Charity link

It's just been pointed out to me that I never got around to posting the link promised in my last post. As this is the blog that comes up first in google, rather than the charity one, I'd better correct that!

So here it is.  Please head over to my Charity Blog at:

  http://richardwarrencharity.blogspot.co.uk/

Or, just go direct to the "Donate" page at:

  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/rew

Thanks very much!

Long time no see!

Just found this blog again after many inactive years. Maybe I'll pick it up again soon, although I'm about to start a new short-term one for a charity bike ride I'm undertaking (link here soon).

I'd better change my intro though, as it's more like "late thirties" (just) than "mid thirties" now.

Mild Measles

We think James has a mild bout of measles.

He had his 13 month MMR vaccination about ten days ago (Thursday 8th, a little late for 13 months really), and about a week later on this Thursday just gone he started to get very grumpy, sleepy and a little hot. On Friday he slept for almost three hours solid during the day, which is totally unlike him, and has had a bit of a temperature for the last couple of days. Nothing too bad, paracetamol and ibuprofen seem to be controlling it, but we've had a few ropey nights. Plus, he's developed a slight rash of red spots over various parts of his body. Again, nothing too serious, and they don't seem to irritate him, or he's so grumpy at the moment anyway that he hasn't noticed!

Apparently the official notes that come with the vaccine state that this (including fever, malaise and a rash) might be expected 6 to 10 days after the injection, which is about right! Roughly one in ten children suffer from it. The reason seems to be that the vaccine is based on a live virus, albeit an attenuated strain.

Anyway, as he's had it for a few days now, hopefully he'll start getting better again shortly and will be back to his cheerful little self.

Apart from that, he's doing fine. He still isn't walking unaided, although he's very adept at pushing walkers/cars/chairs/anything along and following behind! Imogen is doing fine too.

Stairs

It's been a while since I posted here. Those who know the family will understand why but I simply can't bring myself to write anything about our recent tragic loss, and nor would anyone want to read it anyway. Maybe one day.

Anyway, the children are too young to understand what happened, so life goes on for them as normal.

James had his first birthday last week. We had a small family 'party', although emotions were obviously mixed. He's fairly mobile now, able to creep along items of furniture and toddle along behind a walker, although not on his own (and he can't turn it yet either).

He obviously decided that being 1 meant he had to do something new though, because he suddenly crawled up the stairs for the first time last week. He'd climbed a single step before, but never the stairs, and he just went straight up! He's done it a few more times again since (with supervision obviously) and is so proud of himself when he gets to the top.

He had viral bronchyolitis (no idea if that how to spell it!) a couple of weeks ago, which wasn't nice but he's over it now.

Imogen's doing fine too, just a bit bored of the Easter holidays because she's missing Happy Bunnies.

A hundred

I'm sitting here at my PC doing various odds and ends, waiting for Imogen to go to sleep in the room next door, but all she's doing is talking and singing to herself as is so often the case, when suddenly I hear a pattern emerging...

38, 39, pause, 40, 41, 42... 49, pause, 50, 51,...

This continues perfectly up to 88, 89, another pause, 90, 91 and so on until eventually 98, 99 and a really big pause then 100!!!!

As far as I know, it's the first time she's counted to a hundred all by herself (she's three years and two months old - I don't know how that compares!). She's been able to count to about fifty-ish for ages and ages (I can't remember how long, but some time when she was two I think), and we've counted to 100 together a couple of times, most recently on Saturday evening when she got stuck at each something-nine, restarting at the beginning of that ten again, so 58, 59, 50 etc., but I'm most impressed that she's done it on her own now.

As an aside, the reason we were counting to 100 on Saturday evening was to entertain her (she's easily pleased!) on the way back from Addenbrooke's hospital, where we'd been for several hours with James. He'd developed a fever earlier in the day and was constantly crying for hours, so Sharon eventually had to take him to A&E where they ran loads of blood and other tests before eventually diagnosing an ear infection and giving antibiotics plus ibuprofen and paracetamol. He's a lot better now (Thursday), though still not a hundred percent (there's that number again!), but hopefully will be his rightful self again soon.

