Christmas 2006, some more pictures
Mid-January, Magnus is 6 months old


Magnus is very happy on Christmas day when the remaining gifts are to be opened. His eyes are sparkling.


He required some help to open presents. Here he is getting a soft ball with a number of animal faces on it.


Life with Grandma is great. Magnus is even allowed to eat the tablecloth !


As the day progresses it is a challenge to stay awake, but we -definitely- do not want to sleep, either. Good thing there is plenty of entertainment around!


When one is tired and bedtime is approaching, kitchen stuff is incredibly interesting.


New years eve, aunt Mette and Øystein is visiting, and Magnus gets to sit at the grown-ups table. He shows some interesting facial expressions when given his first taste of potatoes.

Christmas 2006 - Magnus' first
Late December, Magnus is 5,5 months old

We were late in finalizing plans for X-Mas this year, but it was approaching fast, and we ended up staying at home. The preparations started earlier when Magnus was posing for what I have now merged together into "the 1000 faces of Magnus", then the jury had a serious selection process, before one of them eventually turned into this years christmas card.

1-2 days before the big day, we did our food shopping and got a christmas tree. Magnus always enjoys coming to the grocery store, because there are so many colors and people to look at. And today he had his new hat that he loves to chew on, something mama Muna is not so thrilled about.

On the 23rd we were cleaning house and decorating the tree. And some (read: Me) had not wrapped their gifts yet, and had to find time for that. In the evening we watched the tv show that all norwegians just have to watch every year on the 23rd, about the butler and the dutchess arranging a new years party for all her dead friends, and the butler getting increasingly drunk.

We started the Big Day by having a christmas breakfast; Muna had made special christmas bread with raisins in it, and then start preparing food - this year we would deviate from the traditional pork and go with turkey with stuffing. We also chose to go to church earlier than usual, and went to the 2 o'clock service. Magnus was excited in church and wanted to make high pitched noises every time I sat down with him, so we went to sit out in the hall where all the other kids were playing. He gulped so much, and his nice christmas clothes were already seriously soiled by the time we could go home. Oh well, maybe next year...

After we got home, the final preparations for the food were to be done, and also grandma was arriving. We had christmas dinner and philosophized over the fact that usually you're supposed to eat dinner for ages and threaten the kids that maybe it will get too late to open presents this year, but we couldn't do that this year, since Magnus doesn't know that opening presents is great. So first we have to get him to like it before we can have fun with him... Anyway, I was really looking forward to see how he would react to presents and wrapping paper and all. I was kind of disappointed in his lack of interest for the christmas tree, because he is always drawn to lights and such.

So already before we were done eating, he was showing signs of being tired, so we suddenly had to hurry abit. We gathered around the tree - so many presents there this year, Magnus got quite a bit of them. The first one to be opened was from mama and papa. It was really exciting at first, all this wrapping paper and all. Mama assisted Magnus in tearing off paper, and it was fun for a bit, but suddenly this rustling paper got scary, and Magnus started to cry. It was much safer to sit on mama's lap and have her open the rest. But when the gift came out - it was a box with 4 buttons in different colors that can be manipulated to make heads come out on the top and giggle and play music - there was no mistaking the interest. In fact, we couldn't get him to catch interest for more gifts right then, and he was getting overly tired, so after playing with it for a while we went downstairs to bath and go to bed. Grandma thoroughly enjoyed the sight of Magnus' splashing in the tub.

The rest of his gifts would have to be for Christmas Day. The grownups opened their remaining gifts afterwards, and the big highlight was when Muna took me running around the neighbourhood outside just to end up in the neighbours garage to find a huge gift, that turned out to be a fire-red sack-chair. Cool!

On Christmas day we took it easy, had a nice stroll with everybody, and otherwise opened Magnus' remaining presents. We prepared fish (trout) for dinner on this day.

Nurse station repeat vaccine
Mid-December, Magnus is 5 months old

Once again, it was time to go to the nurse station, Magnus was due for the repeat shot of the vaccines he got 2 months ago. We got there in time this time, and started out by weighing and measuring his length. Magnus was now 8.1 kg and had reached 64 cm length, and all was normal. Magnus was so excited during this process that it was hard to get his clothes off, and he couldn't stop kicking while on the scale, so we had to imagine sort of an average since the meter was swaying +/- a kg in each direction with his movements.

