Alpe d'Heuz - Daniel's First Ski Trip

Chalet near Kids' Club
View from 2700m
Playground
What's this, Mummy? It's snow!
Bench a bit cold, Mummy!
Apartment we stayed


Our first ski holiday with Daniel and his two teenager sisters wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Skiing with a baby - utterly madness, it's the words my parents put over the phone when I told them we were going to skiing this Christmas. We are probably not the ones to allow parenthood to get in the way of going on holiday, but we are definitely not the extreme ones like one of my colleague who skied with his baby strapped on his back. He said 'you have to be completely confident that you would never fall...' I thought it's nuts to ski with baby on your back as he/she might get hypothermia. apart from this, I told him that I just consider myself as intermediate skier, so skiing with baby on the back was out of question.

Departure on Saturday( two weeks ago) was a bit shock. Our flight was 8.30 am, The driving to the Gatewick airport only took 45 minutes from Terry Mum's, where we stayed over for Friday night. We were up at 4am thinking we'd have plenty of time at the airport browsing the shops... . However when we got in the check-in hall, we found that the First Choice Check-In queue was lined up outside the building. I was amazed so many peopel were going ski this time of the year considering it was the first week of the season, normally most resorts were not expecting good snow. Daniel was definitely not the only baby going ski though. I did saw other people having their baby tucked in their rucksack on Daddy's back.

Alpe d'Heuz proved to be all-rounders skiing resort, it is youthful with so many sporting facilities on offer yet it was family-friendly resort on many respects. First Choice's Kids club wasn't bad at all with English Nannies and English nursery routines. There were quite a few kids in their creche that week and Daniel was the youngest baby there. Originally we expected Daniel wouldn't settle in there and we expected to take in turn to look after Daniel at the apartment. However, Daniel seemed to be ok with them first day, he did cry on drop-off in the morning but staff said he was ok after 30 minutes. So we went on taking him there everyday as we paid full-day care in advance anyway. Every morning we dropped Daniel 9.30-10ish together and in the afternoon I finished off skiing earlier to pick up Daniel 3pm ish on my own. so i end up skiing virtually everyday apart from one afternoon I picked up Daniel just after lunch. First couple days I felt so-much guilty about tucking Daniel in the Childcare that I stormed off one afternoon (felt bad about it later, it probably to do with my PMS). Terry persuaded me that Daniel would be better-off at Kids Club as there are plenty toys and other children there and they have a routine for him, otherwise what Daniel would be going to do with me in the apartment whole week, we would be bored. The creche staff took Daniel out for walk in town in pushchair everyday so Daniel got fresh air and ended up having two naps a day ( he only has one nap a day at home). So the rest of week I gradually eased off about childcare issue and didn't feel guilty anymore.

For skiing I enjoyed everyday though I got problem on my left knee (it felt painful each time I try to straighten up the knee) just weeks before our ski holiday. Several years ago I had a bad fall in the shower of a hotel in Wakefield and injured my left knee, It didn't bother me that time. But the knee joint always get worse each time when I want to go ski. One year I went to see the doctor. He said it was tissue damage and i need physio. As we all know there was long waiting list for physio on NHS, so I didn't bothered, I just carried on doing a lot stretch exercises on that joint in gym after my work-out and it healed. But since Daniel, I didn't stretch much the knee and the problem came back again. I must love skiing. I forgot the pain once I was on the slope

Cough

Daniel has been ill for a month, he caught cold (or flu) a month ago and started coughing since. Now symptoms of the temperature, running nose and reduced appetite have gone following the treatment of medicine but the cough is still stubbornly persistent. As a result of this bout of illness, Daniel lost weight. He weighed 500 g less on recent weigh-in than he was 5 weeks ago, he weighs 11.2 kg now. we became a regular-goer of the GP surgery. We sat at GP punctually every Monday morning. Now Daniel's germ has spread on me, I started to cough few days ago and now it just turned nasty.

1.5 days to go

One and half days to go before I am finishing off for Christamas. Can't wait!. I'm taking 1.5 days next week, 3 days the week after next one off as Annual leave, now I got nearly whole December off until 2nd Jan 2008. Hopefully next week I can have a bit sleep-in before we hit the skiing slope.

"wife" and "I" in Chinese

Just read this on Internet about some foreigner who is trying to learn Chinese was scared off by the list of synonym for wife and I in Chinese, it's so funny! Thinking I'd better save it. At same time, fear Daniel would never learn Chinese properly as he would never understand all these subtle difference of each word.

据说一个在学中文的外国人看到"wife" 和 "I" 的同义词表，吐血而亡。
　　>>> wife
　　1、配偶 2、妻子 3、老婆 4、夫人 5、太太 6、爱人 7、内人 8、媳妇 9、那口子、10、拙荆 11、贤内助 12、老伴 13、孩子他妈 14、孩子他娘 15、内子 16、婆娘 17、糟糠、18、宝贝 19、小甜甜 20、蜜糖 21贱内 22、达令 23、女人 24、马子 25、主妇、26、女主人 27、财政部长 28、浑人 29、娘子 30、大姐 31、家属 32、屋里的 、33、另一半、34女当家的 35、发妻 36、浑家 37、堂客 38、山妻 39、婆姨 40、中馈
　　>>> I
　　俺、俺们、本人、鄙人、敝人、不肖、不才、老子、某、依、仆、乃公、人家、我等、我、我们、我辈、我依、我曹、吾、吾们、吾济、吾辈、吾曹、小生、小人、小可、小的、余、予、在下、洒家、咱、朕、寡人、孤、奴才、臣

