Bellahouston Park with Milli & Jamie

Today whilst Taid and Molly went off to some business meetings, Curtis took nanna along to Bellahouston park to meet up with Jamie and Milli. Gareth made the most of the trip and got his first rollerblading session in for this year. Curtis had been a bit unwell with reflux before we left but luckily enjoyed the fresh air and slept for most of the walk.

Nanna and Taid said another sad farewell to Curtis as they headed back to Ireland. Molly however wasn't too uspet to say goodbye to the wee man as she thought that he'd stolen far too much attention away from her this weekend already.

Rouken Glen Park with Nanna and Taid

Our day began at 5.50am when Curtis awoke for his breakfast b4 having a further snooze 'till about 7pm. Then it was time for everyone else to have breakfast...but not wanting to miss a chance to chat to the wee man Nanna and Taid happily ate theirs whilst sitting on our really manky kitchen floor (the last of the rooms in our flat to be renovated in a few weeks time)..now that's dedication!

Curtis had a nice calm day today so we took advantage and put him in his new inflatable play mat. With it being inflated around the sides he can sit up in it by himself without help. He was having a right giraffe (laugh) playing in it.

We have reached the conclusion the trying to get Curtis to sleep for more than 30 mins at a time during the day just dosent work. Before if he woke after 30 mins we tried to get him to go to sleep again to get a full hour + of rest but this led to a really cranky Curtis as he was bored of sleeping.
Now as soon as he wakes we pick him up before he starts crying and play with him which he loves. Then in another couple of hours he's happy to try sleeping for another 20-30 mins. Better than nothing and we have a much happier little boy.

Also today we discovered another cool place on our doorstep to go for walks. Rouken Glen, check out the pictures below from our walk. Curtis slept most of the time but Molly had a great time jumping in every muddy puddle she possibly could.

Later was Curtis's 1st Mersyside derby. Liverpool (me&Tim) Vs Everton (Dad's team). Liverpool won 1 -0

29th March 2008: Good deals at Asda!

Look what a great deal I found when I did my shopping today at Asda....a wee baby boy! Poor wee Curtis was covered in shopping today in Asda as I didnt want to use one of their unstable trollies suited for car seats so had to use a regular trolley and put his car seat in it...it didnt leave much room for groceries so I just had to pile stuff around him. But as you see, he saw the funny side of it. Later in the day Curtis's Nanna and Taid arrived from Ireland. Curtis was really happy about this and saved some of his biggest smiles. Then he was off to his bed for 7pm, leaving everyone else time to have dinner and polish of some pernod and wine.

Lunch with Auntie Siobhan

We had a great day today, which started at 5.30am when Curtis awoke hungry but smiling and didnt have to spend the next hour straining and crying to fill his nappy as he does most mornings at this time...which meant an extra hours sleep for all 3 of us...hooray! Auntie Siobhan had invited us over for lunch today and all went pretty well. Both Sioban and I managed ot eat at the same time while Curtis watched from my knee. We also snuck in a quick walk to the park when we saw he'd fallen asleep and on the way bumped into Moira and her two girls Alisha and Chloe from upstairs. The girls always like to say hello to Curtis and peered in the pram to shake his hand and stroke his face. Then before bedtime I had time to introduce Curtis to the wonders of television...well, hey it's going to happen someday and I had heard it was a great way to send them to sleep. He got himself snuggled up in a duvet on the floor and watched one of his Baby Einstein DVDs for a couple of minutes. I was quite bored by the DVD so turned round to talk to Curtis who always love to chatter and giggle, but not this time. He ducked his head away from my gaze within 2 seconds to look back over at the TV. Hmmmm.....

Shouting at the Shops

We had a bit of a horrid morning here today as yet again lack of naps led to grumpiness and tears, this time for both Steph and Curtis...so, in an attempt to lull him to sleep through boredom I took him off to the shops at Breahead. He did fall asleep for 20 minutes in M&S but was awake and very alert the rest of the time, and in a good mood, if a bit wired!...much to the amusement of the staff in the shops as he demonstrated his latest new skill....shouting. 'Wow, what a big noise from such a small boy' I was told. He really was quite hilarious. The expression of shock on his face when we got into the lift and it started to move also had me laughing and I managed to capture it on camera (see above). The car turns out to be a great feeding station when at the shops so we seem to have found a solution to how I'd manage to breastfeed in public too....Well, it's a start eh?

