'n Dag met Franco

My vacation started last week, but the children still have to work. Franco's creche has closed for December and Martelize will only start creche in January. Today I looked after both babies and I had a ball. Here both are playing happily together on Franco's playmat.

Their bottle routines are the same and at 14:00 just after I started giving Martelize (4 months) her bottle, Franco (7 months) wanted his too. I put her down with her bottle for a second so that I could quickly hand Franco his bottle. According to his school he does not hold his bottle, but today both of them had no trouble holding their bottles for this round. Usually I hold them because they still need a cuddle at feed time, but I can see how holding your own bottle at feeding time is helpful!
Franco having a whale of a time in the jolly jumper! I know jolly jumpers are very passe, but all my children have straight legs and straight backs, so I don't really believe all the hooha about jolly jumpers if used for short periods. Anyway this is my way of "spoiling" Franco.

Franco is at that wonderful stage just before crawling: He sits and plays with his toys for long periods. His mother, Dorette, tricked me when she was a baby: she skipped that stage and started to leopard crawl before she could sit!

He still sits in his baby bath chair, but he sits upright. ( "As boetie bad, is die hele wereld nat...")

Mirror, mirror on the wall (playmat) who is the fairest of them all? Martelize of course....

Or is it the handsome prince who is admiring himself?

Who is that handsome fellow?

Franco playing with his play tray.

First Time Babysitting

Yesterday I went to fetch Franco at his school - just for fun. Unfortunately (luckily?) Gert did not leave the keys of their house, so after picking up Franco, I went to Thelwyn's. Franco was as good as gold from the moment I picked him up - just before his naptime at school. I got such a beaming smile! It made me feel very special indeed. Suppose he cried?! He was very patient while I thumbled and struggled to secure his seat with the seatbelt. Fortunately the car was not too hot. I thought he would nap in the 20 minutes or so it took to drive to Thelwyn, but when we stopped, he was still all smiles.

He lay on the couch next to me, kicking to his heart's content, while Thelwyn and I chatted. Martelize was not feeling too wonderful, having had her first shot in the morning, but she was not downright miserable either - just complained a little. It was special to see the babies' feet next to each other. We meant to take a photo, but we were so busy with our babies, that there was no time. We put Martelize in her cot and Franco on the double bed with pillows right around him. I did not want to upset his routine too much and it was obvious he was not going to nap with us around. He lay and kicked on the bed and gurgled a lot. When Thelwyn checked on him while I tried to rock Martelize in her cot, he laughed out loud at her! Later the kicking became less and he dosed off for 30 minutes.

Martelize did not sleep much - her little body was sore and just a trifle feaverish. I felt so sorry for her - and Thelwyn. One feels so hopeless.

When Franco woke up, he was very happy for a while and then started to get hungry. I heated his bottle, but oh dear, he would have none of it! He screamed and performed, but would not drink. I changed his nappy (just in case), changed the nipple and even tried to feed his milk with a spoon - all to no avail. He only became content when I gave him his dummy again and that without having drunk more than a few mouthfuls!

Dorette said this morning that he did not want to drink his bottle (with breastmilk) at the school at all. She tries her level best to keep up the breastfeeding in spite of the work, so she needs to put him to the breast in the evenings... but if he keeps on refusing the bottle? And if she does wean him and change to formula and he becomes a sickly allergic baby?? Please pray that he will start to take the bottle during the day. We are scheduled to babysit Franco for a whole weekend in October and he just has to be past his bottle strike by then!