little scribbler

Haven't updated Daniels' development for long time. To be honest, I don't feel there is anything to be write about under this heading purely because he's been ill for so long, all my energy was directed to make him feeling better. Also because, for his days at the nursery, I got little information other than what he ate, what time he slept for how long and how many times nappy had been changed etc. it is not a complain to the nursery, it's just the arrangement we got at the moment, I drop Daniel off in the morning and Terry picks him up at four in the afternoon, I rarely got a full picture of what Daniel's day like during my working-days. Nevertheless, I did noticed some of Daniel's new 'favourite' activities, He's now like scribbling. This must be learned at nursery as we never gave him a pen before. He kept pointing pens on the table making a request to grab it. Initially I was very reluctant to let him hold one due to the safety concern, I don't want him to poke his eyes with the pen by accident. As Daniel was so wilful and persistent I gave up. He seemed to hold the pen well and know that it is to be used to scribble the paper in general, obviously he would scribble things like the book I am reading or my hands. He has enjoyed 'scribbling' for coupe of weeks since he took home his first scribble at nursery.

A few updates

Been back to work for 5 weeks.

Couple of weeks ago when I had lunch with Alison at Joseph Brammer, she asked me if I'd settled back in work, my answer was 'as if I had never left there!' :) It's an honest answer, I don't know why I am so used to a 'corparete life' here in the UK. maybe because it's so mechanical, so predictable...In contrast, Daniel never seemed to fit in his nursery life that well, he still cried every morning on drop-off but not for long, only until last week I saw he got a comment back from staff on his little notebook saying he had the best day so far. The following day I asked them what they mean by 'the best day', It turned out it was the first day Daniel didn't cling on any of the staff and played on his own happily. Couple weeks ago I felt rather sad about leaving Daniel at nursery, especially when I faced the thought of it is a long day for him and for me, we did our best to try to minimise the time he spent in the nursery, at one point, Terry emailed some of the nanny agency website to me and said we think about this over the Christmas... Now I got used to this arrangement more or less. I can't say the arrangement is ideal but sometimes it felt like going to work to have a rest

It is not uncommon for babes who's attending nursery to pick up bug one after another, I was told by our GP, so Daniel was no exemption. He caught cold and cough badly for nearly 3 weeks. I had last Tuesday and Wednesday off, only worked Thursday. Lucky I am holiday-rich at the moment, on top of this year's holiday allowance, I carried over 8.5 days from last Holiday Year (on the condition they have to be spent before the end of the year), so I will take almost whole December off. Also, 2 more weeks to go before we off to ski, The snow started to fall at Alps and it is said it's the best snow in Decenber since the 50 years ago... we just bought Daniel's first skiiing-suit, boots, hat and need to get a sun-glasses for him but the trouble is Daniel don't like anything on his face...

Tuesday night I went to my ex-boss's 50th birthday celebration dinner party at one of the restaurant in Sheffield city center. It's a very enjoyable evening though I had to drive a long way in the rush-hour traffic and leave Daniel to Terry for the entire evening.

Not much hope...

Tuesday back to work.

Daniel started whinging just when the car turned at the library, he must recognize the route to nursery now, I was thinking. When we arrived at nursery this morning, there was already a baby crying same way as Daniel did on his first week and the baby boy is coughing as well...so Daniel is not the only sick child in the nursery, i also noticed there was a baby girl sitting on the floor who got running nose... It looks that there isn't much hope for Daniel to get better soon... I singed the Medical Consent Form for them to give Daniel Calpol during the day. Daniel has finished the course of antibiotic over the weekend, he wasted half bottle of the medicine as he spat it out when I tried to administrate the medicine on my own,in the end it became a two-person task like this; I held him firmly in my arms in a lying down position and Terry used a cartridge to push the medicine into his mouth.

Ear Infection

It happened!

Daniel never had any serious illness since he was born, not even when we took him on a long-haul holiday when he was just 5-month old. He had couple bouts of minor ailments, like sore throat, a bit rash and he all made full-recovery in one or two days. He certainly never had temperature before. I expected Daniel would get sick more often when he go to nursery, but didn't expect it happened so quickly. Second week into nursery, Daniel caught the bug and I received this phone call from nursery saying that Daniel coughing badly and his breathing was causing their concern and I should take him to see the doctor. (nursery seemed suspect he got the croup). I was just in the middle of a discussion with one of the colleague (actually winding up each other) when the nursery rang, the call ended the unpleasant 'discussion'. Told boss that I have to go and no time for timesheet ( Thursday is my last day of the week) I left the office just 2 hours after arrived it. Got back nursery , picked up Daniel and rushed to the GP when they were just about shutting, apparently they don't open Thursday afternoon. After I told the receptionist that I was pull out of work by nursery to take my son to see the doctor, she managed to fit Daniel in as the last patient just when I was thinking to take Daniel to the A&E in hospital. The Gp's diagnosis was that Daniel got ear infection and caught cold as well. Antibiotic was prescribed. Then I drove to ASDA's chemist to get the medicine with Daniel in the back of the car, the pharmacist went out for lunch and I end up to have to have coffee and some shopping done while waiting the dispense of the medicine... What a busy day!

