8 months

Little Percy Jones is now 8 months old, and is turning into a cheeky little boy. Here are a few things that have changed in the last month:

His two bottom teeth have grown through, he was a nightmare with them! For about 5 days he stopped eating and woke up loads in the night and was generally not fun.

He's stopped puking so much Hooray! It was getting me down that I always had to have a muslin constantly protecting anything within firing range. He is still sick but only a couple of times a day.

He's learned to splash violently, he's always loved the bath but he now goes crazy as I lower him in even before he touches the water.

He's learnt to drink quite well from a sippy cup, he's still not got the hang of how you have to tip it up much more when it's emptier but he generally gets it. He's not really got the hang of spoons yet, I give him a spoon of stuff and he puts it in his mouth via his shoulder, sometimes the food falls off on the way and then when I take the spoon off him to reload it he cries and is like "why are you taking my food away!" he doesn't understand that spoons are not eternal food sources.

He can sit up, this is great because a month ago he could only sit up for a few seconds so I always had to sit behind him.

He can make the sounds mama and dada but I don't think he's using them in context.

He is trying to crawl and pull himself up to standing.

He has not yet learnt anything about fear and danger, he'll hit himself on the head with a toy and then cry seemingly without realising why, and he'll try his hardest to nose dive of sofas. He thinks he's invincible.

It's getting increasingly hard to take these photos that I'm doing every month it's almost as if an 8 month old child doesn't want to sit still and pose with a tile. Here are some out takes:

"Hmmm"

"What does this toy do again?"

"I'm actually feeling a little self conscious now"

"Ugh Mum just take the stupid photo, I want to get on with my nose diving off the sofa."

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

Obscure Parties and Art

Happy Easter, and happy new tax year to anyone that that means something too. As a self employed christian I celebrate both. Although I only ever had a tax years eve party with themed games once. (eg the game 'P45' which involved 45 frozen peas) It was a great party though...probably in my top 5 weird themed parties along with....


the old lady party

 the underwater party

, the arab party

and the no electricity party. (No photos were taken as only film cameras were allowed, but basically we hung out in two yards and their connecting alley, Alex played the cello, we had a fire and sculpted breeze blocks.)


ooh and this one whatever this was:

From the days when I had the time to make 10 snakes from old spiral bound notebooks.


Anyway art was what I was going to write about. Percy has been painting his first ever picture with his feet:

Here is a video of how he made it.

This all got me thinking about art again, for someone who's studied art to degree level I'm remarkably cynical about it. I have a website called Hannah the artist. (www.hannahtheartist.co.uk) but I am always wondering am I really an artist? If ever I was then I think 2008 was the peak of me being an artist: I actually exhibited my art then and hung out with artists and stuff. Now I just make stuff for fun and don't really ponder it, and sometimes I make what the person paying me wants, rather than searching my soul for my inner most feelings.... I know I'm a bad person.

Today I drew this diagram that shows my opinion of art through time:

With all that art history knowledge I'm sure my parents agree that my art degree was money well spent. At least with art you will probably never have to pay the loan back.

The Phone of Wonder

If you're 10 years old (which I very much doubt you are) I have a shocking fact for you. I don't have a TV or a smart phone. Kids reactions to this are normally shock and horror. A kid once told me while I was pregnant that I better "hurry up and get a TV because your baby will be so bored!" ..because that's what a newborn baby really needs.

This blog is dedicated to my faithful phone of 5 and a half years. I previously had better phones but they always got lost or broken or stolen. I once accidentally left my phone on a bus and then I phoned it and someone answered and I was like "great now I can get reunited with my phone" but the conversation continued like this...
"hello I think you have my phone"
 "this isn't your phone"
"yes it is"
"no it isn't"
"...look I'll pay you to give it me back"
"it's not your phone" *giggle giggle*

After that I bought a relatively good phone for the time and then it got lost or broken or stolen I can't remember. So I was fed up of wasting money on phones so I got this phone that was free with a £10 top up. It is kind of a rubbish phone but that's sort of what makes it so good. I recently started to think about replacing it because every time someone sends me an emotocom it just comes out as a square and every time I get sent a picture message it comes out as a link that can't be clicked on.

But it's just got so many good features that could never be replaced:

- 2 week battery life because it's so boring I hardly use it.

-£8.62 per month

-no internet which means you don't miss out on real life interactions while traveling on public transport etc.

-You can throw it on the ground and it survives.

-You can turn it off for two months while cycling to kuwait and not worry about the wasted money.

-it's almost retro.

