These Knees Were Made For Crawling!

21 Feb

Hello hello hello. Hello.

Yes, me again. I have actually found the time to do a blog post! How could that be I hear you ask? Well….

I’m currently lying in bed, doing my best not to put any pressure on some angry nerves in my back which are currently making my leg cramp and my foot numb. To sum up the last week, I’ve been drugged up to my eyeballs while people have done their best to keep the house going and getting it ready for the next kitchen to arrive.

So other than kitchen stuff and back injuries, what’s been going on?

Weeellllllll……

Olivia is crawling! And I don’t just mean wobbling along. No, she’s flying along, exploring all the places she’s been desperate to get to but hasn’t been able to. Note that in the video below, she did not start in the kitchen.

All this in a week. She went from not being able to stay on her knees for more than about 5 seconds to being able to crawl to something and then pull herself up to a standing position in exactly a week.

So my wife is currently out at Mothercare buying stair gates because we’ve discovered that you simply cannot let her out of your sight for even a second – she manages to find stuff on the floor, or under a sofa that you didn’t even know was there.

So along with needing to get the kitchen ready for the new delivery, we also need to make sure the house cleaner and tidier than it’s ever been! No easy task!

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What’s On My MP3 Player?

21 Feb

I’ve been tagged (sort of) by Ben from Mutterings of a Fool for the meme What’s On Your MP3 Player. The idea being you write down the first 5 tracks that come up on shuffle on your chosen music player of choice.

I haven’t had much time to post lately, but I couldn’t miss this one. I love music and am listening to it right now.

So without further ado, let’s begin.

Track 1: Halo, by Machine Head from their album The Blackening

 

this is a modern metal classic, if you ask me. It is anthemic in its spectacular quality, energy and guitar work. It has one of the best face melting twin solos of all the music I own. It never fails to give me goose bumps. Seeing them perform this live is even more spectacular. I’d say this album in general finally broke me into the world of proper metal music. Thank you Machine Head.

Track 2: Sea of Everything by Prince, from the album 20TEN

Image of Prince

You Sexy Mutha Humper.

sadly this track is a pile of shite. As is most of that album in fact. That album is the reason I bought the Daily Record for one day only. Prince was releasing his new album through the newspaper. That should have been enough of a warning, but no, I bought it anyway. In fact I have no idea why it’s on my iPhone at all!

Track 3: Metrolpolis by Adam F from the album Colours

 

this is an odd one for me to have, I’m not even sure what genre you’d put this in. Drum and bass? No sure. But it’s quite funky. Bought it on a whim and it still surprises me every now and then.

Track 4: How Do You Want It by 2 Pac from the album All Eyez On Me

 

gotta love a bit of old skool hip hop. There’s something about decent hip hop that I really like. Laid back, good lyrics (if a little sweary for some people). My wife introduced to me this album many years ago when I first moved in with her. She picked this album up, purely out of interest after getting caught up in the funeral march of TuPac in New York. I’ve listened to it ever since. Mind you, I should stop referring to everyone as beeatches.

Track 5: Mannish Boy by Son of Dave from the album 02

 

I confess that the above video is not the one from my playlist, I couldn’t find one of Mannish Boy, so I substituted it with his version of Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers. I thought it was fun.

I’ve talked about this guy before and he is awesome. So unique. It’s just him, a box of harmonicas, a shaker and a sampler. He created his own beats, vocals and everything required to make some down and dirty blues. If you ever get the chance to see him live (plays in London a LOT) then do – you won’t regret it.

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An Evening of Firsts

26 Jan

No, not that kind of first.

This evening I removed a post from my blog for the first time since it started. It was possibly a bit too personal and would have done no good had it been read by the people it was about.

I seem to have forgotten that although it feels like I’m posting into a black hole, anyone can read it and so some amount of sense has to be put into the content.

So thank you for the reminder. You know who you are.

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Time To Up The Game

9 Jan

Right. I’ll start this one off by saying it has nothing to do with it being January and nothing to do with new year resolutions.

I am relatively unfit and relatively out of shape.

