The new rolling ILX parenting thread, since the other one was getting unwieldy

Ophelia's urinary infection RETURNED after less than a week. We noticed immediately that after two days she was slipping back into sicky mode. :-( She threw up and had a fever again. I'm a bit fed up with the doctor not being able to cure her. We went back foir a check-up (the first time she had it) and he just stared at his computer asking if her fever had gone, how her appetite was,... Didn't really LOOK at her. I mean, wtf, man, at least fake some concern. Now we went back and he just said she had to take her antibiotics again. I am doing this but if it comes back, I'm going to another doctor. I don't like to continue giving her such heavy meds and I want her back to her old self. Poor thing. That said, I don't think there's much we can do: she's just very sensitive to have these types of infections. When she's four years old, we'll be able to do the operation (*cut* the skin that connects the two labia). *sigh* Poor thing. Maybe it'll be less when she goes on the potty. Hope so anyway. :-(

Also, she's very capable to walk on her own for a while now but REFUSES to do so when mummy and/or daddy are around. Clever and stubborn girl she is. When she's with my mother or father, SHE FRIGGING WALKS ON HER OWN. But when she notices me, she immediately stops and reaches out to me. I find it funny but also realize she's taking advantage and needs to walk on her own when I'm around.

That said, her linguistic advancement is amazing. She understands a lot of things and *mumbles* a lot of words already. One of which is (worryingly) television. :-)

poor O. i hope shes feeling better. were all sick with daycare colds at the moment. :(

anyway, beeps and bunny:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4679/bunnyxz3.jpg

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/392/weegx8.jpg

Aw. :-)

She's just lovely.

Beeps is a CUTIE!

Has anyone here had experience with infant sign language? My daugher is 4 1/2 months and she's so expressive and inquisitive that we're going to start with the ASL (american sign language) as soon as possible, but we're not sure we can get her day care providers to buy in. any tips appreciated.

We are planning to try the signing classes, but at the moment Howie's diary is pretty full up with NCT group, baby massage, baby rhyme time... anything that gets us out of the house, basically! He loves meeting new people and going to new places, so it's all good.

On a downer, his eczema has really flared up in the last couple of days :(

Think it must be the heat making it worse. And all the creams don't seem to be making much difference. I find it really upsetting to see his skin so red and raw - though it doesn't seem to bother him as much as it does me! Taking him to the GP tomorrow to see if they can suggest anything - think it might be time to bring out the steroids.

We have the signing book, and we've tried to do the simple ones (food, drink). No reaction from the boys whatsoever. We're gonna keep doing it, though.

The boys playing on a blanket:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/192/508833438_20be36f771.jpg

Has anyone here had experience with infant sign language? My daugher is 4 1/2 months and she's so expressive and inquisitive that we're going to start with the ASL (american sign language) as soon as possible, but we're not sure we can get her day care providers to buy in. any tips appreciated.

I am very weary of teaching your (or rather MY) child anything but proper Dutch. I say proper as I don't use baby talk either. It's not that I shy away from cooing or once in a while using a *cute* word, but like my developmental psychology professor once said:"Why bother? There's no reason to." So she doesn't even say dada when waving people goodbye, she says "Daaag!" like every other person. Ok, this sounds like I'm putting people down who use signs and/or babytalk, but in essence I don't see the point really.

Ophelia has finally let go of my finger. She was able to walk on her own for a while now, but never wanted to when I (or my husband) was around. Yesterday I put my hands behind my back, after my husband told me she had walked on her own with him around, and she decided that she didn't need my finger anymore. It was silly really, she was able to walk on her own for quite a while, but she didn't want to (when we were around). She's such a clever girl. :-)

Also, Teeny where the hell are you! I miss your posts! And pics!

hello and thanks! We're doing fine, just a bit busy with all the fun summer stuff.

I will say that baby sign language has been an enormous help to us. They say it doesn't interfere with the development of spoken language. I was a late talker and knew there was a chance my boy would be too, so I gave it a shot. I started, kind of half-assed, with the sign for "more," around 9 months and he picked it up right away. Some of the signs are ASL-based and some we just made up. He knows more, all done, nurse, eat, water, bed, bath, brush teeth, diaper, wash hands, poop, help, and he recently made one up for 'bird' for some reason. All the others he's had since around 12 mos though. I can't imagine how frustrated he'd be without them, since he doesn't have many words. Maybe he would have been motivated to talk earlier without them, but he's very communicative so I'm not worried how the job gets done, I know the day will come when he'll be a chatterbox regardless!

djlogan, have you asked your daycare person about signs? My mother-in-law runs a daycare and they all use signs, so maybe yours are already into it!

So Louis is 17.5 months right now and I have not gotten tired of him yet. ;) He's really active, climbing all over the playground equipment. He is not throwing tantrums yet and just this week started saying "no" occasionally. We got him a potty because he will pee on command and tell me when he's about to poop, so I thought I might as well give it a shot. He thinks the potty is so cool that he pees every thirty seconds when his diaper is off, so I'm not sure what that means. Not sure he's got the control to go a long time between pees. Not making a big deal about it either way.

We started doing baby gymnastics and it is funny to see all the little kids around his age and how they're all different. Like there's a girl lou's age who has around 50-60 words but just started walking. And there's an older boy who yesterday pulled Lou's hair and his mom had to deal with the situation. I feel like jane goodall amongst the apes.

Here is a picture:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/215/506032595_a62ff4836a.jpg
he looks a lot like my husband.

I think part of the reason I also don't do sign language is the fact Ophelia seems to be advanced when it comes to language. She understands a lot and has started *half-saying* words. I realize it might not interfere, but I am still dubious of these things. I rather take things slower.

I mean, shit, she could walk for a long time now - though she certainly wasn't advanced like some kids - but only yesterday decided she didn't want to drag me along.

