Last updated, 23 November, 1997
However, the thing that I thought I really ought to mention today was John's first really helpful act. I had got in the bath this morning and John had crawled in to the bathroom and was stood up at the side of the bath when I realised I couldn't reach my New Scientist magazine. I pointed at, and said, rather hopefully, "John, get Daddy's New Scientist". He looked a bit unsure at first, but when I pointed again he got the message, sat down, crawled over to it, picked it up, crawled back and passed it to me! What a star.
John is now sixteen months old. We still take him back to the hospital for check-ups every now and again and they want to keep an eye on him, but we have not yet seen any ill effects of his birth trauma. He isn't walking yet, which is a bit slow, but the last time we saw Doctor Clark - a few weeks ago - she said that it wasn't so far from ordinary that he would have been referred to them if it wasn't for the difficult birth.
The time before when we went to see her, just before his birthday, he wasn't crawling and she was a bit concerned about this, but he started crawling about ten days after we saw her and had it sussed straight away. He will now walk when we hold one hand and he can stand up or a while - especially if he gets distracted. The other day he was stood up for about 30 seconds, but if he realises then he prefers to dive on you or sit down with a giggle.
He can say "duck", "mum", "dad", "Bob" and so on and over the past few days he has been having a go at "E-I-E-I-O" to "Old MacDonald", though he says something more like "A-I-A".
His current record for building a tower out of blocks is four high.
He's been staying up a bit late over the past few nights, but we still love him.
I'll try and write more regularly in future, but I can't promise.