I used to work out like a man possessed. Gym however many mornings a week, personal trainers (not your pretty boys, but your ex-squaddies who were hard as nails and believed in making you sick), boxing, kickboxing, circuit training and kettlebells. And lots of protein shakes.

I used to grin like a madman when I could hardly breathe, felt physically sick and couldn’t even lift my arms and then had to do it all over again. Boy was it fun.

Then in May 2010 (I think) I put my back out doing goblet squats with a 16kg kettlebell. Agony. Form was good, I think I just wasn’t warmed up properly.

That put me out of action for some time. Sadly it also made me realise it was much easier to do bugger all and enjoy all my free time. Then we had a baby. Needless to say the last thing I wanted to do was go and work out – that would be using up too much of my family time.

However, since then, muscle tone has disappeared and the weight has gone back on. I initially lost over 3 stone by working out and eating more (yes more) and put on a reasonable amount of muscle (I wasn’t eating enough to put on any more, apparently). But when you stop doing all that, your body thinks it doesn’t need it, so it gets rid of it. Sadly I still have the appetite.

So where am I going with this? Well, basically I need to find a way of integrating some exercise back into my daily routine. But how do I go about this?

I have a kettlebell and a set of skipping ropes sitting gathering dust – that’s all anyone needs to get very fit indeed. Well, that and motivation. You don’t need a gym, you just need your own body weight and some knowledge.

I used to have a circuit put together by my last trainer, which was building me up to do some MMA stuff. That circuit, done 3 times, was enough to bring anyone to the point of passing out. I never managed more than 2. A maximum of 20 minutes work not including warm up. And it could be done in your garden.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Why don’t I just do that a few mornings a week in my back garden?

Simple answer: I can’t be bothered.

But I need to do something. I hurt. My knees hurt. I miss knowing that my core was rock solid and that I could lift stuff without worrying about posture. I also don’t enjoy my clothes getting tighter.

Maybe by posting this it’ll spur me into doing something. Because you’ll all be watching :-)

Give me some words of encouragement, please :-)

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Tag: What are your highs and lows of 2011

6 Jan

Ben from Mutterings of a Fool has tagged me in this meme, to answer a number of questions about how 2011 went for me. This is going to be tricky, because in many areas, Ben and I seem to be sharing frighteningly similar lives. I don’t want it to end up sounding just like his!

So here goes…

1. What was your happiest event?

The same as every other dad blogger out there: the birth of my daughter, Olivia. Seeing that big purple bundle whizz past me in the operating theatre, hearing her cry, was just amazing.

2. What was the saddest thing to happen?

This is a hard one. I should say it was my dad getting cancer, but for some reason I never accepted that he would be anything other than fine. Which he is, thankfully.

So what was the saddest? Probably seeing just how hard the various hurdles of motherhood hit my wife. The illness at the start, which ruined her chances of breastfeeding, the subsequent guilt and pain of feeling as though she had failed her daughter and then the general loss of control which hits all new mothers. That really broke her.

But, hopefully through my support and that of her own friends and parents, she got through it and is probably a better person for it, with a far better understanding of her needs and limits.

3. What was the most unlikely thing to happen that actually went ahead and did?

Probably me asking to go part time at work to become a stay at home dad 3 days a week. It’s such a huge thing to choose to slash your salary by 3/5ths during a recession, but at the same time fear shouldn’t stop you doing something you really want to do. It’s only money at the end of the day.

I really didn’t know if my employer would agree to it, at which point some even more drastic choices would have had to have been made, but thankfully they did and I feel like the luckiest guy alive.

Or that I passed my driving test :-)

4. Who let you down?

That’s a hard one. If I had to pick someone, I’d say it was the midwives from Stirling Royal who performed the post-natal care of my wife. It pains me to say it because their antenatal care was first class.

But their inability to accept that there was anything wrong with my wife after her section was the most frustrating thing I have ever experienced. I pleaded, I shouted, I threatened, but no, vomiting, agonising pain, inability to eat, too weak to get out of bed and not enough energy to produce any milk was apparently all normal. Every night I tried, every morning I pushed the visiting midwife, but no, she was fine.

I won’t go into any more detail, I’ve written about that more than once, but yes, I’d say they let me, my wife and daughter down.