He's so mobile now it's unbelievable, crawling everywhere, pushing himself along on his ride-along car and generally pulling up everywhere he can. The illness knocked him back for a few days, but he's making great progress again now.

The worst thing about Saturday was that I wasn't around, since I was in Oxford for the day at a Keble thing, but luckily Sharon's parents were here for the weekend so they helped with it all until I was able to drive back and meet them at Addenbrooke's.

Right, Imogen's asleep now, so I can go downstairs and get on with other things!

Crawling and first tooth

It's been a gradual process over a few weeks, but James is finally mobile (nine and a half months) as he can now crawl around quite well. It's sometimes commando-style rather than true hands-and-knees stuff, but it works!

Also, his first tooth is coming through at last (his bottom left front tooth). We've been expecting it for a couple of months as all the signs were there, but only this week has it actually made itself visible.

What with all his newly-developed physical activity, his growth rate has slowed slightly, so he's now 7.5kg (roughly 16lb 8oz or 9oz), which puts him down towards the second centile, but his height and weight are in proportion and his head circumference is still on track which are the key things.

I wonder when the next teeth will show?

Growing up

As Imogen rapidly approaches 3 years old (which she doesn't want to be, because she doesn't want to get bigger, so she's agreed to be "2 and 1" instead), we've had a couple of milestones recently.

Firstly, we went to see her in a Nativity Play for the first time last week. You might think she's a little young, but Happy Bunnies put one on each year which basically entails a grown-up narrating between various songs from the children, and one or two lines for the older children. Let's just say it was a cross between fantastic, proud and amusing, but we were really pleased that Imogen took part (even if she refused to wear her angel costume because she wanted her favourite pink stripy cardigan on, and only sat at the front of the stage rather than stood with all the others). She still doesn't "do" crowds and strangers.

She finally settled in well at Happy Bunnies though, after many weeks of crying in advance and when Sharon left her. It wasn't that she didn't have fun there, she just didn't want Mummy to leave her there. After the separation was over each day, she was fine and really enjoyed it, but the anxiety leading up to going was awful. Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been different and she didn't complain at all about going. It's a bit of a shame that there's now a three week break over Christmas, before she goes back four mornings a week in January, since we may have to get over that again then.

Her other big milestone last week was having her first sweet. You may think that a week or two short of her third birthday is a little late to get her a sweet, but what with all her allergies and stuff we never got around to it, and she never accepted anything from anyone other than us really because she seemed to know that she shouldn't eat things we didn't provide. Well, the first sweet was just licked for a long time, making her fingers extremely sticky, but the second one the next day actually made it into her mouth, and there's been no turning back since. She wants one every day! (These are from a small packet of jelly bear type things that have no artificial additives, colouring or other e-number nasties she's likely to react to).

James is still doing well, although he's been ill a little recently (the usual early winter kinds of things), and seems to be teething although we've thought that for months now! He hasn't been sleeping well as a result, but we're hoping things are improving now. He's still a little on the small side, down near the 9th centile, though nothing to worry about in the slightest as I was quite small when I was young (and am hardly that now, either small or young!) and his head is growing perfectly.

He's sitting very well now, and obviously has been able to roll over for a long time (see posting a few months ago), but isn't making much progress on the crawling front. He looked to be on the verge of it in September when we were on holiday, and even moved forwards a foot or two, but hasn't done anything more since then. It'll come at some point obviously, but I don't think it's imminent.

James has no idea about Christmas, but Imogen is starting to get into the swing of it this year. She visited Father Christmas recently (at a nearby garden centre), though wouldn't actually look him in the face, and is very concerned that he's going to come into the house with the presents, so we've promised he'll just drop them down the chimney instead.

She did at least ask him for some pens and colouring stuff (which is all she wants apparently), so we'll see what he brings...

