Climbing the walls...

...well actually, this is about climbing stairs.

My wife read one of those baby development books last night (always dangerous) and it advocated that at around Oscar's age babies should be encouraged to climb - as long as it's safe.

So on his way to bathtime we decided to just let the little chap climb his way up the stairs to the bathroom. I can't believe how quickly he made it up those stairs - it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes, tops.

Now this might sound completely unremarkable. But we'd never seen him climb more than one or two steps before! It was amazing. When you think that he's crawling, not standing, so each stair is half his height, and the complete flight is probably 15-20 stairs, you've got to tip your hat.

Rock on Oscar!

Of course as soon as he got to the top of the stairs he made a beeline for a plug-in nightlight and attempted to electrocute himself. Nice.

I just hope he doesn't end up like one of these toddlers...

General Oscar update

OK, so it's been 2 weeks since my last post here (forgive me, for I have sinned...)
My excuse is that work's been crazy (I'm writing a book with some colleagues) and I've been travelling loads.

Anyway it's about time I provided a general Oscar update, as loads has happened in the little chap's development!

• he's got seven teeth (well the seventh is just poking through)


• he points! Especially at lights. And torches are even more point-inducing


• he's very clingy indeed, particularly when his Mum is in the room (if we're out of the house, strangely enough, there's no problem)


• he would much rather stand than sit or lie in the bath


• whenever he finds himself without a nappy on, his hands immediately clamp around his willy and he chuckles (he's a proper boy, then)


• you can bet that he'll manage to pull or kick his shoes off within 5 minutes of having them put on!

Yes, it's fun at Oscar's house!

Testing, testing

Am I fated to start every post off by thinking "agh, I can't believe how slack I've been in posting to this blog"? If you're going to do something, do it well, as my old Dad used to say (well he's not all that old, really - and I'm not sure he ever said that, precisely, but I think it's something he subscribed to).

Oh well. Onwards and upwards. I'm going to make a very low-key commitment to myself to post to this blog once a week from now on. Let's see if I fail (or at least how long it takes me to fail...)

So to the purpose of the post!

My lovely sister-in-law Lucy was over staying with us a few weeks back and she happened to notice the box in which little Oscar's organic baby weetabix come in. On the side the marketing blurb proudly proclaims:

We certify this product 100% organic, and subject it to 265 rigorous tests.

(Or something very much like that). Which really made us think. What, precisely, would those tests be? Would the manufacturer:

• fire them at aeroplane windscreens?


• hold them over a bunsen burner to see what colour the flame went?


• drop them off the top of office blocks?


• put them in the passenger seat of a car, and set off the airbags?


• put them in a wind tunnel to determine their drag coefficient?

Any suggestions gratefully received!