Robin Artemis photo gallery

Playtime, eighth month, 11 November - 11 December, 2011

Just a general picture of playing in the loungeroom, with some toys out, and the configuration we had at the time. It's tidy-ish, which implies I've got to vacuum not too long before. I had to keep trying to vacuum once a week this month and keep trying to have everything always picked up, what with one little boy trying to chew everything he could find. He was getting so fast!

I started collecting wine boxes from the liquor store downstairs, so that I could do more sorting and packing away in the desk room (the wine boxes are a particularly good size and strength). It was a losing battle. Boxes kept getting commandeered for toys, books and general playthings. This box was open at the base so I let Robin play inside it. He wasn't too happy though, wanted me to get him out. Just a little too uncomfortable at this age.

The calculator. He loved this. Lots of buttons to smash. I tried putting him in some of our spring clothes but this just didn't work for him. It didn't protect him from the sun, or wasn't warm enough if we weren't in the sun, and didn't seem to let him move right. Interesting to see what difference it makes to his clothes with him being mobile two calendar months earlier and half a size larger than Sparrow. Some items just don't work the same. Which is a pity, as I thought this was a nice little suit.

Nappy free time in the kitchen. I had been putting him on a blanket, but about this time I gave up. It wasn't like he was staying on it, and it just kept tripping him up on his way to important things like the egg cups (there's a green one just by him).

Playtime in the sunroom. Robin slowly worked his way over to the ginger plant and began to play with and chew on the leaves. It stresses me less watching him play with the leaves than it did with Sparrow. I think because he's genuinely trying to find out if it's tasty - and it is - where she was always looking to pull the leaves apart. I did decide though that if I was going to let him do that then I should wash the leaves down. It'd been a while since the sunroom plants had had any water on them, and they were all a bit dusty. So one day I strapped him on and took him out to wash my plants. He was not impressed with this particular chore at all.

Making music. This shower caddy had been washed and brought in but not put into use yet, so it was hanging around, and the kids claimed it as a toy. Sparrow wore it as a handbag and as a necklace, and tried carrying things in it. Robin beat it up a few times with his hands, then picked up the next item to hand - the wooden stick - and began trying to "play" it. He was very clearly experimenting with the sounds.

Also on the musical front, I had to take a picture of this even though it wasn't very clear. He was getting right into the musical instruments, very keen on all of them, and eventually I just tipped the box on its side so he could get to all of them easily (the box wasn't that sturdy so his attempts to get things out while standing holding onto it were a little imprecise). When I did so, I pulled out the xylophone so that he could get to the things under and behind it. He beat it with his hands a few times, considered the sound, looked at the other stuff briefly and saw the mallet for it. He then spent quite some effort picking up the mallet, getting it angled around into a useful direction (his first few attempts didn't exactly go towards the xylophone!) and working out how to play the xylophone. I was really quite astonished to see the level of concentration he put into the task and solving the problem, and his obvious sense of connection between the tools.

This is a much sturdier box to hold onto. The day I took this photo I think was the first time I'd seen him be so stable on his feet and agile as to crawl over to the box with intent, pull himself up, and hold on with one hand while fishing stuff out with the other. He liked a lot of the toys in that particular box, and seemed quite happy to just focus on the idea of picking them up and getting them out. Which was just as well, because he wasn't very good at it so it did take a bit of work. That evening we had a conversation with James' mother where we were talking about the stability of a Christmas tree, and she said something about putting the tree on the coffee table so that it would be out of Robin's reach. Having taken this photo just this morning, I think I must have giggled for the entire rest of the evening.

Standing was a big part of his play this month. I've got more about his progress to standing and holding onto things on another page, but I liked this shot because you can see that he's still doing the feet-wide-for-stability thing. It's not always deliberate - he hasn't quite got the hang of keeping his feet in one place so they often slowly slide out and out until he starts looking quite uncomfortable - and then has to try and work out how to get back to sitting. That is a skill he still has to master.

Ah, the favourite toy. The CD player. And the power cord. Robin started this thing where if I left him alone in the book room for too long (or even just a minute), which I'd started doing sometimes now that he could get to his own toys easily, he'd head over to this corner and start trying to eat either the power cord, the toilet paper roll or the tube of bottom liniment that lives by the change mat. I suddenly had to start keeping all those sorts of things back in their rightful places and not just the convenient ones. This photo was on a cool day so I tried him in the Christmas suit that had gone so well with Sparrow. It didn't really work for him, again not quite the right fit for the shape and size he is right now. And not ideal for a little boy who is mobile, though it doing up at the back is extremely convenient given that he sometimes likes to try and crawl away while you're getting him dressed. Not deliberately, he just sees something interesting and wanders off towards it.

Another "I will stalk the CD player from across the room" moment.

A different version of the chaos. Somehow several toyboxes ended out on the floor at once this month - and I started a new one because there were too many toys to fit in four boxes - and it just got messier and messier until I snapped and finally managed to get things put away again. That took a while because it's much slower cleaning up when two children are following you around looking at all the wonderful things you have just "discovered" and uncleaning them for you. Sparrow liked to pick up collections of small things that were not Robin-suitable and spread them widely when she was feeling naughty or tired, and even if I got them all picked up and hidden away she'd find them. So I was on constant that-is-not-for-eating watch.

The swing. He liked being on the swing, and I had a bit of work to do in the garden so we were out there a little bit. Just a bit of getting-things-ready for summer. He got a bit of crawling time, too, depending on how in order I had things. I found the soft mats and got them put out again, but he didn't stay on them when there was Dirt To Eat, Look Here, Mum, It's Dirt, Wow.

I started trying to get Robin to sleep his naps in the cot again, after very thoroughly washing all the bedding again. If he's going to start getting up from his sleeps without calling out for me, I want him sleeping somewhere he can't fall off. The cot is also a nice place to leave him playing if I need to concentrate on Sparrow for a few minutes, or just need a few minutes to stop and take a breath and get myself back together on the harder days. He likes it, because if I put the side wall right up then he can stand at full height. James came in and found him there one day, and started making jokes about him being a prisoner. He then said "Robin, if you're going to be behind bars you need this" and handed him a small cup with a handle to rattle along the rail. Robin thought this was really funny and gave his Daddy lots of smiles and giggles. He didn't work out how to drag the cup, but he got pretty good at banging it.

You. Yes, that's right, *you*.

Playing with a forbidden toy. We watched a few movies this month, and with me trying to vacuum as well the technology was sometimes left in reach. Suddenly Robin discovered that Things Have Buttons, and James and I were left looking at each other and shaking our heads.

Another go at the xylophone. For some reason it didn't work quite as well for him this time, even though he tried it several times, concentrated on it quite hard and his stick work is much improved. It just wasn't giving him the right sound this time and he didn't know why.

So he gave up and started showing me his elite crawling skills instead. I'm getting the Pick me Up, Mummy eyes.