20070524

20070524, originally uploaded by rodillagrande.

There's a new photo in the Alex on the Chaise series.

Hilltown leading the country in pole dancing!

Bound to be an Olympic sport before long - Local trio in Irish pole position

Hayden's First Birthday

Hello!, originally uploaded by Ackshrn.

Sharon has put some photos of Hayden's birthday up on flickr. Hasn't he grown! And what a smile.

Cuddling, climbing and standing alone

Alex has started to cuddle her soft toys. I can't quite decide whether she does this because she likes to or because she already knows that it makes all the adults around her go "Ahhhhhhh". It is very cute regardless of motive.

At the moment the spare duvet is in a nice canvas bag in the front room and it is giving Alex the step up that she needs to climb onto the chaise. Mum was training her to climb down from things feet first instead and three times out of four that's what she does. Of course the fourth time she just launches herself head first off
the edge but there you go.

She can now stand up on her own for milliseconds. Entire milliseconds. Well it's a start.

Sunshine in the Botanic Gardens

It just seems as though it has been raining for weeks on end. It wasn't so long ago that a day out in the Botanic Gardens looked more like this ...

What does the Tiger say?

I don't know what this tiger says but I say swim away, swim away very, very fast!

Tigers demonstrate diving skills

Two New Things

Alex has found two things.

The first is her temper. Oh dear. Did she want you to hold her hands and walk her over to play with the oven? Or worse still did you take away her toothbrush? Screaming heebeegeebees!

The second is a comfort item. The cuski thing that she has been ignoring for months is now one of her favourite things. The only trouble is that she has started putting it on her head when she is trying to sleep. And then it either falls off or tickles her face. Or tickles her face while falling off. And then she cries. Its not the most useful comfort item ever.

Alex takes her first photo

There are hundreds of photos of Alex. She has finally retaliated and started to take photos of us. Here is her first attempt. I think it's one of the better photos of me.

Nursery - The Second Session

Alex went to the nursery for the second time today. This time she knew what was about to happen and burst into tears when I handed her over to Jo (her key worker). Poor wee bunny. But off I went anyway and spent three hours repeating the "they'd ring if she was still crying" mantra. When I arrived back to collect her Jo was sitting on the couch bouncing a crying Alex on her knee. My heart sank. But it would appear that I had arrived just as she had started crying.

Jo said that she had a much better time than the last time. She had even napped for 50 minutes and had spent some time going off to play on her own. Though she did look round often to check that Jo was still there. There had been smiles and laughter - they had read books and eaten carroty wotsits. It sounds like it might all be ok after all. Lets hope so.

Spoons

Today Alex will only eat if she can have a spoon to play with. And not a plastic spoon. It has to be one of the metal spoons. And why not.

She is increasingly standing on her own. Only for brief seconds every now and again but it is definitely on the up.

Eleven Months

Alex is eleven months old today. Her first birthday is only four weeks away. How can that be possible?

Month 10 was a great month. Alex was in wonderful form. Everything was funny. The wooden spoon I gave her to play with while I made lunch was funny. The weather forecaster was very funny. Anyone making animal noises? Extremely funny. She loves the swimming pool and going on the swings. The faster she can go the happier she seems to be. We might not have to save for a pony - it's increasling likely that she'll want a motorbike!

Bumbo

Alex has figured out how to escape from the Bumbo. She will still sit in it if she is being constantly entertained. As luck would have it hanging out the laundry is still entertaining enough so I don't have to worry about her wandering off in the garden at the moment. No doubt that will change - probably by next week.

The Biggest Rice Cake Ever

Alex went to the local nursery today and stayed for three whole hours. I'm not sure how it went. She only napped for twenty five minutes and it sounded like they had a bit of bother getting her to even do that. I'm not surprised. She has never relished the idea of napping and when we first moved her naps from the bouncy chair to the cot the first few were very short. Hopefully she'll get better naps when she settles in a bit.

Jo, her key worker, said that she had played outside and was pointing to the toys she was interested in. That's quite exciting. When I arrived to collect her they were outside walking in the garden (Jo that is not Alex - that would be very, very exciting and Alex was munching a rice cake the size of her head. As soon as she saw me she burst into fits of tears. Oh dear. There was a big hug and a few more tears before she cheered up but at no stage did she let go of the rice cake.