The House Of Hot Kettles

Thingummies and Stuff

Friday night we had guests for dinner - Brynn, Lisa and not-so-baby Arthur, born nine days before not-so-baby Arlo.  For a tiny village such as ours, remarkably three babies were born to born-and-breds in the space of three weeks - first Louis, then Arthur, then Arlo - Louis being the only baby to not live here.  We didn't see much of Arthur over the last 5 months or so - but we got back in touch last week and it's been great for Arlo, especially in motivating him to get this walking thing happening.  Arthur can take steps unsupported now, and Arlo watches like a hawk.

So, we had homemade quiche followed by lemon meringue pie, and Arthur and Arlo followed each other around and generally had a ball.

Saturday was brigade training, which we have not attended in more than a year, so off we went for a game of cricket (your tax dollars at work, but then we're only vollies).  Arlo slept in the pram under the angophoras while Mama practised her bowling action and settled some old cricketing scores.  After he woke Brynn brought Arthur out into the sun and he and Mark kept the two boys from jousting too violently with sticks.  This coming Saturday we shall have a boules tournament and also some Lisa/Arthur chill time.

Let's see, what else... oh, we reformatted my laptizzy's hard drive on Saturday night, very exciting, I had been looking forward to it for ages.  I was so careful in backing everything up, saving to disc or external hard drive...only to discover last night that I'd somehow lost all of April's Arlo photos.  Every one.  I have no idea how I could lose that single folder without noticing and/or losing more, but there you have it.  Luckily Mark had at least the photos from Laura and Randy's visit on his computer, and I'd had a couple of the pics printed already, but the rest are gone forever (three of the said pictures featured in the post "Lax" from a few weeks ago).  I cried.  And tomorrow I'm going to make triple copies of everything and then in a couple of weeks I'm going to have a whole heap of photos printed.

What else...  Oh, Arlo crawls about 80% of the time now instead of seal-flopping.  He's also using anything of greater altitude to pull himself to stand.  The latest trick is standing against a chair and then pushing the chair across the polished floorboards.  Nothing is safe for long.

Big, huge excitement of today - he said his first word!  Other than dada and mumumum and nangnang (dinner/food/milk), that is.  Dog.  Yes, he's infatuated with dogs, and a visit to my parents' brought him hours of joy watching Archie the foxy, and he said "Dog" after we'd said it a few times.  He also knows what bird means; at home he looks toward the seed tray.  This evening I said bird, he looked out to the seed tray (where a crested pigeon was nibbling), looked back at me and said "Dog!".  Not really, but it will do.  He also tried to imitate my use of "toes" during bath time.

Still lamenting those photos...  oh well.  Such is life, eh?

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Sunday.  Aaaah, Sunday.  I went for a powerwalk with Angie and Arlo (well, Angie and I walked and Arlo rode in his pimped up ride and slept some of the way, the lazy sod). and then got a few hours of knitting in while Mark cut half a tree.  Maybe a quarter.

Arlo crawled a little more today, and yesterday.  He crawls a few paces then goes back to flopping.  Both Mark and I have taken time to crawl with Arlo; he watches our hands and knees with such intensity and then imitates the move for a moment.  He seems to be better at crawling when he is distracted - that is, when there's a loud noise (say, the vaccuuum cleaner or coffee grinder or the food processor) he forgets about bodyrolling and crawls.  When the noise/distractions stop he flops.

We're still doing the exercises and apart from the crawling now we're trying to encourage him to squat, since he's having trouble getting from standing to the floor.

Also, he seems to have discovered how to throw a mild tantrum.

Carrot!

Tonight Arlo started imitating the 'ca' sound of carrot, following Mark's example.  Then he had a nickey-noo-nar crawl before bath time.  He had a great day with Mark and Ma (Mark's mum) while I went to the first class of the photography short course I'm doing.  Four hours away from the babe, which he handle fine, during which time I fixed my mum's electricity woes as well.  Consequently I am feeling all Miss Fixit. 

