Archives: jude

Catching breath as I ended up having to run a bit for the train this morning. All my own fault – prating about at home. It’s not like Jack or Eve were up. That’s 2 morning that neither of them were awake as I left.
Eve has been in the habit of waking too early of recent – so hopefully that habit is starting to break. Jude was up with Louise. It was the computer what done it (made me late). Silly me. It doesn’t help that I’m sat at a chair with a heater under it.
It was a lovely bright crisp afternoon yesterday. It’s a shame it was not consistently so, or they may have had a chance to look at our roof (sigh).

Revolting weather this morning. Thrashing wind & rain – instant soaking. Hah! What a laff! ….Only – they won’t be coming to do the roof again at this rate… At least the Summit Tunnel was not flooded again.

Busy at work again yesterday.
BT pulled a funny one changing the format of the packets sent over the network to us – which caused out RADIUS server to crash. Translation: when someone phones us to connect to us as an Internet Service Provider BT sends their request to us down the phone line. BT started to send these signals to us in a new & different format (without actually telling us they might try this) & the server that listens for these connection & checks the caller’s user name & passwords got well confused & stopped working properly – so – no one could connect – so all hell broke loose.
So – my website is still down as it was all hands to the pump to try & figure out what the hell was going on?! No time for rebuilding servers.
Oh, & we have to field calls from people disgruntled that their website is down – even though they do not have to actually pay for the service.
Good innit.
We are busy at work.

Jude near smiled at me yesterday. I was holding him in the bath & chatting to him, & he nearly smiled; an all to brief flash of a smile & a half smile. He was content.
His eyes are still blue. Whether they will remain blue, only time will tell. I can’t recall when the colour ‘sets’ as it was. They all start off with dark blue eyes, but Jack & Eve have gone hazel.
I seem to recall that my brother’s eyes changed from a green to a hazel when he was a boy. Maybe he made it up, but his impressionable younger brother took note of what he claimed.

Back to normal trains again. No doubt there will be more strikes before the dispute is settled – but apart from the slightly involved journey home, it’s been a pleasant change. I just would rather not have to do the bus on that final leg.

Eve is certainly back in good health again & is back to being happily loud. She was the one who would not calm down to go to sleep yesterday. I thought it might be Jack as we had a run in out bath depth – he wanting to be too deep, me worrying that there would be water everywhere. He got mad at me, but we managed to calm down in the end. We went downstairs for a bit & he let me talk him round. He was in a bit of a wind-up mood for most of the evening, so a clash was not unexpected.

Health visitor came yesterday & Jude weighed in at 9lb 15oz. It seems quite a lot in such a short time. He was weighted 2 weeks ago as well & was 8 something then. Louise checked Jack & Eve’s charts & he is heavier than either at this stage, but not by as much as she had envisaged. He’s a strong lad – able to lift his head when lying on his tum already & holds his head quite straight when looking about – which he is doing with a lot more focus. He has no real toys – like an arch baby gym thing at the moment, but he seems to not get bored enough to worry about that yet.
Jack used to be under the baby gym very early. He was jaundice & it was summer – so he’d lie under it in the sunshine from the window in the hope it would help the jaundice. Jude was jaundice as well & on his 2nd or 3rd day he stopped pooing & weeing – which worried us – but he recovered soon enough. The intensity of the 1st few days with a new baby makes you much more focused on things like that.
There were a list of other things re Jude’s early days that I’m sure I wanted to mention, but memory is fractured when typing on the train in the morning. This writing is all very immediate. Surface brain ramblings.
See I think too much & I grind to a halt.

The kids went to bed ‘early’ last night. Only a matter of half an hour to an hour… but they certainly needed it. It was an order as well.
Just after tea Eve had got a wooden jigsaw out & was playing with it very happily – & doing rather well with it as well. It’s a proper wooden one with big chunky pieces. She was just figuring out the penultimate bit when Jack noticed & pinched the final bit. So there we were – at stand-off. Jack refusing to give up the final bit & Eve very upset that he had it. No reasoning worked & Eve got so upset she just pulled the jigsaw apart again. Hmph!
I got on with the washing up & the stroppiness continued in the front room. No, I don’t really recall what exactly happened, but Jack was not playing nicely at all. I came into the front room to try to calm things, & didn’t succeed. Could I really expect to? Jack wanted the toy that Eve had even though there was another near exact one that he was rejecting. I ended up having something thrown at me, & Louise after trying various things said that it was definitely time for bed. I carried a protesting Jack upstairs & Eve following upset that Jack was upset (but still carrying the toy that was causing the confrontation). I managed to get Jack nearly calmed down, when ‘that toy’ started it all off again. Louise followed upstairs with Jude. Jack was in full tantrum howl & she held onto him while I ran the bath for Eve to distract her & calm her down. Jude woke up so I held him while Eve had a bath. She quite enjoyed her bath & was not really worried that Jack was still protesting. He wanted to go downstairs, but Louise was not letting him. What would he do there now anyway – we had the bath done; it was – without denial – now bath time. He became more compliant (somewhere there a hold turns into a hug) & had just about drifted off in Louise’s arms (changed into pyjamas), by the time Eve was out the bath. He stirred again to be put into bed & be read to. They both fell asleep in Jack’s bed. They were both somewhat over tired. Sleeping angels.
Jack was awake before went to work & although not in a great mood (he’s still not feeling “very well” & was not sure he wanted to go to school) he was in a sweet & loving mood. He is going out with William after school. There’s a group of adults & William’s older brother & a friend of his as well. Something called ‘The Wacky Warehouse’. Has food – & a veggie menu- so he should be OK. Hope he enjoys it.

