December 1st - Winter is on its way & Great Grandma

Today all of a sudden the weather turned bitterly cold. Instead of going for a walk and being out in the cold we went next door to see Zachary's Great Grandparents. My grandma has Alzheimer's. Well actually she has Dementia which is a form of Alzheimer's. What is the difference? Apparently when you have Alzheimer's you slowly loose all your memories and brain functioning and connection with the world around you but you do not realise it hence elderly people with Alzheimer's tend to be quite happy. Sadly they stop functioning as they used to and loose their grip on the reality of their world and the people in it but don't remember anything not even realise that they can't remember. Deliriously madly forgetfully happy. With Dementia you know that your memories and mind are disappearing and people who suffer from Dementia often get quite depressed because they know what is happening to them. Sadly my grandma knows she is loosing her grip on her world and that makes it very sad. In the last few years she has gone from merely forgetful to loosing all her memories, forgetting who she is and who we all are to her present state of not comprehending even the most basic of tasks like eating or washing. It is very sad.

Zachary's Great Grandma has Alzheimer's. Zachary bless him always seems to be able to make her smile but we don't stay for very long. Grandma gets tired very quickly and also can become very disturbed by the noise and frantic excitement of a boisterous small child. Zachary also becomes bored and starts to get frustrated so between Grandpa and I we are trying to keep calm a toddler with a 10 second attention span and an old lady who has not a clue what is happening around her. I have to say she takes probably as much work looking after as a baby these days so I do sympathize with my Grandfather. These days the house is not a patch on the place when she was in charge of the housework and lets face it at the age of 87 it must be hard for him. Men of my grandfathers generation were not the family carer's, they did not cook and clean or look after the children so he is having to learn to do things that he has never had to do in his whole life. It must be said that there are many things he simply is not coping with very well but will not have any help at all. Pride I guess. The sad thing is that if she knew how the housework had been let go and the laundry etc she would be really upset. Perhaps it is just as well that she does not know. She always wanted more children in the family shame that now she does not know who we are.

Anyway we stayed for a cup of tea and Zachary fell asleep so eventually I took him home for a nap. Bless him 2pm every day he seems to know its milk and nap time.

December 3rd - Meeting Father Christmas for the first time.

Zachary and Father Xmas This weekend we decided to go and take Zachary to meet Santa. There is a big garden center not far away so we drove over there to the Santa grotto. On the way into the grotto there was a lovely snow scene set up with penguins, polar bears and elfs which Zachary thought was great. The polar bears and other animals moved and he was fascinated. To be honest he did not really like the Santa very much. Like a lot of small children he is unsure about people that he does not know especially men. Liz said Hope is the same so it is obviously quite common for babies to be instinctively wary of strangers. I remember Imogen did not like people dressed up or wearing masks and things until she was about 5 or 6. Zachary laughing at polar bears She hated clowns and circus people so I guess a strange man wearing a beard and red hat must look very odd. Anyway we had a nice walk around all the Christmas decorations and cards etc. Then we had lunch in the cafe. Mum and I spend ages looking around the craft section after lunch and found lots of great art and craft ideas for when Zachary gets older.

6th December - Reading books and Christmas Shopping

This year Christmas shopping has been made much easier. We have decided that now there are babies in the family Christmas will be a special family time that centres around them. We have set a limit on what we should spend on each other and done small wishlists for everyone to choose from. Actually it was Liz's idea and not a bad one really. We all ended up doing Amazon booklists and that with perhaps a few little suprises just about wraps up Christmas shopping. What with a few items from the Eraly Learning Centre online website and some clothes Zachary's Xmas shopping is done too. It takes all the pressure off Christmas and I do like being organised. I have sorted out a few special things for Mum & Dad too just to say a special thank you from Zachary and myself for putting up with us all year. While I was out doing a spot of stocking filler shopping I picked up a couple of books for Zachary's stocking and couldn't resist giving him one to read. I love these 'Thats not my ....' series of books. He can get his fingers to open the pages and loves the tactile parts. This is the snowman one.

Later on we decided to go to the Nature Park for our morning walk. There used to be a hospital near where Mum and Dad live that closed down almost 20 years ago. Eventually they knocked the buildings down and have now built houses on some of the land. Some of it has been turned into the St Wulftsans Nature Park and it is a lovely walk. The view of the Malvern Hills is fantastic. For December it is very mild and not that cold at all. Zachary was all snug in his fleecy cosy toes wrap.

7th December - 12 month old photographs

Taking photographs of Zachary these days is quite a task as all he wants to do is move about. Once upon a time I could sit him down and pose him then snap away. Now you have to capture his attention and make funny noises to get him to look at the camera. It can take ages just to get one of him looking at the camera.

