Conrad’s blog

Conrad loves rummaging through buckets and boxes, so to keep him entertained for that bit longer it’s a good call to put him on the living room floor with the big toy box or on the bathroom floor with the box of bath toys. He’ll dive into it, pick a toy, bring it out and turn it over in his hands, put it in his mouth and maybe chomp on it for a while, until he drops it to the side and dives into the box for the next thing. It leaves the floor pretty messy with toys to clear up, but it’s worth it to see him enjoy himself (and to get a bit of time for other things oneself).

I move Conrad around between the rooms depending on what I’m doing still (bathroom if I’m having a wash or brushing my teeth, kitchen or hallway if I’m cooking), though he is becoming more mobile on floor level too. He can shuffle his way between toys and I have to watch out so I don’t step back onto him because he’s not where I put him anymore. He moves around because it’s fun. Today he was spinning around and around in a circle on his bottom in the middle of the kitchen floor, steadily and at quite a good speed with a wooden spoon in his mouth, and was giggling away. He’s getting more and more adorable every day…

Every day at some point we do our rounds through the house, him grabbing me firmly by the hand and pulling me along with him. We usually do the same favourite ‘circuit’ a few times every day: starting in living room (by the big windows where the toys usually are), then out in kitchen to pat the bin and the chopping boards that are on one of the shelves eye level to Conrad, then up to the oven to pat the buttons at the front (he can’t switch it on as we always turn it of at the wall and the outside of the oven door only gets warm, never hot), then back out in the hallway to tear the shoes down from the shoe rack and the up to the front door to pat it for a bit and try to reach the keyhole. Then back into the living room again, only to turn around on the other side of the treshold and start over.

Gabriella

So Conrad’s been nine months for a few days now – time’s running away and I’m not keeping up…! We had another day just the two of us yesterday, with Jessica spending the day over at Ian’s parents in Redhill, but unfortunately it ended up being a lot of running around and poor little Conrad didn’t get to do much but sit in his pushchair for most of it…

Started off going on the train to Crawley to get him a couple of new pyjamas. He’s only got one pair in his current size (86, or as some brands label it: 12 to 18 months), which obviously isn’t great when wash day comes. Gave Conrad his morning bottle at home and watched the painter, who was going to paint the outside of our house now that the re-plastering of the side of it has dried, turn up and set up for work. Conrad and I caught the 9.36 train (the fare is cheaper after 9.30) and he was giggling away during the journey, at me and the display scrolling information about the journey. I think the woman sitting on the opposite side of the aisle to us noticed Conrad’s happy temper, because when we got off the train she was just ahead of us but turned around straight away with a big smile: “Let me help you with that” and helped lifting the pushchair down on to the platform.

To get to the right side of Crawley without having to cross the bridge over the tracks at the station (tricky with a pushchair as the stairs are pretty high and steep) one has to go out the back and a fair bit down the road to cross at a level crossing. It adds another 10-15 minutes to the walk to the shopping area, during which Conrad fell asleep. The rest of our time in Crawley – a couple of hours of me running in and out of shops – he spent asleep, occasionally waking up for a brief, bleary-eyed look around and then drifted back off again. His cold has got a bit worse, his cough is noisier and his nose even runnier, and he’s been a bit extra tired the last few days, though I think that’s mainly because coughing keeps him stirring in the night. Last night it didn’t disturb me much, I had earplugs which allowed me to still hear him but not to get woken up by his coughing. He cried once, which woke me up, but the cry had been in his sleep and he drifted off straight away again.

Apart from a pyjama, I had to get a couple of presents suitable for 2-year-olds. Conrad’s had his first party invite, a joint one with his sister, for a birthday party for a couple of the kids from the post-natal mum group and a couple of friends of theirs. This is on Saturday, and Ian and I are looking forward to another kids’ party, without us having to organise anything this time.

Conrad woke up when we were back in Horley, and very patiently waited for me to sort his lunch out. We had time for a little bit of play afterwards, but then I wanted to take him to the health visitor clinic, just to get him weighed at as close to nine months old as possible for his baby book. He clocked 11.61 kilos (25lb 9oz), eventually – he’s sitting on the scales now since a couple of months and keeps turning to look around himself, which means the scales find it hard to settle on any one figure. As he’s quite big for his age, the health visitor had made a note to measure him again at nine months, and after some wriggling the verdict was 81 cm (2ft 7.9in). His weight is very high on the chart, but his height is off it – he’s a very tall little boy!

