Percy's Favorite Things

Little Percy is now almost 7 months old, it's gone so fast but it also feels like we've always had him. Here are some things he loves:

Swimming

I think he actually thinks he can swim, he kicks his legs like a frog and splashes with his arms while I'm holding his tummy up, he seems frustrated that I'm holding him I've been tempted to let go but I don't think I will just yet. I think his natural chub helps to keep him afloat. A mum at swimming asked me "does his swimsuit have floats built in?" and I had to say "no, he's just chubby."

Bath time

not surprisingly he loves bath time too, he loves to splash and is fine with me pouring water over his head.

Animals

We were in the park once and some dogs came up and started sniffing him. I was holding him tight trying to protect him, I'm a bit scared of dogs, but he was laughing his head off. He also loves to "stroke" our rabbit. He's a bit grabby with her at the mo so me and Dan have to do it together, one of us is in charge of protecting the rabbit from the baby and the other is in charge of protecting the baby from the rabbit. Lola copes incredibly well, she once had her ears pulled and didn't really react.

Silly voices

The way to make Percy giggle is to sing a song in a silly voice or give a toy an accent. My mum knitted him a dinosaur and a monkey. We have given the dinosaur a Scouse accent and the monkey a posh accent. Originally the dinosaur was always trying to start a fight and then I pointed out that this was negative stereotyping so we switched them round and now the posh monkey is always inciting violence and the Scouse dinosaur is an activist for peace.

All food

We started weaning Percy at 6 months, we went to a baby led weaning workshop which was really good. If you don't know baby led weening (or as my Dad calls it self-directed eating) is all about giving babies finger food and letting them feed themselves. After a few days we started giving him some mushed up food too because a lot of the finger food is ending up on the floor. He's tried more veg than the average adult now...carrots, broccoli, parsnips, courgette, butternut squash, avacado, cucumber, tomato, sweetcorn and peppers. He's also had fruit, natural yogurt with oats, Weetabix, rice and toast. Soon I would like to try him on potatoes and meat.

Day one of "eating" -throwing broccoli everywhere

GIVE ME MELON!!

I love my parsnip face mask

Songs

He loves when I sing nursery rhymes to him, especially ones that involve me jiggling him up and down.

His hands and feet

Sometimes he moves his hands about slowly as if he was the queen waving and he just stares at them for ages working out how they move. He also loves to hold or eat his feet.

Mirrors

Percy loves his own reflection. When I'm getting ready in the morning I sit him in front of the full length mirror in our room and he amuses himself.

Wiggling

He loves to move, he loves bouncing in the door bouncer. When I'm holding him he does this thing where he's sort of trying to get down as if he can just run off.

We're on holiday at the moment in Angelsey, we just arrived yesterday. We stopped off in Llandudno on the way and took Percy for his first trip to the beach and we also go to ride a train called "The Percy Express!" which he loved.

P.S. My friend Danni recently put on Facebook that she was doing some research into the differences between online self and real self and it made me think about what I write about Percy. I never really write negative stuff because I think people don't like a moaner, and I don't want to scare people who don't have kids yet.

So this is just a little disclaimer just in case you think that everything is easy and lovely. It's really hard a lot of the time, having a baby makes normal tasks like going out for a cup of tea into missions that you try and survive and get through. I have a lot of cute smiley photos of him but he is often grumpy and annoying. Having a baby really limits what you can do in a lot of ways. Some days I love being a mum, but some days I can't wait till my youngest child is like 4ish and I don't have to deal with babies anymore. I hope this doesn't come across as a moan, just a balanced view. I love him, but I'm looking forward to the day he can wipe his own bum.

Who shall I vote for?

It's election time... that time of year that I'm forced to vote because it's an easier option that trying to come up with a reason for not voting to my mum, and suffragettes and all that.

I am so far undecided and have little knowledge of what each party is offering, I thought I'd share my list of pros and cons for each party and if anyone wants to put forward a persuasive argument for either I'm quite easily swayed.

Ukip: 

I've started with them because they're the easiest Pros - nothing.

Cons- racist. I wish it was a vote off the worst party election and then I know who I would vote for.

Greens: 

Pros they're probably nice people, my friend Steph would be happy. They're pro Palestine and anti HS2.

Cons: I've heard a rumour they don't want people to own rabbits or chickens because they think it's cruel. They want to raise the minimum wage to £10 something. I know that sounds like a good thing but I'm not sure it is. If I had to pay a childminder over £10 an hour I couldn't afford it so I would look into other childcare options, and so would other people. So I feel like childminders and cleaners and people like that would be out of a job.

Ironically our rabbit actually supports the greens, see her express her political views here

Conservative:

Pros: I actually don't hate them as much as the majority of people in the north. I'm to young to still be mad about Thatcher. I think it's time we all get over that now, it really was a long time ago. Unlike a lot of people I think their cuts are generally a good thing. If you had a mate who was in debt and still kept buying you rounds of drinks in the pub and then one day he was like "I think I'm going to stop doing that now" you'd be a bit miffed that you got no more free drinks but really if you were a good friend you'd be pretty supportive. They took over at a difficult time and I don't think they've done that badly.

Cons: they want to make further cuts to welfare 12 million or billion ... something like that it definitely had a 12 in it. I know I just said cuts are kind of good... but I think it's a bit naive to think you can cut welfare more than it has already been cut. There aren't people sitting around twiddling their thumbs thinking "if my benefits were cut by another £10 a week I'd probs just go out and get a job" but I recon there are people who if their benefits were cut more would have to rely on either family or crime to make up that money. Me and Dan have both been unemployed at different points and it's only because we've not both been unemployed at once that we've survived.

Labour:

Pros: For us as a family rather than the country as a whole they probably will benefit us the most. They're very likely to get in round here so it's tempting to be a glory supporter. I quite like Luciana Burger. I've said hi to her twice, and she came to our church christmas service and got covered in fake snow and I respect that. They're against zero hours contracts which I have been on a lot of.

Cons: They massively overspent to the point where schools etc. were just wasting money. The lady who works at the children's centre I go to was telling me how they were just throwing money away under labour. Ed Miliband is an awkward public speaker. I don't think the mansion tax thing is very well thought through. I'm not against it in theory I just think it's a bit of a gimmick vote winner that rich people will find their way out of.

Lib Dems:

Pros: not terrible polices like increasing the personal tax allowance, I feel a bit sorry for them. I quite like yellow at the moment.

Cons: tuition fees liars. Although I'm past the age where tuition fees matter now so who cares. If you don't like the thought of paying back your loan do an art degree followed by a bit of self-employed work then have a baby. Also get married change your name change your address and don't tell them. I'm pretty sure I'll never pay that loan back.

So that is my not very informed view. It's between Labour, Lib Dems and spoiling my ballot I think.

P.S. These were my thoughts last election in 2010: http://thewonderingsofwibble.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/election-time.html