10 months, 3 weeks, 6 days

Still no crawling! He gets quite frustrated that he can go sideways and backwards but can't go forwards. He has occasionally got up on all fours, when his feet have been wedged against something but other than that, he goes straight down to laying down to roll. The fact that he can't crawl yet doesn't stop me from running after him all the time to pull him away from the video player, Sky box or CD racks!

What he can do now is sit up from laying down. He will be laying on his front and he pushes up on his arms and then somehow swing his legs around.

We haven't had much luck going from bottles to cup yet. I could get him to take between 2-4oz from his Doidy or Tommee Tippee sippy cup but not without a big protest. Also, as he normally has up to 8oz, this wasn't very much at all. It didn't help that neither of these cups would fit anywhere near the full 8oz. I therefore left it for about a week until I could get a new cup. I've now got a cow cup which just about fits the whole 8oz. We have tried it once without much luck but I'm going to try hard this week. He is only on two milks a day now so I am concentrating on his morning one first and will move onto the nighttime one once he is fine with that.

We did also move his morning milk so that he has breakfast first and then milk an hour or so later. However, we are going to switch this back because he isn't drinking much milk at all like this (whether cup or bottle). As he still needs his milk, it is probably best to move it back to being first thing and breakfast later.

Callum can now hold and drink out of his sippy cup on his own, without much help. I say 'much' help as he still doesn't realise that he needs to tip his head up after a while to continue getting water out. I am sure he could have done this earlier too but maybe I didn't give him enough opportunity to try it.

We bought Callum's new car seat over the weekend. We have gone for a rearward facing one. It is actually rearward facing until he is about 2-3 and then you can turn it around and it becomes forward facing until he is about 6. We went to the In Car Safety Centre in Milton Keynes who, I think, were really good. They were honest about the seats - we ended up getting one cheaper than the one I thought we were going to get. Actually, I think it was the cheapest rearward facing one. We didn't have an appointment but they were very accommodating and were happy to spend the time with us. The lady was very helpful and informative. We tried two seats in the end (we could have tried more but we didn't feel we needed to) but went with the 2-Way Elite as it was the best seat to offer the most comfort for the passenger sitting in the front and, of course, comfort for Callum. Not sure what Callum thinks of it. He hasn't been particularly happy in it so far but he is never keen on sitting in his car seat. He did fall asleep in it and, when he did, his head did fall forward but, because of our car, its size and the space available inside, I don't think we would have been able to get one that had a better recline. We do need to get him something to play with now though as we can't dangle his sheep from the handle anymore (there is no handle now).

Still no more than 4 teeth, though they do seem to bother him from time to time. Still can't see which teeth will be next.

The rest of the time he is still quite funny and I love him to pieces.

10 Months, 2 Weeks, 4 Days

Weight: 2lbs to go until pre-preg weight; 7lbs until ideal weight

Well, we have just come out of a week of teething. No more teeth yet but same symptoms as first 2 teeth - grouchy, runny poo and sore bottom, plus grabbing my fingers or anything else to bite.

I think it is more bottom teeth coming through. Hard to tell though as he wont let me look at the bottom gum.

Callum is going through another 'interesting' period. He interacts with you more in little games. He grabs my phone and tries to feed it to me then laughs. I take it out of my mouth and he will grab it and do it again. Quite cute really, though I'm not too keen on consuming phones - they're not really to my tastes!!

He has also started to point - just noticed today. He was pointing to Stuart's glasses case. It is quite a bright blue colour so I guess he was curious as to what it was.

Still no crawling. He is getting frustrated at not being able to go forwards though. You can see he wants to get to something which is in front of him but can only roll or push himself backwards. We should have named him Crab. He gets red/sore elbows from his high-speed rolling.

For me, I'm still job hunting. Have registered with a couple of agencies and posted my CV to a number of places. Also re-activated my Monster account. One agent said IT Trainers were some of the worst hit, which I expected was the case. The first to go but, I would think, among the first to come back when things pick up again. The guy at the agency said he doesn't come across many part-time IT training jobs but I might find that, when companies do start employing again, they would prefer someone part-time as they might not be ready to commit to a full time trainer in the beginning. Its weird that this time last year I wasn't looking for work but was getting called up a couple of times a week from agencies. Now people aren't even acknowledging my CV. I'm in no hurry, of course, but it would reassure me if there was something out there.

I'm still going Pushy Mothers but just now and again and paying for the session I attend rather than the required 4 weeks in advance. I go more for social reasons than the exercise but it is nice to be doing some exercise and nice to be outside - better on sunny days of course! I really like the other girls that go and have swapped numbers with a few of them now. Hopefully, we will stay in touch as people start to drift away because of work. I plan to invite some of them to Callum's first birthday.

Regarding Callum's birthday, I think we are going to do something actually on his birthday, rather than at the nearest weekend. We are doing a group NCT party in October for all the babies but we will still invite them to his actual party with no obligation to come. Then I'll invite some of the babies from pushy mothers and a couple of other babies he is 'friends' with too. Still a way off yet. How far in advance do I need to send invites?

Anyway, Master Jones is calling out for his Tea. Best get on!

I'm back. While eating tea, I remembered a few other things.

