Growth of a kid... in graph form

I have been away from work for a mere three days and like a moth to a flame, I am finding unique ways to involve MS Excel in my life.

Monday was Christopher's one year weigh-in. With substantial data, it is now possible to start comparing the two kidlets and their growth curves. Thus, I present Christopher vs. Sophia:




Anyone who has studied statisitics, or has the ability to pose a question, might poke holes in my projected growth guesses.  I took an unscientific approach and simply extrapolated the rate Christopher had grown in the last two months and projected it 6 months forward.  

Who's to say how his growth will be over the next six months, though if standards has anything to say, he will remain ahead of the average.  He is currently well ahead of both Sophia and the national average.  According to the Swedish standards, he is two standard deviations ahead of average on height and one deviation over on weight.  

Sophia, is above average on height.

First Day of Paternity Leave

Today is the first day of my 100% parental leave. I will be a full-time dad until at least the end of June.

As if some sort of omen to this new status, in today's newspaper was the above cartoon called Sigge's Lagoon.

Roughly translating:
first panel - Maggan asked me to leave Kurt today... so here he is.
Hey Kurt!
second panel - Do you actually like taking care of babies?
I have nothing against it, except for the "clean-up" part.
third panel - Let me give you a little fatherly-tip. No more wipes, paper towels or napkins needed. Just use this.
fourth panel - A window squeegee?
It works on the baby's both ends!

I will take it as wise advice.

Valentine's Day - 11 months

This is the 11 month update in point form:
- He is a climbing monkey! The stairs where we are sitting were easily conquered. Sophia loved stairs equally much at this age, though she had hardly the same vigour for climbing onto chairs, beds, and sofas as Christopher has shown.
-He says something akin to "tack" (thank you) when giving and receiving. Call us crazy if you may, but we have noted on numerous occasions that he will hand us food or a toy and say "ta". What a polite little garçon.
-On the topic of give and take, as polite as it may seem to say "ta", he often steals from his sister without asking. This leads often to conflict, but that much we expected. What we didn't expect is his affinity for pots and pans. He is constantly pulling those out of their drawer and making a real racket.
-Finally on the give and take topic, he seems to want to give back too. We are offered his toys and food, among others. I have to admit, mushy beef stew tastes better than it looks.
-He is extremely active. At the moment he is climbing up onto the bed for the 8th time in the last 10 minutes. Time to go distract him to his sister's toys instead. :p

Happy Birthday Sophia

Christopher would be remiss if he didn't wish his big sister a happy 3rd birthday.

Two Against Two

So it has come to this: us versus them.

Now that Christopher walks, Sophia has recruited him to her side and the battle has been staged: Kids vs. Parents.



They play well together. Too well.


Add to it that he has been intermittenly sick throughout January, he chews on everything and is a inconsistent and light sleeper then you can understand why his parents have become tired.


At least we are bigger.

Walk Like an Egyp... (er, check that) A 9 Month Old!

It is dark.  December in Sweden is like trying to use a spoon to find the bottom of the soupbowl. One can try and try, but the soup will just keep filling in the gaps. Streetlights, in this case, try in vain to cut through our murky darkness but it is all too encompassing to defeat. With no moon, low cloud cover and a meager 6 hours of daylight, one might think we are bit light deprived.

But our light in the darkness, besides the candles in the hair of the local Lucia, is Christopher's first steps.  

Gingerly, he will let go of the chair or table he may be holding, then, first a little step with his right foot, a balance correction, perhaps a deep-knee bend, and just when you think his bum will hit the floor he is up standing straight again and taking a quick three steps. We shook our heads and even rubbed our eyes in disbelief the first time. But apparently it was more than just a one-off occurance. He is on to this whole walking deal. It will be easier this way to chase after his sister. After all, she does have a two year head start.

Quirky Coincidence: our kids think seem to think that early December is the most appropriate time to start walking - in fact,  almost to the day!

Side-step Boogie

In the mid-1970s, there was a line dance called The Hustle that became famous with help from, among others, the film Saturday Night Fever.

Frankly, I cannot exactly recall the look or steps involved in the Hustle, but when I see Christopher, now 8 months, standing at the table's edge and side-stepping his way left and right, I can't help but whistle a bit of 70's disco music.

In fact, there are a few occasions where I have a habit of singing to myself when he does things. In the early 90's, a rap group called Culture Beat had a big hit called Mr. Vain. Christopher's pre-occupation with his own image leads to a bit of humming of that 1993 tune. Mirrors tend to get a lot of attention if Christopher is around.

Consistently, when he pulls himself up at the table's edge or on chairs it leads to my signing of Bob Marley & the Wailers Get Up, Stand Up. Moreover, getting him to sleep by rocking him in my arm is naturally an AC /DC song; For Those About to Rock (We Salute You).

Perhaps there should be a music anthology to accompany Christopher's childhood. I'm already convinced that there will come a day when he will say: "Dad, you were strange!", to which I will start singing the Doors' 1967 song People are Strange.