Dad Weeknotes, volume 5

Posted on 11 February 2018

I have successfully finished my fifth week of dadding. You may also want to see volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Shoes

We bought Luke’s first pair of shoes this week. He hasn’t needed shoes before because he hasn’t started walking yet. He has been cruising for a while now, but this has been indoors. However, now he has started at nursery, and they encourage outside play, he really needs to be wearing shoes.

We already had some hand-me-downs that were roughly the right size, which is what he’s been wearing at nursery for the past few weeks, but Luke didn’t look comfortable in them, and he either pulled them off or they fell off by themselves.

We went to Clark’s and got his feet properly measured and bought a proper pair of crawling/cruising shoes. The difference was immediately apparent: he looked comfortable, didn’t try to take them off, and was happily cruising around the shoe shop bench straight away. I think they’ll make a big difference! It’s just a shame they won’t last long as he’ll grow out of them so soon.

Nursery

Luke has been progressing at nursery. Again, I took him in Monday to Wednesday to help him further acclimatize. On Thursday he stayed til 3pm again, and Friday til 4 – the latest he’s ever stayed.

He’s been coming home covered in paint, pen, sand, all sorts. I think this shows he’s having a great time!

Health

This week, Luke had his 12 month health visitor check. It was actually one of the more fun appointments we’ve had. There were no needles or physical manipulation of joints. Luke had his weight, length and head circumference measured, then he was given some toys to play with, and the health visitor observed his reactions. The health visitor was clearly someone who loved her job: she was really good with Luke at keeping him interested in the examination and making everything into a bit of a game for him.

Luke’s been having some funny days where he has a much lower appetite than usual. He just eats much smaller portions than we’re used to. But otherwise he’s absolutely fine: just as happy and interested in things as usual, if maybe a little subdued. He’s also been a bit snotty, so we’re hoping it’s just a cold or something.

Milk

We’ve still not found a great breastmilk substitute for Luke during the day. He didn’t take well to the wysoy formula (see volume 2) and we suspect he may also have a soya allergy. After taking advice from the dietician, we’ve been trying oat milk, but after some initial hopeful attempts, he’s shown less and less interest over time.

This week, I tried to introduce coconut-based milk instead. Again, there was some early success – he managed around 60ml the first time – but I was struggling to get him to still be interested once the novelty had worn off. I have tried taking a drink from his cup myself, to show him how it’s done and to set an example, with varying success.

Sonia made a breakthrough, though, when she offered him some milk in an open cup, rather than the sippy cup we had been trying. He seems to like drinking from an open cup, though he needs much closer supervision to avoid spilling it all! We shall see if his interest stays high or if it again wanes as the novelty wears off.

Social stuff

Once again, I got out to my Thursday night orchestra. With my new free time during nursery on Thursday and Friday, I managed to meet some friends for coffee and lunch.