Afterwards, we got together with our group and sat down to talk. It turned out everybody had started to try other foods than breastmilk already, we were last out since we only started 2 days ago with the first meal of porrage. And it turned out that everybody had the same problem: The babies would wake up many times throughout the night and demand food. All the mothers talked about how tired they were, and of how little help the husbands were (and Muna could not do that because I was there, hehe) and the nurse informed us that at this age the baby should be able to get through the night with only one or completely without meals.

The babies were lying on their stomachs together on the gym mat, communicating in their baby fashion. Several of the babies showed that they were able to roll, but none had started to crawl yet. Some of the babies were playing with toys, but Magnus was still only starting to show interest in toys, being more of a people's man himself...

At one point suddenly Magnus and one of the other babies started crying at the same time. I think probably they both felt the other one was invading their space, or something like that. But they were easily comforted again.

As before, Magnus did not like the vaccine, he cried so loud, but this time shorter than last time. Daddy was able to comfort Magnus, and soon the tears were all gone.

Swimming continued
Late November, Magnus is 4,5 months old

Turns out it was so exciting to participate in baby swimming that I have been going every time so far except once when I couldn't get off work. Mostly Magnus comes with me in the locker room, it has become a joyful exercise. From the minute we get into the small locker room Magnus seems to know what is coming and he is just all smiles and happy.

The second time in the water, mama Muna had her first, and she tended to look worried. I kept reminding her to smile to Magnus to encourage him so he didn't get worried. This time the instructor borrowed Magnus to show something to everybody, and we got a good laugh from Magnus' energy; he was just swimming and swimming, which was kind of funny when she was trying to show what to do if the baby was overly passive. So she ended up holding Magnus under his feet only and lifted him well clear of the water - he was just standing in her hands! Amazing, wouldn't have guessed it was possible.

So as the weeks go we practice new things, Magnus now comfortably swim on both chest and back, with the support of a hand under him, he has now learned to swim around on his own without support, using a floating device, and he has tried to dive under water.The diving was a nervous event for us parents, but it turned out quite ok. However, there was never as much crying in the pool as that day... not all the babies liked it. The trick is to first blow in his face to make him "close all hatches" (trigger the diving reflex) and then get under the water, and then up again. Sometimes he coughs a bit when he comes up, and it's important to smile and applaude him and make him feel like everything is as it should and, eventhough we might be scared. Because the baby will look to the parents to find out when to be worried. If the parents do not show worry, the baby will more likely do well and not be worried also. But largely, Magnus would just look like he had been working out and nothing out of the ordinary. He just took a dive, so what? I am so proud of him.

About the sleeping, however, Magnus is still not following the recepy; the other mothers say that their babies typically sleep many hours or until next morning after swimming, but Magnus falls asleep in the car on the way home, and can sleep heavily, too, but once we get home it is business as usual, playing around, eating and going to bed at the usual time. I think he has an incredible reservoir of energy somewhere.

Only once did we experience that he was too tired in the pool... Then he started crying with a tiny strange sound I hadn't heard before while swimming. It was totally unexpected, but probably because he didn't sleep enough earlier in the day. So we had to take it easy that time, but even when he was so tired that he couldn't not cry, he still had enough energy to splash water on the other babies when we had the "closing ceremony" afterwards.

More development stages

Late November, Magnus is 4.5 months old

One day I started thinking about and observing Magnus' development again. And felt like summarizing. It is amazing to follow him from day to day and get to see him learn new things, and it is not rare that we suddenly break out into something like "Magnus, look at you, you look so grown up when you do that".

Magnus early developed a particular liking for gulping on daddy. Combined with the fact that Daddy was late in developing a liking (or rather, memory) for being equipped with a cotton cloth to catch such mishaps, it led to a constant situation where Magnus would have his daily daddy-gulp; the first time I would pick him up he would gulp all over my sweater or T-shirt. Now, if I had just remembered the cotton-cloth I wouldn't have had to change my clothes so often. Somehow, Magnus didn't seem to care so much about that.

Over the time some sort of early morning ritual that daddy did not get to take part in developed. In the early hours when daddy was getting up and going to the bathroom, getting ready to go to work, mommy Muna and Magnus would party in the big bed - you could hear the laughter down the hall. And somehow during these early morning hours Magnus started doing new stuff; rolling over! Now for weeks I had been told "oh yes, and he rolled over again this morning - twice!" and its like, and never got to see a hint of it. I thought it started going a bit too far when she started complaining that it was impossible to have him lie still in the bed in the morning because he just wanted to roll; eating was already a problem. I had to sit down and have a mano-a-mano with my son.
And reluctantly he agreed that rolling could be done at other times also than only early morning. Shortly thereafter I witnessed my first rolling.

