PAFT visit #2

Nicolas is 4 months, 1 week and 6 days old today.

Lotoifale from PAFT came around, to share entertainment and development ideas for Nico's next few weeks. Some of these are really neat and visually attractive.

1. Take the plastic bag of a wine casket, stuff it with a few toys and fill it with water.
   You can even have several themes (colours, seas etc) and one mixed.
   I really like this idea. It's an excuse to make sangria this week-end, and the week-end after till I have all the required number of bags... Maybe I'll have a bag for each of the colours of the rainbow. And lots of themes. All that in the interest of Nico's development, of course.
   Suitable from 5 months and up.
   
   
2. Take a small bottle of soft drink (I was very tempted to instinctively write Coke... the power of marketing), pour some boiling water in it and fill it with a few toys, or garland bits.
   The reason for the boiling water is to give the bottle an interesting shape, and maybe make it easier to hold.
   She didn't specify, but I assume we should wait for the water to cool down first before giving it to the child.
   Suitable for 5 months and up, as well.

She also suggested asking a lot of questions (though I'll have to answer them myself and risk sounding like I'm having a monologue like these crazy people you see on the streets) about what he sees around him, so he has a think about the answer and gets used to hearing questions for school.

And apparently the $2 shop in Papatoetoe sells kids' books. Will have to check them out. I'd rather spend $20 and get 10 cheap, small books than $20 and get one single, flashy book.

Christine the Plunket nurse also came to visit this morning. Nico's lost 10g compared to last Wednesday, which she attributes to normal weight fluctuations. Could be that he had just filled his nappy before getting weighted yesterday. She said nothing to worry about. She suggested giving Nico a bottle of cool, boiled water as he has been very unsettled after his 5ish AM feed, and I tried that today at 18:30 which wasn't too successful. At least now I know that water and (human) breastmilk taste differently, and my stuff tastes better *flexes*.