Screw tops

It might not seem a big thing, but the little one has learned to open screw tops. At first, I thought it was a fluke, but he's done it about four times now - not that I've seen him do it, I've just seen the after effects.

I've been pretty sure he's teething again (10th one on its way - his gums look like snowy covered jelly mountains - white lumps of teeth beneath all over the place), and his achievement today confirmed this. While making his dinner (tiny mushy pasta stars with cheese sauce) and arranging an array of teething-friendly items on a tray (plain yoghurt, fruity fromage frais, cold grapes, cold cucumber, cold tomatoes), I let him play with a pot of frozen sweet potato mash cubes and parsnip mash cubes (which I was planning to heat up and feed to him, as another teething-friendly mushy item). Anyway, next time I looked down at the floor, he'd opened the (screw lid) pot and was happily munching on a frozen sweet potato cube. He appears to have eaten the entire thing (which was quite large), other than the bits all over his face and hands (which ended up on my white jim-jam trousers). I was most impressed with the opening achievement as well as the eating of the item - and it's given me an idea of what to give him next time he's in terrible teething pain.

Anyway, it seemed to help him massively and he's managed to sleep again by a rather earlier time of 6.30pm (he did the same yesterday and slept until 6am - with around 5-6 wake ups in between that required 'mama' (boob) and a snuggly place under my armpit.

Gran Canaria

Deliciously muggy and humid. Sea and mountain air, one in front of me, the other behind me. Boats in the harbour. Rows of modern apartment blocks. Twinkly pinpoints of electric lights and, if I look carefully above the brightness of the manmade night, I see the silver dots of starlight. Sounds of traffic below. The occasional voice. Faint sounds of life in other homes.

My heart delights. My soul feels as if I'm back in Hong Kong. So much feels the same, in touch, scent and sound, although sight tells me that nothing is the same. It is a curious feeling.

Baby steps

I think we've had one or two unaided steps (him walking from one piece of furniture to another or to me), but I can't be sure because I wasn't properly paying attention!

He's definitely more interested in walking now, often choosing to walk holding onto the wall rather than crawling, and quite often an unaided stand occurs while he's trying to use both hands for his investigations of one toy or another.

Won't be long!

Second molar

Second molar! No wonder he's been cranky, poor little poppet. A happier baby now it's through. So we now have six on the top and still only two at the bottom. Surely we'll get more at the bottom soon...