But what thrilled me was not the first rolling I saw, but one a bit later; I could see his problem solving skills at work. Problem at hand: Want to roll over on stomach. He rolled up on his side... and stopped, couldn't quite make it. Back again. Now, use the hand to get more motion, but no. Again, this time use the hand and the head to give the body more speed and mass to get over the top! It's incredible. Almost, almost, he even tried to grab the octopus hanging nearby to help pull him around, but it was behind him and thus had a negative effect. Great idea, but... Alas, not enough. But it was SO CLOSE. I was tempted to help him, but held back. One more attempt, and he ended up right up on the balance point. Then I became aware of the arm underneath him, he was pulling and pulling on his elbow to move it so he could use that to shift his balance, and... HE SUCCEEDED and completed the roll. Okay, it was impressive to see him roll, but to see his young analytical mind at work at age 4 months just blew my fuses. I AM IMPRESSED.

Now here is an interesting point: Magnus has been a bit early out with both rolling and "talking" (making sounds in a communicative manner). Early on we could have long conversations together, and I was particularly proud at the 3 month checkup when the nurse praised this. And then... full stop, doesn't want to talk anymore. Same with the rolling; after it has been mastered and we couldn't stop him from rolling at all times, suddenly it was not interesting anymore. Only much later (month plus) did he find interest in resuming these activities again. How strange?

After Magnus started grabbing for items the next logical step would be to put them in his mouth. I mean come on, it is the obvious choice: Grab - eat. Same philosophy the father has lived by all his life. Soon his favorite octopus would be more or less constantly wet from drool and gulp, but then this extended to blankets and towels. However the mouth was kinda hard to hit! Magnus started instead to pull these over his head. Most babies I have heard about would do the opposite, if you cover their head they will pull it away, but Magnus did the exact opposite.

Now, this made for some fun games, for he would always be grinning wildly when you would pull the blanket clear, then grab it and pull it back over his head. But it was of course less nice when you go to the toilet and come back to find a wildly screaming baby with all the blanket on his head and no air to breathe. Not really a big problem, because how long would the baby normally be left alone? But then he started doing it with his bed blanket also, which caused more concern. A couple of times I have had to rescue him when he had completely covered his head under the heavy bedsheets.

Now, after grabbing, playing in the babygym became more fun. I don't know how other babies play in there, but Magnus does not play like how I imagined it is supposed to be used. He doesn't seem interested in creating motion and enjoying what he has created, for example. But now after grabbing, he has really put the GYM into baby-gym: To Magnus it is all an exercise apparatus which he is supposed to develop his strength through using: He grabs the legs of his favorite octopus (poor, poor octopus... I estimate legs twice the original length before Magnus is done) and then he pulls with all his might. The crossing beams that hold all the toys are screaming in protest and you can see the whole thing changing shape completely, and all the toys come several inches lower towards the floor. Yep, we got a strong baby !

Now, bathroom is a chapter all by itself. No matter what may have gone wrong during the day, no matter how grumpy and upset we are at a given time, if we go to the bathroom Magnus is all happy again. I don't know what it is about this bathroom, but he loves it in there. It is extremely rare that he cries while we are on the changing table, and usually only when he is very tired and we spent too long cleaning or dressing him or something.

While we were pregnant we were reading about how it could be smart to play music for the stomach that the baby would later recognize and be comforted by, but unfortunately we were not very good at actually doing it. So Magnus doesn't really have music that per default calms him down. Or so we thought...
We are not very active music listeners anymore. Which is strange, both Muna and I own a large number of cd's. For my part I believe the music industry's negative focus and trying to make everybody criminals, and all these pesky copy protections that makes your purchase useless under unknown conditions made me lose interest in music, I haven't purchased a single cd in years. So believe it or not, I believe the last year or so we have had the same single CD in the stereo in the car the whole time. I guess we must have played it on various occations, probably when radio reception was bad or some commercial drove me crazy, who knows. But I realized by chance one day that the CD in the car had a 100% hitrate on calming Magnus down when he was crying. And it came to me that it had been in there so long. Theory still rules! A-ha's "Scoundrel days" (their #2 album and in my mind the best album they ever made) is now forever known as Magnus' CD.