December 8th - Great over arm throw and tidy habits.

Zachary is in great form today. He almost brained the dog with his new sippy beaker at breakfast. There was a sonic scream which roughly translated to 'this beaker sucks' and finished with an over arm throw that could have bowled England for 6. magic yelped as the beaker bounced off her head and ran for cover in the hall. You might say that is what you get for hoveringa round under the high chair hoping to pick up throw away biscuits. The other neat trick of the day si a new habit of putting his nappy bags in the bin on his way out of the door after a change. Quite cute really as neat kids are just great. As long as the slight OCD habits of Grandpa don't set in we will be fine.

Actually throwing is an important development skill. We all know that I am refusing to be dragged into the baby race of ticking the boxes and training my puppy to perform the tricks the book says he should but its still cool when you can see that your puppy is learning and developing all on his own. Who wrote the damn 'book' anyway. The important thing is he is having fun too! I adore these two photographs. One is so cheeky its juts typical of Zachary. He was getting really excited by the stickle bricks and had me in stiches. The other is so full of intense concentration on his book that I just love it. In our family we all read a lot and have lots of books around the house, in fact there are bookcases in almost every room including the kitchen and the bathroom. I love the fact that he seems to enjoy exploring books and also loves being read to.

December 9th - Bathtime

Zachary loves his bathtime. He loves the water anyway as is obvious when we swim but bathtime is extra fun because he can sit up on his own and play with all his toys. For ages when he was little he either bathed or showered with me but lately he has got too heavy to hold in the shower and wants his own space in the bath. I don't over bath him as I have read that it is good for babies to let their skin's own natural oils work and if you bath them too much you wash these away. A friend of mine had a baby who suffered from Ecsema. Her doctor told her not too bath him too much. He said that african and asian babies did not suffer from skin problems like this and they were not bathed in soaps all the time. Zachary probably gets 2 baths a week. After his bath he gets an olive oil massage which is something I have done since he was born. I don't use any of those baby lotions or creams just olive oil. He loves it and has lovely skin.

December 15th - day out with Grandma

Mum was meeting a friend today for lunch so we went with her and had a day out in Ledbury. Zachary was up quite early for breakfast today and I did not even hear him so his Grandad got him up and gave him his toast and water beaker. By the time I arrived he was ready for his 'Oatibix' and fruit and making lots of noise. There are no dead ghosts trying to snooze in this house - they would be screaming across the back yard by now dying to get back to their nice quiet graveyard. This house is far too noisy! I will have to work on the sleeping in and having quiet time in the morning. Anyway we had a lovely time in Ledbury. We bought some books and cards for Christmas. Grandma treated Zachary to a special Christmas book for his stocking and I bought a great book for Mum & Dad which will go perfectly with their suprise pressie.

December 16th - On our own

Mum and Dad went to a hotel for the night to get a bit of time on their own. It was quite strange having the house to myself. I am so used to being around people now that I didn't know what to do with my time. I actually put Zachary's baby congratulations / birth card book together. I bought a blank artist book by Daler & Rowney. I wanted to stick all his cards into a book and label who they were from with a photograph so that when he is older he can see who people were and read a bit about them. There are people who sent cards etc that he will not really know so its nice to have those memories. I work on his baby book all the time so that I have a record of his baby years and growing up. I guess maybe when he is older he might like to look at it but really it is for me.

December 20th - Visiting Rachel in the Wirral.

Decided to go and stay with Rachel for her birthday. Earlier this year Rachel's mum Yvonne died unexpectedly of a brain haemorrhage. This year Christmas will be strange and I knew that for Rachel her birthday would also be tough. Rachel has had her kitchen and sitting room transformed recently and it all looks fabulous. The new fire is lovely but not very baby safe so we had to make sure Zachary was not left alone for a second. It was great to see Rachel and Imogen and once the babies were in bed we opened the wine. By 2am we were bouncing around on the trampoline in the garden which was covered in icy water. I felt like I was in a mud wrestling match. Rachel was pulling me down screaming at me to sit down and laughing hysterically. We ended up stripped down to our undies climbing into our pjamas in front of the fire singing cream anthems together. until I started to keel over and decided I should call it a night. Great day all round despite the 6 hour journey through the fog.

December 21st - Walking in West Kirby

We decided to go for a nice long walk in the fresh winter air. Zachary was probably the warmest of us wrapped up in his buggy. Imogen like all children was determined not to be forced into gloves and hats but later on complained that he hands were cold. We stopped for hot chocolate and tea-cakes which was very welcome after the cold walk. Nice bright winter day though and no sign of any snow or anything. They say our winter this year is so mild that the bears in the Zoo have not hibernated.

Zachary Blog - Diary of a premature baby. Dec 2006.