right molar has been emerging to help him chew with it!
  • And talking about chewing, the last couple of weeks has seen him get hugely interested in using spoons and forks to feed himself. And his skill in these matters has come on in leaps and bounds, too. He is now capable of eating his Weetabix breakfast with a spoon (or two) in quite a short time. And he just loves spearing chunks of meat or bread with his fork!

Yesterday we bought him a small table and two mini-chairs to go with it. (Ikea, of course.) In the evening, he sat down at it and ate his dessert of apple crumble and custard. His mommy sat with him, but mostly he ate it all himself!