Don't say 'fffggggggggggttthhhh'

Rosa and Isaac got into an unresolvable argument this morning. Eventually it ended because Rosa got bored. The reason it was unresolvable was because Rosa didn't realise it was an argument. It went like this:

Jamie: Isaac, fffggggggggggttthhhh [fart noise].
Isaac: No, don't do that.
Rosa: [fart noise]
Isaac: No, don't go [fart noise].
Rosa: [fart noise]
Isaac: More agitated: No Rosa, don't go [fart noise].
Rosa: [fart noise].
Isaac: Very agitated and a bit wimpery: NO ROSA, DON'T GO [fart noise].
Rosa: [fart noise]
...

This went on for some time.

Tweam twacker

Blog backlog

I wrote a postit note of a few things I wanted to blog aaaaages ago. I didn't write a date on it, but I think it was at least a month ago - so before Rosa was one. First of all, she had her first retaliation against Isaac. He had pushed her one too mant times, and suddenly, from the crawling position she growled and charged! Isaac's expression was hilarious - open mouthed he stared at me!

Also, Rosa recently (4 or 5 weeks ago) learned to say tower, and also to build one. She can now also say wower (flower) and seems to think everything is an apple. She also likes soft boiled eggs. In fact she likes everything apart from tomatoes I think.

GFOS

It's been at least a few months since i played Isaac a bit of James Brown, and told him who it was. It was slightly relevant as we have our running joke of him saying 'I wanna get down like James Brown' when he's finished his lunch. Anyway just now I put The Payback on, and he immediately said 'Oh, thats James Brown mummy'. !!

JB

Isaac had another excellent quote in the monthly creche newsletter:

Sitting at the lunch table: "I wanna get down like James Brown."


Another peach directed at Mummy just now: "I think Mummy's belly is falling out." We think this was a result of the strange cut of Clare's top. At least Isaac agreed with this suggestion.

Rosa's language is now amazing. Everything is 'Daaaa', and whatever you ask her, eg 'Where is Daddy', she points at the ceiling. She still has no time for books, she'd rather distract everyone else. She is pretty good at making towers though, and sort of says 'Toowwwwwwww' when she is making one. She follows instructions a bit as well, i suggested she make a tower the other day and she zombie walked over to the blocks and made one. She is soooo cute. I think she'll probably be a top architect who does a bit of modelling on the side :)

11pm - Tuesday night

Clare and I are both working. Isaac refused to go to bed, and to be fair to him he does not seem tired - well at least he was not at ALL tired at 8pm. So he sat down here for ages, then Clare took him to bed just now.

He is now out on the landing again, saying 'What's the problem, I not in bed Mummy.' The first time he said that i laughed and spat on my laptop screen.

Isaac quotes

Isaac: "Felicia was funny Daddy"
Mummy: "You like Felicia don't you Ikey"
Jamie: "Did you give her a kiss Ikey?"
Isaac: "Yeah. No i didn't actually, cos I went on the tractor."

More quotes + wellies

Jamie: Am i Daddy number 1 isaac?
Isaac: No, cos Thomas [the tank engine] is number 1.

Clare [upset in car on way back from looking at some houses for sale]: Blub blub...
Isaac: Are you ok Mummy, do you want some Calpol?

Rosa has some new boots - pink wellies! And Isaac has some new ones as well - blue, the same as his previous pair. In fact in the shop he said he wanted the blue ones because they are 'my boots'. We took some hilarious photos of Rosa in her nappy and big pink wellies. She looked like a ballet dancing hippo. But with chunkier legs. Poor Dosa. Cute smile though.

Rosa walking

It's being reported slightly late, but a few days ago Rosa almost started walking. Officially she still can't actually walk but she is very close - at just a fraction over 10 months. We've all been ill recently - Rosa had a nasty cough and is teething massively. She had to sleep in our bed for a couple of nights because she was waking up and crying every hour.

She has also started pointing at things, and saying a few more different sounds - no words yet except perhaps 'ba ba' when she is waving bye bye. I feel rubbish, want to go back to bed but I have to take Isaac to gymnastics...

