Archives: jude

Jude is crawling rather well now. He can get a reasonable pace up… He’s not fast yet, but he gets about. He started ‘getting it’ on Sunday & has become more co-ordinated with it over the last few days. His next step will be to get himself into a sitting up position, as he can’t manage that himself at the moment & occasionally gets himself stuck.
My nose still hurts… I was thinking I could call from work & see if there was a doctor’s appointment, but then, I don’t have the number… duh.
Eve woke up this morning (06:00) with a racking cough. It sounds a little ‘croup’y – which is worrying. She’s also got a cut on her little toe from not wearing shoes. Her pal Amber, whose birthday it was yesterday has a habit of not wearing anything on her feet – so Eve wants to do the same, but Amber is more cautious in her walking whereas Eve still runs & jumps.
Louise’s pal Carolyn came a visiting yesterday. They were still about when I got home, but I needed to get back out to do the shopping, & by the time I came home they had gone. Their kid Katie, from my brief stay, looked a happy sort. She’s trying to walk already – only 10 months.

Oh they’re my favourite trains, are those ones – the old ones than don’t even have a drop down table on the back of the seat in front for you to use & swing around on suspension springs better suited to slinkeys. Thankfully today, we have a better train.
Now, I can’t remember a jot of what’s been doing. My brain is empty this morning. I will try to tease some glimmer of though like a tortoise being tempted out of a shell with a nice bit of crisp lettuce.
The carpets are due this Friday – they are coming to fit them! Ah, that just reminds me of something else I forgot – to get call the people we want to clean the stair carpet.
Must … try…. to…. remember….
um
This will be good though as we will be able to move into the attic space even though I have not completed lots & lots of things. This is immaterial – we will be up there! Woo! I will paint strip, paint & scowl at the damp plaster that still seems to refuse to dry out. Perhaps the presence of people up there will help… I dunno. Scare it away with our contempt of it or something?

How did the weekend go? Hmmm – well at some point Jack was in angry defiance mood. I suspect this was Friday. That evening he was very mad with me for stopping his shower & we were in a stand off situation. He angry with me & me, as usual, not backing down. He’s still in the bath – sitting down & reusing to get out. This could have continued a while, but fortunately Jude was still awake & Louise needed to get something. She handed him to me & Jude smiles at Jack & Jack just melts. He loves his brother. Jack plays up for Jude & I melt. I love my kids.

We went to Bradford on Saturday. Another ‘out of the blue’ “lets go to…” from Louise. I like these – unplanned & haphazard. Can’t really recall what we did. No real impact on memory. I wonder if we did anything that might impress itself on Jack & Eve’s memories? Ah – we met one of the teaching assistants that were attending to Jack’s class on the way home. She’s nice – she has a family of her own, but she stopped for a chat with Jack. Jack likes to engage people.
Sunday – we -um- what was it?
We did a little tidying & sorting – moving a cluttered shelf of toys from the front room to the back. The front room carpet is also due a ‘replace’.
Oh – & what else we’ve gorn & done? Louise, I suspect, would not like me reporting this, as it’s our private lives – but this journal thing documents our lives (kinda). We have moved our mortgage to the (hateful*) Halifax. In doing so we keep our outgoings about the same & my personal cover is better, & we have a little money for home improvements!
(* I say this out of knee jerk on long dissipated chagrin at being manoeuvred out of a job I quite enjoyed)

