Gregory Simon Allen

Born Friday 11th April 2014

3 to 7 weeks old

His life:  Birth ♠ Week 1 ♠ Weeks 2-3 ♠ Weeks 4-7 ♠ Weeks 8-13 ♠ Weeks 14-22 ♠ 5-7 months ♠ 7-8 months ♠ 1st Christmas ♠ 8-10 months ♠ 10-12 months ♠ 1st birthday party ♠ 12-15 months ♠ 15-18 months ♠ 18-21 months ♠ 21-24 months ♠ 2nd birthday ♠ 2-2½ years ♠ 2½-3 years ♠ 3rd birthday ♠ 3-3¼ years ♠ 3¼-3½ years ♠ 3½-3¾ years ♠ 3¾-4 years ♠ 4th birthday

In summary:  Index ♠ From birth to four years old ♠ Four years old onwards

Special features:  Gregory translator ♠ Gregory phrases ♠ Gregory cookery

We move into May, and Gregory's fourth week, with a delightful shot of mother and son, the latter beginning to react more and more to human interactions, the hint of a smile creeping in.

It's not the best shot in the world, but I wanted to capture our first family foray to the shops.  Lynne offers Daisy a choice of desserts while Gregory snuggles in close in the carrier.  I'm on trolley and, er, camera duty.

On May Day bank holiday Monday, the Brunger-Roes and Giles came round for some Gregory-holding action (as well as hide and seek with Daisy).  First up, Vicky tries to look like it's no bother (it's not).

Paul seems to be listening out for whatever Gregory might be saying (nothing).

On a Friday morning before getting up, Lynne takes a lamp-lit shot of a tired Gregory, presumably post-feed.

We seem to have daughter who is ten times larger than our son, but you have to put things in perspective.

Here is the little monkey on his own, in a very yellow outfit, looking alert as he passes four weeks old.

Post-bath, he often has spiky fluffy hair.  It's a good look.

Matching our early approach with Daisy, Gregory is bathed in the sink, which remains a two-man job.  We have had one "arc of piss" moment, when I was surprised to see his stream of yellow clear the side of the sink and splatter on the leg of my jeans, but otherwise these experiences have been relatively straightforward.  After pretty much hating the first few baths, he actually seems to quite enjoy them now, seeming very chilled (his default status, to be fair).

The second weekend in May saw a joint birthday meal for the Allen brothers at the Kingfisher pub in Saddleworth (chicken in chilli sauce anyone?).  Gregory slept for a while but he was soon passed around, with Aunty Katie on first-non-parent holding duty.  Gregory was happy enough with this development.

While Lynne got ready for bed, Gregory sneaked in.  He seemed very comfortable in it.

Five weeks old and I capture Gregory doing a sneeze, which is always an amusing activity, and his mannerisms and noises when he does so are very similar to Daisy's at the same sort of age.

He recovers from his sneezing fit to deliver a quick one-two whilst smirking slightly.

This is the kind of thing that happens if we leave Daisy alone with Gregory for any length of time.  She is generally reasonably gentle with him (although still not as much as we'd like), but she will clearly stop at nothing dress him up and this is perhaps a sign of things to come.

He seems quite an active baby, kicking his legs a lot, which often leaves him sliding down his chair, a little like this.

On National Dress Your Baby Like A Leprechaun day, Gregory looks primed and ready for action.

And here's a close-up of Gregory at nearly six weeks old.

And that's us more or less up-to-date.  Until next time...

Young Gregory looking pretty chilled in his comfy chair.

On the Sunday in the middle of the Whitsun bank holiday weekend, we had a number of guests, including a passing cousin Nicky, who was happy to have a cuddle (so was Gregory - he loves the contact).

Gregory had a habit for his first few weeks of bringing back his milk, either in dribs and drabs, or in projectile form.  As a consequence, we had not put Gregory on the jungle mat too much.  But, at six weeks, with better control over his stomach contents, and increasingly good vision, he was enjoying the light and music show.

The next day, we headed to Hazel Grove leisure centre for our first family swimming trip, with Daisy starting to get the hang of floating with armbands (for a few seconds on her own at a time) and Gregory being pretty chilled at being suspended in the water.  Here he is on the changing table, wearing his fetching swimming nappy.

On to his next few weeks.

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