The doggy

Henrik loves the doggy

Doggy is not so sure about Henrik...

unless Henrik is eating* and then they are best friends

*usually results in lots of food on the floor

Coughs & sniffs

Last couple of weeks seems to have flown by. We had a lovely time in a conference in Gloucester with Ivan and Isabel couple of weeks ago. Last weekend we spent sorting out the spare room, continuing this weekend and clearing the side of the house so that we can have cavity wall insulation put in. 

Yesterday was mums and toddlers and it was hectic, 34 kids, toddlers and babies...it was so nice and quiet after they all left! Henrik had a brilliant time sitting on the floor and playing* with couple of other babies of his age. 

I also did some gardening on Tuesday, I've turned the front garden into a vegetable patch. My mum did lots of weeding in the garden when she was over here so it didn't take too long time to sort it out. I'll have to take a picture of it once all the seeds start growing. Now it just looks like and empty muddy patch with couple of paving stones on it. I have also noticed there is a slighty different climate to the back of the house and to the front. My mum also planted some tulip bulbs and they have been flowering for a week now in the back where as in the front they are just starting to flower!

Now to the title, Henrik is still coughing, I've been to the doctor with him couple of times now, both times they have told me just to see what happens as his ears and throat were fine - so it was 'just a cold'. Now this 'just a cold' has been going on for more than 4 weeks and the last three or four nights Henrik has woken up coughing couple of times and just coughs non stop for half an hour...it is quite dry sounding cough and I think once he starts coughing he can't stop because his throat has got irritated - that's my diagnosis anyway, we'll see what the doctor says. Hopefully it will be a bit more helpful than the last time 'nature will take care of itself' or health visitors comment 'he is just teething'!!!

Last bit of news before I go off and start my chores for the day (piles of washing up and hoovering to start with) is that there is finally a Waitrose (the supermarket of all supermarkets, the standard David measures every supermarket against, the supermarket that does the best chocolate truffles) opening in Newcastle. 

* chewing a toy for a while and then deciding that the toy another baby had looked far more interesting and trying to take it out of the other baby's hand and likewise having a toy taken out of his hands at regular intervals - all this whilst slobbering, smiling and gooing

Sitting pretty

Black and white

Henrik in his marimekko spots

On a date

David and I went out last night for a first time for a long long time. It was our first cinema outing since before Henrik was born. The last film we saw in the cinema was the bourne ultimatum so it has been a while...

So we left Henrik sleeping happily in the capable care of Nicola and Jo - two lovely girls from church. He didn't make a beep while we were gone so the girls had spent a fun evening watching friends. 

We had a little while before the film started so we went and had a cup of coffee / hot chocolate in starbucks before hand. Being school holidays and orange wednesdays the cinema was quite busy but they operate it on reserved seat system which is brilliant as it means you don't have to be there 15 minutes before the starting time to get good seats. David got the tickets on his way back from work which meant we could enjoy our coffee and then stroll in after the trailers had started.

The film was called son of Rambow and it was brilliant. I'd read about it in the paper when they were filming it and got curious as it was filmed mostly in the town where David was brought up. We also hear Mark Kermode's review on it on five live with the interview of the director which was good brilliant.

The basic plot is that these two boys are making a home action film after seeing a pirate copy of a rambo film to enter into a competition. One of the boys is the naughty boy of the school, teachers dispair whereas the other one had been brought up in a plymouth brethren home where films were banned...it is a story of an unlikely friendship peppered with funny side characters including larger than life french exchange student and a flying dog - what more could you ask from a film.

It is a sweet and very funny story and we had wonderful time watching it. We'd strongly recommend it, it had us in fits of laughter but it also had a more serious touching side and it had me in tears couple of times.

There we lots of scenes filmed in Ashridge, where we've been on numerous walks with a selection of four legged friends. It was funny watching a film and recognising a tree stump in the background and knowing the exact location where to find it! Also David's old school was used in the film, the only difference being that they'd turned the dining hall into the sixth form lounge.

Our date was a success :)

Poster boy

Henrik & Miffy posing

Superman begins

Some pictures of Henrik in a splendid superman costume Tony got for Henrik on his dedication.

Not to my taste

When at primary school I remember my teacher telling us what to say when we encountered food that we didn't like. Her wise advice was: "the food is nice but not to my taste" rather than "yack, I don't like that".  

Thinking about it though, if someone said that my cooking wasn't to their taste I would probably interpret it to mean that they didn't like it. 

I saw something on the good old bbc website that I would put in the category of not my taste...mash and sausage cones. It is suppose to be the answer to the cold English weather and lack of sunshine. 

I have to say, I would rather sit by a fire and drink a nice cup of hot chocolate or walk on a cold windy beach with a cup of hot chocolate warming my fingers than biting into a cooling sausage poked in factory made mash potatoes!

New noises

For the last couple of days Henrik has been increasing his 'vocabulary' or to be more exact the range of noises he makes. The newest addition is growling...like a bear...a very deep throaty noise, usually followed by a very sweet sounding baby coooing noises. 

The logical explanation probably is (I hope) that he is trying to sound like Moses who does growl especially when a dubious looking people walk past the house or there is a cat walking along the fence and he can't get to chase it. 

For Henrik the growling noises don't seem to have a constant stimulus like Moses' growling noises. It's more like, I'm reading my book, I think I'll growl, the dog is looking at me, I think I'll growl, the food tastes good, I think I'll growl, mummy looks funny, I think I'll growl...you get the point - the noises are completely random. 

I guess it might just be a phase, I seem to remember from the developmental psychology lectures all those years ago that babies go through quite a few of them especially as they don't seem to agree with each other and all have to come up with different number of stages of child development - only one I seem to remember is Erikson with his 8 stages - no idea what the stages were though ;) Oh well, maybe I'll have to come up with my own stages and be like Piaget who based most of his theories on his own kids!

In the sun

Smarty pants

I finally finished Henrik's vest after some modifications couple of weeks ago. His head was too big so it needed major re-knitting around the neck but the problem is solved now and it goes beautifully over his head. He is also starting to be quite blonde, the dark hair he was born with is pretty much disappeared apart from couple of tufts in the back.

I'm sure if I chew hard enough it will come of...

Ok, the little one didn't work, let's try the big one...

Coughs and men being poorly

Both David and Henrik have been suffering from a horrible cough for the last week and a bit. I'm going to the doctors with Henrik this morning to see what the doc has to say about it. Apart from lots of coughs and sniffles life is good, the sun is shining and all is well. It is also Friday which is also very good :)

April fools

Unfortunately I am far too sleepy and tired to come up with fascinating April fools story (Henrik's cold has returned so we didn't have much sleep last night because of his coughing - neither did he) but here is a list of news that could have been April fools stories but aren't...

Apart from being sleepy there are some good news...Sainsbury's has started selling oreos :) I have been missing them since we came back from Canada and now they finally sell them. If you want to be pedantic they did used to sell oreo snack packs before but there were hardly any biscuits in them so they don't really count.