« May 2004 | Main | July 2004 »
Another Two (Slightly Stressful) Firsts
Posted by Webby at June 29, 2004 06:20 AM | Comments (3)Stressful First #1
As Evelyn is such a noisy sleeper [she tends to remind us, throughout the night, that she's OK by 'grunting' and 'squeaking' in her sleep, waving her arms about as she does!], and because she's getting a little too big for her Moses basket, Jilly and I have decided that Evie should start sleeping in her cot in her own liddle bedroom.
I would never have believed it could have been so difficult leaving the my little beauty to sleep on her own. Evie looked tiny in her cot but, when we put her down to sleep, she was perfectly fine; she went through her usual 'niff-naffing' as she settled down, but didn't do any 'wahhing' at all, and was asleep within five minutes!
Apart from one feed in the night - at about 04:30 - Jilly, Evie and I each managed a full nights sleep...HUZZAH!
Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:23
Stressful First #2
Jilly took Evelyn to the GPs today for the first round of her inoculations [due as she is two months old]. Not surprisingly Evelyn screamed the place down during the injections, and Jilly says that she became really upset too. During the visit, Dr. Parker commented on how advanced Evie was in her ability to hold her head up...that's my girl.
Again, it is obvious - when holding her - that Evelyn is still piling on the weight. According to the GP's scales, Evie now weighs 5.22 Kg or 11lb 7½ oz (in the 58th percentile group). This increase of 360g, or just short of 13oz, represents a growth of 7.407407% over the last 12 days (I love statistics, I do!). Rather confusingly though, Evie's height appears to have remained the same at 57.5cm (still in the 74th percentile group). Evelyn's head circumference was measured at 39.75cm (in the 83rd percentile). That's right...like her dad, she's got a massive ginger heeeeeeed [which - I'm sure you'll agree - makes her ability to hold it up all the more impressive!]
Terrifying!
Posted by Webby at June 23, 2004 09:31 PM | Comments (0)Jilly went to Kieran's school's parents' evening tonight [I'n't punctuation great? Not mine, particularly, just punctuation in general!], leaving me alone with Evelyn for a couple of hours - for the first time - and I think the poor little speck was absolutely terrified. Me? I was perfectly alright. Coped admirably, I did! Never panicked or felt remotely out of my depth...not once!
Still, relieved when Jilly got home!
Father's Day #1...
Posted by Webby at June 20, 2004 09:52 PM | Comments (2)...how wonderful it is!
Although Kieran has always made Father's Day really nice by thinking about me and buying me a little something, nothing is quite like knowing that Evelyn had made the extra special effort to choose and then buy two lovely books especially for me to read to her; Guess How Much I Love You and Happy Dog Sad Dog. This year, Kieran bought me a very cool looking 1L 'hydration bottle' for use on those imminent summer camping expeditions, which will - inevitably - include tortuous 'wheel-chair friendly' [ahem!] walks, and an excellent Father's Day card...thanks again, mate! Today has been an extra special day, here in Gingatopia.
Ben and Jean joined us for lunch today - to celebrate Father's Day too - and we managed to get a few photo's of Ben with Evelyn but, peculiarly, none with Ben and Jilly! Ben spent most of his visit with me, assembling a complete PC from the component parts of two old machines for Kieran...thanks again Ben.
And, I know that today has been special for another new dad too; Jim at 'Wassocks.com'. Anyone that knows Jim might like to check out 'Wassocks' today, as he is bound to have added something to his blog celebrating his first Father's Day! Helen, Jim and Dominic were on their way home from a wedding when they called in for a drink, and to give Evie and Dominic a further opportunity to get to know each other. Just so long as that Harris child remembers, "I've got my eye on you...boy!"
To properly celebrate Father's Day, I was allowed to hold two of my favourite babies. I only hope this photo will serve as reminder that I will always be there for for my little Princess Speck...to keep her a safe distance from 'orrible boys!
Over doing the protective father thing, or what?
At Debbie and Kevin's
Posted by Webby at June 19, 2004 08:39 PM | Comments (4)So...another first for Evelyn! We drove over to Macclesfield this morning to see Deb and Kev - and Evelyn slept all the way, the liddle beaudee! We BBQd for lunch and then played a little football and badminton in D&Ks ever expanding back garden [at least, it APPEARS to be expanding]!
This evening, we've retired into the Living Room, where I've been allowed to play with Debbie's broadband. So, I ask Debbie...
...how quickly did I create this blog, eh Debbie?
