Fun and games

Nellie's settling in nicely with our childminder, Ashley. She's finally sleeping properly, and feeding properly, when she's at Ashely's, which is great. Here Ashley has taken her out to a one o'clock club (for the non-Brits, these are local groups that offer fun and games for children, so called because they meet over lunchtime till mid-afternoon) and she was introduced to a ball pit.

I've edited a few clips of her swimming lesson last week, which should give you an idea of what we do in 30 minutes. See an overview of a swimming lesson. The quality isn't great, but I've had to downsize it for those who only have dial-up. The version for those on broadband is here. It takes about a minute to buffer, but the quality is MUCH better!

The weaning onto solids is not going well - her digestive system is still a bit immature she still hasn't got the idea of how to eat solids at all.... I'm sure it will happen in time, but it is rather frustrating as she clearly is not getting enough calories from her milk (depsite being on the 'hungrier baby' formula). Other than that, she's still a happy baby and charms everyone she meets. I can't wait for work to be over so I can spend my days with her again!

the story continues...

Thus far in the story: we were sapped of energy...

so going for a swim helped to cool us down...

















...as did going for a picnic in the park. And everyone lived happily ever after. The End.

There are more videos, but they still need to be properly edited. Watch this space!

Back to work

Well, I'm back at work and so, consequently, everyone is exhausted! These early mornings are really for the birds. I miss my mid-morning naps, I miss my daughter, I miss having time to do stuff, but not in that order.

The weather in London recently has been unbelievably humid and hot (in the 30's), so in addition to losing sleep because I'm not getting my nap, we've been finding it hard to sleep. Nellie's also been struggling to eat in the heat.

However, apart from that (and hayfever!!) we're all well. I'm too tired right now to do a proper update with all our details, suffice to say we've started weaning her onto solids (she's been 100% formula for about 6 weeks now). Although she has days where she loves it, mostly she doesn't like it at all - I think that trying to wean her while she's been settling in to the childminder (which is working out beautifully, praise God!) and with this heat has really unsettled her. We persevere...

So - more photos to keep the fans happy: When Nellie was born, Judy gave her this 0-3 month snowsuit. The week before the heat wave was the first time she wore it - at 6 months! - and you can see how large it still is for her.

We were convinced the cold was going to go on forever!















But then the sun came out, and we got out into the garden - the whole purpose of renting this particular flat!!

But the heat sapped us of all our energy... and now the blogger is playing up and refusing to let me load any more photos or videos... Sigh! I'll have to finish this later.