Callum tries to share his food with you. He first did this a while back with Stuart and then with his lion toy. Another cute thing. He wont let you take it off him but he will feed it to your mouth.

Oooh, which brings me onto the shaky head thing - the lion toy reminded me. He shakes his head as if saying no (though not knowing it means no) then waits for you to copy him and laughs. If you shake the lion or move its head as if it is shaking it, he will then keep doing it to the lion too.

His eating is much better now. He eats quite a bit and is on 3 meals a day plus snacks. We have dropped another milk feed this week so he is on 2. 1 in the morning and 1 at bedtime.

He is very lazy with feeding himself. Despite being good at feeding himself with a spoon, f he can get away with you feeding him rather than holding the spoon himself, he will. When presented with a selection of food on a plate, he will hold his hands above the plate as if choosing what to eat first and then will put his head down towards his plate with his mouth wide open - kind of "look, no hands" stylie. He does eventually pick something up with his fingers.

We had our first boo boo the other day. I know it sounds strange but I had him in the kitchen in the laundry basket. You know how kids like boxes and things. He loves being in the laundry basket and he was being clingy with me when I needed to do stuff in the kitchen. Because we have tiled floors in the kitchen, I put him in the laundry basket thinking he will be safer than on the tiles in case he fell. He was happy enough until he leaned over the side of the basket and it tipped up making him head-butt the kitchen floor. At the time he had a tiny nose bleed (just a little hint of blood) and over the next couple of days got a little bruise on his forehead. Silly boy that he is, though, he is always headbanging the table or back of the chair when he is gets frustrated. I'm surprised his head isn't always covered in bruises!

Well, I think that brings us up to date for the moment! Will update again soon.

10 Months, 6 Days

Well we went on our holiday. Overall, we had a lovely time.

Good points:

• Spending time as a family
• Fairly good weather
• Nice caravan
• Callum was an angel at night, sleeping in his pushchair allowing us to have the evenings, eating out and kinda to ourselves and then he transferred to his cotbed without much fuss.

Not so good points:

• Callum was grumpy most days
• Bad waves for bodyboarding
• Facilities/Food at site were awful!
• Couldn't get a babysitter for Birthday/Father's Day
• Activities (Dairyland, Aquarium, Eden Project) were overpriced. Eden was good, Aquarium was OK and Dairyland was rubbish!!

Still no crawling. Stuart was really hoping Callum would start crawling while we were away so he would get to see a 'first', among other reasons. He did start waving though - starting with waving at himself in the mirror. Regarding the crawling I'm not sure whether I'm pleased or disappointed that he isn't. There is always the concern in the back of my head that he isn't developing as quickly as he should be and is it because of something I/we have done or not done but then I also know that he will do it in his own time when he is good and ready. Also, seeing the distance he can travel and mayhem he can cause just rolling, it is quite a relief he isn't crawling yet as the speed he can travel and cause that mayhem would be increased ten-fold!

Callum didn't eat particularly well on holiday in terms of quantities. Got a bit expensive and a waste when we were buying him children's meals. Before we went away, we were giving him food from our plate as he wasn't eating too much but then he started eating more which would mean I/we would go hungry as he had eaten half of our meal. Therefore, we moved to getting him children's meals. However, he didn't eat much on holiday. As soon as we got home, he went back to eating loads. So much one day that he made himself sick!! Obviously, just missed my home cooking ;o)

We took Callum swimming one day and he loved it. Lots of splashing around. He has been a bit apprehensive when we have taken him to a pool locally to where we live so it was lovely to see him really enjoying it. We also tried him with the sea - just a little paddle as it was far too cold for a swim. Seemed kind of intrigued with it but was a bit too cold for him.

Now we are back home, I'm starting the task of trying to find Callum his next stage car seat. Following recommendations that you should keep children rear-facing for as long as possible for safety reasons, we are looking for a rear-facing seat or one that goes both ways. I think I would prefer one that went both ways - these seem to last until they are a little older than those that don't. Quite a big expense to pay out. Looks like it is going to cost between £200 and £270. They're not kidding when they say having children isn't cheap!

The other thing I've been concentrating on since coming home is finding a new job - eek! The plan is to start looking now in the hope that I find something by September. Callum will be 1 in September which I think will be a nice(ish) age to go back. However, if something comes up to start before then, I consider myself available. Knowing my luck, I'll get a job almost immediately. I've posted my CV to a couple of agencies and have looked on a few only job sites. There are a couple of things out there but not the 'perfect job' yet. Need to send my CV to a few places direct too but that takes a bit more research and a bit more time! Speaking of which, got to give Callum his bath and put him to bed so will be back later...

Oops, didn't get to come back last night so it is now the next day.

So, what else is new. I know Callum's rolling isn't new but his favourite game at the moment is rolling continuously around the room and only stopping when he finds himself by a cable or the video player!!! Talking of which, he has just found another cable!! I knew there was a reason (other than them being unsightly) why I hated all the cables being visible in the lounge!

I think someone told me that children's' imagination doesn't develop until they are a couple of years old or that the don't really know much about when it develops but I'm convinced Callum has and uses his imagination now. I obviously don't understand what he is saying as he babbles away but he sounds like he is having little conversations with himself and he plays with his food as if talking to the pieces and as if they are interacting with each other. These are just some examples. Surely, he is using his imagination at these moments.