OK, OK, OK - forgive me blogosphere, for I have sinned. It's been many months since my last blog posting. For my punishment I'll .... go and make a cup of tea and think about what I've done ;-)
And OK, this has nothing to do with me or Oscar (I'll post more on those topics soon).
I just wanted to point anyone reading to this.
Yes the recording not exactly CD quality - but what quality do you expect from a signal received by a radio made from a carbon nanotube - 10,000 times thinner than a human hair?
And no, it's not April 1st.
This is an astounding world we live in.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Bye-bye Heathrow, hello hedgerow
It's been a bit light on the blogging front recently, and this time I have a cast-iron excuse - we've been moving house. They (whoever "they" are) say that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can ever do, and I'm kind of in agreement - although I know that the experience would have been a hell of a lot more stressful if it hadn't been for the amazing organisational talents of my lovely wife.
We've moved counties from the home of one bunch of Saxons to another - from Middlesex to East Sussex. And we've swapped Heathrow for hedgerow.
Oscar is like a little whirlwind, running from the kitchen into the (much much bigger) garden and back again - smelling the flowers, pointing at the ants and butterflies, listening for the dogs and birds, feeling the wind in his hair and generally wearing himself out. He's now sleeping an hour later in the mornings (yessssssss!), up to two hours after lunch, and sometimes also getting his head down for a quick nap in the car in the morning too. This is what fresh country air does to a little lad!
Village life is taking a little getting used to (we now have two cars, which I always vowed I'd never do - but then I was living in a city and not in a small village in the middle of nowhere - and it's a bit overwhelming going from a house where everything was just as we wanted it, to one where there's so many things we want to do and so many possibilities) but overall we can't believe our luck.
If anyone wants to come and visit - roll up!
We've moved counties from the home of one bunch of Saxons to another - from Middlesex to East Sussex. And we've swapped Heathrow for hedgerow.
Oscar is like a little whirlwind, running from the kitchen into the (much much bigger) garden and back again - smelling the flowers, pointing at the ants and butterflies, listening for the dogs and birds, feeling the wind in his hair and generally wearing himself out. He's now sleeping an hour later in the mornings (yessssssss!), up to two hours after lunch, and sometimes also getting his head down for a quick nap in the car in the morning too. This is what fresh country air does to a little lad!
Village life is taking a little getting used to (we now have two cars, which I always vowed I'd never do - but then I was living in a city and not in a small village in the middle of nowhere - and it's a bit overwhelming going from a house where everything was just as we wanted it, to one where there's so many things we want to do and so many possibilities) but overall we can't believe our luck.
If anyone wants to come and visit - roll up!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
My name is Oscar
It's been a hectic few weeks in my work life, and on top of all that we're also moving house. But it's not only been hectic for me and C: (not so) little O has also been a busy bee.
Mainly he's been busy in the brain development area - learning and speaking new words pretty much daily. And I'm a sucker for it - every new word brings an inner gasp of amazement from me. I know of course I went through the same development as a little dude - but seeing it close-up in someone else (particularly your own flesh and blood) is just astounding. Kind of like going to a safari park for the first time - how do giraffes run so fast with those amazingly long legs? How incredibly rough and hard a rhino's skin is, and so on?
For quite some time the little guy was plateaued - we were limited to "mama", "daddy" and "nana". But the past couple of weeks have seen a sudden boost! So here are just some of the words Oscar's starting saying over the past couple of weeks:
Oscar
Rainbow
High-chair
Sweetcorn (this word was a major favourite for quite some time)
Pea
Doggie
Bubble
Ball
Baby
Grandma (that's someone different to Nana, you see)
Digger
Car
Cheese
Pasta (this one comes out more like "pa-ta", but we understand it!)
Apple
Banana (this one is "naa-naa", which is actually different from "Nana")
On top of that he's also doing some good animal noises. If you catch him in the right mood and point to a cow he'll say "moo"; a sheep will elicit "baa", a lion will bring forth "grrrraaaaaa", and sometimes, a horse will bring a kind of "neigh".
Just incredible. He makes my day.
Mainly he's been busy in the brain development area - learning and speaking new words pretty much daily. And I'm a sucker for it - every new word brings an inner gasp of amazement from me. I know of course I went through the same development as a little dude - but seeing it close-up in someone else (particularly your own flesh and blood) is just astounding. Kind of like going to a safari park for the first time - how do giraffes run so fast with those amazingly long legs? How incredibly rough and hard a rhino's skin is, and so on?
For quite some time the little guy was plateaued - we were limited to "mama", "daddy" and "nana". But the past couple of weeks have seen a sudden boost! So here are just some of the words Oscar's starting saying over the past couple of weeks:
Oscar
Rainbow
High-chair
Sweetcorn (this word was a major favourite for quite some time)
Pea
Doggie
Bubble
Ball
Baby
Grandma (that's someone different to Nana, you see)
Digger
Car
Cheese
Pasta (this one comes out more like "pa-ta", but we understand it!)
Apple
Banana (this one is "naa-naa", which is actually different from "Nana")
On top of that he's also doing some good animal noises. If you catch him in the right mood and point to a cow he'll say "moo"; a sheep will elicit "baa", a lion will bring forth "grrrraaaaaa", and sometimes, a horse will bring a kind of "neigh".
Just incredible. He makes my day.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
It's all for Oscar
I've become a bit of a connoisseur of TV for small children over the past few months. We don't watch very much of it at all, but most days CBeebies will be on for a half hour or so.
