Month: August 2008

It’s been a pretty interesting week, this week. After being inspired by our NCT buddies, we decided to get hold of a potty and start getting familiar with it. It’s not serious potty training, but he does manage to do the business every now and then. No pressure. Very clever.

Other cleverness this week included learning to clap hands (yay Ruben!) and the beginnings of a 5th tooth! (Five already?! We are starting to wonder whether we’ll ever get a break from this!)

We’ve been watching a bit of the Olympics this week. It’s been a little cooler (despite still being summer) so Ruben has been able to wear his very first track suit (sent from Australia, thanks Granny!). Very stylin’

He’s still showing very little interest in moving about, but is very interested in sitting up and talking… talking a lot! We’re hearing lots of ‘mama, mama, mama’ that seems to apply to just about anything, however he has said ‘dada, dada, dada’ at times that make you think he knows what he means (that is, when trying to get Mick’s attention). Jacky reckons he has a few Spanish words too, but I suspect that may be wishful thinking. He definitely has spanish ‘sounds’… at any rate, he certainly does like a chat any time of the day or night.

Watching the Opening Ceremony and having lunch from Leisa on Vimeo

Speaking of which, he’s decided that sleeping is for losers, and is not doing a whole lot of it during the night. He very happily goes *to* sleep, but staying asleep is another matter. We’re being big softies about it and just letting him snuggle in bed with us so that we can get a little sleep (and subsequently get up to work the next day!). You’re allowed to say ‘told you so’ when he’s still in bed with us 3yrs later. Can’t do the ‘cry it out’ approach … not yet, anyway.

Ruben’s latest contribution to science from Leisa on Vimeo.

Here’s a little science experiment we did the other day (with some scientists, of course!). It was all about finding out how babies react to different facial expressions and they were tracking his emotional response through all those little things on his head. He did a great job 🙂

Ruben is 7 months old now. Where did all that time go?

Rubes is sitting and talking and eating and being very clever, but showing virtually no inclination towards mobility, which we are all very happy about. No rush. The house isn’t baby proofed yet!

He’s just cut his fourth tooth (two on the top and two on the bottom). This last tooth has been giving him a bit of trouble and he’s not been sleeping so well lately. It makes everyone want afternoon naps, but Ruben is the only one who is lucky enough to get them these days.

We went to the Baby Clinic this week for a weigh in and he’s now 9.5kgs or about 20lbs, and around the 75th centile. So despite the fact that everyone tells us he’s such a big boy (and he’s fitting into clothes that are supposedly designed to fit a 12 month old baby), 25% of babies are bigger than him.

Things we’ve been doing recently include going to Story Time at the Horniman Museum, and a trip into town to participate in a research project which involved Ruben getting a hairnet made of electrodes on his head and looking at pictures of faces on a television to measure his emotional reaction to different facial expressions. Very interesting!

Ruben’s latest contribution to science from Leisa on Vimeo.