Robin Artemis photo gallery

Hanging out at home in the second month, 11 May - 11 June, 2011

Robin's hanging out at home, and the nappies are hanging out on the line. He's quite happy to lie and watch them swing back and forth while I get on with the pegging. There must be some universal appeal to flying washing, Sparrow was the same. She got to lie in the alleyside garden though, and nowadays I put the nappies out on the streetside instead (where they're much easier to remember to get off the line). Robin's happy enough with his surroundings, the weather in this month was often a bit grey but not too unpleasant, usually sheltered from the wind on this side.

James looking after both kids and keeping them both distracted simultaneously.

And again. The two-kids-on-one-lap juggle is always fun. I envy his longer thigh-length and torso-length that allows Robin to lie against James in different ways than on me.

Robin's been brought into the lounge from the kitchen, though I don't remember what we were in the middle of. Cleaning up? That's the usual reason the beanbag's not blocking the TV.

Out in the garden. I hadn't been taking Robin into the garden much as it was just seeming too hard to manage him and Sparrow, but I decided that was a silly thing to give up on. He's starting to look to engage with his world, so it's time to start making those opportunities and helping build sensory development. In particular, starting to smell things. He's looking at stuff pretty randomly as he doesn't have ideal control of his neck yet and so can't reliably turn his head. But he was reasonably interested in the two or three weird things I brought him to smell. Those plants lying behind him are all interestingly scented geraniums (peppermint, rose, nutmeg, lime, orange, oaktar, chocolate mint, coconut) or useful herbs (santolina, caraway thyme, plain thyme, lemongrass etc) so there's plenty to explore with his nose just within the bounds of this photo. We'll be able to spend a bit of time doing this on the days I can get myself to make it out into the garden.

Leah comes to visit.

Tummy time on a lounge-cleanup day. You'll notice the sofabed is back in sofa form. I was delighted to have it this way again, and had done a lot of loungeroom cleaning to get this room to its current state. But it didn't last - I think we needed to use the bed again within a week. It's a toy change day, or maybe was the day before, which is why there's some disarray but in a contained space - everything's out to be looked over but it hasn't got spread very far yet. So these are relatively new toys including a few I can use to distract Robin with. He doesn't mind tummy time as much as Sparrow did though, seems to quite enjoy the physical challenge. He's reasonable at pushups.

Such hard work. Time to rest that heavy head.

James had wrapped him in the blanket and then just idly propped him up on the couch to see what happened. He seemed to find the upright position a bit of a novelty, but despite plenty of blanket propping-up he still kept tilting slowly sideways.

Taking the two fretful children for a late afternoon walk. Robin's passed out. That white jumper that Mum bought is turning out to work really well for walks, because its generous waistline sizing means I can button it over the wrap very easily so that he has a warm and fluffy layer between him and the wind. Though the post office lady did see me on this day and think for a moment that I was about to have another baby before she realised it was the one she already knew about tucked inside there.

James holding Robin while working. Love the expression. Robin likes to arch back a little like that and push away from your chest. Whenever he's carried he does that too, unless he's asleep.

Yet another early morning nappy hangout. I do a lot of these, one wash a day and one hangout as soon as I think there's a chance to start the nappies drying, which is pretty much every morning just after sunrise and breakfast. Robin had been sleeping in his box just before so it was easy to take him out in that.