Jack was stirring as I got up this morning. He was in the same bed as Louise & Jude & I think wanted to go downstairs. Fortunately we put him off. When I went to take Louise a cup of tea & rouse her again he was asleep & holding on to Jude. One arm around his middle & on his head. Jude likes to sleep on his side a little & for one so young has already been able to move off his back to do this. He is quite strong for his age. He can hold his head up oh his own quite well. He sleeps quite well at night as well; we are lucky.
Jack’s pal at school – probably his best friend – William is leaving at the end of this week. His family is moving to Spain. Jack knows this, & William has been off school in Spain before, which made Jack sad. William, from accounts, considers Jack a very good friend as well. I think we are going to have to engineer a way of keeping them in contact electronically. William is coming to tea at our house on Thursday – a little party on his behalf is organised. A couple of presents from Jack to be bought & party style food for us all to be organised. Happy/sad.
Jack is still not settled & this may be part of it. He is easy to offend & disproportionate in his response. I foolishly took some water out of their bath last night to rinse out Jude’s baby bath bowl thing & Jack took great umbrage that I had taken water from ‘his bath’. He got mad & the bathroom & I got rather wet. Sometimes there is no reasoning with him, as he is resolute in his determination not to listen. We are going to have to try to figure out how to diffuse these events more effectively as it’s doing no one any good.
Still – reading the to sleep was quite good as they were relatively keen to hear some Pooh Bear stories & I quite enjoy reading them. Jack even asked for another story to be read… which was encouraging, but at the same time I had to remind him that he was in fact tired & it was in fact bedtime. He turned over & drifted as I read “On nearly meeting heffalumps again”.

The kids actually slept through last night. Jude woke to have a nappy change at 2 ish & another feed at 5ish – so all in all quite a good night’s sleep. Shame I had to get up & go to work, but reality has this nasty habit of gatecrashing your life.
Quite a good weekend, the tantrum level seems to be abating a little. We went out to Halifax on the train for a couple of hours yesterday. Not my favourite town, but it does have a couple of shops open on a Sunday, & it’s not too far. Jack seemed to really enjoy it – happy to be on the train. We managed to get him a pair of swimming trunks. Louise mentioned that we might go swimming (he & me) on Saturday. We set off for the park & the kids enjoyed a run about in the howling wind that cuts through it. We got to the warmth of the sports centre & while I waited at the desk to see if there were things we could buy, (Jack has never been swimming & it’s been years since I went – so we have no kit) Louise, (with Jude) Jack & Eve went to look at the baths. Busy on a Saturday. So then… they had no trunks for either Jack or me. Too small for me, too big for him; Jack was very disappointed & mad that ‘we’ let him down in not having what was needed, but there was not a lot that could be done. After stating that he never ever wanted to go swimming he eventually came round & walked with us & even put his coat on.
I have yet to get a pair of trunks. Once I have, I will have to dip in the pool. As it’s all going to be focussed on Jack, I will not have to worry too much about doing anything as tedious as keeping fit.
Hmmm… I’m going to miss being at home. Taking Jack to school (Thankfully we have done a couple of ‘trial runs’ so Louise if happy that if she can get Jack dressed, they will get off OK) playing with Eve & holding Jude. He’s not even been sick on me yet!
Jude is starting to look about with more focus. He is quite a content baby. He can be changed without the screaming ab-dabs. Eve could at this age as well, but Jack could not. His general reaction to things is not to cry. He can wake up & look around & not cry. He will cry, of course, but there are definite levels from pay me attention to I’m rather hungry, to AAAAAAA! The latter is rarely reached. Eve is fascinated by him & thinks it’s really funny when Louise feeds him. Jack is loving, but for the most part he knows that a baby does not do that much, so lets Louise get on with things. Neither show any sign of resentment & both like to try to kiss him occasionally.