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Jobs for a Bear

4/12/2016

14 Comments

 
​​Little Bear's been trying to give me hints about his preferences over the last few months. This involves the less subtle 'hints' (screeching and waving his arms when he wants to be picked up), and the more subtle ones, like his preference for eating natural yogurt, or his potential career choices. So thinking long term, after he's started eating solids properly, crawling and that stuff, what sort of job will he aim for?
He certainly has a musical streak to him. Not only does he love a good rendition of Wheels on the Bus, but he also loves joining in grown-up chats with a few tunes of his own. This has only gotten loader over the months. Granted, his singing talents will clearly need some nurturing by someone less tone-deaf than his dad, but he's got potential [warning: don't interrupt his singing or you may be the object of an aggressive screech, nurturing the diva side of his inner musician]
​Then there's his brainy side. He always loves [to eat] a good book. Who knows where this might lead?...

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Growing Rough & Tumble babies

4/11/2016

17 Comments

 
Baby Little Bear in washing basket dad's turn blog
Your first newborn is tough to look after. And not because of the sleepless nights, feeding troubles, and poo explosions. It's because nothing in life had ever prepared you for these things, and their constant wearing away at your normally well rested self. You're sub-consciously wondering when your weekend will come, or if the baby has an off-switch. When will you get to sleep! When will you shower! Then you clock that it's only been a week (felt like a month), and you've got the rest of the next 20 odd years to do... at least.

Fast-forward 8 months into parenting... It starts to feel like you can do this, and it's getting pretty fun. It's like you tasted your first pint of bitter (beer for non-Brits) 8 months ago and it was disgusting, but now it's turning out pretty refreshing and has become your drink of choice.

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Little Scientists: Baby Learning

21/9/2016

15 Comments

 
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Little Bear darts across the floor on his belly until he reaches my feet. Maybe he wants a hug? No. He grabs one of his balls (not from between his legs, that's for nappy changing time) One of the plastic ones that fell out of the ball-bit. It's blue. He lifts it up and drops it. It bounces. He repeats until he feels sure blue always bounces. He shuffles to a corner where he's gathered all the red and orange balls under the TV (little autistic but we'll put that to one side) and begins repeating his experiment. Yes, these colours bounce too. Does the cuddly lamb toy bounce when dropped? No (cue shocked expression on Little Bear's face). The little scientist has come up with a hypothesis, and he's testing it.

These little creatures come out struggling with the idea of how black and white are different, and in 8 months, they've started running their own experiments. For us that's surely like going from working out the tip at a restaurant to understanding quantum physics in the space of a few weeks. 

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Close but no porridge

12/8/2016

11 Comments

 
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There are few things finer in life than milk. Or so thinks Little Bear. Since the day he was born, the prospect of getting some boob or bottle has sent him into a feeding frenzy. After spotting the food, or hearing the milk machine buzzing, his eyes open wide, his nostrils flare, pupils dilate and his head starts wobbling from side-to-side as his snorts at the approaching teat.

​If you hesitate to put on a bib or sit him up straight you'll be greeted by a load, frustrated screech. 'How dare you delay the milk!' 

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A good book

30/7/2016

9 Comments

 
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Library
In the last few weeks Little Bear has started to become a real book-worm. Are we building a little Einstein or a Nobel Laureate? He started light, grabbing the pizza menus posted through the door and making a swipe for People Magazine (not sure how it ended up in our house?). Then moving onto the more complex literature with some trips to the library, he started getting hooked on how a little boy called Max was trying to find his ball, or the adventures of Spot the Dog.
 
Lately few of his toys can bring him as much excitement as discovering that Mamma, Pappa, and the puppy he never had are hiding behind little flaps he can pull... again, and again...

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Bear Growls for Friends

7/7/2016

6 Comments

 
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Bear Growl
​Little Bear has started to make friends. He's got a few signs that he's making a friend, but the best by far is the Bear Growls (I don't know where he gets it from... I only occasionally growl at him when eating his toes). He gets happy that he's making friends, and then suddenly this little face appears with a crinkled nose and open mouth, blending angry and happy in an off-putting way. He bares his tooth (one has finally arrived) with a fixed expression whilst staring at his victim, and occasionally adds a little growl to add to his ferocious challenge. [He's actually happy in the Little Bear growl pic here]
He's long since had a fascination with grown-ups. Especially their mouths and noses: noses are for eating; mouths are for grabbing, particularly the teeth. I hope this trait of sticking his hand in the mouths of things bigger than him stops before we take him to the zoo. Coupled with the little bear growls it could have bad consequences.

Making grown-up friends mainly means playing with a new face to him. Nothing will make him lose it quite like the opportunity to mess with someone's face.
A relative or family friend comes for a visit, and his whole body starts shaking in excitement (especially his feet). Little Bear is then handed to said visitor and after a moment of skepticism or awe, he leans forward to claim his prize (normally punctuated with some gabbling). He needs to be a little more careful with other babies though!...

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Little Personalities

1/6/2016

7 Comments

 
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​Every parent wants to know what sort of person their little trolls will become as they get bigger. I wanna know not just what Little Bear will be but who he'll be. Will he be an introverted angel, or a hyperactive and sociable terror? Will he charm everyone who meets him, or be known as a bookish grump? Be an image of Buddha, or comedy genius?
​What can we tell about future personalities from how babies act? Based on little evidence, I think sparks of their personalities are already starting to show at 5 months. Not having seen this all before, I could be totally wrong. But I think I'm seeing some clear signs of who the Little Bear might turn out to be...

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So fast!

19/5/2016

2 Comments

 
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"from vegetable to babbling yoga master in just a couple of months"
Little Bear's come a long way. It feels like only a short while ago that this now fairly hyperactive, interactive little monkey just lay there immobile, unable to follow objects with his eyes or understand that his wobbly arms were attached to his body.

​Just after he was born he went yellow, which is apparently bad, so we went back into to hospital for 3 days (of no sleep just after 2 days of labour!) to put him under a blue light in the hope of turning him pink again. [notice the cool sun mask]. 
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During the whole thing, he barely moved at all, unless to whimper that he was hungry (every 30 minutes unfortunately for his mum). And he certainly didn't interact with anything around him, save the occasional stare into people's eyes.

​In stark contrast, he now aptly grabs his toes while folding up into an agile yoga position, explaining to us that his feet are the most exciting thing since the discovery of his fingers only weeks earlier. By explaining, I mean rambling, squeaking and occasionally blowing raspberries: so copying his parents...

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    I'm Dave, dad of Little Bear. Also known as 'Pappa' to the little man as we try and bring out his Swedish roots

    My wife and I are sharing the troubles and joys of bringing up Little Bear equally. This is about my half of the time being responsible for not breaking the baby

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  • Home
  • Becoming a Nordic Dad
  • Raising Little Bear
    • Latest posts
    • Little Personalities
    • Dads are parents too
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