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I've been decorating cloth bags recently(ish) and I'm quite pleased with what I've done.
Pictures are here.

I was especially pleased to discover that instead of having to iron each 10cm square for 5 minutes, I could put several bags at once in the oven for 5 minutes.

Saturday: Yay, it's the weekend, pub lunch!
Sunday: oddly enough, I can't remember
Monday: Bank holiday, so an extra day of Ganesh home.
Tuesday: Mother came to stay
Wednesday: Nice trip out to Ikea and Kingston (MK), managed to pick up nearly everything we wanted.
Thursday: Got some gardening done, quite pleasant with mother to help.
Friday: Nice looooong nap for Alex in the afternoon - some "free" time for me.
Saturday: minted lamb burgers! mmm!

Tuesday: Sarah and baby Matthew (from my antenatal group) came round and we planned our "girly night in" dinner.
Wednesday: At Baby College I *didn't* win the chocolate! (yes, this is good news, I still have the bar from the time before last in the fridge, and last time's bar I gave away on the spot!)
Thursday: Lots of new little babies at Bumps'n'Babes. It seems ages since Alex was so young, though one of the 8 week olds is already bigger than he is now!
Friday: I walked to town to do some shopping (veg and fresh meat) and met Gill and baby Sophie (from my antenatal group), who joined me for lunch, then a charming little girl in Waitrose peeked in at Alex and tiptoed back to her mother and said in a stage whisper "I didn't wake the baby!"

Afternoon naps are good!

Since my last update young Mister Wriggle-Bum has gained a second tooth.

He's got too splashy for the baby bath to be used on the stand in the bedroom, so it's now in use in the main bathtub - saving water and my back (a little) and preventing the toy crocodile from "swimming" (floating) away. It makes filling and emptying easier, but it's a lot less convenient in terms of space for changing Alex. He's also now sleeping in his cot in his own room, the Moses basket has been retired. That happened a bit ago but I forgot to mention it.

We've started weaning him. I'm not doing baby led weaning or purée weaning entirely - we're having purées for breakfast and lunch and finger foods with our dinner IF there are appropriate items from our meal to give him. So far he loves apple, pear, banana, carrot, sweet potato and broccoli. Baby corn is gnawed like we'd gnaw corn on the cob. He's not certain about parsnip or potato and doesn't care for baby rice, which given its wallpaper paste taste and texture I am inclined to agree with him. I'm pondering what to introduce next, cauliflower tonight I think, but whether to try pasta next or toast or chicken strips, or oatmeal or spinach or blueberry purée, I'm not sure - only one new thing a day in case he has a reaction to anything. He likes control of the spoon where possible for the purées, which gets messy when he grabs the bowl of the spoon if I'm not quick enough to slide along so his hand closes on the handle but it's still a lot less messy than giving him a bit of broccoli and letting him go for it. Last night he started off slapping the limp broccoli against his cheek in an effort to get it into his mouth, then figured out how, and at one point had the florets dangling out of his mouth. It was hilarious and uncatchable on camera, though we've tried (brocolli photos not yet online).

He's sitting for short periods (up to half a minute) - longer when concentrating on something at the right place, sometimes he lazily topples over immediately. I hover to catch him when on a hard surface or near toys he could bang his head on. He's also tipping himself onto his side lots - a precursor to rolling from back to front, though he tips his head back which prevents the full roll. Today he's discovered that, tipped onto his side, he can reach more things - the butterflies at the top of the baby gym and his cot mobile. The latter is now retired.

I've put away his outgrown clothes - the "Early Baby" stuff seems so small now, where then the 0-3 months stuff seemed so large. He's now in 3-6 months clothes; though many items are too big the 0-3 months clothes are too small. Measuring up photos

That's all for my giggle-lump update, and he wants to play.

positive thinking: Alex really got enthusiastic with purple sprouting brocolli - it was hilarious seeing it dangle out of his mouth

positive thinking: I had a lovely afternoon's coffee with my friends

Alex learned to roll (from front to back) a fortnight ago - he did 3 rolls on the Thursday, 2 the following Monday Sunday and 1 the other night. He seems to do it most easily when naked.
He also gained a tooth (Left 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_teeth) on Saturday and is cutting R10 today.

When I was little, elderly relatives bounced me on their knees with this game. However I, and my mother, can't remember it very well, and there appears to be many versions out there. Which riders and rides did you have?

In any order:
This is the way the lady rides, trit trot trit trot. Sidesaddle, gentile leg bouncing
This is the way the little boy/girl rides, bouncy bouncy bouncy bouncy. Astride, lifting child up and down on top of leg. If it's a big enough child to be riding on both legs, then the adult's legs are a bit apart to emulate the clicheed fat pony riding position.
This is the way the parson rides, slowly slowly slowly slowly. Sidesaddle (well, in a parson's gown what else?), and small wobbles and slow bouncing
This is the way the gentleman rides, gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop. Up and down and fairly fast
This is the way the farmer rides, like a sack of potatoes. While the knees goes up and down alternately, the child is wobbled a lot from side to side

And always ending with:
This is the way the hunter rides, over the hedge and into the ditch. Riding as normal for the first bit, then up for the over bit and down between the legs for the ditch.

This game often gets me the reward of giggles from Alex, though he's only big enough to ride on one leg so far.

Well, last time I was a day late; this time I'm 10% late. He's 110 days old and has grown a bundle.

He finally grew into 0-3 months clothes, or at least outgrew the "newborn" clothes in the week he was three months old, as per my prediction. I think he may get to 3-6 months clothes sooner though. He's still in a limited range of the 0-3 months clothes we have - the rest being way too big. He's now 58cm long and 11lb 15.5 oz. Alex is smiling and laughing now, gurgling and cooing and it sounds very much like he's saying "now" when he wants his milk. He also looks around and smiles when one of us comes in and says something out of his sight. He's rather fond of gnawing his left hand, though there's no sign of teeth yet. He's reaching out and batting and grabbing things, even pulling them to his mouth. He's best with dangling things because their weight is supported but we do try him on things to lift. He's showing a distinct preference for grabbing with his left hand (yay), but I know that that could change easily before he settles on a handedness. He's holding his head up fairly well, but still not steady for very long, and we're encouraging him to lift it and develop his neck and core body muscles with tummy time and sitting up time. He's pretty small, so some of the physical things will take time.

I'm now in somewhat of a, well I can't call it a routine because it's not, but we get along. I have afternoon tea with the ladies from my antenatal class on a Monday, on a Thursday morning I go to "Bumps'n'Babes", and generally try to get out two more days of the week (usually just a walk into town to grocery shop, visit the library for "Rhymetime" or similar) but have a day at home to relax. We learnt baby massage for several Wednesday afternoons, for example. I'm a third of my way through maternity leave and it's hard to imagine returning to work. We've been looking at nurseries in preparation. Having picked one to register at, I have sort of volunteered to go and do some science based activities with their preschoolers; Alex would be looked after by them while I am there and I can have a look at what they're really like not just when they're showing people around. I was thinking coffee filter paper chromatography butterflies, maybe some pen lid divers, that type of thing. If anyone has any ideas (this is aimed at 3-5 year olds) then let me know.

I'm also using cloth nappies, specifically sized ones with wraps (Tots Bots Bamboozles and Flexitots with Motherease Rikki wraps). He seems quite happy in them and it's nice not to have a bin full of nappies. We're still in dispos at night or if we're going to be out for a long time. hsenag is a bit reluctant to use them, bit too difficult for him maybe? It's not like you need a PhD to be able to work them!