Daniel got temperature for two nights and he got chesty cough and brought up phlegm when he coughing , very hoarse voice and wheezing, which was very scary to me, And he only got better since last night when the antibiotic start to effect.

My friend Nancy's Daniel went to nursery when he was just 6 month old and she told me her son got so many bouts of ear infection that they lost counts... If Daniel was to get ill so often, It's certainly not worth for me to go to work, I won't make any money, if I had to take leaves to look after Daniel every other week...

Upside I had an extra long-weekend, Thursday almost all day, Friday, Saturday , Sunday and tomorrow...

Last week

Last week was so horrendous and heartbreaking. Every morning when I dropped Daniel off, he cried so badly that I actually broke down on the third morning when I put him down in the nursery. It was so heartbreaking to see him waving his little hands so frantically and desperately to me and what I can do was just walking away. He was probably wondering why Mummy abandoned him in such a stranger place; First day he scratched himself very badly and didn't eat much, second day Terry went to work after loam specially to make sure Daniel had a short day at nursery as it was his one year birthday. Every afternoon when I finished work I drove at 80m/h whenever the traffic allowed, which was out of my character, just to be home a little bit earlier so I can enjoy a bit play time with Daniel before putting him to sleep… everyday when I saw him, he didn't smile to me like he used to do as if he was cross with me… I felt so guilty. Daniel only came back to normal after we spent the weekend down south to see his ground parents and two sisters. We drove down Southampton on Friday morning, arrived Marwell Zoo hotel just after lunch time. Me and Daniel was waiting at the reception of the while Terry went to pick up the girls. We spent the Friday afternoon in the Marwell Zoo. Daniel was a bit happier after seeing all the animals and stayed a bit late in the hotel room. We stayed this hotel in June, which wasn't that expensive. But this time maybe it was in half term, the room price shot up as £99/room/night and in the morning when we had our breakfast in the hotel restaurant I fount that it was surprisingly full.

Monday, Daniel was completely happy back to his old routine. He was laughing and giggling again. He even refused to get out the shopping trolley in the supermarket… He thoroughly enjoyed the day with mummy...

First day back to work

First day at work, I know exactly it's going to be like this and it happened like this:
1)Couldn't find my desk. After the help from some one's pointing, I found the desk with my name plate on it. Then I found it was not my old desk as all my stuff in the drawers had gone! Luckily my 3 boxes of books are still there labeled with my name by someone, thanks whoever did it for me!
2)No computer for me and the IT guy wasn't in today, typical, there is only a monitor sitting on my desk and the main part has gone missing.
3)Couldn't remember my log in detail.After the reminding of the colleague sitting opposite me, finally got in the network. 800 junk mails sat in the mailbox, something to do for today.
Daniel cried really hard this morning and he waved his hand frantically to me when I left the room, it was so heartbreaking!

Matlock Bath

It was freezing cold this morning when we arrived Maltlock Bath, a resort and natural beauty spot in Derbyshire. 2 C, it said on the thermometer in Terry's car. Lucky we took the cosy toe for Daniel, I had nearly told Terry not to bother before we set off. It was misty and foggy in this sleepy village and above its beautifully river bank, along the waist of the Apraham Height, a hill top park with superb view of Peak district. The Heights of Abraham is our outing place today. There is a chalet-style coffee shop, licensed restaurant, picnic area, all taking advantage of the superb view. There is also a Victorian Prospect Tower built in 1844, 2 show caves,Rutland Cavern and the Great Masson Cavern, nature trail,landscaped gardens and childrens play area. as we got there early, the cable car ride was empty and we had coffee first thing when we arrived on top the hill. From the terrace of the cafe, you can have a superb view overlooking the valley and the river and it's sunny on top the hill and warmer. Maltlock bath in Victorian time was called the 'Little Switzerland in Britain'. It felt really true when you sitting in this Alpine style cafe sipping coffee. Then we took Daniel a mini adventure down to the Cavern and was out halfway down the hill. As It's not allowed to take buggy down the cavern, Terry and me carried Daniel in turn throughout the film session about the history of the cave and the trip down the cavern. Carrying Daniel back to the hilltop cafe through the woodland proved to need a bit fitness and I did the job most of time as Daniel seems cling to me more these days... anyway, It's a great day out!

Poor thing

Little Angel when he sleeps
Bit tired, mummy

Daniel is in nursery now. A full-day session today!

As a bad start, he cried on and off while I was driving to get him to sleep ( he is not normally like this) before nursery. I dropped him off at 10am. He was smiling when I got him out of the car, once he saw the door of the nursery, he started to get upset, the the trauma of being left without mummy must flood back ( the memory area in his brain must be developed very well, I was thinking), I handed him, together with his little rucksack(in which I packed his milk and spare clothes),to one of the staff, he cried very hard with tears pouring down... Poor little thing! He must sensed this going to be all day...

After the drop-off of Daniel, I went to an optician for my eye test appointment. It felt such a relief to have an appointment done without Daniel's presence. My dentist appointment on Tuesday was completed with Daniel sitting on my lap while the dentist working on my teeth at the same time, it was so stressful as Daniel was crying when the dentist started drilling... However, I started to miss Daniel by lunch time, it felt so strange without him whizzing around my feet while I was cooking.

