lightning strikes twice

Freddie,

You’re almost one! But before we get to that, plenty happened over your eleventh month. With mum going back to work, you were booked in to start daycare, so there were frequent trips to check it out, before the first big day. I was lucky enough to spend a morning with you there, and it was pretty good. Patrick and Maverick came and gave you lots of cool toys to play with, and the carers were very … caring! When your first day came, I was given the job of dropping you of, to minimise any tears. But you barely even noticed me once you saw all the exciting little people! The carers said it was the best first day they could remember, which made us happy.

Other notes from this month:

• You’re very happy feeding yourself most bite sized foods now. You like to hold a spoon or kitchen toy, and you’re constantly thirsty.
• Standing and cruising furniture is old hat now. Your balance is getting better and better, so we could seem some first steps in the next couple of months.
• Macho arrived! Possibly a little traumatic for him to be chased all around the house, but you love having another four legged friend at your height. Macho has taken to hiding in my cupboard, but we’ve got some grainy footage of you rousing him there too.
• Your hair continues to amaze everyone, as did your Houdini escapes routine through the back door.

Next update you’ll be one year old!

Lots of love, Mum & Dad

• District 9 – great sci fi film with more pointed and refined social commentary than most.  Wirkus is in charge of a team to move some aliens from their slum to a new settlement outside Jo’burg.  Obviously covers many issues of racism and segregation, and insight into humanity in general.  Very gory, with lots of exploding heads!  I actually enjoyed the exploding heads.
• Tea With Mussolini – weak, cliched story of some old birds and a young boy they looked raised. Nothing compared to Cinema Paradiso or Life Is Beautiful.
• Watchmen – looked super slick.  Couldn’t quite follow the story though.  A bit long too.  Patrick Wilson was good!

• Crawling up five stairs in St.Ives — pure determination!
• Pulling yourself up on furniture and in the bath, surely walking can’t be far off!
• Saying Dada and Mama (we’re pretty sure that is what you’re saying)
• You’re a little bulldog — so determined, and you don’t let too much get you down.
• Separation anxiety has started, you’ve had many a clingy day recently.
• First day at the beach — this was so magic.  I can’t wait to get the photos of this from Nick & Blathneid.  You loved every second, and even a monster wave knockdown barely rattled you.

My predictions for this month: more furniture cruising, more confidence, and perhaps …. a real pet.

Lots of love,

Mum & Dad

Wow, time flies (again!)

Freddie, over the last two months, you’ve done a whole heap of new things:

• Your hair has grown long, yet still stands straight up (ala Bart Simpson.)  A couple of months ago you barely had hair.  Will try and put some photos here.
• Your crawling is really fast.  But you still crawl by dragging yourself across the floor.  I think you’re so succesful this way that you’ve no incentive to learn hands and knees crawling.  Also, you’ll have massive shoulders from the dragging motion.
• Just yesterday, your mum called me at work to tell me you’d pulled yourself up on the side of the bath, all by yourself!  So it can only be a few months more till you’re running around everywhere like a little rascal.
• Still sleeping like a champ.  As I write this, you’ve been asleep for twelve hours without a peep.  Great work little man.
• I’ve become a bit less busy at work, so we’ve had some really fun weekend activities together.  Daddaday is a hit with mummy.
• The baby pterodactyl scream.  Hatching from a dinosaur egg.  Your way of getting attention now.
• You’ve started to feed yourself a little.
• Also, your food habits have been blogged about elsewhere: Freddie the Foodie

Richie says no to regular turntables, and manual beat matching (in Richie Hawtin fireside chat).   People say he is cheating, but doing manual beat matching is just a symptom of old technology.  If you don’t have to do it, you are wasting your time.  That would be like coding everything in assembler, because Ruby was ‘cheating’.  Haters need to get with the times.

On Sunday I competed in the 7km BayRun 09 (as we did last year)… and ended up running almost exactly the same time (36:11 this time around).  I had a bout of laryngitis last week, and with work being so busy I haven’t had much time to run, but they’re just excuses.  Oh well, next year!

My lame claim to fame is that I played (okay, trained, I was never on his team) with Phil Waugh during his schoolboy rugby days.  Anyway, I’m a big a fan of his, but the way he deals with the media has reached full on “robot” mode.  I’m sure he is a great leader, but it’s all platitudes all the time with Phil these days when it comes to his media comments:

‘‘After losing those two, it leaves a pretty big hole,’’ Waugh said. ‘‘Certainly the younger guys are a little disheartened about losing those two experienced guys, and this just gives everyone reassurance and confidence. By getting Berrick on the books, there’s certainly a nice vibe around NSW Rugby at the moment.’’

I had a little personal bet with myself about the number of times Phil would say “certainly” in this article, and while he was worrying me in the first couple of paragraphs, he’s come through in the end.

Barnes signing delights Waugh – rugbyheaven.com.au.

by Joseph Heller

I thought perhaps this would not measure up so well to Catch-22, as it is so well known and loved, but this is an amazing book in its own right.  The premise is that King David (from the Bible, but also timeless) is telling his story, from almost the beginning, to almost the end.  We hear about all the things not fit for the Bible, the women he has slept with, the people he has crossed, the wise words he has said, and his feud with God (for taking the life of his baby.)

The wit and humour of the story are superb.  David’s son Solomon (or ‘Shlomo’) is a comic figure made fun of for his lack of sense and wisdom (precisely the things he became known for through the Bible), and the portrayal of his manipulative wife Bethsheba is perfect in the balance between beguiling and bold.

Will definitely get a re-read.

Dear Freddie,

Wow, a heinous workload at the new job means I’ve missed your last month update! Being in the office at least 6 out of 7 days a week (and often 7 out of 7! Today I’m up to 14 days straight and 20 out of 21) is not compatible with spending a lot of time with you. The plus side is your mum is handling you superbly, and that when I do get to see you, you’ve almost always got new things to show to me!

Here are all the things you’ve managed since the last update:

• You’re still sleeping like a champ (mostly.)
• Your rolling is sooo old news. Now it’s all about sitting and commando-crawling. You have sitting up baths, which means the occasional tumble and mouthful of water.
• You’ve started eating solids (at five and a half months). Very exciting for you, very messy for us. Favourites include anything with ricotta, pumpkin, carrot, apple. Not so mad about peas (like your dad.)
• Goya, goya, goya
• Lots of laughs! You’ve got a ticklish tummy.
• And it seems you are VERY social. You like nothing more than new people, especially little people.

All your updates are on http://freddiebolton.com.

Lots of love, Mum & Dad (written by dad).