Aimee vids

Some recent vids of Aimee antics to raise a smile:

The devil wears a pin striped suit

We found a house. We made an offer. Offer accepted. Bribe money, sorry, er deposit money paid. Got gazumped (Grrrrrrr!), New offer accepted, who knows what next. A shifty profession estate agencing. Anyway, here are some pics of the place. Cross fingers, we may move in come August...

Bumbo

The only cure for bad nappy rash is a bare bottom. But having to run around chasing her in case she did a wee or poo (she did both) with a bunch of tissues is hard work!
Still, I think it seems a natural and liberating experience for Aimee, I guess in most parts of the world, a semi or totally naked toddler running around the home is quite normal.

Any old iron...

Wowee Zowee what a day! My head is still spinning with all the events of today.
First off, I have to prepare for my BJJ seminar but get everyone out the flat by 10am since the agent is showing 11 people around one after another. Then after my BJJ seminar we all have to shoot off to Borehamwood to view 6 properties. In the midst of all this, my agent calls me to say I've had three offers, the best one being a good deal higher than asking price. Then we have Aimee, who has been brilliant all day, destroy the last place we visit. She took a fancy to all this chap's remote controls on the coffee table and starts using them as hammers, to her amusement and his thinly disguised horror.
So anyway, we finally end up home with the strange dual emotions of feeling elated that we have a buyer for our flat, but huge despondence that the 6 houses we visit are not really inspiring - a couple bordering on delapidation. My mind races to a worst case scenario of me Cat and Aimee, standing by a roadside with suitcases stuffed with the proceeds of our flat sale, but no home to go to!
But then, I came across this: http://www.bryant.co.uk/grandunionvillage/index.htm
Northolt is kind of like the west-side version of Hackney. Maybe less bohemian. But the Grand Union Canal goes from east to west, we could take a barge and float to our old home if we moved to GUV. I originally did not like the idea of a new-build. But having seen a lot of rubbish 'old-build', it is very quickly becoming an attractive proposition. We shall see tomorrow.
For now...sleep.

Baby No.2 - 12 week scan

Bambino No2 not so shy today. He/she is lying on their back, enjoying the fine weather obviously. The scan shows that nuchal fold appears normal and everything else they test for at this stage seems AOK. Say hello.

Well, the our flat hit the market today and already we have shown 4 people around. The agents say there are a dozen waiting so this week could be quite manic. Here is the property as listed on the estate agent.
Let's hope everything goes to plan!

Aimee in the park

Nice summer weather in April, time to unleash the Aimee in the park. She loves to approach all the sunbathers and smile at them. Purely of course to get an Ahhhh reaction.

Uh-oh

The pending new arrival and a time to think things over the Easter break has given Cat and I a new drive to sell up and move to a bigger home. We like Borehamwood, but of course it is very pricey, as is a lot of NW London-M25 borders. The estate agent estimate on our humble Hackney flat has given us hope that our family house is within reach so we’ve decided to go for it. If we can’t find a buyer or a new home by summer, we’ll put the plans on hold until after the birth. I hate moving, but our flat is now just too small.
Easter was also a great time for Aimee. We went to visit my Mum’s old pal Esther and her family – daughter Audrey and granddaughters Alyssa (7) and Emily (3). It was almost like looking at an imagined future for us – seeing how much fun (and hard work still) It is to be with slightly older children. Aimee loved it. She followed the older children around the house and garden like a hyperactive duckling. I of course played at being children’s entertainer and nearly broke my back whizzing the two older kids around in the air playing ‘flying’ games. One thing I noticed with older kids – you need earplugs, because they are VERY VERY loud.
This morning I half sleepily offered Aimee her rice crispies and I dropped the entire bowl and milk on the kitchen floor. Aimee stood there staring at the mess. Then, with perfect timing, exclaimed: uh-oh!
It made me smile and stopped me getting into a strop over spilt milk.

Looke-Likey Part2

Aimee and Mummy both taking 40 winks at the same time.