5. Who supported you?

Everyone actually. Everyone has been great. My wife has supported me however she could when I felt overwhelmed or confused, my in-laws have been amazing and my wife’s friends have been great.

6. Tell us one thing you learned

To chill. I used to worry about everything. Not a great trait when you live in an old house that needs constant tlc and have a very young baby. Everything concerned me. But, I am now able to prioritise my worries into stuff that needs dealt with and that which can wait. I then deal with the important stuff and don’t think about it again.

Simple stuff for most I know, but it has taken having a child to really push that need.

7. Tell us one thing that made you laugh

My daughters facial expressions. She has the most beautiful but expressive face I’ve ever seen. She is hilarious.

8. Tell us one thing that made you cry

I have cried a lot in 2011, I really can’t remember individual instances, some of it has been happy, some sad, some just stuff on TV designed to make you cry. The John Lewis Christmas ad almost got me, but I fought those tears back.

I think I cried when I realised the potential outcome of my dads cancer, I think I cried when I held Olivia – I can’t remember, because 2011 has been such a blur!

9. Tell us three things your child or children did to make you feel proud

Sleeping. Olivia, thanks to her mum, loves her bed. Unless there’s something wrong, she sleeps fantastically. I love her for that.

Eating. Again, unless something is wrong, she eats like a machine. Salmon, trout, peanut butter, bolognese, cheeses sauces, chilli chicken, curry, fruit. You name it, she’ll eat it and want more.

Copying Daddy. She seems to find me fascinating (of course!) and so watches everything I do. I love this. We have such great fun at breakfast, both eating our toast. Her watching me chew and copying. She copies her mum too of course – she’s great too :-)

10. Tell us one thing that made you feel proud of yourself

Coping. I had no idea how I’d deal with becoming a dad. I worried I’d be rubbish at it. I wondered if I’d cope with the responsibility. But I think being a dad is one of the most natural things in the world and I think I’m doing a good job. It’s dealing with the other crap the world throws at you that’s the hard bit.

11. Tell us one challenge you overcame

Tricky one. I see a lot of what I’ve done as overcoming small challenges. Accepting everything our daughter throws at us, dealing with crap at work that I can’t detail here, accepting me for me, but as sad as it sounds, maybe just feeling ready to venture into the world with Olivia. I felt trapped in the house due to her napping and feeding routine, but we are now finding we can get out with her, with good planning. This feels like a lifeline.

That’s where we differ from Ben and Mrs Fool. They went on an adventure and didn’t let having a new baby stop that. We did. But for good reason. We’re not all explorers and it takes some people longer to adjust than others. But we’re getting there and that’s what matters.

12. Is there anything you would like to change about your life in 2012?

To continue with the point above – make more of our time and get out and enjoy life. We will do that. I know that.

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Now I need to tag some people. Most of those I know have already done this, so I will tag just one person: @SunnivaAnne.

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All Change For 2012

5 Jan

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There’s been a lot of posts about summing up 2011, so I’m not going to do one here. Suffice to say, 2011 for us has been insane. A new baby, therapy, deciding to go part time at work, cancer and many other small but amounting issues.

It’s been great though and I wouldn’t change most of what has happened.

So now it’s 2012. A new year is all about the opportunity for change. Clearly Olivia knows this. She is unrecognisable from the baby we knew on New Years Eve. She is very very happy and is great fun to be around and is developing every day, but her routine has gone out the window. I think this is bothering her mum and I more than it is her.

You see, we are creatures of habit. We like to know that at 06:30 Olivia will wake. At about 06:45 she’ll have half a bottle and then we’ll make her porridge with the other half, plus some puréed fruit. She’ll then sit with us at the dinner table and share my peanut butter on toast (100% peanuts – no added salt, sugar or oil). She will then fill her nappy. A quick change later and she’s on the mat playing. About an hour or so later she will nap for about an hour. From there it’s play, bottle, big nap, lunch, play, witching hour walk, bath, bottle, book and then bed. Then wine.