And what a delight. I suppose it's a very common thing for parents to say, but I get a shot of guilty pleasure from watching some of these programmes with little O. Until today the tippety-toppest for me was "In The Night Garden...". This is a programme so strange it makes Teletubbies look like Newsnight Review. But it's brilliant. Plus of course it's narrated by Derek Jacobi, and there's nothing cooler than listening to creaky thesp intoning things like "Here comes the Ninky Nonk! Iggle Piggle is taking a ride on the Ninky Nonk."
And so it held a special place in my heart ... until... Shaun the Sheep.
And what a delight. I suppose it's a very common thing for parents to say, but I get a shot of guilty pleasure from watching some of these programmes with little O. Until today the tippety-toppest for me was "In The Night Garden...". This is a programme so strange it makes Teletubbies look like Newsnight Review. But it's brilliant. Plus of course it's narrated by Derek Jacobi, and there's nothing cooler than listening to creaky thesp intoning things like "Here comes the Ninky Nonk! Iggle Piggle is taking a ride on the Ninky Nonk."
And so it held a special place in my heart ... until... Shaun the Sheep.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
6.45 rocks.
I'm back!
After another prolonged period of non-dad-blogging I've finally pulled my finger out and made it back to the keyboard. Well actually the problem is that I spend most of my waking hours hunched over a keyboard, and I blog as part of my day job - so getting up the energy to write another blog entry in the evening isn't very often something at the top of my list. I need to do it though!
So here I am.
Today it was my turn to get up with O (we're very fair around here - we take it in turns to get up early with O, and to read him his bedtime story). I woke up at 6.45am, the sun was already up, and O was making his usual chatting noises next door. My first thought was "ooh how delicious - I've had a lie-in".
It's not too long ago that waking at 6.45 would have been at best a sign of everyday drudgery and heralded another peak-hour slog into a London office. Now it's a joyous event! After quite a few mornings getting up at 6 and a distressing number at 5.30 (and some even a little earlier than that) believe me, 6.45 rocks.
The only downside? We miss the beginning of the truly ace Balamory.
After another prolonged period of non-dad-blogging I've finally pulled my finger out and made it back to the keyboard. Well actually the problem is that I spend most of my waking hours hunched over a keyboard, and I blog as part of my day job - so getting up the energy to write another blog entry in the evening isn't very often something at the top of my list. I need to do it though!
So here I am.
Today it was my turn to get up with O (we're very fair around here - we take it in turns to get up early with O, and to read him his bedtime story). I woke up at 6.45am, the sun was already up, and O was making his usual chatting noises next door. My first thought was "ooh how delicious - I've had a lie-in".
It's not too long ago that waking at 6.45 would have been at best a sign of everyday drudgery and heralded another peak-hour slog into a London office. Now it's a joyous event! After quite a few mornings getting up at 6 and a distressing number at 5.30 (and some even a little earlier than that) believe me, 6.45 rocks.
The only downside? We miss the beginning of the truly ace Balamory.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
A lucky break
I’ve been travelling a lot with work recently, which is good from a work point of view but tough from a family point of view. I was in New York for a fair bit of last week, and it was doubtless sod’s law that my departure coincided with Oscar getting his first serious temperature.
I’m sure that more seasoned parents would deal with a 40 degree temperature in their stride, but the first time it’s scary. In O’s case it came on completely without warning: one hour he was seemingly completely fine, and the next we was burning up and lolling about, all limp and sleepy. The following day I had to fly off and my wife was left to hold the fort. The first night was hell, I’m told (and I was told, as I arrived at JFK at 9pm, which was 2am in the UK – when C called me to say she was having a hell of a time – I think she just wanted to call someone and the only person who’d be up at 2am was me!)
Anyhoo he was all better by the time I returned on Friday, although by this time both C and I were coming down with something. Sheesh!
So what’s the lucky break?
Well, I was due off again (to Stockholm this time) on Sunday morning – so just 48 hours in the UK – and the luck break was that in that period O decided to do his first unassisted standing-up thing. Twice!
The little chap is growing and changing so fast that with the period of heavy travelling I’ve been doing, I’ve been really worried I would miss out on something really cool. I’ve heard so many stories of people being told on the phone, or when they got home from work – “oh, you’ll never guess, little X took his first step/spoke his first word/teased his first cat/etc today.” So there’s at least one small milestone I haven’t missed out on!
I’m sure that more seasoned parents would deal with a 40 degree temperature in their stride, but the first time it’s scary. In O’s case it came on completely without warning: one hour he was seemingly completely fine, and the next we was burning up and lolling about, all limp and sleepy. The following day I had to fly off and my wife was left to hold the fort. The first night was hell, I’m told (and I was told, as I arrived at JFK at 9pm, which was 2am in the UK – when C called me to say she was having a hell of a time – I think she just wanted to call someone and the only person who’d be up at 2am was me!)
Anyhoo he was all better by the time I returned on Friday, although by this time both C and I were coming down with something. Sheesh!
So what’s the lucky break?
Well, I was due off again (to Stockholm this time) on Sunday morning – so just 48 hours in the UK – and the luck break was that in that period O decided to do his first unassisted standing-up thing. Twice!
The little chap is growing and changing so fast that with the period of heavy travelling I’ve been doing, I’ve been really worried I would miss out on something really cool. I’ve heard so many stories of people being told on the phone, or when they got home from work – “oh, you’ll never guess, little X took his first step/spoke his first word/teased his first cat/etc today.” So there’s at least one small milestone I haven’t missed out on!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
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...
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...
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