Week 47

13th -  19th November 2005

Emma's Entry

Evan's hair before...

As the sayings go "You wait hours for a bus and then 3 come along at once", or "bad things always happen in three's". Well, this week we had our third illness with Evan. I had noticed towards the end of last week that he was pooing a lot more than usual and it was getting rather smelly. Over the weekend it peaked and Evan did about 6 poos a day. I took him to nursery on the Monday and told them I was worried and that I would be contacting a Doctor that day. By the time I collected him, he poor little bottom was incredibly sore and he'd done another 6 that day as well. The nursery decided that he wasn't well enough to attend nursery so Evan had my company for the next couple of days whilst the diarrhoea cleared up. I took him to the Doctor and she seemed quite pleased with his progress and was happy his body was fighting the virus, so we weren't given any medication this time. With all the pooing, Evan has lost a little weight so he's not my porky little boy anymore. Fortunately I only had to take 2 days off unpaid this week so hopefully I'll have enough money at the end of the month to buy Evan's birthday and Christmas presents :).

When we decorated Evan's bedroom whilst I was pregnant, we bought some lovely (rather expensive) bedroom furniture to go in our lovely little bedroom. Evan was a naughty little boy this week as he has started to chew his cot. I can't seem to stop him either and it's not just little teeth marks, it's full on chewing with bits of wood missing! I made him cry when I told him that was naughty so I felt terribly guilty because he has no idea what he has done. I've tried putting one of those soft toys that are like a snake that loop round the bars but that hasn't distracted him. In the end I resorted to tying muslins around the bars to stop him from being able to reach the wood. I have no doubts he'll eventually find another way to chew it. After mentioning it to people I work with, it appears Evan is the only little child that chews and eats inedible objects like wood...

Evan shows off his new hair style! Isn't he just adorable...

Evan is making good progress on his feet and I could kick myself for what I showed him this week. You just want to help your child develop and learn things. This week I was playing with Evan and we were following the cat upstairs so instead of just carrying him up, I showed him how to climb the stairs. I didn't think anything of it until 2 days later the cat headed up the stairs and Evan followed her! We were right there with him but it just goes to show how quickly our children can learn to do things. We are ok at the moment because we are hardly ever out by the stairs, but I may have to consider getting another stair gate to keep Evan safe at the bottom of the stairs because his balance on the steps wasn't great and he slipped a few times.

Evan's hair over recent weeks has been getting really long and this week we decided enough was enough, we would have to cut it. I was in two minds as to what to do, I didn't want it to look like a hashed job, which obviously looked like his mummy had been let loose on him and not a professional. We thought about using hair clippers and then just letting it grow back, but that seemed quite drastic and he does have lovely blonde hair. Plus my mum mentioned he might not like the sound of it, especially so close to his body. My friend Nathalie visited us this week with her son Alex as it's been a while since we managed to spend some time together. She told us how she cut Alex's hair so we decided that it wouldn't be too hard if we used the same methods of distraction. We cut half of his hair when we did the evening bottle and we managed to get a little bit of the other side done as well, but not all of it. The following day, we finished it off at bath time whilst I let Evan play with my mobile phone. I actually think we have done a pretty good job, it's not harsh straight lines, we have tried to give him the scruffy trendy look!

We witnessed Nathalie's son Alex walking properly for the first time this week. For some reason he was really into everything at our house, maybe it was the change of environment. I was getting some toys out for them to play with and he just walked over to me. It was surreal and a really great experience to witness. The cats were indoors because the weather was windy outside and Evan and Alex wouldn't leave them alone, they had to hide on top of the scratching post out of the reach of little baby hands. Alex walked twice that afternoon and from what Nathalie told me, later that evening Alex was walking everywhere to show his daddy too! I hope I am around when Evan takes his first real confident steps without my help.

Emma