Isaac started gymnastics today

The new term. Aren't we 'modern parents' as Ben once guffawed :-)

Something about Rosa

Usually Isaac steals all the blog glory. I'm a bit tired though so this won't be long. Rosa is now nearly 10 months old. She is lovely and smiley, and becoming very robust. She has to deal with Isaac's increasingly possessive attitude about all his precious toys! She is probably not as verbally advanced as Isaac was at this stage but she is now saying 'Datdadadat..' and making a few more different sounds. She is VERY smiley and expressive, and Sonia is staying with us this weekend who has pointed out how thoughtful she is. Her big eyes, gazing out of the window thinking about...

She is so physically strong and agile, quite different to Isaac. He was fairly clumsy and had quite bad bruises on his head almost all the time whereas Rosa has barely fallen over. She is very smooth and controlled and will probably be walking in a few weeks. She has a very cute habit of holding her hands out as though she is begging or releasing a dove!!

A few more things about Rosa:

- She loves spoons. She crawled across the floor with one in each hand the other day - slap, slap, slap, slap

- She stands up for at least 30 seconds now without holding on to anything

- She eats really well, and wants to use the spoon

- She shrieks with excitement very very loudly

- She is a nutcase in the bath, and basically dives from end to end in a crazy frenzy

Mummy is away

Clare went to England on Tuesday morning with Rosa, and Isaac and I are joining them tomorrow (friday). It's the first time he seemed to really pay attention to the fact that they are not here. He's been much less active in the morning when we get up - usually he would be off playing with his trains, whereas he is more happy to lie next to me in bed as though he is a bit sad because Clare is not here. It is a lot quieter without Rosa squawking the whole time.

Last night I put him to bed a bit later as he never goes to sleep on time, probably around 8.30. I heard a noise at some point, and after I'd spoken to Clare I went upstairs to check on him. He wasn't in bed, and there was no noise! It was a bit freaky as usually when he is not in bed in the evening it's obvious where he is because you can hear the noise of him pushing his train around. I checked in the bathroom, then went into our bedroom, where I found him sleeping. He was on top of the duvet on Clare's side of the bed sucking his thumb. :-)

A sentence

"I don't want to say 'Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye' really fast any more Daddy."

Said Isaac when he was supposed to be eating his dinner. It doesn't make much sense, but not a bad sentence for a kid of 2 yrs 3 months.

Books

Isaac loves them, always has. He sits there patiently sucking his thumb, playing with his ear while he is read to.

Rosa on the other hand has no time for it. If she can't eat the book, or destroy it, she is off to seek other prey.

Thursday

I have a headache, must be something to do with a hectic day - half preparing a MyPhone workshop, and half racing around Haarlem looking at houses with loud grumpy kids. Isaac and Rosa are now up stairs with Clare for their bath while I finish my work (better make this short). Isaac unfortunately commented on his way up stairs "I'm not going in the bath I'm afraid Mummy".

Maybe John Lennon rather than Jonny Rotten?

The Truth about Climate Change Denial

It makes me really angry when people talk about climate change being a hoax, or that it's impossible that 'little ol' humans' could make any impact on the worlds climate. I really woke up to this issue when we had an email discussion about it at work, prompted by the Channel 4 documentary 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'.

When you watch the documentary without much background knowldge, it does really make you think. You suddenly doubt everything you thought you knew, and it's quite a shock. The program basically suggests that global warming is a gigantic conspiracy. That scientists who support the theory do so because they are funded by groups whose goal is to promote man-made climate change as a reality - and why? Oh, because it is a good way of preventing the 3rd world developing. If we stop the 3rd world using fossil fuels, it keeps them living in caves and enables the west to remain in control. That is not beyond what human beings are capable of, but the program is a terrible pack of lies. The wikipedia has a very good page which exposes some of the falsehoods, with support from angry mis-represented scientists on the program who have spoken out since it was shown.