- you get a bit of exercise every time you type the letter 's'

- if someone stole it they'd be disappointed.

I looked in a phone shop yesterday but to be honest nothing can really compare to the greatness of my current phone, so I'll probably hold onto it for another couple of years.

In other much more exciting news... (most news is more exciting than the fact that I decided against getting a new phone) Dan has got a promotion at work which means no more night shifts! woohoo! no more trying to keep a baby quiet during the day while Dan sleeps!

Also in more trivial news:

- I reviewed a baby sling because it meant I got one for free here is my review.

-I did a bit more stand up

-I thought a woman who works on the till in Asda said "your Percy's unusual" and I was about to say "how rude, and how do you even know his name" but then I worked out she said "your purse is unusual" (which it isn't.)

- and a crazy neighbour who has 7 Chihuahuas and is sometimes a drunkard has offered to babysit.

Lydia Leaves Liverpool

This week we are sadly saying goodbye to the legend that is Lydia Palmer, but the good news is she's not dead she's just moving to Newcastle.

We've known each other for nearly 10 years we are soooo old now! We first met in september 2005 when I came to Liverpool as a student and she came for a job. Back then I felt slightly intimidated by her, she was a very responsible Occupational Therapist and I was a very irresponsible student. For a few years we were friends but not that close, like maybe she was my 23rd closest friend, and now she's in the top 5.

The good old days in Delamere forest to play wide games. 

The pivotal moment in our friendship was in 2009 when I turned up on her doorstep in tears, I was round to see her housemate my good friend Rachel who has been in the top 5 since approx. 2007. But when you're upset sometimes you're a bit irrational and don't think to check someone is in before knocking on their door to cry at them. Luckily the wonderful Lydia stepped in and preformed the role of councillor that day.

I soon learned that Lydia is not as normal as she first appears. After she joined in with the game 'lets draw on each other's faces with chalk' I knew we could be friends. and I quickly learned that Lydia is a machine. She's not one of those people who post on Facebook "I just run 4 miles and here's a map to prove it" She one of those people who will cycle 30 miles to work and back in a hail storm just because she feels like it.

My Where's Wally hen night.

If I was writing a reference for Lydia's potential future friends this is what I would write: Lydia Palmer will go the extra mile in her position as friend. She has demonstrated this on a number of occasions. For example cleaning up your house when you have been away for two months even when the mess wasn't made by her, holding a crying baby for an hour while you sleep, and wearing spot stickers on her face just because you want to celebrate the 84th birthday of a famous Japanese artist (whose artwork is characterised by spots). She will be a strong asset to any friendship circle.

So she's moving to Newcastle because of a boy... I know, the worst possible reason to do anything! I would insert a rant here but actually that would be a bit hypocritical because I first came to Liverpool nearly 10 years ago because of a boy.

Farewell good friend.

P.S. Lydia leaving has been a catalyst for a midlife crisis, but that's a whole other blog post.

The bad, the good and the awkwardly funny.

The Bad: The Moon and Pea

I've just got back from a trip to the 'moon and pea' a cafe that Percy has both mooned and pee'd in. And poo'ed... So. much. poo. I would never take a baby there again. I realise they're only a small independent business and probably aren't trying to attract mums, (babies kind of take up space and cause a bit of havoc and don't result in any extra spending) I do get that, but they should really invest in a changing table.

They currently have a very low down really tiny chest of drawers, that says 'you can change your baby here at your own risk'. Whoever thought it would work as a baby changing table has never had a baby or even seen a baby. So after seeing that Katie said to the lady "Is it ok if we change him on the sofa?" to which she did an awkward face and so we did it anyway. I was half an hours walk from home, I wasn't going to just leave him in his own poo and there really was no alternative.

It was the kind of poo that goes everywhere and takes a long time to change, but I managed thanks to Katie. We even did it without getting poo on the sofa. Thanks also to Rachel and Erinne who put up with a lot more poo and sick and crying from the Joneses than they previously did.

The Good: The World Museum

To counteract the negative review above, I would just like to say that the World Museum is a great free place to go with kids. We went with Percy and our Godson Benedict who is two and a half and it was a super fun day out. We got to see real snakes and sea creatures and not real dinosaurs and we got to see a show at the planetarium, and they had a good changing table.

Here's Dan and Ben playing jump on the snakes.

and Percy chilling out, not really bothered by them.

The awkwardly funny: Netflix

So here's something that amused me a bit at 5.33am this morning.

High school is tough but it's not the holocaust! Nazis and mean girls aren't really the same thing.