Started painting Ingrid’s fort while Adrian was napping. Almost all of the outside now has a first coat of paint – the inside and the bottom remain to do, plus a second coat. Ingrid picked the colour herself in the hardware store last week – this (fuchsia/magenta?) is her favourite colour.

Playgroup with Adrian. He loved it, as usual. The staff commented on how happy he always is, and I told them, “you should see him at home”. It struck me again what a contrast that is compared to how he is at home with just the two of us. He wants company and action. I on the other hand want peace and quiet at least during some part of the day.

Went to the library with Ingrid after preschool.

“I think I will have the fish”

This was the month of teething. Adrian’s first tooth appeared just about a month ago. Now both bottom incisors are out, as well as the tip of an eye tooth, and (as of today) the tips of the top incisors. As a side effect there has been a lot of drooling and quite a lot of crying, too. I don’t remember Ingrid crying so much about teething. And then he blows raspberries so there is bubbly spittle everywhere.

Already he is learning to use those teeth on food. He can gnaw on a chunk of apple and scrape pieces off a bread stick. He is not very interested in the various teething rings and chewable toys. I think the only thing I’ve noticed him actually chewing on is his dummy. He has understood that our fingers are now off limits (he used to suck on them and chew them with his gums) and he’s not been biting my boobs either. He did it once, just to try I think, and didn’t like it when I cried OW.

While he was getting his latest teeth he completely lost interest in eating and has regained it only in the last few days. As a result I cannot really say what he likes to eat right now, apart from various kinds of bread (including home-made pie crust, and Havrefras). He really likes drinking water from his sippy cup, and will stretch towards him and make demanding noises until we help him drink.

He nurses often and happily. Usually he wants to nurse after waking (although not necessarily immediately) and again before going to sleep. Recently he’s been very distracted while nursing, so his most undisturbed meals are the ones before he goes to sleep in a dim quiet room, and those in the middle of the night. He likes to grip and hold my breast with both hands. When he doesn’t, his arms and hands flail around and look for something to grip. Most often they find my clothes.

“I think I will have the pink one”

He talks quite a lot more than he used to. It started with “bjäbb bjäbb”, then we had “höbba höbba”, then “däd däd däd” and now “mäm mäm mäm”. (Swedish/Estonian pronounciation for all the above.)

Mostly he talks when he is unhappy. Or perhaps all my mental images of him talking are with an unhappy tone because he is somewhat discontented much of the time. His is not a sunny disposition. He is bores quickly and loves company and new things to look at. (Sounds very much like a certain 4-year-old in this house, doesn’t it?) The absolute best way to make him happy is to either have guests, the more the merrier, or to go out. Just him and me in the house is a recipe for endless whining.

He very much likes to see what is going on. The hip seat I bought has been very useful, especially for when I’m preparing dinner.

He will not accept being left on his own for long – first there are mild complaints, then within a minute he will be crying, and soon all out screaming. It’s a good thing that he can now sit upright – I can just take him with me to whatever room I need to go to and plop him down on the floor. And really once he learned this skill, he was stable pretty much straight away: he may have fallen over maybe once a day in the beginning and very rarely now. We never had any need for pillows behind him or anything like that.

Now that he can sit, he will not accept lying down for more than brief moments, except when sleeping, or when he gets to be naked during a nappy change. He likes being naked. And the moment I take off his nappy, he will grip his genitals and pull at them. It looks like it should hurt but it obviously doesn’t.

He also likes standing. Often after a nappy change I pull him up to a seated position by letting him hold onto my fingers. Quite often he will keep holding so I can help pull him all the way up to standing. Other times he misjudges and lets go just a bit too early and falls back on his back, and we start over.

“I think I will have the pine cone”

Fine motor skills are not his forte. He can grip things and turn them in his hands and pass them from one hand to the other, but he quite often he drops them when he doesn’t want to. And he is not always able to let go when he does want to drop them. Still, he’s getting better: he can now get something like half a grape into his mouth, sometimes. He doesn’t quite seem to trust his hands/arms: sometimes he bends forwards with his body towards the toy he wants, rather than pull it towards him. He is becoming interested in smaller details like care labels on toys, but he cannot really manipulate them very well yet.