Alice and I will probably start 'sing n sign' in September (and my mum already uses BSL signs when she talks to A.) All the evidence is that it supports and even accelerates spoken language development, but if babies are verbally advanced anyway then maybe you're right nath - why bother? Except for fun!

I don't seem to have any recent photos of Alice. Shocking! Especially since she's growing and developing so fast at the moment - her new favourite thing is standing up holding our hands, with a manically proud grin on her face at her achievement. Too busy to take pics I guess!

Ah, here we are - fat and sleepy at around four and a half months:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/232/514371818_9977354d44.jpg?v=0

Aaaah, how cute! :-D I also like the blanket!

last week at the health club swimming pool two cute girls who looked to be the same age as my son -- 11 -- arrived on the pool deck as we were leaving. expecting miles to take no notice I was mildly astonished as his head swivelled 180 degrees as they passed, "checking them out" with a classic application of the MALE GAZE. When he turned around and we continued on to that citadel of male bonding known as the locker room I couldn't resist turning around myself and checking out his peers -- they were of course both watching him intently as well. so it begins.

A friend of a friend just related that her 12 year old, a Goth, had pierced her own lip! WT*bleeding*F! She also does a bit of auto-mutilation. :-( God, I thought I would be saved of this for at least 16 years. Seems it starts a lot earlier. *sigh*

We decided to try the swing today!
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/519026170_61ebaf638e.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/433147978_b4433083cc.jpg

do they make these for adults???

Oh, those twins!

Ava has always played rough with her little sister, but last week she bit her:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/214/512740249_c0f940512f.jpg

Here's the hellion trying to explain herself:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/190/516834344_65010cb5e2.jpg

Progress report - Tallulah still not able to sit unsupported, so she's a wee bit behind her sis on that score. Trying to crawl but no forward motion yet. She's up in the 60-odd percentile weight-wise but is the same flavour of shortstack as big sis - hugging that 9th-percentile (about 65cm at 29 weeks). They're both destined to be five-two in their socks if they're lucky.

Ava's sentence construction is still more or less stuck at the "May Ava have..." stage (the third person thing is very cute and we don't really want to discourage it!) but she's starting to identify words now. It's not reading, more a feat of memory, but she'll look at the label on a carton of cream and say "ice cream van" or an issue of ReadyMade and say "ready now!"; certain words crop up in her stories so she recognises "London" from her Madeline stories, "pesky" and "rat" from That Pesky Rat (though they both mean "that pesky rat") and so on. Also her own name, Lulu, Mummy, Daddy and so on. Still having trouble with lower-case letters.

While the in-laws have been staying we've all been in the same room which may be a step in the right direction as regards Ava and Lulu sharing space but is a step backwards in getting Ava to sleep through the night in her own bed (she invariably gets in with us around 3am). This summer: toilet training! Oh joy.

Nice mantlepiece, schwantz.

xxpost I bought such a chair for Ophelia. She didn't like it AT ALL and cried every time I put her in it. SHe doesn't like to be *restricted* at all.

FITE!
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/213/519069254_970a2d235f.jpg

Sleeping Owen:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1167/526948603_c471d78d44.jpg

Ben sleeps on his stomach:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1188/527829670_210ab03a65.jpg

IF ANY OCCASIONAL ILXORS HAVE RECENTLY LIKE IN THE LAST 24 HOURS SAY HAD A BABY NOW'S THE TIME TO POST ABOUT IT OKAY

He already sleeps on his tummy? Woha!

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1053/526213257_5267ffdbc5.jpg

walking with granny in yoyogi park.

yesterday she had, not really fever, but a higher temp. :-(

what on earth are those twinies hugging??

whats on O's t? a bunny?

poor beeps has an ear infection and a lot of congestion. a bunch of snot sucking, some frightening coughing fits and lots of "ARE YOU BREATHING?!?!?" from me. sigh.

nathalie -- i was only funning on the buddhism thread

MJ -- manga wants its eyes back

schwantz -- your twins are stupid cute, and i wish them all the best

sunny -- tell beeps i said "sup"

MJ -- manga wants its eyes back

Ha! If you don't mind, I may steal this next time I'm stuck for a caption on Flickr.

Poor Beeps. Howie had a bunged-up nose last night, I wondered if it might be hay fever 'cause he was rubbing his eyes too.

His sleep has gone completely tits-up the last week or so - whether it's teething, growth spurt, or the hot weather, who knows? But he woke up five times last night :(

On the plus side his eczema seems to be slowly improving with the help of steroid cream and lots and lots of emollients.

Also - he can now roll over onto his side, but then kind of gets stuck.

Ah yes, it's a bunny.

The other day, damn Japanese diapers, Ophelia was sitting beside me on the futon and SHAT all over it. Urgh!

She's doing ok though. Feels better and has added a few *mumblings* (words): Lucy, daddy, mommy, granny, grandfather... Yes, you have to know Ophelia's language to understand her but it's very clear for mommy. :-)

Alice now often rolls onto her stomach in her cot but has trouble rolling back and sometimes wakes us up crying to be moved :(
Night feeds have been well and truly banished though, hurrah!

Meanwhile, she can sit unsupported briefly, but far prefers standing up and will shout to be lifted to her feet if made to sit for too long. At this rate she will skip crawling altogether...

She has two teeth and dribbles constantly, and foodwise enjoys pear, apple, squash and potato (and will tolerate carrot) but unbelievably dislikes banana.

Has had the grumps for the past few days - heat and growth spurt I think. Must post this photo to remind myself that she's not always screaming!

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1215/526516186_37a42e4646.jpg?v=0

I am going to be a full-time stay-at-home Dad as from next Monday. I get to do toilet training. I suspect you might be hearing from me a bit more often.