Are you calling me dull? dim? vacant?
Well – I concede there’s an element of truth there… I cannot deny it. I should not have stayed up late at the weekend… but hey – we had guests… a guest – Caroline from London.
Been good to have her here. Jack really likes her; Eve has no worries & Jude smiles at everyone.
Louise was saying that by this age Eve was starting to become clingy & not want others to hold her, Jude however is quite happy for anyone friendly to hold him & will smile at everyone. He’s even known to instigate smiling. That’s not to say that he’s one dimensional – he did the most quizzical side look at Eve the other day after she got down from the dinner table to lean forward at him & go “EEEaaaark!” & walk off. It was a definite – ‘what the hell was that about – is she crazy?’ look. He is, on the whole an immensely happy baby tho.
What have we done while Caroline has been with us this weekend?
Well… We were in Manchester after picking her up on Saturday. We are impressed with the refurbishment at Manchester Piccadilly station – Drab modernist to open sweeping ‘glass’ roof – all curves & elegance. We’d rather not have waited quite so long for her train. It was nearly an hour late after mysteriously taking a wrong turn & ending up in Coventry. A train taking a wrong turn? Bizarre. We wandered into a very busy Manchester. Not only was it a Saturday, but the last weekend of the Commonwealth Games. Abuzz, it was. People all over, band playing & all sorts. Quite cosmopolitan (well – it is a city – duh!). Not home too late for the kids, but they could not get a grip on going to bed – so were playing out in the back yard in their pajamas, before we dragged them off to bed.
Sunday – off to Hebden bridge. Jack has gone with Hamish on an earlier train & we get there a bit later by bus. We meet up in the playground & the skies open just as Jack & Hamish get to the paddling pool. I’m impressed by the speed at which the playground empties. There are a few persistent kids getting wet. Jack & Hamish shelter with us, even thought they are already sodden from the pool. Logic does not really come into it. That could have worked better…. Oh well.
In the evening, Louise it’s tired & although she wants to stay up, she can’t cope with watching Monster’s Inc with us all (Jack has had a bath & come back down to watch it.) He is very late to bed – I hope that he sleeps in a while this morning. Louise fell asleep getting Jack to sleep. I just about did as well… but managed to hang on for a bit longer.
Caroline heads back this evening. I’m meeting them after work in Manchester & we’re going to go & visit Urbis… Should be interesting – I’m intrigued how the building will look on the inside.

A feeling there’s much to say & a brain that still can’t get past the rudimentary. I guess this is what all parents are like… Too tired to think too hard.
Louise thought the 1st day of the summer holidays went quite well. The kids played well & the day went surprisingly quick. Jack was starting to act up a bit by the time I got home – an accumulation of petty things & ‘that look’ (I know it all – I’m better than you). Not something that sits well with your 5 year old.
Louise went off to the shops & Jack & I stayed a home. Eve is very willing to go with Louise & the pushchair – essentially as we now have a buggy board. We went off on a great trek on Saturday to John Lewis in Manchester. It’s in Cheadle; we needed a train, tram, train & 20 minute walk to get there. All for a retail outlet with a buggy board. It was not something that was really planned. Jude woke us early on Saturday (as mentioned) & Louise piped up that she thought it might be a good idea to try to get there… Heck – why not! The train etc went well to get us to Cheadle Hulme, but it was a little odd when we got there as we had no idea where we were & where Lewis’ might be. Got direction & started the hike. Jack coped well, but got truculent because he kept missing the planes that were coming into land, & blamed us for not pointing them out to him well enough… He was not actually listening when we were trying to point them out. This made the journey there more difficult. When we finally arrived, it was a tad busy… We do not get along that well with busy shops… but never mind. We managed to stay together for the most part & get the new buggy & buggy board. We had arrived there with no buggy/pushchair. The stock collection computers were down, so rather than have our crazy kids running back & forth through automatic doors to the ‘collection point’ outside, we opted to try to get some food. Cafes crazy busy. Supermarket sandwhiches, then. Jude does a poo, Louise goes off to change him while the kids nearly sit down to eat. Eventually we get back to the store & still have to wait an age for the buggy & board. Assembled & homeward bound. There may well be mac computers in this store for me to drool over & Rowan wool for Louise to muse over, but we cannot get out of there soon enough.

Just woke from a snooze on the train. Closed my eyes on the platform & found that I continued as I got on the train. Feel a bit better for that, actually…
Jude was up early again this morning. Saturday & Sunday he woke at 05:00 & started burbling on happily as he does. This morning he awoke at similar time, but this time it was caused by Eve waking up & crying for a cuddle. It probably doesn’t take much for him to wake up at that time anyway. So, Louise is going to be jiggered today.
Jude is sitting up. Sunday morning I had him sat down & he was holding himself very well, & by the afternoon when Louise sat him down, he was almost confident about it. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to take him long before he’s figured out crawling now. He gets himself onto his tum & shuffles about at the moment, & he’s getting to the point where he’s lifting himself very strongly.