Newsweek has just published a long article about the whole motivation for the climate change denial movement. Funny, it doesn't mention keeping the 3rd world in the stone age, it seems the write thinks it is more to do with industry - chiefly large oil companies that don't want bad press for Hummers and other forms of obscene mass consumption.

Anyone interested in finding out what proper climate scientists believe should read this blog -
http://www.realclimate.org/. It is very good, and has one particularly good post responding to the crap broadcast in the C4 documentary.

Finally - probably the single best resource for taking on a climate change skeptic - http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics.

Read it, get educated, and take on the evil deniers!

An Isaac quote

Had to record this, a little comment from Isaac just now when I was reading his bedtime story - his book had torn a bit where the pages were stuck after he had spilt his drink over it some time ago. Isaac saw it, and said "I spilt my drink on Henry's footplate Daddy!". He's 2 yrs and 2 months! Some kids can barely say more than a 2 or 3 word sentence. And I had no idea he knew what a footplate was - in fact I didn't know it myself.

We had a good day today, went out this morning on the bike and bought him a new cycle helmet, bought myself a couple of polo shirts from Adidas shop then came back for lunch. He went to sleep, I painted the window, then we went to the pool in the park where Ike proceeded to run pretty much all around the pool for about an hour and a half. Then we had a massive spaghetti bol and cake and custard for pudding. Now he is singing in bed while I finish painting the window.

I still have a pounding headache. Never again will i drink Prosecco, then finish off with a Leffe Dubbel. Felt like I had been kicked in the head by a horse most of today.

Carbon footprint of ads!

There is a drive to start measuring the carbon footprint of online media.

I find it hard to believe that the C02 output caused as a result of a fan cooling down a server which is getting hot because it is distributing some web pages is really worth worrying about compared to Hummers or cheap airline travel.

Apparently some digital agencies are interested in being carbon neutral in terms of the media they produce. Sounds weird - its dependent on site traffic surely, so how is that going to work?

Interface design

Jakob Nielsen said:

"The big lesson here is the need to stick with the design conventions that
users know."

<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/dialog-box.html>

Apparently he found a badly designed dialog box - arrrgh, no!!! On the SIG-IA list, Ziya had a typically caustic reply (which I 100% agree with):

"Of course, the most glaring evidence against the brain-dead fatwa that can
only be made by a small-minded bureaucrat, 'if it's different, users won't
get it,' is the iPhone: not bad because it has "non-standard GUI behavior,"
but great because it manages to transcend Nielsen's conventional
straightjacket."

Poor old Nielsen, he does sound incredibly dull. If we all stuck to the idea of making everything the same just in case some people don't 'get it' when we try something new, the world would be pretty awful. Obviously the more new things you try, the bigger the risk that something will go wrong - but its worth the risk isn't it?

Flickr widget for blogger

This code, which I stole from David K works really nicely as a little flickr photo widget. You can customise the number of thumbnails, and how many rows to spread them over - it's shown in action at the top of the page, under the blog title...

Click here to get the widget code

Then you just need to add a widget to your blog of the 'html/javascript' kind, and paste in the code in the file above.

Make sure you edit the flickrUsername and flickrApiKey fields - you need to get your own flickr api key from here.

My 2 yr old Jonny Rotten

We had a great weekend with Leigh, Rich and Ella (Ikey's girlfriend, sort of).

On Saturday we went over to theirs for a BBQ. We had triple chocolate ice-cream for pudding - which Isaac and Ella also had. NOT a good idea. Too much sugar that close to bed time.

Although afterwards, Isaac and Ella got on little stools that kids use for going to the loo and starting basically free-styling an improvised medley of songs / nursery rhymes / general observations to a sort of spasmodic alternative crazy body popping dance. Isaac added some sort of general spitting, growling weirdness to it all just to top off the 'possessed by Satan' feel for the event. I was in stitches with Clare and Leigh, whilst Rich was looking a bit shocked when he commented 'I'm not sure if its cute'. I have some nutty photos to go with this - will upload later...

I think...

Isaac at breakfast: "I think Rosa is cute, and Daddy is big and Mummy is tiny."

