gajumaru

- I've been taking E for walks in the sling. The weather has been beautiful the last few days. It's really spring. Lots of people out and about since the schools closed, not all of them doing social distancing. It's nice to nod and smile at people as I veer out of their way. We ran into our neighbours from a few doors down, who are retirees and XR activists, in the woods, and stood and chatted to them for fifteen minutes, the longest conversation I've had with them. There's a real sense of community solidarity. You pass people in the street and you know everyone is experiencing the same thing.
- We hoped to edit our Ocado order that arrived last week to add some stuff to it, but they closed their website due to high demand. So we'll have to make do without the extra stuff we thought of. At least the delivery arrived okay.
- A few more online orders have arrived. We're trying to minimise deliveries now. Wearing gloves and disinfecting stuff we unpack, then disinfecting the gloves.
- Leo printed a pattern and made a mask out of a vacuum cleaner bag. Apolocalypse DIY! They drove to their workshop, and brought home a ventilator mask and a few other useful bits - glue for mending things that break around the house, etc.
- They also drove to the vet and did a minimal no contact pick up of flea treatment. That should be our last errand for a few weeks.
- I barely did any work last week, mostly childcare and sorting the house out. We've made great progress with the tidying though. Processed our wholefoods order, packaged up two boxes of wholefoods to send to people, reorganised the conservatory/storage area at the back so it contains more stuff while looking clearer. We're making daily efforts to stay on top of the housework and keep the kitchen and living room liveable.
- Some massive milestones for E. In the last couple of weeks they've gone from "older baby" to "proto toddler". It's happened so fast! Last week they did their first forwards crawl - they've been doing backwards scooting for a while. I'd sat them on the kitchen floor while I did a couple of chores, and given them some stuff to play with. Something was out of their reach, and they they crawled towards it! A bit! Couple of movements with hands, one movement with knees. That knee movement has been thwarting them for weeks, so it's a big milestone. We need to baby proof and order and install stairgates asap. If they'll even get delivered...
- They're working SO HARD on standing. Constantly trying to stand up or pull themself up. In the last few days they've made immense progress. They can now stand up from a squat unaided, pull themself up on furniture, and today they stood for a moment without holding on to anything, then held onto something and took a step towards me!
- the elimination communication is going so well. Really successful at the moment. We're catching 100% of poos at the moment and about 50% of wees during the day. At night they're in a nighttime nappy and we only change them if they seem agitated after a feed, but they've been going all night without a change quite often. During the day they're using an independent child potty rather than the baby lap potty they started with. I put their bead maze in front of the potty so they've got something to do while they're sitting on it. They've started hanging onto the maze to pull themself to their feed to indicate their doneness after doing their business. It's a really grownup, independent moment!
- Looking across the room and seeing them standing up supporting themself is still totally surreal. Where did this giant grown-up child come from??
- they're so cheery and curious and engaged and grabby. Object permanence has happened, so if they want a thing, they still know they want it if it's hidden. They've done the cry reaction to having a dangerous thing taken away a few times, another very toddlerish moment. They have WANTS. So many wants.
- We've settled into a rhythm with bedsharing where everyone gets enough sleep. With enough contact, they've done a couple of 5+ hour chunks of sleep without a feed lately, it's lovely. We've given up on the cot and folded it up out of the way.
- E's favourite foods lately: homemade houmous still and always, the One True Food. (We stocked up on chickpeas and tahini before lockdown but are about to run out of fresh lemons.) Steamed courgette is flavour of the moment. Banana. Bean and vegetable soup. Dahl. Soy yoghurt. Almond butter. Response to other steamed veg - broccoli, squash, carrot, cauliflower - varies. Cherry tomatoes were favourite for a while but those seem to have become less interesting now. I've bought a melon which they liked the one time they had it before - will report back!