Aimee likes Marmite. She took a piece from Cat and tried it. I hate Marmite, but
Aimee has obviously inherited her Mum's fondness for the black stuff. Yuk!

Driving miss Aimee

There is something wrong in this picture. Can you spot it? Yes, Aimee is not wearing her seatbelt, thereby breaking the law. Honestly, kids these days.

Speaking of which, a news report out today claims that toddlers who spend 35 hours or more in nurseries end up aggressive and poorly behaved.

Immediately my mind confjures up a future where my hoodie daughter stands around on street corners, gobbing spit and menacing passers by. Well, it is a sad fact of life that for parents like me and Cat, we can’t afford to not work. So Aimee ends up four days a week (35 hours exactly) in the nursery. But the headlines don’t mention the little reported add-on – that a well run nursery that has a structured day and enough room for the kids will generally have far less behavioural problems, regardless of the hours. And we think that our nursery satisfies these criteria. Nursery kids are also more sociable and learn new skills faster than stay-at-homes.
Sure, there have been incidents. The cheek biting thing obviously stands out. But 99 percent of the time, Aimee is a happy, energetic, curious and playful. I think that is pretty good for a 15 month-old.

A new thing, Aimee has been voluntarily hugging me and cuddling me cheek to cheek as I lift her up. It's very cute. Maybe I can capture it on photo. She is also addicted to In the Night Garden, the new TV show from the makers of Tellytubbies. She will go up to the TV and demand very vocally that we put on the DVD. IT's a bit disconcerting and I wonder if Aimee's brains are turning to mush from excess TV exposure.

Forget the Oscars, this is the real thing

Perhaps the most noticeable change that affects you when you have a baby is that your social life goes from a packed schedule of drinks, dinner parties and work do’s, to polite refusals, which eventually trickle down to zero invites. When an event or social occasion arises, the mental calculator clicks into action just trying to figure out whether you have the time to pick up the baby, feed, change, bathe and put to bed, catch the train or bus and arrive in time to realise that you are so tired you need to leave early. In most cases, you end up making an excuse.
There is the over-riding impression, paranoia maybe, that singletons and non-parents think that you lead boring lives of unending drudgery cos it’s all baby this and baby that. But to us, we’re in the most exciting and wonderfully exclusive party of them all. Every day, the little person that is the centre of our entire universe, entertains us without fail, with the funniest jokes, the best acting, the most daring feats of danger, joyous singing and the most heart tugging tears of emotions. What more of a thrill in life could a person want? Forget the Oscars, we have our own pint-sized studio of fun.

Turning the other cheek

OK, the secret is out, so no point hiding it – Aimee hurt another child. Yep, can’t deny it, she hurt another child real bad. I turned up at nursery to pick her up and the carer told me in hushed tones that Aimee bit on the cheek of another child who subsequently had to receive some First Aid.
This totally shocked me. What on Earth happened? Our lovely, playful little bunny had, in one instant, turned cold-blooded cannibal. Aimee certainly never did anything like this before and it was extremely out of character. None of the carers saw exactly what happened, but Aimee was quietly and perfectly happy one minute (hogging the lego box as usual) when another kid went up to her. The next thing they knew, the kid was bawling his eyes out and clinging to his cheek in pain. Aimee, apparently, carried on playing. They think that possibly the boy harassed Aimee or provoked her in some way and she reacted by biting him. Cat and I are speechless with guilt and regret about the incident. The other parents were ok about it though. They just accepted that these things happen.
Having said that, I am certainly aware that physical aggression can and does happen as part of the ‘growing up and learning’ phase of toddlerhood. I have personally witnessed Aimee being slapped on the head and in the face on two occasions at the nursery. They were not too serious (not as much as eating a cheek), but it does happen. Of course there were also the nasty incidents when we were out and about where evil little (older) toddler boys would deliberately push Aimee over. It is not nice and to be honest, unpreventable to some extent, unless we wrap her up in cotton wool.
Aimee is getting to the stage where she understands simple commands and perhaps the tone, if not the meaning of our utterances, so we’ll continue to teach her what is right and what is wrong.
But rubbish news reports such as this one, just add to the guilt trip and paranoia that us working parents have to put up with.