A flickr plugin for lightroom

One day, when Adobe release their Lightroom plugin SDK, I am going to make a plugin which synchronises collections between Flickr and Lightroom.

It's probably impossible, but I want it! Fed up with having to create collections twice!!!

Or perhaps someone else will do it...

Flickr and Lightroom

This is great - if you use Lightroom for photo editing, you can add Flickr Uploader as an export action - saves a few clicks!

http://blog.mayyan.net/2007/03/27/lightroom-flickr-uploadr-set-up/

ER

As a cunning follow-up to a headlong backwards dive onto a hard tile edge, yesterday at creche Isaac decided to run over his own finger whilst driving a plastic car around. It was the kind of car you sit in, so he had his whole weight + the car squashing his titchy little digit . The nail has gone black already!!!

I said to him this morning that he was hurting himself all over the place, to which he replied "I'm not hurting myself all over the place any more Daddy." Hmmm, we'll see.

Head glue

Isaac decided to jump in the shower yesterday, and slipped - causing him to fall back and smack his head on the edge of a very hard sharp tile on the bathroom floor. His head split into a mouth shaped cut so Clare took him to the doc - who literally glued it back together! He went to creche, but we had to bring him home at 11 because he was clearly concussed - very drowsy.

Last night we were told to wake him up every 2 hrs to check on him - which by a cruel twist of fate just happened to be the first night EVER that Rosa slept ALL THE WAY through the night. Not that we got a full night sleep of course - no, up every 2 hrs weren't we!

Poor Ikey, he keeps saying 'You hurt your head Daddy, I think i want some medicine'. His grammar is not quite perfected yet...

A rather delightful picture of my beautiful daughter.

Isaac quotes

"There's only one Daddy" - repeated multiple times over a period of weeks, football chant style.

"Banana pie...pfffffththhhhhhh" - ordering dinner over the plastic telephone.

"I think I don't like something" - having zinc cream put on his bum during nappy change.

"1,2,3,4.....fiiiiiiiiiive" - no matter how many there are, it always come's to five after the count.

How many

Isaac quote: "How many brokens you got Mummy?"

Potty training

Isaac is officially a genius. I think I'll send off for the MENSA forms now. Yesterday Clare and I briefly discussed the fact that we should really start potty training him, up till now we've done almost nothing and he's 2 and a bit. Suddenly this morning, he came running over to Clare shouting 'Mummy wee wee!!!'. He then went and started dragging out the potty from under his table and Clare helped him do a wee in the potty. 'Training' complete!

Isaac comedy

We took Isaac and Rosa swimming today, after looking at Zacharias Jansestraat - I wonder if we'll have bought that house the next time I read this. I think probably not.

Isaac was really funny at the pool, he was looking at another kid (probably about 5yrs) and walked along looking in the other direction. He then walked straight into a large bin. Clare laughed, and Isaac walked over towards us grinning going UH-OOOOH. It was funny as hell.

Then at lunch, Isaac was naughty and kept standing up in his high chair. So I sprung out of my chair to run round the table and strap him in, only to trip up quite slap-stick style over the swimming bag. Clare managed to spit some pizza over the table she was laughing so much.

zonked out!

Ikey has missed his daytime sleep 3 days in a row. Yesterday he seemed to be coping ok after 2 visits to the park is beautiful hot springtime weather. He sat down to watch a bit of Thomas while I was cooking his dinner and when I looked in to the sitting room to check on him, he was snoozing in a crumpled heap on a cushion - aaah bless!!

Rosa is developing at a scary rate at the moment - she immediately rolls on to her tummy when we put her on the mat now, and she gradually migrates across it by pulling up her legs under her. She can push up really well on her arms now too, and sits quite straight, though with no balance at all! she loves watching and laughing at Ike, who gives her toys and says 'there you go Rosa'! She is finally taking a bottlw quite well now too so I have dropped the dinnertime feed. She ate carrots for lunch, without much enthusiasm!

