01 août 2007
Baby stopper
Your baby can't stop crying and you don't know what to do anymore? Here's the solution! Baby mishandling won't do, so make sure it's a good wine you choose.
première bougie
Et voilà, bébé a eu un an, il y a déjà presqu'un mois. Pour l'occasion il a eu droit à une charlotte aux fraise et son cousin l'a aidé a souffler sa bougie. Puis le samedi suivant, tous les petits copains sont venus fêter ça à la maison. Une demi douzaine de petits de 10 à 18 mois, sans compter les grands frères et soeur et le cousin. On avait rempli la piscine gonflable et le bac à sable à eu du succés. Le gâteau d'anniversaire, un gâteau au chocolat spécial bébé (recette Nestlé) aussi d'ailleurs. Joe était tout excité, et n'a pas fait de sieste ce jour là. Il adore la compagnie d'autres bébés et plus grands. Inutile de dire qu'il à été couvert de cadeaux. Une fête bien réussie.
15 juin 2007
Little guy is growing fast
One week to go and we'll celebrate Jolan's first birthday. Time for some updates on how things are going?
The little man is now crawling on all fours, usually in search of some mischief to accomplish. In a house which is all stairs and no closed cupboard, you can imagine... We're trying to teach him that NO really means NO. He knows which are the restricted area and objects, but he still tries. And whines when we don't allow him to approach.
He's also close to walking alone on his two small legs. I know we've been saying that for the last month or two, but he's more cautious than expected, and although he started early, he does take the time to learn balance. He does get around with the help of the furniture, or anything rising higher than his butt ( 6-packs of 2 liter soda are perfect) but 5 steps alone has been his record for a month now.
I still breastfeed him. He's trying to become a champion in acrobatic suckling, but at least he knows he's not supposed to bite the nipple with his 5 teeth. As a consequence, he just started to sleep through most of the night, but he still needs either a breast or a car ride to fall asleep.
At 6 months, we started with semi-solid food. Enthousiastic good parents as we were, we had planned to feed him only home made soup. The system worked quite nicely for a while. We steamed or boiled the vegetables and meat, each separately, then froze them in the ice cube container, and stored the cubes in labeled bags in the freezer. Then for each meal, we only had to take 2 or three cubes, from the same or different flavours, 1 min in the microwave and ready to eat. But when he was 8 months old, we went on a long weekend trip to Switzerland, and took industrial babyfood with us. After we returned, we were so tired, we just went on buying his food ready made. And I have to admit, with the choice they offer, it's fun choosing his meals: he's be eating couscous, paella, pot au feu, etc...
The first month we gave him only vegetables: carrot, courgette, leek and pumpkin, and apples or pears for pudding. At 7 months, we started with dairy products and white meat and fish. At 8 we introduced potatoes, pasta, rice. Now we started to give him small bits of whatever is suitable from our plates. Boiled potato, steamed vegetables, fresh fruits, cheese, ham and especially bread.
He needs time to get used to people he doesn't know. Smiles are not given easily. First you'll get a frown, especiallly if you meet him outside while he's in his pushchair, unless you are a young and pretty lady with dark hair and narrow face, in which case you might get a smile right away. We went to listen to a concert in park nearby a few weeks ago. We met some colleagues with babies as well. Joe was all frown and not really cooperating. To demonstrate how well he could crawl, we left him a few paces away on the lawn, believing he would come back to us right away. As you can see in the picture, he just stayed there frowning on us, with the bottle he had managed to grab in my bag just as I was carrying him away.
22 août 2006
motherhood
You're probably thinking that being a new mum is what kept me away from the keyboard so long. Of course you're right. But baby care is not what eats all our time. Actually, surfing and writing at the computer is one thing you can do with a small one in your arms. So its not the baby, it's the social life that springs around it. Parenthood does'nt mean staying at home alone with a baby. We've had friends and family for coffee, "apero" or dinner, or been out, almost every other day since Jolan was born. I don't complain. I've even had my childhood friend from Quebec staying 2 weeks, which was great. But it means that the "free" days are best used for all kind of chores such as paper work, getting the cards sent after all, and just lying on the sofa doing nothing (else than feeding the baby and changing diapers).
