A fairly early start on a workday in mid-December. I'm in the spare room with Gregory a little before 7am. Either I couldn't sleep, or Gregory couldn't, or both. Whichever, I brought him in here in a bid to continue to get some rest whilst appeasing The Boy.
On the Monday afternoon, I headed home to watch Daisy's Christmas play. Gregory seemed excited, either to see me or, more likely, at the prospect of witnessing some young, local actors performing.
Later that day, cowboy Gregory is in the house. Do cowboys wear pink hats?
Whilst Daisy is dressed and her hair neatly coiffured, Gregory is still lounging in his pyjamas (at about 10am). Gregory is fascinated with most things, and Daisy presenting some blocks in a cup is no exception.
He is getting ever more mobile. He doesn't crawl yet, but he does manoeuvre himself around with twisting round, shuffling and general shifting. We have set up his books in a mini bookshelf for him and he is soon having a nosey round. He does like to flick through the odd book but it's more fun just to pull them all out.
The young boy can be devilish at bathtime.
The above shot was taken a few days before Christmas. We now skip through to New Year's Eve. We have been invited round for lunch at Shereen and John's house. There was a bit of an Elsa dress-off between Daisy and Hannah, but the latter is happy to entertain G-man.
It's a new year (2015, of course) and young Gregory is almost there with the crawling. He gets into this position and then sort of rocks a bit, sometimes shuffles, and then sits back in place. But using this approach he can get himself around the lounge reasonably effectively. He is already displaying signs of an unorthodox crawling style with the right leg cocked out to the side.
"Yes, what do you want, Dad?" transmits the brain of Gregory.
Still playing with his tablet, he looks sort of wearily wistful in this shot.
More almost-crawling action. He has an unquenchable curiosity to try out everything in the room, which is gradually causing us some logistical difficulties and so we slowly make the room baby-friendly again.
Once again posed for action. But when will he propel himself forth?
This is, sort of, Gregory's first curry out, as we head to Nawaab in Levenshulme for a fairly grand buffet curry with Nana Sue, Aunty Katie and Jordan. He had his own food generally, but appears here to be munching on a bit of naan bread. Well, clutching it anyway. No evidence of consumption, I must be honest with you. (I think he did nibble some, though.)
This is a good shot of him eyeing up all the stuff in the lounge that he might be able to get his chubby little hands on.
The little dude munches on a Marmite rice cake, one of his favourite snacks.
Another momentous occasion: Gregory's first sandwich! Dairylea on white bread - a classic.
Sometime in mid-January, Lynne took them both to a library somewhere (I'll have to get the details for, y'know, completeness - later confirmed to be Stockport Library). It's my kind of library, with a ball pool in the middle and everything. Gregory had a whale of a time which reminds us that we have a few hundred small plastic balls in the loft (bagged, not loose, you understand). I think we just need a functioning ball pool receptacle since the one that Daisy so loved has probably seen better days.
Then, on the Friday (16th), Gregory suddenly got the hang of (a form of) crawling. I say crawling - he doesn't do it in the conventional sense. A product perhaps of the position he would get in when thinking about crawling, he keeps his right leg stiff and straight for balance and tends to use the reach of his hands to help him shuffle forward, using his right foot to propel himself while his left knee, in the more standard position, does coordinate with everything else. It gets him around anyway, which is all that is needed.
As if to emphasise the amazing achievement, as well as backing up the common observation that young children's learning tends to go in spurts, he started clapping on the same day. And a proper clap too, not an improvised version (like his crawling or Daisy's original, slap-the-back-of-each-hand effort).
There's nothing like the promise of something illicit that has Gregory scrambling to get hold. His determination to get his mitts on the "cup cake game" is probably enhanced by the fact that Daisy plays it A LOT at the moment (it was a Christmas present). Unfortunately, it has small pieces which are very unsuitable for the Boy Who Likes To Chew Stuff.
Speaking of whom, here he is munching on a cracker or a biscuit rather angelically.
That afternoon, it suddenly started hailing madly, so I swung Gregory round for a closer look. He is inexperienced in the ways of British weather and must learn, lest he get left behind.
Lynne has popped up to Scotland to visit her mum for her birthday, so I am looking after the two of them by myself. I send Lynne a picture of me and The Boy as a reminder of what she is missing. Possibly not the extra chins, but that's very much solely down to the unflattering angle. Pretty sure they don't exist otherwise.
A new feature of Gregory's TV watching pose is the crossed leg. Delightful.
It's most definitely chilly out these days. I engage in a somewhat frenetic morning as I take Daisy to school, walk into Heaton Moor for a quick check-up at the medical centre (Gregory was impeccably behaved throughout) before heading home, for a two-mile round trip. Gregory was fairly chilled in his winter hat, although he did quite often twist it round so that the flaps rather unhelpfully shrouded his face.
He has now outgrown the duck bath by virtue of his insistence of trying to clamber out of it when you're not looking. Daisy never did that, so doubtless he's moved to the big bath somewhat earlier than Daisy did. He has a bath mat to aid grip. He still needs to be closely watched to make sure he doesn't throw himself back.
No sooner is he crawling than he fancies lifting himself up on things. We wonder how long he will stay at this intermediate phase.
Here he is again, lifting himself up with the help of some drawers which do not look like they can bear his weight.
I will admit now that he did not get up here of his own volition. I plonked him there for a combination of my own amusement and the inevitable photo opportunity. Look how red his cheeks are, a product of his teething. He has three front teeth properly through and a fourth is well on its way to being fully formed.
The adventures begin. He could hear his mother doing things in the kitchen so he just had to crawl along and have a look. This, towards the end of January, was pretty much the first time he had crawled his way out of the living room. Over the next couple of weeks, he would leave no room unexplored.
A Saturday morning spent exchanging pictures of babies on Facebook resulted in this comedy photo (which I actually didn't post; I put up a more normal looking one - but I had to have it on here).
Here is a good summation of where he is at the moment. Willing to see what's out there, grizzly with dribble and red cheeks, but ultimately pretty cheery.
This is one of those "but Daddy, you didn't say you wanted me to keep that tower up" looks. Originally, he would forensically dismantle towers from top to bottom, but latterly he has started to simply do what we would expect: send them crashing.
Here is a glimpse of his crawling style. The right leg is actually in a more advanced position here than is usual - more often is to see it further back and outward.
That is all for now.
I'm back, a little behind schedule. It's a little wintery here in early February, with Gregory approaching ten months' old, so Lynne has popped a woolly hat on him, which he is celebrating with an unusual hand pose.
Gregory is beginning to get more ambitious with foodstuffs, as is evidenced here with a brief foray into the murky world of avocado.
A monkey getting every cheekier, he has now figured out how to get out of the lounge. Once he starts messing with doors, we need to put in the door stoppers to prevent them being shut on his little fingers.
The cheeky chappy is very pleased with himself to be sat up in the cot in the morning (a leisurely 7:43am), grasping his favourite toy Elmo.
We all like to, on occasions, plonk ourselves in front of the TV, cross our legs and, well, gawp a little.
Gregory and Daisy just generally messing around on a school morning.
And then he was ten months' old.
Or head back to the Secret Portal.