Eve woke up in a good mood on Sunday; chirpy, smiling. What a difference it makes! She’s been teething of recent, & has been in a sod of a mood; always whingeing & carrying on. It wears you down, grating at the nerves so much it makes you physically tired. Louise copes extraordinarily well with it all. One main tactic was to just get her out of the house, really so that she has distraction other than complaining. She’s got our sense of humour though… Louise says that she was on her shoulders on her way to playgroup when she did a massive burp, “Pardon me” she said. Louise must have chuckled as she repeated with fake burp all the way through the park. Louise burped yesterday as she was relaxing in the house & apparently Eve jumped on her & wanted “Again, again” – thus the game continues.
Sunday was not all good. We had a run in with Jack, or should that be Jack had a run in with us? We were just in the Co Op car park, after doing some shopping. We were going to go back to the park & see what was happening. There looked to be the music event for the end of the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival with a fair attached. This is what it looked & sounded like from the playground anyway. Not too loud… Could be fun. In the car park, Jack noticed a small light bulb. He picked it up, much to my concern – it being rubbish & glass rubbish. I told him to put it down, he did. Whether I remonstrated for lack of care, or whether he just got the idea, he picked it up again & threw it down… He wasn’t successful in breaking it – so he did it again – by which time I was nearly shouting at him. He did break it – to which I exclaimed “JACK!” very loud. Louise had cottoned on to what he was doing & made the swift ‘right – that’s it!’ decision. We were going home NOW! Jack immediately burst into tears. How could it be fair? Well – if he had listened to us & not messed about… He cried & denied that it was his fault most of the way home on the bus. Only getting into town did he calm down. He later even conceded it was his fault for being naughty… but that was only after another smaller incidence (stone kicking, “don’t kick that stone Jack… No… Stop that Jack …JACK!) & punishment (not going to the bike shop for a bike stand) & another flood of tears. It’s hateful to see him so upset & to have caused it, but… but he really does need to listen & have more respect for things. Having said all that – he has been very good since then. He’s come back to more his normal self.
Jude was a ball of energy yesterday evening. Louise says that he hadn’t really had a proper sleep all day. He was asleep when I got home, but I probably disturbed him. He was kicking his legs & waving arms like mad – not in a frustrated way, he was happy & burbling most of the time. Just energetic & happy. He wants to be off & crawling I’m sure… I’m also sure he’ll probably be doing it sooner that we imagine. Not immediate – but soon.

Jude has started baby talk. Well – he was last week, to be honest. “La, la na ya ya na aya ya ya” . He’s 6 months old now & you wonder where the time goes… where the days & weeks go – is it Thursday already? Louise had a hectic day yesterday – Jack off to school, then off to playgroup with Jack & Eve, then home, (11:00) then off to ‘college’ for Eve’s afternoon playgroup there. Eve is starting to be left there on her own. The off to Supermarket, then drop shopping at home, then off to see Jack at his sports day, then off to pick up Eve. That’s where I met up as I was making sure that I got there in time in case Louise was held up at sports day.
Jack won the race where you have to run to a point, run back run to the next point, run back etc & then to the finish line. Louise says he got boxed in, in another race & could not win that (memories of losing the sprint when I was young there). He was upset at not being able to do the skipping race. All in all he did well & got a few 2nd’s & 3rd’s – but he did sound a little disappointed. He might be competitive… I’m not sure. I’m not really sure I want to find if I’m competitive by proxy – the last thing I’d want to do is become pushy. I’ll have to keep a check on me just in case.

To work on a Saturday again… Would normally be working next Saturday, but there’s a train strike then, so I would not make it – so swapped shifts.
Jack was not for settling to sleep last night. It was all a bit hectic. Eve & Jude had their bath while Jack was still out playing at Jessie’s house (after a bit of initial resistance Jack Hamish & Jessie seem to have settled to playing well – there was a bit of unevenness in the dynamic for a bit there, but it seems to have worked out). I went to get Jack, & it was deemed a bit late for a bath, so he was straight to bed, which was probably a mistake as although he was jolly tired he was not keen to settle down. I read to him for a bit in which time a very flakey Eve succumbed to sleep. Jack was in the mood for more. Tried to put the sleeping Jude into his cot & only succeeded in waking him, much to Louise’s annoyance. So we had Jude & Jack awake, & Louise needed to be getting on. As we were both flakey we were in poor decision making mode. Jack was grabbing books to look at rather than sitting in bed. If he was I could have coaxed him to sleep. Still, rather than risk waking Eve with loud Jude Louise took him out of the room. As Jack was refusing to settle I went as well, with the advice that we had things to be a doing & to go to sleep when he had finished with the books. I thought he would soon come downstairs again… He didn’t – he actually settled down & went to sleep! Now this may seem foolish of us, but that was the 1st time the he went to sleep on his own – with no one else there to guide him to slumber… I was annoyed that he wouldn’t settle down, but so immeasurably pleased that he managed to do that on his own.