Alder's Tone

First off, the size. At birth he was 7lb 7.5 ozs in old money, came home slightly lower (but not near the maximum 10% permitted drop) and since then it's been on the up ever since with no respite. I could be talking about myself here, but alas not, still talking about Junior.

He's been on the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height (length) all the way through, so he's sticking to the growth charts perfectly.

Bigger...Bigger...BiggestWhat does this mean then? Well, a couple of angles to look at it. The mathematical and the mathematical. In terms of percentiles his weight means that 50% of babies his age are lighter then him, and 50% heavier, so he's bang in the middle. For length there are 75% shorter than him and 25% longer than him, so he's on the longer side. In proportion he's the opposite to his daddy who is more heavy than long.

The other mathematical can be measured in many ways, but it all boils down to the same thing. He's "retiring" a lot of clothes at the moment, we're squeezing him into the largest of his "up to 3 months" clothes while boxing up the smaller ones. His vests are almost off-the-shoulder numbers now, but being a true Yorkshireman "there's wear in them yet". Weigh the clothes, price the clothes, do what you will, it all boils down to £££££££££££££ that we need to spend to get his wardrobe sorted out. Now he's too big for the crib he's moved full time into his cot, filling the pram, car seats looking like the inserts will have to come out shortly. All extra £££££££££.

As a person he's getting his major motor skills tuned. No that's not him getting into fast cars, but perfecting the art of moving. He's showing signs of wanting to roll, but with the norm being from front to back first that will be a challenge as he does not like being on his tummy. Grip has come along in the last couple of weeks, really quickly in the last week. The toys on his bouncy chair are fair game, as are the dangling toys on his play mats. The whacking has changed to grabbing, with one hand initially but we're seeing two handed attempts along with some two handed successes. Just pull a little harder on that one son and it'll play a tune. Sitting up isn't a problem any more as long as there's suitable support, and the head is upright for longer periods. And next week the dash down the left wing before following the cross and he shoots, he SCORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, his favourite TV show at the moment is Match of the Day.

The best part about being a dad at the moment is coming home, being recognised, and seeing the joy on that little face as he welcomes his daddy home, genuinely pleased to see me. I didn't get that in the newborn stage, so there are positives to this development lark.

Weaning. No there's something to look forward to, food everywhere, shit everywhere, what joy we have to come. We're not there yet. What's that, a letter inviting MOTS to the weaning class? Oh fuck, here we go...

So yeah, newborns. Not for long at all. Enjoy it while you can.