That is no longer what is happening. I can’t write down what’s happening, because we don’t know in what order she plans to do things each day. She isn’t taking much breakfast, is refusing to nap even though she’s tired, wolfs down lunch and dinner and then is almost falling asleep in the bath. She will then cry a few times before finally giving in to sleep. Sometime she goes all night, sometimes not. The last few days all of this has happened before I’m even home from work. It’s the breakfast thing that’s hard for both of us. We know she’ll eat as much as she needs but seeing a lot of food left in the bowl at breakfast panics us into thinking that she isn’t getting enough goodness. I’m sure she is, but it’s still hard to see her not take much after all we’ve been through with her feeding since she was born.

So why is all this happening? We know babies change their routines, but we think she’s teething, which really is not helping matters. Her cheeks are red, she’s dribbling lots and is chewing a lot. She also have at least 2 teeth already through the gum (she won’t let us get our fingers in her mouth to feel for any more).

They do say that a teething baby will go off their food, be a bit grumpier and not sleep as well, but good god if this is what it’s going to be like until she stops teething, we are going to be wrecks! Even without the eating to worry about, the lack of naps makes her physically exhausting!

I assume like everything else, you look back on it and say “we got through it, it wasn’t really that bad”. But right now, please send massive hugs to my wife, who is the one who has to entertain Miss Awkward all day. My wife requires structure in her day more than most (guess who the teacher is), so this is extra hard for her!

I will end by saying Happy New Year to you all and I hope it brings everything you wish from it.

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I. Am. Exhausted.

30 Dec

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I am in the Chinese takeaway waiting for my order.

I am exhausted.

My knees hurt.

My back hurts.

My hands are cracked from the constant washing, baths, wipes and food spillages.

My clothes are stained with sick and various food stuffs.

I don’t know what day it is.

My 7 and a bit month old daughter hasn’t stopped.

Not since she was born.

Her legs are never still.

Her inquisitiveness is never ending.

She knows what she wants.

She knows how to get it.

I am the happiest I have ever been.

My family is complete.

We are the best threesome around.

Yay :-)

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I Am Such A Dad

19 Dec

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So there I was, explaining to my wife the virtues of buying a pair of Sennheiser HD 25 II (I have the original HD 25 and they are amazing) over any of the Dr Dre Beats. Better sound quality, comfort and far better value. I then went on to say that the yoof of today won’t buy the Sennheisers, they’ll buy the Beats. Why? Because they are trendy and their mates have them.

It annoyed me that people would put style over substance, that sound quality was not paramount in the choice of headphone (we won’t get into the debate of whether or not that’s important since most users are listening to lossy compressed files anyway).

My wife then asked me how I’d explain this to Olivia, when she asks for the equivalent of whatever is cool at that time and I say she’d be better off with X for various reasons. I couldn’t come up with a single answer that didn’t make me sound exactly like my dad, and every dad out there. I tried again and again to come up with a reasonable argument, only to realise I sounded like an old fart.

When did this happen? It’s snuck up on me very subtly. But now I hear myself tut at certain music on Radio 1, or at kids on the train, thinking “do they know what they look like dressing like that?”.

So is this how it’s going to be from now on? I won’t fight it, for fear of ending up dressing like Jeremy Clarkson, thinking jeans on old men are cool, but it’s still a scary feeling.

I’ve got to go, someone has an annoying ring tone on their mobile on the train *shoots a disapproving look*

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A Most Spiffing Weekend

12 Dec

Good lord! What a weekend! Busy, slightly stressful, but most certainly fun.

One or two of you may already know what we did (because you were there) but for the rest of you, here’s a quick run down.

Saturday

We were hosting the NCT Christmas party, so (almost) everyone from our antenatal class came – totalling 14 adults and 7 babies (I think). A fair amount of last minute cleaning, tidying, cooking, mulling and general Christmas shizzling was done and then people started to arrive. We were awarded with some fantastic Christmas baby outfits and happy faces so it was all worth it. As far as I know, everyone had a nice time and it was good to catch up with the dads (and mums and babies). Although as usual there were loads of conversations I wanted to continue – one about dSLRs vs compact system cameras with one of the mums, a visit to one of the Christmas fairs with one of the dads, seeing some birds of prey with another dad and the virtues of iOS with another dad. But I’m crap in crowds and just floated like a numpty not keeping any conversation going :-) sorry folks!

