chesneycat

Almost too true to be really hilarious...

Matthew is eight months old today!

He doesn't get to see many other babies very often, but we've had some exceptions in the last week. On Friday, we got together with three other families on the Neckarwiesen, and spent a few hours at the children's water-feature play park, alternating between paddling in the streams and sitting under a tree in the shade.  Matthew loves the water, and was very curious about what the other kids were getting up to.  Also there was one of his friends, L, whose mum was in my ante-natal class.  L's very bold (goes with the red hair...) and they spent quite a while playing together on the blanket. Matthew would pick up a toy, and L would take it off him. Repeat. And again.  Eventually, he's going to learn to defend his own toys, but for now we're all amused by his bashfulness and occasional timidity when out of his comfort zone, in contrast to L. Oh, when Matthew's in his own environment he's into everything, but I'm afraid he's not at all bold and carefree just anywhere. Slow to warm up is how they describe it, but to be honest he's a bit of a mummy's boy really.

Still, he got his own back later on, by creeping up behind L and pulling him over backwards by the hat...

Today, we went to a near-ish beergarden by bike+trailer, to meet up with some other expat friends.  Quite a sporty and child-friendly place, with a sandy beach-style seating area, a pool and a beach volleyball court.  No other kids in our group, but Matthew was torn between watching the volleyball games and the other kids playing in the sand. You could see (and hear) he was desperate to join in, but it was just too scary!  Eventually, with a bit of reassurance from me, he went up to say hello to the other two families nearest to us, and borrowed one of their balls to play with, while watching the bigger kids.  An hour later, he was crawling all over the place and quite happy to be part of the real fun.  I kind of like the balance really. We don't really want to have to deal with stranger-danger before he can walk, and it's nice to have both the caution and the desire to play with others fully in view.

Another nice change over the last week - he now climbs into my lap for cuddles/reassurance if I'm sitting on the floor.  Ten seconds of that, then he's off to do something exciting again... but he comes back later for more, which is just lovely, lovely, lovely.

Look, no hands!

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Mummy's getting me into puzzles early...

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It ought to be illegal to be this cute!

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It's been a while since my last update - mostly because we've been run off our feet keeping up with the little dude. He's everywhere now, and if it's not crawling it's climbing, standing, edging around obstacles on his toes and then faceplanting into the floor... The new carpet has proved to be a very good investment.  And, just like the early days of trying to roll and crawl, he's already getting impatient with himself that he just can't walk yet, dammit.  Occasionally he forgets he can't walk, and tries it anyway... but at least he's very secure about moving from crawl, to kneel, to sit, to stand, to wobble... Here's the first photo we got, about three weeks ago.
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From today at the zoo:

I've gone non-dairy again, in the hopes of having some effect on Matthew's eczema, so needed to abandon the usual option of custard with the rhubarb we harvested the other day.  And to be honest, this recipe-wot-I-made-up worked out okay.

In a pan, put
*enough rhubarb for two
*a teaspoon of ginger, and half a tsp of mixed spice
*a sprinkling of demerera sugar
*a sloosh of water
*about two tablespoons of blackcurrant syrup, should you have some available

Stew until the rhubarb softens, then grab a measure of Grand Marnier. In proper Keith Floyd style, drink half, and chuck the rest in the pan for a few seconds.

Eat, then go back to the kitchen for more booze...

Go read this. Now. Srsly.

*chortles*

Yummy!

We've filled a 1L bottle, and I boiled the booze off the excess for some impromptu ribena-substitute. A summer of cocktails awaits...


Still eating last year's fruit from the freezer - I have four bags of gooseberries, two of rhubarb and four of redcurrants. First bag of this year's frozen cherries got turned into Cherry Rock Cakes this morning, and the next batch will become tekaranlady 's muffins, but probably not until next weekend. I want to empty out the old stuff first. Gooseberry Meringue Pie is tempting, as are these Streusel Squares.

I was hoping to get some writing done tonight, but to be honest, I'm too knackered.  Mind, I've been filling my notebook with notes on the bus journey each morning. Fingers crossed, I'll get to it soon.

-Ish.

Key to blood clotting discovered

Did I mention they've found more wackiness in my blood?  As well as a tendency towards recycling my own blood cells before their time, generally disapproving of placentas, and clotting too much, I also have a touch of this von Willebrands thingy that does the exact opposite and makes me bleed too easily. Anyway, I saw this, and figured I may as well post and tag it.

