Is anyone out there?

Yes, you'll have noticed that there has been a lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. That's because we're off to Kenya tomorrow and every spare waking moment has been spent either at the Doctors, or in Boots, attempting to protect Maddie from various flying insects, general diseases and sunburn. We have enough room in our suitcase for one t-shirt each. And a pair of pants.

Reaching for the stars

We've left favourite hubby in London this week, whilst me and the Noise Box have a holiday with Grandma and Grandad in PonteCarlo.

The fresh Yorkshire air must have done her the world of good as she's since learnt how to reach out her arms to be picked up. I couldn't have been more excited if she'd recited the works of Shakespeare. Backwards. And in French.

Another great baby blog

Phillip Toledano's The Reluctant Father is a wonderfully insightful blog about, well, becoming a dad, obviously.

And his transformation, as he puts it, "from observer to participant".

Some truly stunning photography of his daughter Loulou, which puts Kate and my snaps with the iPhone to shame.

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside

Even if it means a flagrant disregard for the safety our our child, as seen here, being walked along a crumbling concrete wave breaker in Bridlington:

"Get me away from the edge, and that big wet thing".

That's what Maddie's thinking. You can see it in her eyes.

The good luck genie

It has recently come to my attention that when at home during the day pretending to be really busy, Kate actually whiles away the hours by dressing Madeleine up to look daft (pronounced 'daft' and not 'darft', I'm reliably informed).

A case in point is this 'good luck genie' outfit, crafted out of a colourful shawl, and staged for a friend of ours who was starting a new job last week:

Alakazam!

You take your eyes off 'em for one minute...

... and they pick up a pen, take the top off and scribble all over their faces.

Okay, we gave her the pen, but she did the rest.

A vertical view of the world

Yes, Maddie can now officially sit up without props. She can't seem to stay up for any length of time that's particularly worth noting, but we applaud her everytime regardless.

Under the thumb

Kate has just made me change the 'About me' section of this blog to 'About us'.

So I'm preserving my original blurb here for posterity:

My name is Matt Roskill. I'm married to Kate Roskill, sometimes known as Kate Harris (she insists on using her maiden name despite my obvious disgruntlement). We now have a daughter called Madeleine. Madeleine's surname is Roskill (I made sure of it - I registered her birth). This blog is the story of Kate's pregnancy and the first year of Madeleine's young life, largely from my point of view as a first-time dad-to-be. But occasionally Kate hacks into my account and tells it how it really is.

Controlled crying - progress report (2)

Mmmm. I appreciate these stats might look massaged, but it's true. Honest.

Saturday night

Down by: 19.55

Duration of crying: 0 minutes

Slept until: 06.45 (with dream feed at 22.50)

I'm sure we just caught a lucky break.

It's very orange

This is the carrot puree I've just made for one of Maddie's first tastes of 'proper' food.














One of the books recommends sieving it to make sure there are no lumps, but I've got about as much desire to do that as I have to dig out my brain with a blunt spoon. So lumps and a potential choking hazard it is then.