Monthly review: September 2016

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review

A- has gotten a lot more active. She's figured out how to roll both ways both directions, and can now roll over and over and over. Walls confused her for a bit, but she seems to have gotten the hang of them now – or at least she doesn't keep rolling into them, then away a little, then back into them, then away, then back… She can also crawl short distances and sit or play mostly independently for a good number of minutes. She likes it when I play peek-a-boo, and she can whisk a cloth away to reveal me or a toy I've hidden. She's been expanding her vocabulary, too: lip smacking, slobbery kisses, and more intonation. She's definitely vocal about her appreciation of bubbles and other fine things.

A- has really taken to self-feeding in her high chair. A month of solid weight gains helped her make it past the 5th and 10th percentile curves, and she looks like she'll be past the 15th percentile curve soon. Kamut puffs and Toodle-Os let her work on her pincer grip, and she tends to prefer bits of our meals more than infant cereals or purées. I've been applying what I learned in the nutrition workshop, making an effort to get in more iron for her and more calcium for me. She's been settling into somewhat of a routine when it comes to eating, nursing, and sleeping (having mostly gotten the hang of longer naps, of which she usually has two). Between that and her increasing capacity for entertaining herself, I've actually been able to get back into cooking and other household chores. Whee!

The caseworker from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind assessed A-'s vision and capabilities with the help of blinking toys, small objects, and a musical triangle. It was fascinating to watch her probe A-'s field of vision, observation, and tracking. So far, it seems A-'s doing perfectly well with one eye. The caseworker will close our file for now, but we can get in touch with CNIB if A- needs more help when she's mobile. In other news, the cardiologist said A-'s okay to travel, so all systems go. Yay!

TD lost our forms, so we redid the paperwork for A-'s RESP. Added our first investment! In other education-related news, J- started university, and seems to be enjoying her program. They're both off to a good start.

I switched from a digital index card workflow back to a paper one in order to accommodate changing baby-proofing needs (no more laptop chargers beside the bed, now that she's crawling and rolling!) and prepare for our upcoming trip. It's working surprisingly well. I draw after A-'s asleep, or if she's focused on playing on her own. The index cards are easy to carry to another room if I want to spend more time with W-. I can draw with my headlamp on, and I'm not as tempted to stay up late doing other things on my computer. ClearScanner on my phone takes care of deskewing and cleaning up images, and my Emacs functions for renaming and organizing images were easy to tweak for the new filenames and formats. I should probably think about colour at some point, but that can come later.

I've also been tweaking what I can do on my phone during nursing sessions. I've been trying out Orgzly for writing and a few Org-related things. Using Connectbot to SSH to my server has come in handy, too. I upgraded my server thanks to Linode's anniversary promo, and I'm still thinking of more things I can do with the extra RAM.

Speaking of computer stuff – my fiscal year end is here, so I spent a little time reconciling my bank statements and getting things ready for taxes. I won't be able to finalize the numbers until December or so, but it's always nice to have an idea of how things will shape up. My notes from last year have been helpful, and I've been filling in more notes as needed. Hooray for Org Mode outlines and to-dos! It's been a surprisingly good year, even with pregnancy and becoming the primary caregiver for an infant. My clients are super-flexible, and I've managed to get stuff done. Whee!

Social things this month: attended the midwives' picnic and caught up with a few folks from the prenatal class we attended, started attending the Make the Connection program and the peer nutrition support site, and bartered the glass bottles A- barely used for two large bags of baby clothes. Moved to the Friday sessions at our neighbourhood early years centre, too.

W- has been busy with J-'s closet reno and all the little things that popped up along the way, including getting the carpet professionally stretched in order to eliminate bumps and bring it up to the wardrobe. We moved all the upstairs stuff around so that all the carpet there could get fixed. W- built custom shelving, too. Neat.

Starting to get the hang of this!

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Period 1 % Period 2 % Diff % h/wk Diff h/wk
Business – Build 0.1 0.4 0.3 0.6 0.4
Discretionary – Play 0.5 0.9 0.5 1.5 0.8
Unpaid work 5.6 5.2 -0.3 8.5 -0.6
Unpaid work – Childcare 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Discretionary – Social 2.5 2.2 -0.3 3.5 -0.5
Discretionary – Family 2.0 1.1 -0.9 1.8 -1.5
Sleep 34.3 34.6 0.3 56.3 0.5
Business – Connect 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.2
Business – Earn 1.3 1.6 0.4 2.6 0.6
Discretionary – Productive 4.6 4.5 -0.1 7.3 -0.2
Personal 12.4 11.3 -1.1 18.4 -1.8

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