Happy Bunny

Imogen started at the Happy Bunnies nursery school in Barrington this week, just two mornings a week to begin with, but maybe more when she turns three at Christmas. Sharon hasn't actually tried leaving her there alone yet (they don't recommend it for the first few sessions), but by all accounts she's settling in well and having a whale of a time, so maybe soon. It will be the first time Imogen has been left at a place like this, since although they've been to loads of toddler groups, activities and so on, she's never been on her own to creches, child-minders or any other kind of childcare, so it will be a fairly major milestone when it finally happens.

James, meanwhile, is also doing well. We started weaning him a couple of weeks ago, and he was weighed this week (just turned six months now). At 6.93kg (15lb 4 oz), he's between the 9th and 25th centiles (much closer to the former), which is a little on the small side but nothing unexpected as those charts are based on bottle-fed babies rather than breast-fed, the latter being generally smaller anyway. Also, he was almost bang on the ninth centile at birth anyway.

On a different note, his Christening went well earlier in the month, with a nice turn-out from families on both sides, and luckily a fair-weather day so we could celebrate in the garden afterwards!

Four months, and rolling over

James is four months old today!

He's recently started rolling over, both from front to back and back to front, which is quite fun to watch because Imogen started crawling before she could roll over. He gets in a bit of a pickle sometimes though, ending up with his arm stuck under his body, and he also gets a bit frustrated as though he's wanting to get somewhere, but it's a good start anyway.

He was weighed a couple of weeks ago, 5.98kg or 13lb 3oz in old money. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was fractionally under the 50th centile at the time.

We've finally planned his Christening as well now, for September. With any luck the constant rain that the UK has been experiencing for weeks (months?) will have eventually stopped by then and we'll have some nice weather, but I'm not holding my breath!

LinkedIn

In addition to my CV at http://www.rewarren.co.uk, I am now also maintaining my LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardwarren where you can also see my contacts and other additional information.

Eight week check

James had his 8-week check last Friday (18th), and all was well.

He weighed 11lb 7oz (actually 5.2kg) and is still basically on the 50th centile.

This visit also included his first set of jabs/vaccinations. Apparently he screamed like crazy for a few seconds, then calmed down very quickly (I wasn't there myself). No real after effects, except being slightly grumpy for a day or two, but not much.

Next jabs in another month.

Still putting on weight quickly

James was weighed again earlier this week (five and a half weeks ish) and is now 10lb 5oz, pretty much on the 50th centile.

We're sort of expecting him to level off a bit now, but we'll see!

Weigh in, and test results

James was weighed again yesterday (just under four weeks old) by the Health Visitor, and was a healthy 8lb 14oz (6lb 9oz at birth), so I don't know what Sharon has been eating but it's obviously working!

He's also had the standard hearing test this morning (at Royston hospital) which was all fine, so that's good news.

Finally, we had the results of the heelprick test (Guthrie test, I think it's called), and that's all normal as well.

That's it, I quit!

Following the enlargement of our family, and a long period of generally decreasing morale at work, I've finally taken the plunge and handed in my notice.

After almost ten years there, during which the company has changed a huge amount (including going from a small privately owned company to part of a large US-owned public corporation), I've decided I need a change and am therefore now looking for new opportunities.

My preference at this point is for software contract work, ideally something like two to three month fixed term projects that maybe I can do from home so I don't need to drive into Cambridge every day.

So, if you need a hard-working, experienced software engineer, specialising in embedded C, with detailed knowledge of military and civilian radar systems (including target tracking) as well as video, graphics, sonar and TCP/IP networking, then I'm your man!

You can find my CV at:

http://www.rewarren.co.uk

Please feel free to pass it to suitable companies who are looking for contractors!

My final day at Primagraphics (oops, sorry, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Cambridge) will be Thursday 3rd May 2007, after which I want a few weeks off with the newly extended family before considering future options.

Let's just hope I haven't overestimated my chances in the job market!