This month I also took away his dummy for nighttime sleep. He now falls asleep much more easily and sleeps so much better. It used to be that he had his best naps in the sling; now the bed is the best place. This is a very new experience for me! Usually we nurse, then I turn him over on his tummy (because he often needs to burp, still). Then he complains and refuses to lie down for maybe a minute or two (literally). Then he realizes that he is tired and sleepy, puts his head down, and I pat him for another minute or two. And then he’s asleep. When he wants to go to sleep and stops fighting it, he often makes a groaning/grunting/humming noise. At first I thought it was because he was somehow uncomfortable, but later I realized it’s his lullaby – often he will stop it when I sing for him or make a rhythmic shushing sound.

He wakes pretty regularly each night, two or maybe three times, nurses, and then goes back to sleep with no fuss. Except when he has a cold, or is teething, or in one of his must-poop-at-four-in-the-morning phases.

Ingrid still tottering around, supporting herself on the heel of her left foot. Called the clinic, they said that as long as it isn’t broken there isn’t much they can do, so no point going there.

Lovely weather today, really warm and sunny, so I wanted to get out of the house – both Ingrid and Adrian would be really bored if they had to sit at home all day. I hesitated for a long while, since Ingrid’s not being able to walk properly would make things tricky. But then I dug out the Urban Jungle buggy, and the kiddy board, and we went out anyway. Worked pretty well: both kids alternated sitting in the buggy; when Ingrid rode in the buggy I had Adrian in a sling, and when Adrian rode, Ingrid stood on the kiddy board. Adrian accepted the buggy well enough when he was awake but didn’t like it for falling asleep – it’s forward facing only and he likes to be able to see me.

We went to IKEA since it’s easy to get to, not so crowded on a weekday, reasonably fun for Ingrid, and even marginally useful. Bought a rope ladder (to be hung either from the cherry tree or from Ingrid’s fort), some toy food for Ingrid (ice cream cones and a birthday cake, pretty nicely done), a soap dish, a soap dispenser. Then to a bike shop nearby where we got a basket for Ingrid’s bike. Pink of course.

Brought out a picnic blanket and we all spent some time in the sunny garden when we got home. Ingrid got bored pretty soon and went inside to watch a movie on the iPad; Adrian tasted moss and dry grass.

Adrian is still crying a fair amount because of teething. The two front teeth at the top are on the way, I can see them through the gums but not yet feel them. Gave him paracetamol in the morning and that kept him happy for a good six hours. Now I’m thinking about how much paracetamol is OK in such a situation. If he had a high fever I’d just follow the instructions, 4 times a day until he gets better. But teething? It’s not as major as a high fever, but it makes him unhappy. Once day is OK, even several days in a row. Twice? Getting iffy. Three times – too much in my opinion. Luckily the teething pain comes and goes in about half-hour intervals, so he’s not unhappy all the time and it is possible to actually prepare a dinner and get other such stuff done.

Adrian still farting and pooping all the time. I counted five dirty nappies on the floor after the night. I think he produced three of them between the hours of 4 and 5 in the morning. Then he was so tired in the morning that he didn’t even wake when the alarm went off at 7 and the rest of us got up – he slept until a quarter to nine. Pretty whingey most of the day, not at all interested in food, nursing lots instead.

Went to the supermarket, did some laundry. Finished entering my backlog of receipts into our expense tracker; started checking off the latest quarterly bank statement.

Tried to remove the gravel that’s been left in some corners of our garden by the snow dumped there. Some parts had so much gravel that you couldn’t see the grass or the earth. A stiff brush worked best to get the gravel out of the grass, and then simply scooping it up with my hands, or just scraping or brushing it straight into the hedge. There, it might actually be useful and keep the weeds away.

