Visions of sugarplums

Emmett's crashed out waiting for Santa Claus. Man, I hope he's been a good boy this year. I suppose we'll see tomorrow. I suspect he might not be disappointed, he seemed to be fairly good to me. He's certainly not on my naughty list. Most of the time. Watch this space... 

Little snowman!!

Now come on... everyone knows it is a mother's duty to dress their child up in a great many embarrassing outfits and take lots of pictures to humiliate them at a later date. Its not my fault I'm just particularly good at it. He makes it too easy, he just sits there laughing along like he's in on the joke instead of actually being the joke. Some day he'll hate me, but for now its all systems go!

Christmas is just around the corner. I'm sure Santa is tanked up and ready to go on his rounds. Emmett doesn't really care one way or another, but we stuck a bit of a ps onto Eoghan's letter so hopefully he'll make his way down our chimney, too. After all, Emmett's been a good boy, most of the time! He's lying in his pushchair laughing at me at the moment... Trying to blow bubbles.. Little eegit :)

Well, frosty and I had better retire.. night night! 

Two tootsie teeth

Emmett cut his second little tootsie yesterday. He has Aoibhin beaten! Score!! Round one to the little DM! He has also started shaking his head over and back when prompted. He responds most to Granda on this one, but sometimes he'll do it for me. Generally when nobody else is looking, for some reason.

I brought Emmett into outpatients for his checkup yesterday. They took more swabs for the MRSA - I asked the doctor about bringing him to visit his post op granny, he advised against it. So for the very first time, we're spending the weekend away from my little man. We've done one night before, but not the whole weekend. This could get ugly! Ah no, I'm sure we'll all handle the seperation very well. I'm part looking forward to it (a lie in and no bottles to make before bed) and part dreading it (a whole weekend without my little puppy dog). I'd say his granny is 100% dreading it, because she'll be minding him. By the by, happy birthday, granny!

 

3 Little monkey cousins 

The littlest Santa! 

Ho ho ho!

Emmett had his first encounter with Mr Claus! He dressed up as Santa himself, someone once told him that imitation was the most sincere form of flattery and he took it very seriously. He looks as cute as a monkey in his little santa suit. No padding needed there, either! He wasn't afraid of Santa at all, but was pretty fascinated by the man himself.

Last week, on Emmett's 5 month birthday, he cut his first tooth! Such a big boy! He's pretty close to getting the second one now, you can see a little white line lurking underneath the gum just waiting to make an appearance. I'm willing it to come through for two reasons - to stop the little guy's pain, and more importantly, to beat Aoibhin. Come on, tooth, hurry up! She looks fierce funny with her single solitary tootsie. She is a very open mouth laughy kinda gal, and all you can see is this one little popeye tooth peeping out at you. Funny.

The sweet smell of success...

... apparantly smells a lot like feet. Yes, the gentleman has finally managed to do what he's been trying to do for months - eat his own feet. He looked so proud lying there sucking on his own big toe. I suppose I'd be pretty pleased if I could do that too. He's also mastered rolling over on the bed now, so you can't let him out of your sight for a second from hereon in. The fun starts here, people.

His chest seems to be improving, fingers crossed. Its pretty rattly and he's coughing more which seems to hurt him, but his breathing seems better and he is in better form. Most of the time.. sometimes, particularly when he's getting tired, he takes a crying thing and won't settle. Poor little guy. Hopefully it won't be too long before we have our happy laughy little man back, its not nice to see him all sicky.  

Poor little sick man again!

Or maybe that should read still.. Mam called me home from work today to bring him to the doctor because pulled one of his funny breathing stunts on her. Until now, he'd only done it at night. The doc said he was pretty wheezy and put him on a nebulizer. The relief seemed to be pretty instantaneous for the little guy.. He was much better all day. We have to keep him sucking back the funny gas now until he's better. Hopefully it'll help his night time sickness too. He's really bad some nights, but sleeps through others. Fingers crossed for the poor wee fella. His granny DM is having a tough time of it too, so here's a big shout out to Granny in hospital - get well soon!

