Monthly review: June 2017

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First steps! A- needed both hands in order to carry a small basketball, so she picked it up and tentatively walked a few steps independently. She has tried it out a few more times since then, although she mostly prefers to hold our hands while walking.

A- got a larger conformer. She cried for an hour while we waited for the ocularist to do his thing. I took her for a blood test on the same day, too, so it was a hard day for her. We managed, though. A- also got tooth #7 (bottom left lateral incisor), so she’s been a little out of sorts.

Lots of enrichment this month. We completed eight sessions of toddler music classes at the Royal Conservatory of Music. I picked up lots of new songs and rhymes. A- got better at tapping rhythmically, and she also got the hang of sitting down and standing up at the right spots in Ring Around the Rosies. She even warmed up enough to walk around along with me, picking up the pace when the music was faster. Nilda also suggested painting and playdough, both of which A- enjoyed. I sent A-‘s first batch of paintings to my parents in the Philippines so that they can enjoy a fridge art exhibition too. We’ve been going to the ROM.

A- has been showing a keen interest in things around the house. She likes pulling a chair up to the sink to help us with the dishes. She collected weeds and maple seeds from the garden and put them into the bin we use for compost. She likes imitating us, and is quick to pick up new gestures.

It’s easier to feed A- a variety of food now. This month, we found out that she likes gyoza, watercress, ham, pepperoni, cherries, bell peppers, and blueberries. She’s not too keen on mangoes yet, but that’s okay. We’ve been enjoying more fruits and vegetables, too. Yay, summer!

A- got a little more comfortable with independence this month. She’s getting better at sleeping without being latched on, and staying asleep even after I take her out of the carrier. The tips I picked up at the Early Abilities orientation seem to have helped in terms of modeling play. She crawled through a very short tunnel at the OEYC. She liked standing on a stool and playing with the paper dots at the JFRC. She played with J- and Y-, which freed me up to do a few quick things around the kitchen.

Nudged by one of my readers who’s also interested in tracking time, I dusted off my development environment for Quantified Awesome and got things working again. It’s nice to code. If I nap along with A- in the afternoon, my brain’s sometimes fresh enough to think after A- goes to bed late at night. I have a long task list that I make slow progress on, but hey, at least that’s something. On the consulting side, I reorganized our data extract script and added more notes to document things.

W- worked on the concrete pad for the stair footing and numerous projects around the house. We harvested a few radishes from the garden and transplanted the tomato and basil seedlings I’d grown indoors. There’s a lot of room for improvement in terms of gardening, though. Ah well! A- likes digging in the dirt and pulling stuff up, so it’s already worth it even if our yield is very low.

July: more music classes, more outside time, and getting ready for all the long medical appointments in August.

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Previous month % This month % Diff h/wk Diff h/wk
Business – Build 0.0 2.7 2.7 4.4 4.6
Unpaid work 5.8 8.3 2.5 13.4 4.1
Personal 10.2 11.3 1.1 18.3 1.9
Discretionary – Productive 3.5 4.0 0.5 6.5 0.8
Discretionary – Social 0.1 0.4 0.3 0.7 0.6
Discretionary – Family 0.2 0.2 -0.1 0.3 -0.1
Business – Earn 1.1 0.7 -0.5 1.1 -0.8
A- – Childcare 42.1 40.6 -1.6 66.0 -2.6
Sleep 33.0 30.8 -2.2 50.0 -3.7
Discretionary – Play 4.0 1.1 -2.8 1.8 -4.8

Hmm, an average of 7.1 hours of sleep a day… I feel too fuzzy if I miss the afternoon nap, so I might play around with this a little. It’s good getting Business – Build (mostly coding Quantified Awesome) up again, though – a pretty straightforward time shift from playing Trails of Cold STeel. I split childcare off into its own top-level category (A-) so that it’s easier to see that versus unpaid work time.

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