The last big garden post was some time back in... April? Yeah, right before we went back to England. When we got back, everything had shot up, including the weeds...

Anyway.

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Matthew's seven months old today. Hooray!  And hasn't the time gone fast?


Last weekend we cycled the 10km from Heidelberg to Schwetzingen, and took Matthew with us in his Chariot. Once there, we had a great time alternating between Chariot, sling and arms as we toured the gardens of Schloss Schwetzingen.  A couple (a kath-couple that is - i.e. lots...) of highlight photos from there and the preceding few days are below the cut:
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Tomorrow I'll post some from today, if I find the time. He's figured out how to sit, and to kneel upright! 

In the past, I've got a little peeved with the LibDems on the basis of their awful election leaflets, and have been sucked in to voting Green as an alternative. Not that they had any chance of getting a seat in my old ward in Sheffield, but still, I believe firmly in the principle of voting for the people who you think best match your own ideals and can best represent you in parliament, regardless of the likelihood of them actually getting in.

I think I've been voting for the wrong party, and unless I see a fundamental shift in their policies, will probably never vote Green again.

On the surface, they look nice and shiny (or is that crunchy and tree-huggy?), but the major disadvantage of a minor party is the number of crackpot loons that make it into the room when policy decisions are being made.

Science matters, dammit.

Singh to appeal against libel judgement

In a nutshell, scientist expresses doubts over the promotion of treatments based on shaky-to-zero evidence. Promoter cries 'Libel!', and scientist is judged to have accused promoter of being 'consciously dishonest'.

First reaction on my part: wtf? How obtuse is that?
Second reaction: Oh god, the repercussions.


Jesus H. Christ on a dinosaur.  Science is NOT served by precedents like that. And neither is society-in-general.

More commentary on this here and here.

Read and sign the statement here.

On the right, a large plate of cleaned cherry stones. On the left, some spare fabric converted into bags, ready for filling with cherry stones. Stick 'em in the microwave for half a minute and you have a heat pack. Chuck 'em across the room and you have a beanbag. I'm quite pleased with them, and it's been a useful reminder of how [not] to use my sewing machine... the thread tension was a little off, so I need to fix that before I work on anything more demanding than three straight lines and a gap.

Still, not bad for someone as rusty as me!

I have just made this, substituting freshly picked cherries for the plums.

Heavenly deliciousness on a stick, people.

Matthew is now properly mobile - he's got a 6x6 knitted rug, and can easily get from one end to another in search of the next toy.  It's fun to watch, especially as he's discovering new ways to play.  He's always been a big fan of colours and noises, and he's realised now that bashing things is a good way of making new noises! He used to just enjoy waving things around, but now it's more like smashing stuff together... "Watch me control my environment, Mummy!" he seems to be saying.  "Boo" is also hilarious, especially when he can pull a cloth away from his own face. He also still loves having raspberries blown on his chest and armpits and neck.

Best of all though, is when I first get back from work, and he just seems delighted to see me again.  I'll never tire of that.  :-)

Hilariously though, the more desperate to get somewhere he is, the worse he moves. Mummy just out of reach just led to a frustrated faceplant. Poor little sausage!

Jupiter-like planet discovered around tiny star

Obviously, I like this story for many reasons.

First, it's a lovely piece of science, a real historical technique refined to an apex of precision only possible with today's technology. Second, it does wonders for a few parameters in the Drake Equation [i.e. how many communicating civilisations might there be?] and raises the possibility for some slightly more plausible than average colonisation of the local regions of the galaxy by humans. Third, just imagine the type of worlds you could have in a solar system like this?

One side-effect of catching my first bit of sun in any given year is the chance to check on how my vitiligo has been doing.  For the last decade, my melanin has been winning the battle against my immune system, helped by a general sense of happiness and well being. Even my knees, the first and worst area affected on my body, have been becoming increasingly more pigmented.  Of course, the last few have been a little more stressful... but I think the post-pregnancy re-set is most likely responsible for what I'm seeing today. The backs of my hands, traditionally a favourite spot for vitiligo to develop but one which has been unaffected for the last thirty years of my life, are now showing a scattering of little white spots, like I've just painted a ceiling. I've always had some on my fingertips - the first joint of each of my fingers is fully depigmented - but nothing on the rest of my hands until now.