Wed 26th Baby Massage class

Today was our 2nd baby massage class and I was looking forward to seeing how the little man would get on. Like last time however, a lack of napping left him a bit grizzly and he grumbled through the first part of the class. As he lay on the mat next to the line of other babies I was struck by how active he was compared to them, or rather how serene and calm they all were. They all looked in slow motion compared to our wee boy who's eyes were darting about looking at the walls, looking at the other mums with his legs and arms jumping about....hmmm...and this is how he is at a massage class. I wonder if they other mums sedate their babies or ours is just a mentalist! As shown in the photo however, her did find time to have a quiet moment reading a book later in the day. All together now... (well, ok...just my mum, valerie and I) 'Oh he's so advanced'.

Thanks once again to auntie Lisa for coming round in the evening and making our tea....yum, salmon fishcakes with homemade chutney and belated birthday cupcakes...superb! Thanks Lisa.

The Grouch

Today we stayed around the flat tidying up and trying to plan out our new kitchen so there's not much to report. Despite having had a very rested day yesterday Curtis had a real ol' grouch on today and just couldn't sleep for more then 15-20 minutes. Sometimes he just gets on with the day anyway, but today his need for sleep but lack of sleep skills really peed him off and he cried and grumbled a fair bit. Good tho' that in between times he's all smiles and gurgles as usual which is just great. He is however still very camera shy and freezes every time I try to capture his latest noises and chatterings on camera.

Spurred on by the purchase of new jeans yesterday I (Steph) started the day with sit ups and exercises as Curtis sat watching with some amusement in his bouncer, and then made the most of Curtis's fantastically reliable nightime sleeping to set of for a jog at 7pm tonight. Listening to Elvis Presley the whole way really brightened my mood; I started thinking how fortunate it was that we didn't call our son Elvis after all...but still glad that we snuck the Kings middle name in there! Although only out of the house for 25 minutes I had to go straight in to stare at Curtis on my return. He was lying there in his cot all snug, looking like a little angel zipped into his white Dreampod with his arms, as usual, stretched out at 90 degrees. Ahhhh... :-)

24th March 2008: Easter Monday

Gareth has been off for the past two days so we made the most of this by going off to The Fort to go shopping yesterday. Curtis must have known how much his mumma needed a stroll around the shops and to buy some new clothes as he decided to sleep the whole 3 hours!! Steph even got to go into the chnaging rooms in peace. A result both for Steph and for Curtis, as it was great to know he'd had a good daytime sleep for a change. Curtis got some treats to as we spent some of the cash collected by Stephs work colleaugues on some cool swimming aids for the wee fella....a wetsuit to keep him warm in the pool (and matching socks, just couldn't resist!), some arm bands, a pool changing mat and some swim nappies. We had planned to take him swimming on Tuesday but he still has a snotty nose so we thought we'd best wait till he's fully recovered.

Happy Easter

Today was one of the biggest matches of the season for Liverpool as they played Manchester Utd, and Steph had planned to surprise Gareth by kitting Curtis out in his first ever Liverpool strip. He looked so cute in his romper and little tracksuit but unfortunately didnt serve as a lucky mascot today as they lost 3-0. Sure they'll be many other days for the wee man (once he knows what football is) to share some time on the sofa watching the game with his dad.

Happy Birthday Mum!!!!!!