I have nothing else to fix right now.

I'm in a bit of a knitting frenzy though, and enjoying it immensely.  Tried intarsia for the first time last night, it worked well and was very fun.  Part of some felted bootees - and I've never felted before either.  Unfortunately I can't do the felting before I do the making up, and generally speaking the cause of all my UFOs is seams.  I hate seaming - and I don't even find it that hard.  But I have finished seams on 1 1/2 bootees out of four so I hope to finish the chore tomorrow and then I can try felting!  When I find my lingerie bag that is.

Feets

So yesterday we spent a couple of hours with a baby, a week older than Arlo, who is on the verge of walking unsupported.  Arlo has been, as mentioned, just starting to pull himself upright and can walk a little way if we hold his hands... but since watching Arthur yesterday he seems to have been inspired because today he was constantly pulling himself to stand, and using the most inappropriate household objects - my full-length mirror, the half-full washing basket, the nappy bag...

We moved the coffee table because it left too little room for him to crawl; now we're going to bring it back because it gives him a sturdy structure the perfect height for standing against.

It was a beautiful day today, beginning with the thick coastal mist which, despite the chill, signifies a hot day ahead.  And true to form, it burnt off at around 10am at which point I had to change into a singlet.  I cleaned two fish (and I mean that in the true sense, involving a sharp knife and squishy bits) which of course took too long for Arlo's liking and I had to decide between instant settling of baby and hygiene.  Hygiene won the day, and I finished the second fish with a crying baby warming my toes.  I tried filleting, but I know for next time to steam the fish whole, or leave the filleting for larger fish and sharper knives.

I've managed to do some knitting in the last few days, bootees for the multitude of babies soon to arrive.  Tonight I should finish another pair, and when I have several pairs I'll felt them.  I can't justify a load of washing for a single pair of baby bootees, since we've not had much rain and aren't likely to have much more now.

And now I sit before a fire with the Buena Vista Social Club salsafying the loungeroom.  I'm having a sitdown before cooking dinner, unless Mark was serious about doing so himself after he settles the baby.  At any rate we're having rice and steamed fish and veg.  Yum (especially when the fish and veg are steamed in the rice cooker so the rice is flavoured...).  Then, more knitting!  Maybe some Goodies or Python or Miyazaki.

Ha!

So that sixth tooth I mentioned?  Didn't happen.  Mark mistook the fifth tooth for a new one - but it's been there two weeks already.

So.  That's a lttle less exciting... and leaves more teething fun to come!

Looky! Two posts within 24 hours!

Go crazy.

Last night, Arlo impressed us by shunning his usual trick of climbing to a standing position on mama or dadda - instead, he threw caution to the wind and, in slippery footed pyjamas and despite the polished floor, clambered to a stand against the couch.  And what prompted this?  He realised his dadda had left the newspaper in easy reach.  Hah.  I guess this means I can no longer leave my knitting on the sofa.

Then, today (and it's only 11.30am so what more can happen?) he cut his sixth tooth and then started to crawl, one day shy of his ten month birthday.

See, the crwling - he's been crawling after a fashion for several months.  It's a seal flop that brings his nose perilously close to damage with each forward lunge.  There ha been some stiffness in his hips and right leg, and he's had several treatments with my wonderful chiropractor and we've been doing exercises at home to trigger his brain into cross-patterning, which is necessary not only for crawling and walking but for fine motor skills too.

In the last week he has suddenly gotten the hang of stepping forwards when I hold him in a standing position, and perhaps that has helped the cause with crawling; whatever the case, Mark turned on the vaccuum cleaner this morning and in his surprise and awe of the sound Arlo forgot to flop and instead crawled, true crawling of the cross-patterned variety.  He continued for about 5 minutes, long enough for me to rush for the vieo camera, but predictably, when Mark turned off the vaccuum the crawling switched off as well.

Anyway.  Excitement plus.  And now, I go to mop the floors.

Lax

Very lax in posting, so let me catch up with some recent photos: