Go speed racer

Finally, there is footage! He stood up in the middle of the lounge with no props for the first time this morning (coffee table, couch, parent, dog ...) and walked half the length of the lounge. The camera unfortunately was nowhere near (VERY annoying), and by the time I got my hands on it and actually got something recorded, he was completely buggered. But still, you get the general walky awesomeness.

I pretty much only managed to get the camera on as he face planted after these.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

A little ginger went walking

(Heh - How's that for cushion placement, huh?)

He did, clever little ginger! He took his first steps on Monday, and only minutes after he worked out how to stand on his own too. He was standing by the end of the coffee table holding onto it as he has been for about the last 4-5 months, and then suddenly he's just standing there laughing and clapping his hands. Obviously I laugh and clap my hands too, and it goes backwards and forwards as he lifts his hands high in the air, giggling hysterically and clapping madly as if to say 'Look! No hands!' and then the next thing, he turns around and walks about 4 steps, the length of the coffee table, towards Jack who's on the other side, and who is not doubt wondering what new sort of hell has just launched itself in his direction. Poor puppy.

At the moment we're up to about 5 steps and then he's back on his knees again, but we're on our way! He's gone really quickly from taking a few steps if he feels like it but choosing to be on his knees mostly, to working out that actually it's easier to take steps to lots of things instead of getting down on his knees and then getting back up again. And none too soon either - I have a drawer full of pants and shorts with no knees in them.

Things have otherwise been both quiet and a complete blur. I've started a post about the decision to move ahead with No. 2 - I know I did a post, but I wanted to do more, I was just a bit overwhelmed at the time because the decision was so fresh and terrifying. But, we've been up against it a bit with Cuinn and so thinking at even the most basic level has been just a wee tad beyond me. I manage work which keeps me sane and that's about that.

The little ginger has been attempting to cut molars. For nearly six weeks. It's very, very uncool. He has massive swollen lumps on both sides, and the teeth at times are pressing so hard you can actually see the white of them shining in the gum, and yet from day to day they either move down or back up and stay away for a couple of days, or down again, and so on and so forth. There's been a serious lack of sleep, and the poor wee dude has just gotten over a bad throat infection which landed us at the emergency Dr one night with a persistent (10 hours) 40 degree plus temperature as well which meant even less sleep. Scary and horrible. And yet, somehow in all of that with miseries on miseries, he cottons on to taking steps.

The day we ended up at the emergency Dr. Poor sick man.

Of course I never considered locking him in ...

In his brand new togs for swim class looking scarily grown up. Of course, I didn't think through the colour choice - it was blue or red, and I chose blue because otherwise the ginger would be in red stripes and potentially look stupid (it was a bad red for a ginger), but the two of us turned up today and I realised we looked even more stupid than if I'd made the ginger wear red stripes ... 2 sets of ginger hair-explosions, and two sets of navy and white togs. Matching from head to toe we were ... crap.

There are two things you want to watch in this video (sorry it's dark - I'm crap at camera-y things) - the first is the kid being cute and playing peek-a-boo from behind the curtain, the second is Jack who has a heart attack when Cuinn pops out from behind the curtain.

And now, night night!

Pic-fest. Written post to follow. One Day. Eventually. Maybe.

I think we're teething nasty big teeth. Either that, or the child is being far too ginger. Whatever, last night was night 4 of very little sleep to be had. I thought I was hard done by on Friday night/Saturday morning when after a few hours of grumbles on and off the kid just started screaming at 3am and that was that for the night ... until last night when said screaming started at 10pm. Suddenly those extra 5 hours from the night before looked heaven-sent.

Anyway - here you go.

Helping me clean out the plastics drawer today, by climbing in and sitting there studying his buttons for a ridiculously long period of time and refusing to be budged.

Cheeky face.

Being cute. Again. Still. Always. He has the time of the life playing out there and investigating the feijoas.

Having a big boy dinner. Still quite a new thing.

And muuuch easier to feed to the dog, sly-styles.

Cuuute chubby knees. And badly mismatched clothes. And trackies that were pants LAST year. But still cute chubby knees.

And lastly, a bit gross but dogs are like that. If I was Jack, I'd be a bit more concerned about what that kid sticks in his mouth, but there you go.

Rupert and friends

The husband and I spent the long weekend making the decision to move ahead with an embryo tranfer in the coming months, and yesterday I rang the clinic to set the wheels in motion.

It was a much harder decision than either of us thought it would be, and who knows if it's the right one. All we can say is that we think it is - for us, for Cuinn, for the remaining embryos, and in case, because it's a very real consideration, none of the remaining embryos survive. They've been on ice for a couple of years and I don't know how that affects them though I know that they can't be kept like that forever so I assume it does, they have to survive the thaw, and then stick around after that so there're a few more hurdles along the way and of course, to put it bluntly, they're graded - Cuinn was the superior embryo and had the greatest chance which is why he went back first, so we're dealing with ... well ... I can't bring myself to say it, but they'll have to be strong. It's by no means a certain thing, even though we were very fortunate with Cuinn.

As far as when, for some reason the husband and I feel quite private at the moment about that, probably because we both feel not in the slightest ready, so I'll just say for now that it's not immediate, but we'll be working towards it over the next few months.

Pfoof.

Farmer Brown ... erm ... Ginger

He can reach the top, but we'll probably wait another inch or so height-wise before we set him to work. The husband is most pleased.