Monthly review: October 2016

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review

It's delightful watching A- figure out movement. She's gotten more intentional with her hands: playing peek-a-boo by holding something up near her head, plucking the strings of my ukulele, exploring leaves (and trying to eat them!), grabbing the finger food that she likes.She's a pretty active crawler now, and she can get quite fast when she's going for the cats. She's also been working on creeping, getting her knees under her and lifting her tummy off the ground. She mostly still inchworms – lifts herself up, drops down to crawl one span, and then lifts herself up again – but she has almost figured out creeping all the way.

There's plenty of room for her to crawl around now that W- has finished J-‘s closet. We moved J-‘s stuff back in her room, and now A- has floor and closet space again! I organized A-‘s clothes and toys by type, and the system has been holding up well so far.

We've been spending time outdoors to take advantage of the last few warm and sunny days of the year. The backyard has been a great place to explore the tastes and textures of the herbs in our garden. We've also walked to quite a few parks and libraries close by. The socks don't quite cover her legs when her pants ride up, so I made her a pair of leg warmers and a hat from a sweater. We lost one of the leg warmers already, but that's okay, I'll just have to make more. Gotta figure out cool weather walking gear!

A-‘s weight gain has slowed down a bit, but it's still within normal range, so maybe last month's rapid gains were part of a catch-up growth spurt. The pediatrician isn't worried, so neither are we.

Probably due to all that growth, A-‘s prosthetic eye has been popping out more often. We'll see the ocularist after our trip. In the meantime, we'll just have to deal. She gets upset when we restrain her to put it back in, but recovers okay after W- manages to reinsert the shell. I still worry from time to time that we might traumatize her or cause her to distrust us, but oh well, this is our life.

Lots of sleep disruption too, but that's also pretty normal for this age. We go to bed late and wake up late, but there's still plenty of time in the afternoon for social stuff. I helped out Jen and Ewan, met Justin and Joy, spent Thanksgiving with W-‘s family, checked out meetups for Junction parents and Toronto parent educators, finished the Make the Connection program, picked up lots of vegetables because of the Peer Nutrition program (including five bunches of kale!), and checked out various baby activities. I made a pirate hat and vest for A- and I cobbled together a quick pirate costume for myself based on stuff in my closet and a DIY felt eyepatch, and we handed out Halloween candy.

Big step: I finally made it out to the dentist after two years of being away! I took the opportunity to find a new dentist, too, one who had good reviews for child dental care as well. W- took care of A- while I went for cleaning and a new patient exam. I needed two fillings, which is not a bad result for all that time. Level up!

Level up in my consulting project, too. Got past a couple of technical roadblocks with some help, and now the add-on should be ready for other people to tinker with it.

Busy month. W-‘s been in constant motion, too: working on the porch, upgrading the workshop, investing in tools and skills… Whee!

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Occasionally remembered to track stuff as more specific categories instead of childcare (ex: breakfasts, cooking), even if I had A- with me. Also managed to fit in a little time for consulting, yay!

Category Last month % This month % Diff h/wk Diff h/wk
Personal 11.3 13.1 1.7 22.7 2.9
Discretionary – Social 2.2 3.4 1.3 6.0 2.2
Business – Earn 1.6 2.8 1.2 4.8 1.9
Discretionary – Family 1.1 1.9 0.8 3.3 1.3
Discretionary – Play 0.9 0.8 -0.1 1.4 -0.2
Business – Connect 0.2 0.0 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Business – Build 0.4 0.1 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Unpaid work 43.3 42.8 -0.5 74.3 -0.8
Discretionary – Productive 4.5 3.1 -1.3 5.4 -2.2
Sleep 34.6 31.9 -2.7 55.4 -4.5
Unpaid work – Childcare 38.1 35.1 -2.9 61.0 -4.9
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