I feel really guilty going to work with the man sick, and mam is afraid he'll take another turn on her watch, so I've booked off until Friday as annual leave. I am going to spoil my wee man rotten, all the attention he can handle! He'll be a nightmare when he gets better!! I just want him to shake the stupid thing once and for all. He's pretty off his bottle today, although he has taken a couple of spoon feeds, he hasn't sucked back the moo juice all day. Now I know he's REALLY sick!

Better go make dinner! 

Poor baby sick!

Poor old Emmett.. He had a rough week. He has a chest that sounds like an old pair of boots, however they'd sound. Pretty bad, I imagine. He is coughing away like a little smoker. I guess he should cut back on the fags. Aoibhin is even worse, though, she sounds like last legs material altogether. They both seem to be improving, though, now that they've given it to me and Granny. Carrier monkeys, thats all they are. Dirty diseased little carrier monkeys. Where's Dustin Hoffman when we need him? Emmett started waking up at night again with this cold. Yay! I've started ramming dozol down his little chops and putting a humidifier in the room spouting lovely pine oil fragrances around the shop, and he didn't wake in the last couple of nights, so hopefully we're going back to normal. Fingers crossed, anyway. I had gotten really used to sleeping through the night again, it wasn't a pretty sight when I was woken.

Emmett's Granny DM and auntie Siobhan came down on Friday night for a bit of an old visit. A good time was had by all of us, hopefully by the visitors too.. Emmett really loved all the attention. He got remarkably used to it, too, between the patient syndrome and having people coo and goo over him - he's learned that crying equals being lifted, and he's making full use of the knowledge. Babies are so smart its unbelievable.

We went out on Saturday evening then for Fergal's graduation/21st birthday. Even Little Niall made it down for it. Poor old Aoibhin was in rotten form, so Grainne didn't really get much of a meal. She had that aforementioned cold, and she cut her very first tooth. Big girl! She was inconsolable until she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. Poor baa, I felt so sorry for her. This pair of pineapples in the table beside us sat throwing dirty looks over all through the meal. I felt like strangling them, its not like the child was doing it on purpose. I'd love to have the guts to just stare back or ask them what their major malfunction is, but unfortunately I hate confrontation!! I was cursing a blue streak inside my head, though, I'd say they could see the malignant looks, alright. Saps.

So that was that, a very eventful weekend, all in all!

Yawnfest 2005

I must admit, that wasn't the most interesting weekend we've ever had.. Emmett stayed at home with his Daddy while I went shopping. I think the pair drove each other bonkers. Apparantly Emmett was alright as long as Stephen gave him his 100% full attention constantly, and changed the amusing activity every 30 seconds. Welcome to parenthood!

I did some serious shopping. Christmas is mostly sorted out now, woohoo!! Grainne and I bought a high chair for Mammy's house, but when we got it home there was a bit broken on it, so that has to go back today. Well, it could wait, but we're heading in to town anyway so we may as well bring it back. I also got the cutest little hat for him, it has two bobbly things and he looks adorable. Must post a picture. I bought him a bib for christmas which supposedly plays Christmas tunes, but I did what my mother always does and took one from the back of the rack, and it doesn't bloody work. Must have been the weekend for buying goods that need returning. See? Told you it was boring weekend.

Emmett finally turned pro at sticking things in his gob and eating them. We were sitting around the birthday cake for Garrett and I was having a nice cup of coffee (thanks, Francis!). Emmett was watching it and trying to get at it every time I put the thing up to my mouth, so I got a glass and put a little coke in the bottom of it. The second it gets within his reach he is grabbing it with both hands and bringing it down to his mouth, then licking out the contents. I'm thinking of throwing him a sippy cup just to play with to see how he gets on. It was funny to watch him get hyped up on his first coke! The unfortunate side effect is that he now assumes he's getting some every time I'm drinking from a cup or glass.

Thats pretty much it. I know what you're thinking.. how can one family survive so much excitement in their lives? Well its tough.. you just have to take one day at a time and hope that the adrenaline rush doesn't cause the old ticker to give out on you. So far so good.

 

Happy Hallowe'en!


