"You are now leaving Yorkshire. Are you sure?"
The last week of April Nic, Alex and I were on holiday with Nic's parents, Alan and Hazel, and her brother, Douglas, and his wife, Christina. (Granda and Grannie Sinclair, Unky Doug and Auntie Christina, respectively.) We were staying, as always, in a self-catering cottage just outside the North York Moors. It's peaceful, beautiful and relaxing.
It's also bloody miles from Dalkeith.
Now, I know it's not really that far in the grand scheme of things. It's a good deal further from Aberdeen than Dalkeith, for one thing. But this was the longest journey we had ever undertaken with Alex, so we were somewhat worried about how it would go.
We timed our trip down so that large parts of the drive would be over standard Alex nap times. It turned out that he decided not to nap in the morning, but that was ok, as he spent the first hour chatting to his book. Then it was lunch time (pork terrine for mum, quiche for dad, spinach goo for Alex). Then we were back in the car and off again. Alex fell asleep pretty much instantly. And stayed asleep. The whole way there. Joy!
Once we got to Wrelton, I discovered an ancillary benefit to having a baby. You get the best room in the house. (The other bedrooms were too small to have a cot in them and, strangely, Alan and Hazel didn't feel like sleeping with Alex.)
The other primary benefit is that you have a cast iron excuse for not going on long walks. ("Gosh folks, I'd just love to spend three hours tramping over a moor, but I don't think the buggy will make it. What a shame. Pass the cake, would you?") An option to avoid exercise, other people to entertain Alex, tasty food made by someone other than us, what more could you want?
Well, how about not being woken up at 5 o'clock every monring by a bright eyed and bushy tailed little boy? It was no doubt due to the long car-based nap during the first day, but Alex's sleep was a little out of whack all holiday. (The first day required a few minutes controlled crying to get him off to sleep.) Each morning he'd wake up and demand fed and played with horribly early. Then, just to rub salt in the wound, he'd fall asleep again at around six for an hour or so. It was not an uncommon occurrence to find both Alex and me asleep on the kitchen floor first thing in the morning. (Alex usually got the best spot, rolled up in a blanket.) Ahh well, if I have learnt nothing else from parenthood, I have at least learnt how to sleep anywhere and at any time.
During our holiday we discovered that frozen peas in an empty milk carton make a great toy, that peacocks like organic apple flavoured rice cakes and that Unky Doug and Auntie Christina are so entertaining that merely being in the same room as them causes fits of giggles. (It can be galling as a parent sometimes when you've spent the last hour busting a gut to raise a smile and someone else wanders by causing great amusement by simply existing.) Alex also got to make friends with seven (count 'em, seven) different cats! Much happiness. And I caught a fish. (From a very heavily stocked trout lake.) Alex behaved well on the way back home too. And we cured the five AM thing pretty sharpish once we got home too! (Thank you, controlled crying.)
All I Want for Christmas...
All of Alex's little friends (those from our NCT ante-natal classes, who I now habitually refer to as "our NCT litter" after having seen a litter of kittens on holiday, and those from NCT Bumps and Babies) seem to have at least one tooth. Often they have several. Alex, by contrast doesn't.
Until Tuesday, that is! The discovery was made by Nicola on the bus on the way into town to visit Grandpa JRB. A glint of white, poking through his lower gum. A definite ridge of toothy-ness sticking out of the soft, pink gum. It explained why his eating my nose had hurt more than usual that day!
A tooth! Hooray! We were beginning to get worried. (Or I was a t least. I don't know about Nic.) Now nose eating ("kisses") is off the menu. (It really, really hurts with a tooth!) It may also signal the beginning of the end for breast feeding too, if Alex starts biting down with his new found dentistry. That will be a big step, and not one that anyone is really looking forwards too, I don't think.
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