Picking him up in an hour...

(Added: when I went to pick up Daniel at 4pm, I expected to see his puffy eyes and red nose from crying. To my surprise, when I popped my head on the high window of the door, I saw him sitting there calmly in the cuddle of Karen's arm (she was cuddling another new-starter baby in the other arm) without any sign of puffy eyes and red nose. Apparently he had a 45 minute nap after lunch, which is another surprise to me, I had predicted that he wouldn't nap at all in the nursery. Karen said honestly that Daniel was very unsettled in the morning,but he was not distraught. I knew that as I phoned an hour later after dropping him off and was told he was still crying. Daniel's voice did get a bit hoarse though. Terry said he felt sad all day as if we abandoned Daniel today)

11 month

One more week Daniel will be 1 year old, but I haven't write about his 11-month-old development, this is partly because he's having new tricks everyday and I can hardly keep the time and energy to write about it on daily basis, from time to time Terry would shout to me from lounge 'Daniel can do this , Daniel can do that and you missed it! ', when I pop back from kitchen I would say 'I saw him doing this the other day'... Maybe I am more relaxed about Daniel's development these days, after all he is doing what an 11-month old meant to do. Obviously I am still thrilled by every little progress he made.

The remarkable progress he made on physical side this month was he started to cruise around coffee table in a standing-up position unaided and can lower himself down unaided in a sitting position, I don't even remember since when and how he did it at first place, but now everyday he just happily cruise around the table picking up toys or putting them on it...the other remarkable progress is on language development. he now understand a lot of what we say. He knows his favourite toys/books name in English. For example:

I say 'Daniel, go get your choo-choo train' he would crawl fast to get it and have a pla;
I say 'Get your Yellow Digger Book, mummy read you a story' He would go to his toy box and pick out the yellow digger book and give to me;
If I cite the 'Daniel, it's snooze time' at wrong time, he would immediately cry or throw himself back;
If I say 'it's trekker time' He would wave his arms with a smile on his face immediately and crawl fast to his trekker. A trekker ride in the garden with mummy's push is Daniel's favourite daily routine in the afternoon. On his ride if I ask him to beep, he would push the horn; if I say 'Daniel change gear' he would change gear. It's hilarious watching he can follow our words.
Today when I handed a toy phone to him and said 'phone waipo!' I saw he put the phone right on his ear... he must see me phone my mum too often! This little copycat!

Ski holiday booked for Christmas

The nights are drawing and the temperature is dropping, it's this time of the season again... we just booked family skiing holiday for Christmas.

Alpe d'Huez in France is destination for five of us, Terry,Daniel, Charlotte, Hannah and me. Alpe d'Huez is part of the Grandes Rousses Ski Area, the resort has been made famous by its thrilling World Cup downhills. With over 200km of slopes to explore,it is said that the resort is lively and youthful. Apart from skiing, the activities include a grand sports centre, a large outdoor pool and a skating rink - all free with full area lift passes (we've booked this pass). We booked everything online, flight, accommodation, ski hire, lift pass and the most important, childcare for Daniel. We booked 6-day full day care at resort creche for Daniel though the plan is only to use full day care for Daniel at first day when all of us go skiing together to get familiar with the area, then Terry and me will babysit Daniel in turn for half day each day so Daniel only go to creche for half day.

Since I met Terry, We go skiing every year especially Christmas time apart from last year due to Daniel's birth in Nov. Before Daniel was born I'd always say if I had baby I would take him ski when he was 2 or 3, especially when I saw all these cute little tots skiing down the nursery slopes. Having said that I didn't expect to take Daniel skiing when he just turns 1 year old until couple weeks ago Terry suggested that we go skiing this Christmas, which really made my feet started itching, so I agreed. We considered options like skiing in Finland, which is cheaper than France, but I thought it probably too clod for Daniel. At one point, after the calculation of all the cost, added up the travel insurance, airport parking and the clothing for 3 children(they grow so quickly that we need to buy ski wear for them every year), Terry suggested we should have a beach holiday in Canary Island instead as it will be £700 cheaper, but the girls are not keen on Spanish holiday. In the end we still booked French one.

A few photos for Pugney

wrap up warm
some place where we can do sailing
tranquil
walking in the woods






There are a few nice country parks around where we live. Pugney is among the ones we'd like to spend our Sunday for. Though the winter is looming, it is still quite nice to go out for a walk in a nice sunny morning and have some coffee in the park cafe...

Gym training so far

Gym training is still going to plan so far. On top of my normal cardio program, I added the chest-press, sitting-up on inclined bench on last Friday's session. Did the same on Monday. The training results were like this:
Fri: calary,300; Performance Index, 46 ( 30% dropping from pre-pregnancy): chest-press, 3 sets, 12 reps/set, tour de France 3.9km
Mon: calary,350; Performance Index, 56 ( picking up): chest-press, 3 sets, 12 reps/set, tour de France 3.9km.

When comes to gym training, motivation is not normally an issue for me, my aim with gym isn't to lose weight, is to keep fit and body tone. So far so good. (Terry hasn't gone down gym training once since we joined it! Excuses lined up...)

