Waaaah

For the last week, we've had visitors. Anicka (aged 2) has been practising being the big sister figure. She rocks the cot, strokes George when he cries and imitates him.
Jana is sure that the anticolic bottles are effective, occasionally we use the regular ones and George seems more prone to becoming wound up. He has grown out of more of his clothes, I turned down the opportunity to get a mother-card yesterday.
I'm curious about whether having a baby changes my driving, returning from a trip earlier in the week we saw the car alongside us on the motorway miss a queue of slower traffic ahead, slam on the brakes, skid forward and then swerve across our lane straight into the barrier next to the emergency lane. It annoys me more than before when I get tailgated. I'm not convinced that a Baby Onboard tag makes much difference to white van man.
George is getting his Polio vaccination soon. He is 10cm longer than when he was born, about 2kg heavier, and the best thing in the last couple of weeks is that he will lie under the mobile burbling at it happily and kicking. The most annoying thing is that he seems to get bored in his pram, so often you end up pushing an empty pram and carrying him. He's had his first cold, the blocked nose stopped him from feeding so easily for a couple of days and he made rasping noises when he tried to get to sleep, but he's past that now.

Parklife

Last weekend I went to London and got sun burnt. Rob and Clare stayed overnight - here are some photos of the weekend, plus one of George in his stripey outfit which was a gift from Claudia and Susana.

George is getting more inquisitive. His attention span is growing longer. Sometimes its possible to throw him out of a bad mood with his wind up mobile, the problem with that being it only runs for about 8 minutes.

To try and reduce his colic, we got some new feeding bottles for the expressed milk that are supposed to reduce how much air he swallows. They seem to be working so far. Also at the weekend we caught up with friends we met on the Ante-natal classes. It was surprisingly calm considering there were 6 babies.

At the end of the week, we'll have a glimpse of the future when Jana's cousin and her husband and 2 year old visit for the week. We have to toddler-proof the house somehow.

Great Granny Sam

My Granny, George's great Grandma Peggy passed away just over a week ago. She recently became a great grandma three times over. Its a massive loss in our family, for as long as I can remember Peggy was the matriarch, bringing us together for celebrations, keeping everyone in touch with all of the family gossip, and always making Jana and I feel welcome when we stayed at her house. I wonder whether I'll be able detect in George any of my Granny's mischievous nature, or her creativity, or her amazing patience.

In the last week George has seen his own Granny again, twice, and also visiting from Prague, Jana's mother's mother, and Father Jaroslav, the priest that married us. He's worn his first ever pair of shoes, and he's outgrown many of his earliest clothes. We have started to use a cot from Chris and Jen, and a mobile from Rob and Clare downstairs. George makes more burbling noises, we're wondering whether his first word will be English or Czech. Jana invested in a bouncer from eBay which does seems to be the most effective thing for calming him right now.

Above is George with his Chimp. Its impossible to get a photo with them both smiling.

My first smile (nebo aspon jeden z prvnich)

Tak tady ho mame. Mamka (tedy babicka) s prababickou obe tvrdi, ze byl naprosto dozjista mineny.

Music

On the Radio - George likes Zane Lowe. He dislikes Melvyn Bragg. By liking, I mean he falls asleep. Not liking is more clearcut - he screams. Yesterday George broke his all time

sleeping record - almost 6 hours. Unfortunately - this was between 6pm and Midnight, and he made up for it by not sleeping much for the next 6 hours. George now does the occasional unintentional smile, but like me- not when there is a camera about. He is looking forward to seeing his Granny and another Great Granny at the weekend.

Visitors

Its been an eventful week and a bit for George, he's caught up with his NCT baby friends Henry, Pippa, Sophie and Rhys, had his birth registered in Reading, and there have been plenty of visitors, Martin Sarah and Michael, Gillian Barry David and Peter & Gillian's mum, Barbora and Ales, Michaela and Maxim, Patrick Charlotte and Martin, and Claudia and Susana.

Jana has started to use the sling more often to carry George, although he's now more than a kilo heavier than 3 1/2 weeks ago. Its not particularly comfortable, but George seems to be comforted by being close. Generally the only bit of him visible in the sling, is a couple of fingertips.

Feeding has still been a challenge. Friends told us that he might be tongue tied. This inhibits his feeding and means that along with the nose and the hairline, George could inherit the Samuelson speech impediment. Jana went to a couple of hospitals and today in Slough he had the tongue tie cut. He's now able to stick his tongue out.

I've been back at week for almost 2 weeks, some nights we've had lots of sleep, generally not so much.

The main changes in George are that he is less irritated by having his nappy changed, he's started to play with toys around his cot, and since we were given a bath thermometer at the weekend - he doesn't mind being bathed. Before we must have been using water that was too cold. The eye infection is gone, the only hangover from this is George often seems to have his right eye open more than his left, as if he is waiting for me to appear with the ointment so he can clamp the left eye shut.