Immediately before I gave Evie to Debbie for this photograph, I gave her to Kev to hold, and Evie 'wahhhed' her eyes out...poor little speck! To be honest though, I'm not sure who was most petrified, Evie or Kev!
As I hope Jim over at 'Wassocks' will appreciate - I've finally got the hang of 'Save for Web...' on Photoshop ['Elements' as it happens, at Deb and Kev's]. Unfortunately, it will take me forever to suitably re-compress all the images that I've used so far...d'oh!
...then Debbie suggested that I uploaded this image (that she took) to show me 'working my magic'!
Liddle Fat Budderball
Posted by Webby at June 17, 2004 06:35 AM | Comments (1)In the abscence of any visits from the health visitor, Jilly took Evelyn to the baby clinic at the GPs yesterday. And, exactly as the Gingasoft Super Computer predicted, Evie is piling on the weight and now tips the scales at a very impressive 4.86kg or 10lb 11½ oz (in the 75th percentile group) and has grown another 3.5cm to a lofty 57.5cm tall (in the 87th percentile group). At this rate she'll be taller than her mum before long!
Leavening or Bust
Posted by Webby at June 13, 2004 09:35 PM | Comments (1)
Another first this weekend. As Evelyn seems to enjoy going for spins in the car [after the initial trauma associated with being put in the car seat], Jilly and I decided that it would be safe to attempt the journey to Leavening to visit the Drurysharks. Fantastically, Evie didn't let us down, and slept the whole of the journey there. As a glorious day was forecast in North Yorkshire today, James suggested that we had the first BBQ of the year, so we all enjoyed an afternoon in the sun...filling our fat faces. Madeleine was notable for her abscence from the photographs, as she had gone to a friend's birthday party.
You'll notice a lack of photograps of me in the sun. This is, of course, because I'm the one taking the piccies and the fact that I was hiding in the shade the whole time, petrified that I was going to burn to a crisp.
After all the meaty products were consumed, and one or two beers on my part [being a conscientious family man...er...and nominated driver, I only had two bottles!], Jilly, Evie and I returned to Gingatopia in time to collect Kieran from his dad's so that we could all settle down to watch the evil French defeated by the magnificent English footballing warriors! Er...well...er...probably enough said about that then, eh? I'm sure Kieran will be waving his flag again on Thursday!
AND...we discovered - when we got home - that Julie had returned from her travels abroad and was tucked up in bed after a marathon flight. Hopefully, Julie will be making another flight to the golden shores of Gingatopia on Tuesday. Well, okay then, she'll be coming to Huddersfield for 'er tea! Not the same is it, really! Fiji one day, Huddersfield the next!
Massive Toothless Smile
Posted by Webby at June 12, 2004 04:19 PM | Comments (3)I was playfully 'BEEEEP'ing Evie's nose today (I think she likes it!) when she gave me a massive (and beautiful) toothless smile. Having only ever seen an expression that could have been a smile (but could, equally, have been wind!), I was very excited to see what I thought was Evelyn's first definite smile.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get to my camera quickly enough to take a photo but I did tell Jilly about Evie's smile. Jilly told me that Evie has been smiling like that for days (particularly for Kieran!), but that I'd missed all her smiles because I'd been at work...GGGGGRRrrrrrrr!
The Miracle of Sleep
Posted by Webby at June 10, 2004 09:17 AM | Comments (2)After an initial apparent [and very vocal] display of 'will power' by our precious little princess last night, Evelyn finally went to sleep [with the use of the miraculous Baby Soother - thanks Drurysharks!] at about 22:30, and stayed asleep until 04:45 when Jilly had to get up to feed her...HUZZAH!. Jilly put Evelyn back in her Moses basket at 06:00, where she slept until 08:15! How fantastic, it is, to have had our second (non-consecutive, admittedly!) full night of uninterrupted sleep. She's my liddle beaudee...er...etc., etc., etc!
Cause for Celebration
Posted by Webby at June 8, 2004 07:37 PM | Comments (1)During a night when Jilly had such awful abdomen and back pain that I had to ring NHS Direct in the hope of getting a GP to come out to see her; during a night when, as a consequence of Jilly's discomfort, Jilly and I only slept 2½ hours; our beautiful - and astonishingly clever - daughter actually slept through [...er...hence the celebration!]. Evie only slept through from 22:00 until 05:30 this morning, admittedly...but Jilly was in no condition to feed Evie during the night, and Evie is still not 100% comfortable with bottle feeding, so any sleeping she did was very welcome indeed. So…three cheers for Evelyn! Let's just hope that it’s the first of many.