Ingrid wanted to go to bed unusually early. Once in bed it turned out she wasn’t actually tired at all, she just wanted to cuddle with me. Well, tough luck – Adrian isn’t going to accept sitting quietly in a dim room. I had to leave the room with him, so she got the opposite of what she’d planned. That’s what you get when you try to trick your mum.

Yesterday: sent Ingrid and my mum off to town, to a puppet show. Today she had J’s birthday party to go to. And Adrian has been taking some of his naps in the bed (!) so Eric and I have had some peaceful hours with just one kid to take care of.

Yesterday I tried two small spoonfuls of sour cream with my waffles (with roe and red onion). That was more milk than Adrian could cope with. Not all-out screaming but still about 15 minutes of crying with distinct signs of stomach discomfort.

Adrian has been generally unhappy this weekend: low-level unhappiness pretty much all the time. He has a runny nose for the n^th week in a row. For two days now he’s been gassy, and pooping a little bit with every fart, so now his bottom looks red and tender. Today he got a slight fever, too. And finally I also discovered he’s getting another tooth. No wonder he’s not content.

Interestingly his 3rd tooth is not one of the incisors, but his top left canine.

A very windy day, it’s been hard to walk straight at times. I’ve been reading in the news now about trees falling and roofs being blown off. We’ve had nothing so severe here. Well, the roof of the bird feeder did blow off, twice, and Adrian was woken from one of his naps when he got a massive blast of wind straight in his face.

I’ve started weaning Adrian off the dummy, for his night sleep at least. Some nights it’s not a problem but other times he wakes every 40 minutes because he loses the damn dummy. So now I’m putting an end to that. Today was the second evening without a dummy and it is working pretty well. He responds well to Tracy Hogg’s “shush pat” approach, and to lullabies. He was most angry with me this evening when I turned him onto his tummy after nursing and then did not give him his dummy – he realized straight away that I was going to repeat yesterday’s routine. But 6 minutes later he was fast asleep, and he hasn’t woken in the two and a half hours since then.

After one of the really nice dinners at the restaurant Rustico in Maspalomas, I realized it had tasted so great because the fish was swimming in a little puddle of melted butter. Oops. I steeled myself for a bout of serious crying from Adrian – and it never came. Looks like a little bit of butter is OK. Perhaps his intolerance is improving.

When we were back home again, I took a deep breath and experimented with a bit of parmesan on my pasta one evening. Still no problem.

So now I’m thinking. If Adrian can tolerate a limited amount of milk protein, what should I eat? What gives me most bang for the buck, so to say? The most taste for the least amount of milk protein? Butter is a good bet I guess, because it’s mostly fat and should not have much protein at all. And it tastes SO much better than the milk-free spread. What else?

Cool dude… except for the breadcrumbs on his face

For today Eric had wished for a visit to Aqualand for his birthday. This morning it was windy and there was a haze of cloud, so we hesitated for a while. But we know that Ingrid won’t be cold almost regardless of the weather, and neither will Eric, and the rest of us can just wrap up in fleece jumpers and stay out of the water, so we went after all.

On the plus side: off season and a coolish day, meant no crowds. There were no queues and no shortage of sunbeds. On the minus side: it was a bit chilly when a cloud passed in front of the sun, and the water wasn’t very warm either.

Ingrid stayed in the children’s area all day. Running up the stairs and down the slides she had no time to feel cold; me and my mum standing in the pool spotting Ingrid were shivering at times. Ingrid was cautious and didn’t want to go on any slides at all at first. Then she tried one and found it OK. Then she tried another one that she loved and stayed there for a long time. Finally in the afternoon she tried a third one that was even better. She kept going down the slides until closing time, pausing only for lunch and toilet breaks.

I got three rides, and Eric also got a handful. The swimming pool we usually visit at home has some slides as well, but nothing this large, and they have none with floaters. Slides with floaters are a bit odd: there is water in the slides to make the floaters slide, and a bit of splashing when you land, but really you don’t come into contact with much water at all. So they’re more like a special kind of amusement park rides. Fun, though.