Today began at 5.30am with feeds followed by a very wakeful Curtis who didnt want to go back to bed. He was obviously very excited to be up and to give me the birthday card he'd carefully written..how sweet, the wee guy has yet again spent his pocket money at Clinton cards. After a quick stroll to the park, Gareth went off to work and I stayed with the wee man again monitoring his sleep cues ready to get him in his cot as soon as he yawned. Today however he was having none of it and fought sleep despite clearly being very tired. The white noise, the cosy sleeping bag he was in, the darkened cot etc made no difference. He cried and cried in his cot but fell asleep with me, but kept waking as if having bad dreams. Rather than stress we just got on with the day which was brightened by a visit from Lisa...Curtis delighted in showing off with many smiles and gurgles.

We've been told to bath Curtis only once every 3days to avoid making patches of dry skin worse, and tonight was bath night! Boy, did he ever make up for the last 2 days..he's usually quite active in the bath but tonight I struggled to hold him and couldnt stop laughing at his splashing, and jumping antics. He is now the length of his wee bath and loves nothign better than placing his feet on one end and pushing himself up in the air out of the water whilst splashing both arms around. I really must try to get a video of this as you'd not believe a 2 month old could be so energetic! We have interpreted his behaviour as enthusiasm (although it could be argued he's trying to jump out of the bath!) and so have bought him a floatie swim seat for use at the swimming pool and hope to take him along very soon...watch this space for videos and photos!

Recreating the womb!

Having had night sleeps sewn up for some weeks now, we've been concerned that Curtis doesn't seem to be able to sleep much at all in the day and gets very over-tired and grumpy some days. We've tried 'controlled crying', putting him in cot, pram, going for walks, lullaby Cds, massage etc but rarely get him to sleep more than 20 minutes, if at all, unless he is sleeping on one of us, in which case he'll stay there for hours! He is just too into everything around him and never just drops off to sleep as some babies do...quite the opposite, he usually looks wide awake with his arms, legs and head bobbing about in all directions. This however is a sign of his over-tiredness.

'The Baby Whisperer', Tracey Hogg, in her book recommends that this type of baby needs all stimulation blocked out in order to sleep, so today Curtis ended up in his cot with a recording of a hair dryer (white noise) playing and his cot drapped over with a dark bedsheet....an improvement on yesterdays attempt which involved me holding a magasine over his head/eyes whilst holding the hairdryer in the other hand. Yesterday = failure, today = success. He was asleep within 10 mins, not once... but 4 times during the day, clocking up a whopping 2hrs 20 mins day time napping!

Nothing much to take photos of today, so here's are some photos we already had of the little man sleeping.

Baby Massage

Today was Curtis's first baby massage class. Knowing it started at 1.15pm we began making plans to leave mid-morning....on the basis that yesterday when we tried to meet Gareth for lunch at Silverburn we only made it in time to spend the last 32 seconds of his lunchbreak with him due to a prolonged feed b4 we left, some problems getting Curtis settled enough the leave the house, then Curtis being sick in the car! Today we arrived just 3 minutes late and managed to stay for the whole class.

The class was held in the lovely Tramway theatre near to our house in one of the back rooms, today full of sunshine. About 7-8 other babies were there with their mums or mum/dad combos. Curtis was the youngest there by about 10 days with most babies around 3-4 months old. He hadn't had a lunchtime nap so was a bit wired but manged to keep any grumpiness to a quick 5 minute bout of grizzles whilst all the other babies were starting their massage. We soon caught up and he seemed quite hapy to have his legs smothered in grapeseed oil, pummelled and stroked. Curtis then became teachers pet and was taken by the class teacher (also our health visitor) for some cuddles, and a trip around the room to meet all the other babies. Being a sociable guy he was more than happy with this.

A quick walk around Maxwell Park enabled me to get Curtis to sleep for just 30 minutes, then we were home for more feeds, more attempts of getting Curtis to sleep (unsuccessful) and then the usual night time routine. Just now I'm typing and hearing him grunting and snuffling on the monitor so clearly he is still not sleeping, but he's quiet and in his bed without trouble by 7pm so no real complaints from me!

Curtis Hughes

Today we discovered that Curtis has been moonlighting and has a new job in American. Click on his name below to see.
Curtis Hughes

Which is which I cant tell?????????

Happy St Patricks Day!!!!!!!!!!

Farewell To Grandad, Curtis 2 Months Old Today.

