Bebe

We all visited Cat's friend Julie and Neil today. They have a new baby, just 9 weeks old I think, very tiny anyway, but a really happy chilled out little newborn. For me it was striking to see such a small baby again and reminded me of things to come when our next one is born. The real test came with Aimee, who I wanted to see how she would react to the little baby. I had nothing to worry about, she found the baby adorable, and wanted to see the baby and when she did, she was all smiles and pleasantness. Aimee kept repeating 'bebe, bebe'and making a sort of sleeping gesture with her hands, which I found really cute.
I did half worry that Aimee may not be cool when our new baby arrives, but on this evidence, I think she'll be quite excited.
For the rest of the day, Aimee tore around their house as if she owned the place. Another interesting test I gave her was to walk down the stairs by herself. She passed with flying colours, albeit with the occasional steadying by holding on the bannisters.
Bless our Aimee, she is not a baby anymore.

Monkey say No

One of Aimee’s first proper words was ‘happy’. How lovely is that? I hope she said it because that was how she felt. She certainly hasn’t exhibited any tantrums for several weeks and maybe it was just a short passing phase. Aimee how has an impressive vocabulary of animal noises and some names. When she is concentrating and in the mood, she can actually mimic any word you say, with alarming accuracy. Random words like: cat, hello, bye, car, juice, apple, pear, birdie, flower, computer, TV, dirty, even polar bear! etc. But some words remain stubbornly unreciprocated. Like: monkey. I would have thought it was an easy word to say, and from the various toys and pictures that crop up daily, a recognisable animal. But monkey say no.

Pruning

Poor Aimee. She's had to eliminate tough hard as nails poo for the past month or so. She would strain and scream and strain all day, until finally, hours later, a nugget of brown stone would emerge. We changed her diet, offered much more fruit, veg and pulses with no difference. We even changed her milk. But the prune juice may finally be doing the trick. A third juice with 2/3 water - the added benefit is that aimee absolutely loves the flavour. It is completely unsweetended and, to my palate,a little bland, but aimee will finish an entire cupful, no other juice will do that for her.
Speaking of pruning, Cat went and chopped lumps off the back of Aimee's hair cos the tickling hair was making her scratch her neck raw. She looks kind of odd with shorter hair.

Fresh eyes

Aimee really enjoyed the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. This place is a museum of toys and recently underwent a 9 million pound refurbishment and extension. It is also a great open space to let Aimee run around like a demented loon. We were guilty of feeding her our muffin and some popcorn but I think the thing that got her hyped up was the large amount of freshly squeezed and very sweet apple juice she consumed.

The world seen through toddler eyes is different to adults. In a museum for example, a carefully preserved specimen that has survived decades holds equal fascination to..the radiator next to it. A giant robot that clunks and whistles is fascinating, but so is the stair bannister it is adjacent too. How amazing to see everything in the world as fresh as a toddler sees it?

A WOW day today

Just wanted to write that we spent a really lovely day out together - doing nothing, just ambling around the local street market, having lunch, wandering around. Aimee was on such good form, laughing so much I was worried she had found some happy pills.

Cat has commented that she is amazed at all the many quirky tricks I get up to in my quest to amuse and entertain Aimee. Like the other day, in order to get her to brush her teeth (which scenario sees Aimee normally just sucking the toothpaste and jettisoning the toothbrush) I stuck her toothbrush in my mouth and brushed her teeth just like that. Aimee loved it so much, she let me actually brush her teeth, a rarity indeed.
I have more quirky tricks but they are too many to mention and a bit embarassing for a grown man to admit to as well.

New Aimee words for today: Flower (she says wow-wer) and WOWWOWWOW for police siren.
Oh, and there's 'WOW', for Wow!
You see the theme here?

Baby No2 at 20 weeks

Baby No2 will be...a BOY!

Wham rap!

Bad Aimee rears her ugly head every now and again. Actually more now than again.
Bad Aimee head bangs the floor or the wall in frustration.
Bad Aimee throws her food at me or Mummy.
Bad Aimee ignores what we tell her.
Bad Aimee pokes her finger at Daddy's camera (as pictured).
Oh boy, Bad aimee is one tough cookie!

But we love her all the same.

Bird Girl of Hackney

Aimee loves the outdoors so much, so when finally a bit of Sun came out this weekend, we couldn;t resist the opportunity to have some fun. But Aimee was on her own mission. She tried to chase down every pigeon she could find. 'BIRDIES' she screams at full voice, scattering flocks of feeding pigeons.

The picture here is of Aimee in mid-air as Daddy tries a dangerous and stupid throw-baby-in-the-air trick. But she loves the feeling of flying and begs for me to do more...but my energy can only last so long so I stop after one or two throws.