Adrian was unhappy most of the time, like much of the time here. We’ve tried sling and pushchair, lying down and sitting up, less clothes, more clothes, other clothes, cooler days and warmer days, quiet places and places with people to look at – and none of it has made any real difference. Today my mum suggested that we try Ingrid’s sunglasses on him – perhaps the bright light was bothering him. And indeed he seemed much happier afterwards. It may have been a coincidence but maybe not.

Today we all managed to eat dinner together, almost – we sat outside, and as soon as we’d ordered I went for a walk with Adrian. I came back in when the food arrived, gave him a few pieces of bread to munch on, and managed to eat most of my food before he tired. I went back to the hotel to put him to bed while the others continued.

Adrian’s second tooth appeared. Already he has figured out what to do with them and is using them to gnaw on breadsticks; when he lets go of one you can clearly see which side has been down towards the teeth.

Just in time for his six-month “birthday”, Adrian learned to sit unsupported. Until now he sat very well in his highchair, but as soon as I put him on the floor, he’d fold forward or to the side and flop over within less than a minute. Then suddenly he got the knack of it and now he sits. As with most new skills, he likes it a lot, and much prefers sitting to lying down.

He also likes being pulled up to sitting from lying on his back: I give him my fingers to hold and immediately he lifts his head and starts working himself upwards, and as I pull he follows. In fact this is the best way to get him to sit: if I try to just put him down somewhere he will keep his legs straight so he lands on his feet, and then he refuses to bend his legs (or doesn’t know how).

At the six-month checkup (which he had about a week early) they enquired if he turned over yet, but that’s something he hasn’t figured out yet.

He’s found his feet and likes to pull on them when he’s lying down for a nappy change. He doesn’t do it often when he’s got a nappy on (too much pressure against his tummy I think) so now I often let him lie without a nappy for a while to let him play with his feet.

We have started serving him solid food. Mostly he gets finger food to keep him occupied while we eat. He usually enjoys it quite a lot, which gives us an extra five minutes to eat our food in peace. He hasn’t been too fond of spoon feeding, although he did make an exception when kiwi was offered. And I’m not too fond of spoon feeding him, either, because then I will have less time to eat rather than more.

Sucking on a broccoli stick

Adrian’s favourite foods are bread and broccoli. Cauliflower, cucumber and apple are also OK. Banana, carrot, melon, sweet potato and pear: not so much. The menu is quite limited because his grip is so strong and uncontrolled that he mashes most foods in his hands before he even manages to get them to his mouth. Bread sticks, crispbread, and crust from bread rolls are the best foods for him, because they are hard and won’t break in his hands, but by sucking on them he can nevertheless get flavour from them, as well as small pieces to swallow.

It’s been barely two weeks since he got his first pice of bread but already he has become much more skilled at handling food. He no longer misses the mouth, and is much better at grabbing the food in front of him. He can also get his dummy into his mouth more often than not.

He is often (but luckily not always) dissatisfied and hard to please. When left to his own devices, he bores quickly and starts complaining. When held or carried around, he wriggles and kicks. I get the impression that he wants – to move around, to do things – but cannot.

He likes people and will smile back at pretty much anyone who smiles at him or talks to him, as long as they’re not way too close or too loud. He still finds Ingrid’s antics very amusing; they entertain each other very nicely. When Ingrid has a tantrum he becomes very upset and won’t stop crying until Ingrid quiets down (or we take one of them to another room).

He still drools and spits up a lot but doesn’t burp quite as much as he used to. Which is nice, because I can now let him fall asleep on his back. Previously I always had to turn him on his front after nursing him at night, so he could let out all the burps – if I left him on his back he couldn’t fall asleep because of them.

Yesterday we did most of the packing for our upcoming week-long vacation in Gran Canaria. I borrowed a sun protection suit for Adrian and bought a sun cover for the pushchair.

Eric discovered that Adrian is getting his first tooth.