Actually, so tall that the health visitor nurse (yes, her again), who checked him got a bit concerned. She tried to explain, that if a boy grows very fast when he’s little, when his bones fuse in puberty there’s a risk of him staying short. I hadn’t heard of that before, I had only assumed that Conrad was growing at his own pace, which just was a bit faster than the average baby boy at the moment. Because Conrad’s been happy and his normal self, not had a temperature and eaten normally, I hadn’t worried about his noisy cough. But the nurse said that I should take him to the doctor’s to have it listened to. “Because we don’t want it going into his chest, do we?”. And if I was going anyway, she suggested showing the doctor Conrad’s position on the height chart, to see if there was any cause for concern.

I managed to book an appointment for an hour later. So it was back in the pushchair for Conrad, going to the shops to stock up on nappies and then home for his afternoon bottle before heading out to the surgery. Dr Stanley was the same one who had done Conrad’s 8 month check, when I’d thought he had a really good and funny way with babies, looking at and chatting to Conrad directly about every part of the examination. He did the same now, and Conrad was watching him intently and curiously. Conrad didn’t mind the stethoscope, but when the doctor had to listen to his back, he was straining to turn around to face the doctor again. Conrad’s chest sounded fine. The doctor said that there was no need to worry unless anything changed; if Conrad got a temperature or didn’t want to eat, etc.

When I mentioned the nurse’s concern about his speedy growth, saying I hadn’t understood what the issue was but that she’d thought it was worth looking at, the doctor just frowned in a puzzled way: “So, he’s growing – what’s the problem?” And then he asked my height and Ian’s, and sat down to work out Conrad’s predicted adult height, reaching the conclusion that Conrad probably would end up being somewhere near Ian’s height. “He is just growing and he’s in proportion, not overweight or underweight, so it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

Conrad had been a bit restless on my lap and I explained that unfortunately he’d been stuck in the pushchair most of the day. When I strapped him in again as we were leaving, the doctor lent in towards Conrad and went: “Oh no, she’s doing it again! You shouldn’t put up with it, you know.”

I hadn’t been worried but it was still good to know that my instincts had been right. That’s not to say things can’t change, of course, but it’s good to know they are fine for now.

Gabriella

Gabriella

Saturday the 21st February was a lovely, sunny day, so we all went properly out in the garden for the first time this year. We put Conrad in his first pair of wellies (blue ones with dinosaurs that he’s inherited from his sister), which he wore briefly on that fantastic, snowy day at the beginning of the month, but only to stand in – this time he was walking around, holding on to my hands, of course, stumbling every so often, slightly stepping out of his boots and on to them at times, but very keen. A plastic football, originally red but faded, which had been left in the garden over winter, attracted his interest almost immediately. As it was slightly deflated, he could easily pick it up with one hand – and put it in his mouth… (There are no prizes for guessing what Conrad’s favourite activity in the garden will be in the summer – I can already picture all the soil, various types of leaves, pebbles, etc., that we’ll have to fish out of his mouth…!)

On Sunday 22nd February, Conard’s farmor, farfar and auntie Wendy came over for afternoon tea for Jessica’s birthday. As always, it was nice to have some family around to play with the kids, who were in a brilliant mood (but then they are most of the time anyway). Conrad was itching to get on his feet and run around though, of course, when everyone else were sitting around chatting, watching his sister opening presents or having birthday cake.

Now Conrad goes on a swing too every morning we go over to the playground in the park. Before I even get a chance to fetch him out of the pushchair, his sister goes ‘Da-da’ (her word for Conrad) and points to the swing next to her. Then they both giggle away as take turns pushing them (or Ian Jessica and me Conrad if it’s at the weekend), Conrad not quite so high – he sits much more upright than he did first time, and holds on to the bar in front, but I think I’ll wait swinging him really high until he’s a little bit more confident holding on.

Jessica insists on her brother going on the slide every time after she’s gone on it – it makes her giggle to see him slide, though Conrad still seems fairly indifferent about that one. And she wants him to go opposite her on the see-saw too, though that one has to be kept for weekends when Ian’s around, as Jessica needs holding on to too.

Gabriella