Baby blogs - BLAG

Cat had her 8 week scan and everything seemed perfectly fine. The scan printout was sadly not very revealing, just a very fuzzy indistinct blob. Not like last time, when Aimee proudly displayed all her features to the ultrasound.
Although the morning sickness continues to wreak its havoc, at least the bleeding has stopped.
My sister has finally unleashed her blogging account of her pregnancy : http://bkkbaby.blogspot.com/
The same dilemmas in her blog as ours - you want to write about everything, but then realise you are stopping from revealing too much explicit or very intimate detail as you know close friends and relatives are reading it.

Picking up Aimee from nursery everyday, you soon learn about all the nasty little bugs and viruses that frequent the children. Every week, there is usually a notice on the door explaining about the latest bout of illness and warning signs to watch out for. Stuff I never ever heard of. The latest one being: Slapped Cheek Syndrome.
Who ever heard of that? It's a virus which causes mild cold-like symptoms and a rash. But if you are pregnant (under 20 weeks), it could cause a problem. Damn! What if Cat gets it?
The world is a dangerous place...and our little Aimster is intent on getting infected with most of these nasty ailments in the name of 'building up her immune system.'

The Great Lookelikey debate

Everyone has a completely different view on who Aimee looks like the most. Some are convinced she is the spit of me, and others can only see Cat. Well, to help everyone decide, below is presented the first in a series of head-to-head comparisons. Let the public decide!

Be afraid, be very afraid

Food, glorious food

I thought I should give a short mention about food. Or more specifically, Aimee’s personal food preferences. At the moment, Aimee enjoys her pasta and rice. You can feed her almost anything, as long as it is coarsely mashed up with her boiled rice, or her pasta tubes. This is great because we can add new flavours and textures sneakily. Her real favourite is pasta shells with beef bolognase, but she’s enjoyed chicken, fish and vegetarian versions. Although you can feed her a sultana or a yoghurt, Aimee doesn’t really go for artificial sugary sweet things. Thanks goodness! In fact, she seems to be developing a taste for sour things. I found this out when I was offering her a handful of ‘Special K’ cereal and she ignored the flakes and munched instead on the freeze dried red fruits. These are so sour! I actually discard them when pouring out a bowl for myself, but Aimee loves them in excess. I doubt there is any nutritional value in them having been so highly processed, but it keeps her quiet.
The other day, we realised that suddenly, she did like grapes. On previous attempts, these were rejected out of hand. But now she loves them, especially red grapes. However, the King of all fruits, for which Aimee will scream blue murder unless she gets it – PEAR. Yes, the humble conference pear, once ripened and then chilled, is pure nectar to Aimee. She loves it so much, she will even eat the core (once Daddy has extracted the pips). I even caught her munching on the stem the other day. A ripe pear is incredibly sweet, but I think it is the taste and texture she loves, sine pear juice doesn’t elicit the same response.
We are sure that Aimee’s tastes will change yet again over the coming years. My friend Dai recalls the terrible time he had with his two-year-old as she began to exert her power by refusing ALL FOODS. This is common I hear.
I wonder what foods our next baby will like?

An early scan

We all went to the Homerton yesterday as Cat was worried by some bleeding. The hospital has an Early Pregnancy Care Unit (EPCU) which is full of Mums-to-be who are pale with morning sickness and no baby bumps yet. They did a scan and said Cat was fine and the bleeding should be monitored but was most likely nothing to worry about. With Aimee, Cat had a scan at 8 weeks and you could clearly see a head and torso and maybe small buds for limbs. But with the latest one, at 6 weeks, there was barely a small blob. However, already, a nice strong heartbeat had formed.
It was a small comfort but poor Cat had to endure being prodded around during the scan which made her morning sickness worse.

Words that Aimee can say – Hello, No, Uh-oh, Ng (kind of igve me that rolled into one syllable)
Current Aimee fascination: rifling through Cat’s handbag, taking things out and placing them in secret locations. She does this every day.