Seond settle-in session without mummy

Daniel had his second settle-in session without me this afternoon. He was crying on and off after I left, which mainly was due to the lack of nap this morning. He slept until 8am first time this morning since I can't remember (probably around 8-9 month old), therefore there is no need for him to nap in the morning and he only napped about 50 minutes lunch time before I dropped him off at nursery. I warned Karen that Daniel might go cranky as he hadn't napped enough, she answered' Oh, don't worry, we can cope!' Just after I plonked him on the floor, Daniel cried immediately. I left nursery without too much worry this time as I knew they would comfort Daniel after all these visits and i would think this nursery would be a happy place for Daniel. I went to the library to borrow some books, again one hour has gone very quickly. When I walked in the baby room, Julie, the nursery manager, is comforting Daniel and she told me that Daniel like being cuddled to get sleep... also Karen told me that I should meet the twins' mum and she will tell me that how bad her twin were when they started nursery and she never believed that they would settle. 'But they settled very quickly' Karen said. She reckon that Daniel would settle in the nursery routine very quickly as he got Tue/Wed/Thur 3 consecutive days.

Test Run

Today Daniel had his first nursery session without my company, only one hour though, it was a test run for me to see how bad he could go. He had another 2 hours' settle-in session with my company on Monday, which went well. So Nursery deputy manager Karen suggested me to leave him for an hour on next visit. I booked 3 one-hour session to leave Daniel alone, One was on today, the other two will be on next Tue and Fri 2-3pm respectively, and a full-day without me on 19 Oct /Fri, the last week before start to work.

Life is pretty hectic at the moment. Daniel's nap has been getting worse since couple weeks ago, he totally refused to sleep in the cot during the day since he was able to pull himself up in the cot. Since then the settling method has gone backwards to driving him to nap again, which works very effectively, Once the car start moving, Daniel would doze off quickly. Today was no exception, I drove him to a country park prior to his nursery visit just in case he would gone hysterical in the nursery without me.
2 pm, the moment of truth, I asked Karen if I could stay for 5 minute watching him from the window, she just told me to go, don't make any fuss and ring up later. She picked up Daniel from my hands before I even finished kissing him and saying good-bye, Obviously Daniel was in distress immediately in a stranger's hands.I did what I told, left without fussing over Daniel. Walking out the nursery, I didn't burst into tears like what I thought I would do. The moment has passed, I think. My mind has already been well-prepared for this scene. Had this parting scene been in couple months ago, I would react pretty badly. Remember one month ago on one Saturday morning when Terry took Daniel out on his own leaving me to have a break at home, I was totally at loss and felt tearfully after they had gone, and I was alarmed by this emotion that moment, remember I was thinking what I'm going to do with myself when Daniel goes to school and when he goes to university...

Leaving nursery I walked to library, which is nearby, to have a cup of coffee and return some books. Seating in the library cafe, I phoned my mum telling her Daniel has gone to nursery on his own first time, then phoned Terry telling the same thing, 20 minutes later I phoned nursery asking how Daniel getting on. They answered he is fine, stopped crying 5 minutes after I left and now is playing the toys...anyway, one hour has past quicker than I realised, Before I have time to finish my coffee and pick up some new books, it was time to pick up Daniel. Obviously Daniel must know the time when I due back as I can hear his screaming from outside the nursery. He was crying in a staff's arms in front of his favorite toy when I walked in. Once he saw me he cried even louder (this is to make me feel guilty, according to nursery staff). I picked him up he stopped crying. We sat there for another 5 minutes, I can see that he want to get on toys again...

Joined gym again

Finally we signed up a joint gym membership again after quitting it two years ago due to my pregnancy. The plan is like this: I go Mon/ Fri 4pm, the days when I'm not working, Terry will come home early at 4pm to babysit Daniel and settle him to sleep. He goes Tue/Wed/Thur straight after work. I work 8am-4.30pm on these days, back about 5.15pm to pick up Daniel. Terry will go to work a bit late on these days to drop off Daniel. I am aiming to do 1.5 hours work-out on each gym visit.
Had my first gym session since pregnancy this afternoon, it felt really good afterwards. It meant to be my induction session, because i was with them for four years before, the instructor didn't bother to induct me. What he did was just quickly input of my medical details and the program I wanted into the computer system and gave me the tag key. I did bike, treadmill and stepper today on a lower resistance level than I used to do. After 30 minutes, I was very sweaty but felt really rejuvenating. Told myself not to overdo it on the first day, also worried about Daniel's evening routine, I didn't do weights after finishing my cardio program...

The cost for the gym membership wasn't that bad, £50 joint fee, £54 monthly payment and we get the 6th, 9th, 12th month for free. Considering I spent about £20 a month taking Daniel swimming in their water park every Thursday, it's really not bad as the swimming now is covered by the membership, plus classes i might do,like boxercise or yoga and the free off-peak badminton / squash court hire.

First settle-in session

Daniel had his first nursery settle-in session yesterday afternoon. It was on 2pm. I specially made him nap a bit earlier just in case he wouldn't settle in the nursery. The nursery is not far from our house (15 Min's walk), as it was not a particular nice day I drove Daniel to there. Despite its central location the nursery has plenty of parking spaces. It locates right behind a public park. This is one of the things I like about this Day Care as I will drop off Daniel by car on the way to work.

