Nanna came to visit today and she brought Nathan his very own chair. It's an arm chair shaped bean-bag about a foot high. Nathan loves it.

Talking of love, we've spotted a phenomenon which can only be described as baby lust. When the lad sees something that he really wants to explore with his mouth, then just as it starts to get near, his head starts to wobble, his eyes bulge, he stretches shaky arms out towards it, opens his mouth and sticks out his tounge in urgent anticipation.

Nathan is progressing from Aah aah ahh. He now changes the duration and pitch of the aahs, so that it's more like aah aah ahh aahhh, aaaahh.

The shape of Nathan's upper incisors can be felt through the gum. It (we hope) won't be long now. Then we only have another thirty one (I think) to go.

Mum and Dad's second anniversary today. Nathan slept most of the day, waking only to eat. We're all still catching up after Friday night.

Some more teethiing pains. Nathan cried so much he had a coughing fit and made himself sick. He was so tired after that he just dropped off.

By the morning the lad was OK again, although we were a bit more frazzled than usual. Part of the problem is that every time the lad's in pain we suspect his hernias. Our worst fear is that they may become strangulated, in which case they'll need to be operated on within minutes. That's a scary thought at two in the morning.

The lad's becoming quite a conversationalist. He's getting the hang of dialogue although he'll have to fill in the actual words later. Nathan says "aah", and waits momentarily for you to reply. The longest number of aahs in a volley currently stands at around sixteen.

Nathan went to Beale Park with his granny and dad today. It was a bit too hot and bright for the lad really, but the three of us found a quiet shady spot by a pool, and spent the afternoon there.

If it looks interesting it goes in the mouth. Nathan's interest in books so far only applies to eating them. We have discovered, however, that table mats make a good substitute.

Night-time was a bit of a nightmare. Nathan had the worst teething bout so far, and would only go to sleep in one of our arms.

Nathan went swimming for the first time today, his little swimming trunks barely covering his hernias. Considering how noisy and echoing it was, he did very well. There were no tears, and the lad didn't splash, but did bounce gently on the pool bottom, 50cm below.

We heard a bit more detail about Nathan's last oxygen saturation test. He dipped down to the low eighties (should be above ninety) three times during the night, each time for approximately twenty minutes. The theory is that he was so deeply asleep that his breathing became more shallow, and he didn't pull himself back up. We're expecting another test a month after the last one, which was a week ago.

Nathan ate and drank hugely again today. For supper he had a cube of broccoli and cheese, and another of carrot, followed by the usual miscellaneous two fruit cubes. He could have eaten more, but we thought better of it on his behalf.

Nathan had a big sicky this morning. After some thought , we decided that his porrage was too lumpy, and it somehow triggered a his gag reflex. Not very funny though.

The lad is nearly nearly turning over. We can see that he wants to do it. If there's something he sees to one side, he used to remain flat on his back and just use the hand nearest, now he'll reach for it with both arms.

We have a new medicine for the lad's eczma, it's called Timodine and contains steroids. Nathan's cradle cap is a thing of the past thanks to the parafin, but the insides of his joints, elbows... knees etc need a bit more then that.

Every now and then Dad calls from work and has a quick chat with the lad. Something like "Hello Nathan... Hello Nathan". Today Nathan responded by grabbing at the phone for the first time.

The newly cooked and cubed broccoli and cheese isn't going down so well. It won't be long before Nathan is 7 months corrected. Then we'll start getting more adventurous with his food.