New lens

I told Isaac to tell Clare that I was going to buy a new lens for my camera. He refused and then retorted "Nee nee nee nee nee nee nee niet doen". Huh, charming.

what a sensible chap. he is changing as fast as ever. he said the other day 'lkey get out of the highchair and go and play with digger'. seems quite a long sentence for a 21 month old! his memory is getting better too (or he is able to show us that it is anyway). we were at the kinderkookcafe the other day with Julia (30 wks pregnant) and Joop, and ike took his lego motorbike. we couldn't find it when we went to leave, so we looked around everywhere and ask ikey repeatedly where it was. eventually he ran out into the garden and across to a bike that he had been trying to get on to - and produced the lego motorbike from behind it!

oh yes, and he keeps saying 'uncle james is a bit lazy' - wonder who taught him that! he also said for ages 'uncle dave did a smelly fart'. we have been trying to scramble this one with other things that 'uncle dave did' as he is a pageboy at Uncle Dave's wedding in a couple of months and we dont want him to be proclaiming about farts as he walks down the aisle....

poor little rosa - doesn't get much of a mention does she. well she is talking too - and squawking! and she is very busy teething poor thing :(

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Breakfast

Was delicious this morning - Clare made fritters (like american pancakes) with banana, fruit and greek yoghurt. OMG lekker.

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That monkey na eatin sosig

That's Isaac's version of a moneky eating sausage when we read the 8 silly monkey book. "No Bob de bouwer, no noddy" is what we say a lot, and he repeats it back. He's really into his telly now, which we have to limit. At weekends I get up and let Clare have a lie-in, I tend to do stuff on my laptop and gradually wake up with a cuppa t, while Isaac ingests, Tweenies, Balamory, Teletubbies and this morning even Batman!

Rosa is getting really interactive and giggly. She grabs things quite well now, and holds her hands together. She can also see quite a long way - smiling at Clare from at least 10 feet away. We went to Leigh and Richard's for dinner yesterday which was really nice. Rosa was sitting on Richard's lap doing some kind of chest flex exercise, she is SO strong!

Today were going swimming, we havent used the car for about a month so hope it starts...

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Ike and Daddy

Clare and Rosa are in UK for the weekend, so it's me and Isaac for the weekend (Thursday till Sunday night). Yesterday we went exploring in the park in the morning, and then Dave and Marvin came over in the afternoon. They even brought pressies for the kids! Ike got an Elmo (from Sesame street) which he seems pretty pleased with.

Now he is annoyed, I think the train set broke or something, better go...

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Rosa at 8 weeks

Rosa's first blog post, and it's not going to be a long one. Poor Rosa. MWUAH Rosa, or even MWURosa!

She is really starting to look lovely now, more and more awake and alert - and demanding attention. She makes funny noises like she is breathing in while squawking when something surprises her.

She also tracks things quite well now with her eyes, and grabs hold of rings / toys attached to her baby gym. She giggled once the other day, and smiles and coos a lot when we talk to her. Happy days innit. She can almost hold something approaching a crawl position as well - very strong head and neck!

In terms of general behaviour, she is very good at sleeping in the evening now. She goes down at around 7pm and doesn't usually wake up till around 2 or 3 for food - but sometimes has bad nights, not often recently though.

She's lovely and chubby, and today she blew her first bubble. Well done Dosa!

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Happy brrr brrras

Isaac was trying to pronounce the name of a book, not sure what it was actually called but instead of Happy Christmas it came out as Happy brrr brrrras - like someone making the sound of a phone ringing. Very cute and seriously funny.

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Ike's words

Ok Rosa is here as well now, and we haven't done a blog entry for AAAAAGGGESS. But Isaac has said some funny things in the last few weeks, and here they are before i forget them.

Jamie: Isaac, can you say 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' ?

Isaac: Yes.

Jamie (carrying Isaac, can't find something): Oh bloody hell.

Isaac: Oh, baby owl.

Bigger digger, hello digger, dig a bigger digger, digger gone, where digger dunno. Where man dunno. What ya doin man? What's he found? Down ner (down there). At dairs (up stairs). Diat! (Biscuit). Aboodah (elephant). Badnan (Panda). Not our lucky day! MWUAH ROSA!!!!

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