Development City!

I apologise for not updating my BLOG for a few weeks.

No real excuses.

Oh, apart from...

- Drew has had a cough for 4 weeks now which has been keeping her awake, thus keeping US awake. Doc said its either a virus (surprise surprise!) or Asthma (great!).

- No new teeth have come through, although we've all been experiencing the symptoms for about 4 weeks. Probably all linked to the cough.

Okay, so Drew's not crawling yet. I'm okay about it. Most of Drew's friends of the same age are either crawling or walking with the aid of a trusty sofa or coffee table, but as everyone keeps telling me 'she'll do it in her own time'. All good advice, but I wish she would flippen' hurry up.

In the meantime, I have been teaching her the times tables in case she is academically gifted and doesn't care for boring physical challenges. The training is going well and usually ends up with half a banana smeared over her face and 2 apples very battered and bruised left on the kitchen floor. However, I'm confident that my 'banana and apples' times table approach will work and will eventually sink in. On the other hand, I could be setting her up for trouble when she starts school when she doesn't ask for a calculator but a basket of fruit.

Talking of Drew's development, in the last couple of days, she has achieved quite a lot.. Unfortunately, Daddy has not seen any of this as he's been hard at work doing worky things and we've been away with the doting grandparents in sunny Teignmouth. Yes. I did say 'sunny'.

So, what? - I hear you ask - has Drew been doing if not crawling???

Check out Drew's Achievement List below:-

- Drew said 'Mamma' yesterday morning just before I gave her a bottle of milk. Yep...she knows which side her bread is buttered on. Who's your Daddy now??!!!

- The day before, albeit in front of my partially sighted 'Barney' Nanna (so-called because she had a dog called Barney before I got our little Barney and OUR Barney is named after her dog. Not relevant, but interesting nevertheless), Drew crawled...wait for it...backwards! Not forwards I grant you that, but there are many benefits to crawling backwards:-

a) still keep eye contact with your peers

b) if baby happens to be sick, it will crawl backwards OUT of the way rather than straight into it

c) learn the idea of reverse parking from a young age

d) could possibly be an expert manoeuvring with a caravan when old enough to drive

e) still working on e)

- Clapping. I'm pretty proud of this one. Drew claps and doesn't miss each time AND makes a good CLAP sound. It's not a little clap...its a full on high 5 with herself! She seems to enjoy doing this one, so this may prevent any hope of crawling forward as clapping and crawling forward at the same time could lead to possible injury.

- Today, Drew said 'Nanna'! Pretty good going seeing as we're at my parents' place! See...it doesn't matter if Drew's not crawling (forwards). She's doing so many other interesting things! Or that's what I keep telling myself anyway.

Also, one other thing...bad Daddy hasn't pulled his finger out yet and installed a baby safety fireguard in our front room, so it's a good job Drew can't crawl forward...although it's only a matter of days before she works out how to manoeuvre backwards into her parallel parking spot right next to the fire!

Ouch!!

Washable Nappies

It was one of the first questions my Mum asked me before Drew was born. Were we intending to use washable/ reusable nappies or disposable ones?

Initially, I was sold on using washable nappies, help to save the environment, etc. At one of our Antenatal Class, we were visited by some washable nappy tree-hugging lady. She was very nice and was keen to provide us with samples of the different types of reusable nappies. And BOY! There were LOADS! Although I can't speak for all the girls, I think none of us in the class knew what insert went with which nappy...which bit could be washed and which bit should be thrown. It was all too much information squashed into a short time and they should have realised we all had the beginnings of 'baby brain', so we couldn't take all the information in.

Needless to say, I think we are all using disposable nappies now, but we all did consider the other options. However, we all came to the same decision that although using reusable nappies may prevent further landfill rubbish, the amount of energy consumption from washing the reusable nappies on a hot temperature on a regular basis cancelled it out.

I did a lot of research on it too, but in the end, I was given some very good advice from another Mother. With your first child, you're all over the place. Sleepless nights, not eating regularly, and cleaning the house and washing is the last thing on your mind. Therefore, start off with disposable nappies, but either use a nappy-bin or just put No.2 nappies in a nappysac and No.1 nappies can go in the normal trash, saving the use of plastic bags/nappysacs.

This is what we did and still do.

However...Jerry, bless his cotton socks (from TKMAX), had one of his 'I should help out moments' and did a few of the household chores.

From upstairs, he brought down a whole load of washing to be done, shirts to be ironed and dirty nappies to be thrown away. That's a feat in itself as getting a bloke to think ahead and add additional tasks to an existing task (going downstairs) is virtually unthinkable...

To illustrate what I mean, when YOU go upstairs, do you think 'okay, I'm going upstairs, what needs taking upstairs and is there anything on the stairs waiting to go up and could be put away?'

Or do YOU think 'I'm going upstairs'.

Now I bet the women amongst you reading this do the first and I hate to say it, but I bet the blokes do the second. If I'm wrong, you're gay and in denial.

So back to the story...Jerry was breaking every stereotype in the book and was attempting to multi-task. GO JERRY!

It was great to see Jerry helping out and he was pretty pleased with himself when he finally sat down.

A few hours later, taking the clean washing out of the machine, I noticed a huge lump of white gel and what looked like toilet paper inside the drum and it was all over the actual washing. It was everywhere! I couldn't work it out.

When I asked Jerry, (get this!) he suggested I had left something in one of my pockets as he 'would never do that'. If I kept all the coins I found after washing Jerry's clothes, I could be sat on a beach in Hawaii!

We both pulled out the clothes, one by one, and all of it was covered by this really odd 'stuff''. It was then Jerry said 'I know what it is! It's Drew's nappies!'

I still couldn't work it out. Why would her nappies be in the washing machine? Straight away, Jerry asked me 'Why would you put her nappies in there?'

I thought about it for a few seconds, and I even started questioning myself and my actions, but those few seconds were all I needed to recollect WHO brought the nappies down from Drew's nursery...Jerry.

I didn't even need to say anything. He had a cheeky grin on his face which said it all. Just then, his face changed. He had remembered what was actually IN those nappies.

Needless to say, we washed the clothes a few times again.

So this story proves my point. MEN CANNOT SUCCESSFULLY MULTI-TASK.