He also has a couple of other musical tools. On his 30-day-celebration on which we invited all the neighbours he was given a gift CD with a number of old norwegian children songs on it, and it has been known to help him quiet down to sleep in the evening.
Also in his playpen he has a nice toy; sort of a carusel which goes round and plays a jazzy tune, complete with mirrors and colorful gadgets on. It has been a lifesaver for many a hard-needed noon-nap when Magnus has had too much to do to have time to sleep.

Also, in November, Magnus started going to babyswim classes, and that has been a boost for development. From there we picked up several positive initiaives. One has been to aid Magnus' practicing his holding his head up by putting a pillow under his chest when he is lying on his stomach: It increased both his stamina and his desire to be on his stomach noticably, for some reason, but of course requires more attention since it is easy to roll sideways and fall off the pillow.

Another couple of things are new after babyswimming: His old little bath tub is permanently retired since he didn't find the necessary space to splash around in there. He now does his bathing in the big bathtub. After his experiences in the public pool he also got the proper technique for how to kick violently and thereby splashing with maximum range. Everybody within meters are soaking wet when Magnus is bathing, and my oh my is he enjoying himself in there. The first time I had used bathbubbles in there, and with all his kicking there was so much bubbles that it was hard to find the baby in there, not to mention get the soap off the baby when we were getting out. But the nurse recommends droplets of oil instead of bubbles anyway, so... less fun but better for his skin.

Yet another is that he has now discovered that he likes to jump and stand up a lot. Of course he needs assistance to do this, but he is very keen on it. Hopefully he will learn to crawl soon before he starts walking?

Daily routine

Late November, Magnus is 4.5 months old

A typical daily routine at the time can be as follows:
The day starts around 7:30. At this time Magnus has already been awake for some time, but been allowed to enjoy his time next to a warm mama-body in the big bed. The first item on the agenda is going to the bathroom to wash face and hands and get the pyjamas exchanged for daytime clothes. And maybe a nice clean dry diaper ?

Magnus is always incredibly happy in the morning, everything is just smiles. I was thinking to change my working hours so that I stay home until 11am and work until 7pm instead so I can be with him when he is happy and come home when he is asleep instead of leaving him when he is happy and come home when he is tired and crappy mood... but I guess we have to play the cards we are dealt. I will get my time in the late-spring.

Usually Magnus wants to nap shortly after getting up, which is frustrating for people who have to get up early because Magnus doesn't want to sleep anymore, but hey, he's the boss! He plays around some in the babygym, but requires you to be close by, preferrably within touching-range, or the siren goes off.

Around 1 o'clock it is time for a stroll outside, and this is a good time to go to the store or something. A typical stroll lasts for around 1hr, sometimes more in the weekend when daddy is exploring the nearby territory. After the stroll there is more playing around inside. Magnus needs to practice his head, so we try to lie on the stomach at least 40-50 minutes per day, as recommended by the swim instructor. Magnus likes to play in the babygym, or to be on his puzzle-mat, and he likes to drool and gulp a lot.

Depending on the mood of the day, another nap might be in order, and then for working days daddy comes home around 5. By then Magnus is already getting tired after a long day, is often not in a very good mood and is very impatient. He needs a lot of attention at this time. On the tired-days, mama Muna is already exhausted by now, and daddy must play ferociously with Magnus to keep him busy for a while. Playing may include flying like an airplane through the house, jumping up-and-down, singing songs together or make fun with a teddy or a toy.

For some reason, Magnus seems to enjoy the kitchen. One good way to pass the last half hour before bedtime starts is to put him in his chair in the middle of the kitchen floor, and give him some kitchen appliance to occupy himself with while I cook dinner. When dinner is ready it is time to go downstairs and either take a bath or do a quick-wash.

The sleep routine is the same every day and starts approximately the same time, at 6:30. After cleaning up and putting on the pyjamas, mama takes Magnus off to the bedroom with dimmed lights and gives the evening meal (breastmilk), after which he lies in his bed and gets his good-night song. He usually falls asleep shortly thereafter without much fuss.
Throughout the night, Magnus wakes up every 2-3 hours and doesn't quiet down until he gets milk.
And then it's morning again, please return to the top...