There were 8 babes yesterday afternoon. To start with, Daniel just sat there quietly watching the world around him while I was chatting with the nursery deputy manager Karen, who is holding a crying 6-month baby who just started nursery the day. I can see she was quite loving as she held the babe trying to rock him to sleep. She asked me if Daniel is always that quiet. I answered 'you haven't see his true colour yet!' After a while Daniel relaxed a bit, he started to take interest on the toys in other babes' hands, he tried to grab a rattle ring from a 20-month old baby, but didn't succeed as the other one guarded it firmly in his hands. Lucky Daniel didn't mind though! ;)i thought he might cry over this first setback in the nursery. While i was sitting there, couple of babes kept bringing toys to me ( probably thought I am one of the staff), especially a twin, they kept bringing picture books to me asking me to read to them and I did. Just after i had started reading to the twins, very quickly Daniel crawled back to my side declaring that this is his mummy.

Overall, Daniel wasn't that bad at all. The only crying incidendt was at the snack time. Just after i expressed 'how surprised i am that Daniel wasn't cry when one of the staff seated him into the high chair', he bursted into tears with handfull snacks holding in his hands, he must realised that it was not in the home...The session lasted for 2 hours, we left at 4pm and another session was booked for Monday morning...

Signed up nursery

we decided on Chatterbox.

I took Daniel to view another nursery this morning. The viewing just confirmed our first choice. Lunch time I dropped the signed forms together with the required £20 cheque at Chatterbox. Signed up Tue/Wed/Thur (I'll be working on such days) for Daniel's full day care. Also booked the first settle-in session for Daniel on Wendesday afternoon...

10 month old

Daniel has amazed us with his burgeoning motor skills on daily basis since he turned 10 month old. Terry had to tell him to slow down 'One trick at a time' he said. After months of having to rely on me to get him from place to place, Daniel now seems to have new tricks every day. My baby development recording can hardly keep the pace of his growing spurt.

Firstly he started to crawl on all fours scooting and scrambling across lounge and kitchen, then he started to crawl like a spiderman with one knee on floor and the other leg to propel him. The next day, he was chasing Terry with crawling style like a chimpanzee, one hand hold a DVD high and shouting at the same time, the other hand on floor and one knee on floor the other leg to propel. Now he can happily pull himself on a standing position in the cot or on the coffee table. He likes to practise walking with my hands under his arm to aid, sometimes he felt like running, good for him, not good for his old mummy as it's a back breaking activity for her.

One morning Daniel was sitting on his high chair after his breakfast playing the empty bowl, 'Dang,' 'Dang' he knocked the bowel twice with the spoon in his hand and tried to put the spoon in my mouth, I realised he was trying to feed me by copying my action of feeding him. Now he responded to the word like 'feed mummy', whenever I say so he would dip the spoon in the bowl then put it in my mouth. He started to give things to us to hold, he would hand a ball, a toy to us and now he even offered his dummy to me to suck. He seems to understand the concept of 'give' and 'take': Also now he understands the concept of take in turn when playing ball game with us. Whenever we say 'Danie's turn' he would push the ball.

He can speak perfectly the word of 'Mama' and 'DaDa', but I'm not sure if he truly understand what's it mean. he can say Daddy, but I have to remind him, he even said 'dirty' sometimes when I warn him not to touch something dirty...He babbles a lot and begins to respond to request and command like 'come here','come to get mummy'; 'give to mummy' ; 'open the door' etc. and he recognises lots words for common items in the house,like 'cupboard','shoes' ,'doors','windows' etc.

First office visit since maternity

I went in the office to have a meeting with my boss this morning. I emailed him last week letting him to know that I due to return work 23rd Oct and he asked me to come in to have a meeting with him as part of re-introduction to the team. Apparently there have been lots of change since I left. Lots of new faces and they now have lots of structural workloads from various sources ( good news!). I asked Terry to take half day off to look after Daniel though my boss offered to have meeting at my home if I had difficulty to arrange childcare.

I haven't been back office once since the starting of maternity leave, so it felt very refreshing driving to work on a sunny morning, especially when I chose a scenic route to one junction up motorway instead of my usual motorway exit.

On arrival office I reported to the receptionist (who is a new girl ) that I have a meeting with my boss. She gave me a visitor badge. I know I doesn't need that but just being polite. After a year maternity I found that my memory has gone down hill as I failed to remember lots of people's names when my boss briefed me the new organisational structure, some of the names rang the bell but I failed to link to particular faces. Terrifying, isn't it? The funny thing was i found myself moved up ladder when I was on my maternity. Though I told my boss i just want to work 3 days a week on return, he still seemed to keen on putting me on more responsibilities. He even spent quite a bit time telling me his personal story/advices on childcare choice to try to persuade me not engaging with guilt for going back to work. Apparently his wife went straight back to full time with their first one

Nursery Hunting

Nursery always an option for me before Daniel was born and I'd always said I would put my child into a nursery even the first couple months of maternity leave. Not wanting to do so is because of the increased awareness of the emotional risks of early separation for a baby from his mum followed by my extensive child-rearing-books-reading.