One of the couples stayed behind and helped us clear up which was a huge help (thank you *so* much). Although when I say “us” I mean my wife – the other dad and I fed our daughters at the kitchen table while the mums cleared up. I think they thought we’d fail miserably in the way only men can (or maybe do a worse job at clearing up, I don’t know) but we both did a sterling job :-) If I do say so myself.

Here is the only photo I took that wouldn’t require a release for from about 10 other people!

Olivia at her party

I am just having the most spiffing time everyone!!

Sunday

Sunday was the day my wife was stressing about. My parents, great aunt and grandmother were all coming up for lunch. My great aunt and grandmother hadn’t met Olivia before so this was a big event. I’m glad to report it all went very well, no-one offended anyone else and we all had a nice time. It was lovely seeing an 87 and an 81 year old playing with a 7 month old. I also got to go for a walk with my dad which I haven’t done in a while, which was nice.

Yeeeessss, you are just the most beautiful girl in the world.

Ollie and great grandmother

Look! Look! I have a hand great granny!!

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The Pre-Christmas Post

6 Dec

Hello everyone. In case you all thought I was dead – I’m not. I have just been suffering from a combination of long working hours, bloggers block and too much Stargate: Universe.

But, I know you’re all asking “what’s been happening in the Inglis household?”. Well, I’ll tell you, seeing as you asked so nicely.

Things have been going fairly well, which is nice. Olivia is coming along nicely, a little like a good wine – getting better with age (although unlike a wine, she is getting way stronger by the day).

Perfect example: her once favourite bouncy chair is going to the charity shop. Why? See for yourself:

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The once sanity saving fun machine of a bouncy chair has become an elf & safety nightmare (see what I did there? Total Christmas joke! Check me out).

That photo sums up what Olivia thinks of sitting still. Screw this – I’m off. Only, she can’t get going. The legs want to walk, crawl, jump, swim, anything, but the arms go out to the sides as of she’s sky diving – wheeeee! Funny for us, annoying for her. She’ll get the hang of it soon, but her friends are tearing ahead so she’d better catch up soon!

Frustratingly for all parties, she has this attitude to sleeping too. Why lie parallel to the cot sides when she can put her legs up and then use them against the side of the cot as leverage to flip 90 degrees. Why indeed. Because all she does is get stuck and cry. Silly silly girl :-)

If this wasn’t enough, she is either teething or getting a cold – neither of which seems to be coming to any sort of head. This basically means that about 2 hours after going to sleep, she wakes up screaming and is inconsolable – it requires a lot of cuddles before she even opens her eyes and begins to calm. Poor wee thing. It makes our evenings that little bit more tense. Like Baby Russian Roulette!

That might all sound a bit negative, but it’s not meant to – that’s just what’s going on just now. It’s all great and it’s one big learning experience. I think as a couple who are used to being in control, we are both still finding the “not knowing” quite hard. Why is she crying at night? Is it her teeth, is she getting a cold? Is it something else? Is it nothing? Where is the little light that signals exactly where the problem is? I haven’t seen it yet but I’m convinced there is one!

On the other hand, she is having a generally great time. She is spectacularly happy (most of the time) and loves playing, waving at the
mirror, playing with the cat and generally just putting anything that’ll fit into her mouth. I put all of this down to her mum, who is going a wonderful job, even if she does find it really hard at times. Here are a few other photos (apologies for quality but they are all mobile photos).

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I know I’ve said it plenty of times already, but she is fantastic. She has enriched our lives in ways I couldn’t have thought possible. We still have lots to conquer, such as getting out between naps and feeds and actually existing as a family outside of the house. That is the bit we still struggle with – we have such a well oiled routine that it leaves little room for random excursions. Not a huge issue though as that’ll change with time and the routine is doing her far more good than a trip to a coffee shop or restaurant. Us on the other hand….

So there you go, a not so short update full of not so specific things :-)

I have another blog post in draft which I hope to have out soon. If I don’t get it out in the next month, I hope you all have whatever you deem a wonderful Christmas holiday!

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