Thierry's first stroll

Somewhat tongue in cheek: So there I am wandering along my local high road when suddenly a paparazzi photographer leaps from inside a florist shop and snaps a few photos of the first Bugaboo Chameleon ever to be seen in the vicinity !

This pram/stroller is the brand new model succeeding the Bugaboo Frog which during the last year become all the rage with many celebrities wanting to be seen with one. On one website alone someone put together (believe it or not) the following list of C to A-list celebs.

• Fran Cutler ( meg matthews posse)
• Gwenyth Paltrow BLACK
• Liv Tyler NAVY
• Matt le blanc AUBERGINE
• Mariella Frostup
• Heidi Klum
• Charlie Brooks ( janine of eastenders)
• Anna Friel ( 1st to have cameleon? )DRK GREY AND GREEN
• Angela Griffiths BLACK
• Sara Cox NAVY
• Courtney Cox ( has a stokke too why who knows, cos she can) NAVY

What makes me smile is a quote in BusinessWeek Online from a New York dad who talked about his Bugaboo in the following manner "It's a stroller I'm not ashamed to push," said one father. Made in Taiwan and available in 21 countries, the Bugaboo is the Mercedes-Benz of strollers: practical, built like a tank, and very expensive.

Imagine that ! My son being pushed around in a Mercedes-Benz-like pram. His mum will be pleased.

More details from an article a month ago in The Daily Telegraph;

( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2005/08/25/hbuggy25.xml&sSheet=/health/2005/08/25/ixhmain.html )

In the meantime, back to the 'surprise' photographer, well, Thierry was fast asleep (again) so missed all the action.

  ¶ 5:50 pm 0 comments

  He has fans everywhere Shock, horror ! Recently seen at the Labour Party Conference and pictured on the front covers of newspapers such as The Sun and The Daily Mail, the wife of a very senior politician in the country was seen expressing her admiration of little Thierry. Thierry was too busy drinking his mum's milk today to venture an opinion.
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  Die erste Woche schon vorbei!   ¶ 10:53 pm 0 comments

  A present from our local fox This is a true story: We have a resident fox. He owns our garden. He decides which frogs live in our longer grass, he decides where he leaves his pungent excretia. He has a nonchalant swagger as he sniffs around our garbage bags, even to the extent that when the security lights come on his pride stops him scampering off immediately. This is his Manor.

Of late, Freddie Fox http://www.flickr.com/photos/familyboucher/47194938/ has been doing more than just leaving the remains of the nights dinner in our garden or killing off the local amphibean life. Our garden has started to resemble the backyards of Steptoe and Son.

For some unknown reason Freddie has been carrying an assortment of items into our garden and storing them there.

These items range from numerous plastic balls, dogs' toys, pieces of rope and of course garbage debris. Today we had an incredible delivery.

The wierd, almost eerie arrival is a pink rabbit left in the middle of our lawn. What does it mean, what does Freddie know, what is his game. Or is he just a happy fox bringing a present to our new arrival.
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  Flowers for mum A lovely bouquet of flowers arrived from my office. Here's mom out in the garden getting some fresh air. Maybe tomorrow we will get to try our new Bugaboo Chameleon out ! What is it ? Check this blog tomorrow !
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  One week on Exactly a week ago Thierry was in the final stages of entering the world. What a huge difference one week makes.

He's now very engaged with his surroundings. At 4 this morning, after a full 50+ml feed, he and I seemed to walk miles around the house (well I did the walking). He would go through quiet almost sleeplike 60second breaks then get very hectic letting the neighbourhood know he had arrived. But it was during one of these strolls that he opened his eyes wide open and stared intently at the long palm-like leaves of a plant we have in the lounge. He seemed captivated by its shadows that played across the walls.

This morning he's been great. Some more feeding and now sleeping. Charlotte our midwife has said that he is almost back up to his birth weight and the blood test she took by pricking his heal showed that he was very healthy.

We're considering a stroll along the High Road today if his mum is up to the walk. Everything is great and we've been blessed with a super son.  ¶ 12:52 pm 0 comments

  Cousins ! This weekend we had our first visitors to see Thierry. Here is his cousin Ellen.
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  Late night rumbles Thierry is back in his Moses backet and snoozing away. He's just had 50ml of his mum's milk from a bottle which makes a great start on this new day - welcome to a Sunday Thierry.

It's currently 4-38am and I've just finished a marathon session with him. I'd woken at 2am to hear him in grizzly mood. He'd been put to bed an hour earlier by Dominique after another good feed. For the best part of an hour I struggled to keep him happy. He would wimper, scream and then go subdued, lulling me into a false sense of security. I knew he needed a feed within the hour but my plan was to give him some more rest. But still he cried. Then a bright idea ! Nappy change.

After the pampers change, his old one was only slightly wet, we wandered downstairs to see how much milk was waiting for him in the fridge. I'd just got to the kitchen with him facing me own my right shoulder when I felt Thierry tense up and then something happened. You know what i mean ? Something that perhaps the Richter scale was designed to measure in the early days before Mr Richter decided that his invention could also be used to aid the study of tectonic plates.

Anyhow my little Teutonic friend lying only inches from my face unleashed a rumble of such magnitude that Ali's Rumble in the Jungle all those years ago was by contrast a mere Rattle in the Jungle. I don't jest. But Thierry was saving the best for 2 seconds later. That's when I felt his nappy increase in volume by a fifth. The new nappy had lasted barely 3 minutes. Time to return to the changing pad.

Dominique had joked earlier that the tar like merconium poo's had finished and we had moved onto a new phase, I won't go into detail here suffice to say imagine gooseberry stew....

But all this pales into insignificance compared to the emotions that are stirred. Thierry and I have just had a great two and half hours together. It's quite the most wonderful experience being able to look after your child when they are at their most vunerable. While trying to get him to sleep earlier I put Dido on and for a couple of minutes he became entranced with 'Here With Me' and stared with his eyes wide open at one of the speakers. Just an amazing moment.  ¶ 5:16 am 0 comments