However all these readings and awareness, I kind of felt-the-fear-do-it-anyway and started nursery-hunting last week. I viewed couple of them light-hearted when Daniel was around 6 month old and now I really got my head around it. I viewed two so far and spent quite a bit time in each premise talking to staff. I have asked the questions like qualification, staff consistency, environment, diet, safety, cost, learning and emotional policy in particular. I was quite impressed bye one called Chatterbox, which came from a playgroup mum's recommendation. Maybe because i always believe that word of mouth is the best reliable source of information when it comes to choosing nursery, I got the good impression instantly when i stepped into their baby room, there are 8-9 babes of Daniel's age in the Chatterbox, they all looked very content and peaceful and engaging in what they are doing when we were there. Apparently, in terms of learning and play, they follow UK government's Birth To Three Matter Fram, also they provide daily log of baby's activity like what time they napped for how long, what time they had their nappy changed, what time they eat what and play etc... plus the observation sheet for the baby's development milestones backed up by photos ( hehe, saving me to do the blogs).. I particularly asked their emotional care and was delightedly told things like they nurse baby to sleep if the parents ask to. My own observation was that one 12 month baby cried when the manager left the room to show us around and he got picked up by her straight away , she explained that the baby was with her since he was 4 month old and he therefore became very attached to her. So it was not as bad as I thought. Regarding to ease baby's separation anxiety, she said we can visit the nursery many times as we wish for settle-in session without charge. Also they will phone parent at work to tell how the baby get on etc...

There is nothing to sad about sending your child one year old to the nursery, I love being with my son. I know I will miss him when I at work and might be shedding tears the first day when I let him go solo, but in that age old dilemma I also love being me and the freedom of being able to go on holiday and providing him a better education. there will be enormous personal cost if I choose otherwise now. I wouldn't trumpet the transition back to working life as some sort of symbol of having-it-all, like everything else in the life, there always comes with cost, I just have to get on with it!

Restless train journey

I took Daniel to Leeds to meet Terry for lunch yesterday. Normally i would just drive to Leeds, as it is just 40 minutes Motorway driving. But yesterday I decided to take train as a change. The fast train from where we live to Leeds would just take 32 minutes, plus 15 minutes walk to the train station, so it would be just under an hour journey, i thought, and it would give Daniel some fresh experience. Though it's not the first time for Daniel to be on a train, it was the first time I took him on train on my own. Terry was a bit worried about how I manage to get on and off train with Daniel, buggy and shopping, but i assured him it would be fine... I checked the train timetable on line in the morning before we set off, allowed 25 minutes to walk to the station to catch up the 10:12am fast train to Leeds. We got there 5 minutes earlier, however just to found out the intended service was cancelled, the next service would be a slow one which take nearly an hour to get Leeds and also there would be another 20 minutes waiting. Never mind! ! I was like thinking why i was so unlucky with train? This was the second time in a year when i used a train service and it went wrong. last time when i used a train service was when I serviced my car, the intended train back home was cancelled and was replaced by a bus service, which went every village and eventually took me 2 hours to get home for otherwise a 50 minutes journey. Anyway, i didn't feel that frustrated yesterday apart from the next train was so packed due to the cancelled fast servie. On boarding the train we just managed to find a seat next to the aisle. Daniel was so restless that he kept wanting to struggle off my lap, lucky i took some toys to distract him. However toys only kept him occupied for a little while, the next thing he found interesting was the newspaper that a neighbour gentleman was reading, Daniel tried to grab the newspaper a few times, but didn't succeed as i moved his hand away., then another lucky thing that kept Daniel still was that he found the conversation going on between two Indian doctors across the aisle was so interesting that he kept gazing at them, occasionally the lady and the young gentleman stopped their conversation to give Daniel a friendly smile.. Daniel fell asleep in my arm the last 10 minutes train journey.

We got Leeds just before 12am, met Terry at city Square and had lunch together in a Asian buffet restaurant near train station. Afterwards Terry went to back to his office neawr train station, Daniel and me went to shopping. The return journey was much more smooth. We got on the fast service as we intended at 1516 and the train was a lot more emptier and fast, Daniel got a spare seat to jump up and down and we got home just after 4pm.

Can't let go of co-sleeping with Daniel

I'm sure Daniel would probably be fully capable of sleeping on his own if I had practised a bit controlled-crying or I had been toughened up a bit more on him. I've been camping besides Daniel's cot for two weeks offering him my hands to hold whenever he woke up. He was doing fine and slept well, but I felt as if something missing on me, then I realised that I was genuinely missing the closeness it felt when a baby curling up towards me.

Some two weeks ago, I have finished reading another parenting book Titled The Science of Parenting by Margot Suderland, a practical guidance on sleep, crying, play and building emotional wellbeing for life backed by solid evidence from latest brain research into the impact of parenting on children's brain development and the experience of real families. It is a 280-pages thick book with lots neurological term to explain why particular parenting style is better for the child's developing brain and I read it letter by letter. In this book it states:

Sleeping in close physical proximity to a parent provides a baby with a sensorially rich environment because of all the movement, touch, smells and sounds. Skin-to-skin contact throughout in the night has been shown to regulate a baby's immature body and brain systems and can play a key role in maintaining his long-term mental and physical wellbeing. Extensive research shows close bodily contact between mothers and infants will regulate the infant's body temperature, metabolic rate and hormone levels, enzyme production, heart rate and immune system
( No wonder that it never heard Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in China where co-sleeping is the norm)

I was thinking: ' what I have done ! Instead of pressurizing myself to meet some fictitious norm, I should have just followed my own instinct to co-sleep with Daniel until he is no longer need my help to stay sleep!' That's where we are now: Daniel sleeps in the cot from 6pm to 10pm when I go to bed, from 10pm onwards he sleeps with me in our spare bedroom again.

