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.