Now, since my friend has gone back to Montreal, and Ian to work, the days have become more quiet. I've taken up sewing again, and reinstalled windows on the computer, which was driving me crazy with unwanted popups, problems at startup and other defects that my antivirus and antispyware couldn't clean. I'm thinking of making some new batches of soap, as soon as I get the empty Pringles boxes promised by a friend. Then I should start again on my web design project.
What about motherhood then? Well, it's great! There's no way to describe the feeling, when you first realise you have a baby, your own baby, your love. Yes, this cute little thing is your son. And it doesn't matter anymore that you're tired, have less time of your own and less freedom, since you have your baby. It doesn't even matter that I was interrupted 3-4 times since starting this entry. Right now, he's in my arms doing funny faces. Oh so cute! I cannot understand people who say baby are boring the first few months.
Jolan is an easy boy. Not too much crying. And last night he slept 5 hours. The only problem was that he refused to take from the breast, so I've had to pump my milk and give it from the bottle. That's because he was to small at birth, and didn't have the proper reflex. Even the bottle was a hard job the first week, and once he got used to the bottle I had little hope of seeing him change for the more direct but less easy way, although I still put him on the breast each time. Now it seems I was right to try. Although he still takes a little from the bottle, he suddenly decided that he could get his meal directly at the source.
Ohhh he's smiling in his sleep :) well, I'll try to put him in bed and take my shower.
09 juillet 2006
Lune de miel - honeymoon
In english at the bottom.
Le 30 juin nous sommes partis en "weekend de noce". Juste histoire d'avoir 2 jours rien qu'à nous avant qu'il ne soit trop tard. Pour trouver notre destination, j'ai cherché parmis les logis de france une "demeure de caractère" avec piscine et pas trop loin, au cas où. Je suis tombée sur ce logis du coté d'Anduze: le Pradinas. Juste ce qu'il nous fallait.
Vendredi soir nous partons donc pour notre petite expédition. Les patrons sont sympas, la chambre est toute mignonne, et l'eau de la piscine un délice. Le repas aussi d'ailleur. Comme la journée a été longue, aquagym pour ma préparation a l'accouchement, qui se trouve a 1h de route de chez nous, shopping a mondial tissu, puis de nouveau sur la route pour le logis, je m'effondre vite sur le lit et m'endors.
6h du mat'. C'est le déluge entre mes jambes. Et dire que certaines femmes ne se rendent pas compte qu'elle ont perdu les eaux. On appelle la clinique, et la sage femme nous dit qu'on a le temps de faire le trajet (1h30). On remballe tout pèle mèle et on file a l'anglaise, la réception étant fermée. Petit passage à la maison (c'est sur le chemin) pour récupérer mon dossier de grossesse. J'avais prévu de faire ma valise la semaine suivante. Tant pis.
Finalement, du temps on en avait. Plus de 24 h. Le papa a pu aller chercher quelques affaires (heureusement j'avais déja fait une lessive de vêtements de bébé).
Et le dimanche a 10h32, petit Jolan est né. 46 cm et 2kg400. Pas si mal pour 5 semaine d'avance. Le plus beau bébé du monde, bien entendu!
Jolan was born on July 2nd, right in the middle of our "honeymoon" weekend. Luckily we hadn't planned a long trip. Just a cute hotel in an old stone house, with swimming pool and good food, 50 km from our place. We did get one dip in the pool, one nice meal and a few hours sleep, before chaos. Then at 6 am my water broke and sent us on our way to the hospital.
Of course, five weeks ahead of time, I hadn't packed, and was only in the process of dressing lists of what to take. Luckily I had done a first round of laundry with baby cloths. And since it took more than 24 h for the labor to really start, the daddy and my family managed to get me most of what was needed.
The little one was 46 cm and 2kg400 at birth. Everything ok except he couldn't take the breast properly, and had a tendency to sleep when given the bottle. He has made a lot of progress since. Including voice progress (I just loved his first mewling sounds, but now his screms have taken more amplitude).
We're a tired but happy family.