So its Emmett's very first Hallowe'en. Exciting stuff!! I dressed him up like a pumpkin. We went trick or treating with Eoghan, although it didn't work out according to plan.. I had bought Eoghan a wee all in one skeleton suit to wear, but he decided it was scary so that was that - no go. Instead, he just wore a little jumper with spiders on it. The net effect was that he didn't look dressed up. Not to worry! The three of us walked down to Noreen and Garrett's house, then up to Granny's and finally over here to Stephen. Eoghan sang his Hallowe'en song he learned at playschool for everyone. He's gone home now, and its just me, Stephen and Emmett here. We've had a good few trick or treaters call.. Witches seem to be mighty popular this year. We did have a couple of people who you could clearly see just decided they wanted sweets - one just stuck a hat on her head and used her handbag as her goodies sack. Knacker!! Now Emmett is in mighty bad form, I think he may be punishing me for making him look so stoopid earlier on. If I'm not hiccuping or sneezing, he's crying and/or puking. Its such tiring stuff keeping him entertained - the only reason I'm getting to write this is because Stephen is sticking a bottle in his gob as we speak. I suppose I'd better get back in the line of fire - I'll know better than to make a muppet of him again next year! I wouldn't mind, but I didn't even let him eat any chocolate - so thats not what is making him grizzly.. Or maybe thats why he IS!

Happy Birthday to you!!

My teeny tiny baby boy turned 4 months yesterday. So to celebrate, I brought him today for his 4 month injections and a hip x-ray! Hooray!! I'm the greatest mother ever. He was very good - he sat on my lap while he was getting the injections. For the first one, he just looked at the nurse with interest, he didn't cry at all. The nurse was a bit of a pro, actually, she had it in and out so fast I don't think he even noticed. I don't know what sort of horrendous juice they put in the second one, though, the men c one.. he cried with that, alright. Not as bad as the last time, though. I managed to stop him by distracting him with a toy elephant. Last time he woke the dead in a 50 mile radius with his screeching. I brought him for a hip x-ray then just to make sure he REALLY knew who was boss. He actually loved that - he got to take his pants off, and there is nothing that child likes more than taking his pants off. Taking his pants off and getting his photo taken all at once, sure he was in heaven. He didn't even pee or anything!! The waiting room was pretty funny.. he was all fretting and fussing, and I took him out of his pushchair and took the bottle out of his changing bag - the very second he saw it, he got all excited and started saying "huh huh huh huh".. then he started devouring. Everyone in the waiting room was laughing at the poor little fella..

I felt bad, of course, for making him get those nasty injections, so we nipped into town then and bought him some roll-a-rounds.. little plastic balls with swinging animals in them. They went down a treat, apparantly they're delicious, but its a little frustrating when you can't get the whole thing in your mouth. This also led to an abundance of jokes (his balls dropped, eating his balls, etc...). Funnily enough, it never grows tiresome. I don't really know who has a more mature sense of humour, him or me.

I've given up the pretence and put 6-9 month clothes on him.. They're long, but at least they aren't cutting off the blood supply to the child's legs. I don't know if its that he is huge or children's clothing sizes are all wrong, but 3-6 month clothes are ridiculously small. He's going to overtake his daddy soon. I would say me, but come on, he's not THAT big!!

 

*Almost* milestones

What an exciting weekend. I'm only a bit sarcastic when I say that. Actually it was a grand weekend, just pretty mundane. I went shopping on Saturday and bought Emmett's first ever computer, the laptop in the picture opposite. We're going to train him to be a little computer geek, just like Mammy and Daddy. Mainly Daddy, because Mammy is cool, she just happens to know stuff about computers. It even has a 'mouse', a little blue mouse's head that squeaks when you squeeze it. I bet your laptop doesn't have a heart and a star key, though.. Well, Emmett's does. Hah!! Unfortunately, he seems more taken with cousin Aoibhín's pink doll, Annie.. She talks. He eats her. Its a win win situation. I also bought his big manly man car seat - he gets to sit facing forward in this one!! I haven't installed it yet, though, going to wait a couple of months. I'll miss the one we have, you see - it was handy to be able to just click him straight into it, then pull him out without waking him up and throw him in on top of the pushchair. Unfortunately, though, you'd need muscles like Arnold Shwarzahoweveryouspellit or Hulk Hogan or some other 90's superstar to be able to lift him in it these days.