Baby Proofing

Now that Daniel is able to crawl fast in a spiderman style. Over the weekend, we urgently baby-proofed our house , at least downstairs lounge and kitchen. Terry steam-cleaned the carpet for whole house. Terry used Daniel's old flower cushion, which Daniel never use again, to surround the house plant ( to prevent Daniel from eating compost, he was very interested in doing that) and hide the cables behind the TV cabinet (saved buying Cable Tidy). The mat from the cushion has been used to wrap around the corner of coffee table. Also, we urgently bought some socket covers and fridge lockers from Mothercare. Stair gates are the next thing to buy.

There will always be areas that are unsafe. Last night when I read this: every year children die because they pull furniture down on top of themselves, or because they scale chairs and tables to reach open Windows. Tow years olds have even been known to hang themselves from curtain cords, Terry told me to put two big vases on top of our display cabinet away immediately and I did. This morning when we woke up Terry said he had a nightmare about Daniel falling down staircase. Later I also found 3 decoration balls on the top shelf of the display cabinet has gone as well. Terry must put them away after I've gone to bed.

It has already been felt that the home is a bit like a death trap for babies and toddlers. I did remember I climbed high windows when I was a tot and jumped height. When you think about it, it's surprising how any of us made it to the adulthood.

2 months to go and separation anxiety

2 months to go before returning to work. 23rd Oct will be the Day I meant to return to work from my additional maternity leave. I don't really look forward to this for the obvious reason, the worry of how Daniel would cope the separation anxiety when he at a nursery. He 's been with me 24/7 since he was born, now merely the sight of me leaving the room would set him off crying or being in distress, and he still cannot fall asleep and stay asleep independently

Before Daniel was born I just planned to take 6 month ordinary maternity leave thinking I could go back to work easily to earn the money. However, when 6-months OML was up, emotionally I found I couldn't leave Daniel to a nursery, (parents have separation anxiety too!). Now another 6 months AML is nearly up, I found it's still hard for me to leave Daniel to a childcare arrangement.

I totally agree that one author's (she is also a psychotherapist helping parents who have children with sleep difficulties) view: she views sleep difficulties as the result of a failure to resolve issues about the relationship between the infant and parents, in particular feelings about separation. Her therapeutic work is designed to help parents and baby be better able to deal with separation. perhaps Daniel's sleeping issue is partly because of my unwillingness to let him go independently.

Hide-and-Seek

Daniel enjoyed peek-a-boo game in the past few months, now he enjoys hide-and-seek more than anything else, even more than the excitement of exploring cupboard and messing about all the controls. The game is like this: I hide myself behind the sofa asking where is mummy, Daniel will stop whatever he is doing turning to look the direction of the sofa and get himself into the crawling position immediately, Sometimes I peep out behind the sofa, sometimes I just crawl out sideways, each time when I show up he always bursts into laughter...

Daniel used to just be able to worm along on the floor or do a bit backwards-crawling with hands and knees. Since we started doing hide-and-seek game Daniel learned how to crawl really fast (to find me). Separation anxiety is such a big motivator!

Daniel's first theme park

It's been half a month since the last entry. Terry's one-and-half-week holiday was over. We had great time with his two daughters here. Holidays always mean the ruined routine. This one was no exemption,.Though we didn't go away we did go out for day trip almost everyday, which mean Daniel's new sleeping regime being sent back to square one and my habit of blogging nearly on the verge of being abandoned.

We went to the Flamingo Land, a theme park, zoo and holiday village in North Yorkshire. Whilst they boast there are the most x-treme coasters and rides in this county in this theme park , there are still a great selection of rides for families. Daniel had his first theme park experience with Professor Bubble's car ride. I generally avoid the sort of thrill from rollercoasting now as I know if I do I would scream my head off, which make Terry's daughters embarrassing, but it looks that the girls started to avoid some of the extreme rides as well. I remembered that we went on every ride together when we were on holiday in Wassenaar, Holland a few years ago. Daniel also looked aquarium and lots of animals.

Beach fun

I've been down this beach countless times, (Terry's parents live just yards away from it), however, I've never spotted so many attractions on this beach like what I did on this weekend with Daniel. There is fun park for those thriller-seeking children and adults alike, also miniature railway for babes and young children. We took Daniel for a rocking-rolling-riding on the miniature train to a nearby park , where we fed ducks and put Daniel on the swing. We took the gentle stroll along the beach twice a day during our 3-days' holiday at Terry's parents, one in the morning when the beach was deserted and tranquil and one in the afternoon when the beach was busy and packed with sun-chasers. There are lots of kite-sufers. Daniel paddled a bit water on the beach when the tide has gone out.

(Too busy to blog this week, I had to hit the publish button before I finish the text this morning. Terry is taking this week off to spend some time with his daughters at our home.)

A weekend at nanny's

what's nanny doing?
I am pole dancing

what are they up to?

nice shady place for me

tried out cousin's toys

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