An Early start to say farewell to grandad who set off back to Norfolk at 9.30am. Curtis enjoyed more smiles and laughter as he had a conversation with Grandad and said goodbye.

Curtis was settling down for his morning nap as usual at about 10 o'clock when our friend Alisdair the architect arrived to help us sort out our kitchen (the only room left to be renovated). Unfortunately as Curtis is so noisy, the sound of new voices in the kitchen meant he didnt want to go to sleep and miss out on all the fun. But it meant that he got to meet Alisdair.

Missing morning nap time as we now know is not a good idea. He was then so tired that he was to grumpy to sleep and cried until about 2 o'clock.

He did then manage to sleep for a bit but the effects of his cold kept waking him up and by this stage the whole days routine was turned on its head.

We did manage to get some fresh air, as it was a sunny day we all went for a walk which calmed things down a bit.

Bedtime was harder work then usual but the mucus problems of yesterday so far seemed to have solved themselves and eventually at about 8.30pm he went soundly to sleep.

Saturday 15th Coughs and Cuddles,Sneezes and Sleeping

As Curtis has a little bit of a cold and was a bit sick the night before and as every time he lay down he found it dificult to breath, Steph and Grandad tried to keep him upright all day. So lots of sleepy cuddles using grandads beard as a pillow.

The daily outing to Maxwell Park was postponed due to illness so today entertainment came from Grandad playing Simon and Garfunkel on the guitar.

A short trip to the local shops ended at the front gates where Curtis discovered the usually simple task of breathing became that much more difficult into a strong head wind. Attempts to breath by sticking his tongue out and shuting his lips tightly, only achieved a strange bubbling / Foaming at the mouth. So Grandad was sent to the shops by himself.

Curtis Gets 1000 Visitors........

I was goin to run a competition with a prize for the person who was the 1000th visitor to Curtis's Blog. Just as well I didnt because it turned out to be me.......

Grandad Ken arrives...

Yesterday Curtis's grandad Ken arrived to visit. Having kindly postponed his trip to see the wee man in January to reduce the risk of Curtis possibly catching a cold, Grandad Ken unfortunately arrived to find that both Gareth and Steph had woken that morning with colds...so we are hoping we dont pass them on to the wee man or Ken. There was no blogg yesterday because we were too ill and went to bed.





Had a quiet day today selling on ebay all the things we didnt use or no longer need .. like the birthing pool, tens unit, doppler. Most of time getting as much or nearly as much as we originally paid for them.





Curtis may have a bit of stephs cold which has reduced his appetite and made both of them feel tired and sluggish. Despite this he has remained to be the happy contented guy....we've now reached 5 days in a row with no bouts of loud crying or screaming. Its unbelievable how much he has calmed down.


Today Curtis took his grandad to see the swans at Maxwell Park. It was quite sunny and not raining again, and Curtis stayed awake most of the time looking round as much as he could.

Looking through old photos Steph found this one of her and her dad.

8 weeks today!

Today began with yet another early morning walk for Steph and Curtis around Maxwell park, this time in spite of the rain. Curtis then had a very relaxed and peaceful day staying asleep in his pram from 8.30-almost 11am! He must have been building up energy to debut some of his new skills today which included shouting out loudly, holding his own head up about 95% of the time and batting at things held in front of him. He seems to have reached several new milestones in his development in the past few days and was a delight to spend the day with today, not really crying at all. About 10 days ago he wouldn't have spent longer than 30 seconds under his activity arch but today his face lit up when I put him under there...possibly encouraged by the fact that by putting him there on his beloved changing mat he was able to stay there with his nappy off, which always puts him in a good mood. I'd never seen him seemingly bat at something intentionally before and he did this several times...but mainly with his left hand...part of a left hand trend we've noted with him in recent weeks.

The sun came out at lunchtime so I took the chance to go for another walk around the park, then in the afternoon I found a new place to put him for his tummy time...it worked at treat and as you can see he looked quite cute too!

For some reason today I was really struck by just how much more he begins to look like his dad too.