This is about the size of the spots I'm seeing now, although I have many, many more of them. ( photo-cut )
It's the typical pattern for a new region: you start with a scattering of small spots, which gradually grow and merge together. Seeing so many, and having them on a joint area rather than a pure friction area, suggests that this is likely to continue to grow for a while yet.  It's probably not helped by the fact that I have active depigmentation going on in other parts of my body right now (breastfeeding is finishing off what bra-seams started), so the immune system is already primed for attack. I have had new regions repigment eventually - the patch on my right shoulder from carrying a heavy school bag started this way, grew to a two-inch diameter circle, and slowly repigmented spot-by-spot over the course of a decade, but I'm doubtful over my hands. I think I'll have to wait to see how it looks when (and if) it stops growing and settles down, but my current guess is that this time next year I'll have hands a little like this:( photo-cut )

"If you adopt, you'll get pregnant!"

This is one of the nastiest misconceptions out there. Yeah, sure, everyone has their own anecdote of a poor unfortunate infertile couple for whom this exact thing happened, and quite often they seem to think it helps to say this. Fuck knows why; the sentiment is wrong on so many levels. Of all the prospective adoptive parents out there, one in ten, roughly, will get lucky and conceive. Strangely enough, the same proportion of infertile couples who give up and settle for living without kids will also get lucky. It's a simple, cold statistic, and while it's absolutely peachy for the one-in-ten who do get lucky, chances are that the person who hears this is one of the 90% who won't. For them, this statement doesn't offer hope, it merely rubs in the fact that the speaker doesn't have an effing clue about the reality of what they're going through.

Want another statistic?

Roughly *THREE* times this number will go through the trauma of a failed adoption, where the birth mother changes her mind at the very last minute or some other family member comes forward and claims the child. [Note, as cruel as it is, I don't think it's wrong for them to do this at all - their child, their right.] A friend of mine is going through this right now, for a baby that had been placed with them early in the birth mother's pregnancy. They've bonded with this child, been there for his scans, prepared his nursery, and even taken him home from the hospital for a fragile, precious 24-hours of being his parents.

And now he's gone.

Next time you hear someone pull the pregnancy anecdote out of their arse, remember my friend, and her continuing grief.

It's been ages since my last proper update - things have been pretty busy around here.

Matthew had a great day yesterday, but it's been an eventful month. His first tooth came through on April 22nd, with the second following on April 26th. No sign of any more, but his top front teeth and lower lateral incisors are clearly getting into position in their own good time. Since they came through, teething problems have become much, much better.

The big problem though was the eczema. A tiny rash under his chin suddenly got worse when we got to England. Jez went to see a pharmacist on saturday 25th, and aqueous cream was suggested. It got worse. Second pharmacist on Sunday suggested sudacrem. It got MUCH worse. Saw a doctor on Monday, who prescribed piriton and a different emollient cream. REALLY worse.( -Unhappy baby picture cut- )

At this point on the tuesday morning, Matthew was seriously unhappy, the rash was weeping profusely, and Jez, my MIL and I were on 24-7 anti-scratch watch. Fourth doctor prescribed antibiotics and steroids. Hooray! The eczema improved fast, and the antibiotics gave him diarrhea. Boo! We've since seen our own German doctor, and are still fighting the lingering remnants of the flare-up around his neck, and it's definitely atopic eczema (his whole body was covered at a low level, not that you can tell compared to the neck region on that photo)... but hopefully we'll get to the point where it doesn't bother him enough that we can beat the itch-scratch-flareup loop. Whatever the initial trigger, itching is the main problem right now.

Well, that's the bad stuff out the way. [Except for the fact that the regression of his sleeping while travelling still hasn't gone back to normal, but nevermind...]

On the plus side, Matthew's now rolling either way with ease. He remembered how to go from front to back after figuring out how to almost-crawl, whcih he now does rather well. Up on hands and knees, knees tucked under, rocking backwards and forwards, pushing on hands, and even one-two-three alternating knees before he slumps forwards. He's pushed himself backwards into a few corners now, and has travelled four or five feet across the room in a direction he chooses as well, but there's still a long way to go as far as coordination is concerned. Strength is there - he can do phenomenal hand/toe press-ups - but he's yet to figure out that he can move arms and legs at the same time. Sitting is almost there as well - there's been a couple of times yesterday when he pushed himself into a half-sit from crawling position. No sign of any words though... typical boy, he wants to run around, but communicate?

Anyway, while we were in the UK he got christened and met up with most of the family. We all had a lovely time. The whole album is here but here are some highlights:( photo-cut )