Emmett had a big almost day today. He can almost talk. Well, he spent most of the day saying "da da da da da" repeatedly. I'm not demented, now, I don't think he actually associates it with Stephen or anything, but why couldn't he say ma ma ma ma ma instead? I'm the one who gets up at 7.30 every morning to make his bottles and dress him, and then bring him over to Granny's house. And what do I get? Da bloody da. There's no justice in the world. He even said ba ba ba ba ba.. Vain. Self praise is no praise, Emmett. Stephen was all encouraging of this, of course. Actually, he sat for about 15 minutes today trying to teach Emmett to press buttons on the remote control. Apparantly he could do it yesterday, he just got shy with Mammy watching. All he seemed capable of doing to me was licking it. I don't know what is so tasty about remote controls, but the child was going mad for it. He nearly rolled over today, too.. he lay on his back and pushed and pushed with his left leg until he was lying on his right side, but infuriatingly, he stopped at that. Tease!! Ah well, its a bit much to ask him to talk, eat electronic devices AND roll over for the first time all in one day.

On a personal note, I made a bit of a jackass out of myself today. I left the lights on in the car when I was at work this morning and sure enough, by lunch my battery was dead. D'oh! I had to call out the AA man, it was so embarrassing. I could just see him saying to himself that women drives suck.. I really fit that stereotype today. I wouldn't mind, but I was all distracted and I parked really wonky because the guy beside me was opening his door while I was parking so I had a dead battery and a crooked parking job. Nice. Ah well, hopefully I won't see him for another while. Not until the next time I do it. What, me? Learn? Never!! s 

Messy boy

Why is it that babies feel the need to drool over everything in sight? I put a nice shiny new outfit on Emmett today thinking we'd dress him up and bring him for a walk around town with his Granny and show him (off to) the world.. Within 2 minutes, before I'd even had a chance to take a picture of how lovely he looked, he'd a big wet patch under his chin. So now its a lovely outfit marred by a bib. Sometimes I don't know why I bother putting nice clothes on the child at all.

Poor old baba's dry skin/eczema or however you spell it seems worse, too. When he was with the doc for a chesty cough, he said that I should continue putting aqueous cream on it, but it honestly seems worse since I started doing it on a regular basis. Maybe these things are best left well enough alone. It always seems that it flares up whenever I have to bring him to see members of the medical profession. Its crystal clear most of the time, but because I have to bring him for a checkup on Thursday, he looks like I never put anything on to help the guy out. Bah.

I think maybe it might all be related to teeth.. He's a bit like a bag of cats today, very difficult to settle. You have to bounce him continuously on your knee while keeping eye contact, shaking your head from side to side and singing "bouncy bouncy bouncy boo". Leave out any step and he cries the house down. Poor little guy. Maybe the walk will cheer him up!  

Emmett Michael Dillon-Malone

Born June 26, 2005

Weight 8lb 7oz

Height 21.25"


Hello! This is the blog of my baby Emmett - I'm Mammy, known as Deirdre to people other than Emmett. Stephen is the Daddy. I'll be doing the blogging, because 18 week old babies are notoriously bad at typing. And yes, we have tried, but he just keeps whacking the space bar. It doesn't make for interesting reading. Cynics may say that this hardly qualifies either, but you know what? Forget you, cynics!!

Emmett was born in June, 11 whole days overdue. He gave me a pretty rough time, but I have mostly forgiven him a this stage. Mostly. Needless to say, I'll remember it all to remind him of in the future. "Oh, the pain you put me through.. 3 weeks of labour (because I'm sure the tale will increase in gory detail with every retelling), and then you came out sideways and weighted in at 4 stone!"

So anyway, enjoy the blog, hopefully I'll be good at keeping it up to date. Unlikely, but hopefully!