14:00 - OH! WE DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE!
We all love being beside the seaside, but it's too bloody far from Huddersfield to go for a quick paddle in the sea...even when the weather is as glorious as it is today, and I've got the day off work to spend with my two favourite laydees! In celebration of the glorious weather, and even though we aren't going to the seaside, we've dressed Evie in this lovely seaside babygro given to us by Karen and Rosie Kemplett...thank you, you beautiful laydeeees.
I’m off back to bed with my beautiful family […er…except Kieran…er…who’s in his own bed, of course!]
Incidentally, today is the five week anniversary of Evelyn's birth...HUZZAH!
I've Created A Monster...and, of course, it's NOT Evie!
Posted by Webby at June 7, 2004 08:25 PM | Comments (2)Having a rota’d ‘day off’, after working over the whole week-end, Jilly and I took Evelyn shopping in town this morning [consuming a hearty breakfast in BHS…oh yes!] and I’m very pleased to report that Evie behaved impeccably; primarily because she remained asleep through the entire experience.
We got home at about lunch-time and decided that we should try Evie with a bottle again. This is a photo of a very clever little beaudee, indeed. It’s a photograph of our beautiful daughter immediately after her first full bottle of expressed milk, given to her by her very proud dad…and how pleased does she look?
What does this mean? I’ll tell you what it means; as we’re now sure that Evie will eat from the bottle, Jilly is able to leave me with her for more than an hour, confident that she won’t starve. OH NO! What I have done? It’s only a matter of time before the old lush is on the razz around town on a Friday night with all ‘er cronies…aaahhh! I’ve created a monster!
And these are pictures of the successful father/daughter Team Webster displaying the empty bottle as evidence of the special liddle gal’s performance. Initially, Evelyn was a little reluctant to drink from the bottle, but a little [ginger] dogged determination on her father's part soon won her over. Now, of course, the world is Jilly's beery oyster!
And further news from Gingatopia is that Aunty Kate and Cousin Hebe came to visit Evie and her mum yesterday [while I was hard a work!]. During their visit, Jilly had an interesting environmental discussion with Hebe about the pros and cons of using re-usable and disposable nappies, while Kate is quoted as saying that my daughter looks more like Patrick Stewart [Star Trek’s Capt. Jean-Luc Picard] than she does me! Still, it could be worse; she might look more like Vernon Kay…eh, Jillian?
Keeping Mum Happy
Posted by Webby at June 5, 2004 12:55 PM | Comments (0)
In an effort to keep the Missus sweet [Jilly wanted more photo's of Evie and Keash together] I've taken further photo's of Gingatopia's crowned prince and princess. Next thing, will be that Jilly will want hard copies of them too...where will it all end?Here are the best of several snaps of Kieran Prince Binky and Liddle Princess Speck...they're really very sweet, even if I do say so myself!
Happy Birthday, Beautiful!
Posted by Webby at June 4, 2004 12:17 PM | Comments (0)
Our beautiful friend, Julie, is currently gallivanting around the Southern Hemisphere brightening the lives of everyone she meets and [fingers crossed] having a truly fantastic time as she does so.
What few of the people who spends any time with her today will know, is that today is Julie's birthday! So...just a quick note [in the hope that she reads this] to say that we all hope she is having a wonderful birthday, that we all miss her terribly, and that we are all looking forward [unlike her, I'm sure!] to her coming back home to us!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE xxx
Another (notable) First
Posted by Webby at June 3, 2004 09:30 PM | Comments (0)
Evelyn has made her first visit to a public house today, The Slug and Lettuce, York. We drove to York as the Ashley and John were enjoying the company of Daryl, Austin and Joe who were visiting from Solihull - and thought Kieran and Evelyn might prove a bit of a distraction for the children...er...and Ashley, I think!
We all went for a walk around York, and Unkie John - I like to think of him as MY uncle, not Evie's - treated us to a lovely lunch in the pub, the liddle beaudee! Unfortunately, I haven't got a decent photograph of Austin to display, as he was constantly off 'messing about' with Kieran...lads, eh?
Evelyn's socialising continued in the evening as we returned home, and went to Jim, Helen and Dominic's for dinner and were treated to a fantastic Smoked Fish Pie, cooked by Helen's own fair hands! Unsurprisingly, Evelyn stuck to milk!
As I see him infrequently, it always surprises me to see how Dominic seems to be growing at an increasingly alarming rate! It's staggering to think that, in another two/three months, Evie could be the size that Dominic is now!
