Nathan's still on hunger strike. He ate breakfast but refused any lunch. The lad did drink 22oz of milk during the day.

We tried a buffet-style supper, toast, steamed veggies, crackers & cheese. The veggies hit the floor immediately, the cheese was ignored and in the end Marmite toast won over strawberry jam and toast. Unfortunately at bedtime there was a rumble in the tummy and the lot came up. Oh well.

On a more positive note, Nathan managed his first real crawls today. The first was on two hands, one knee and one foot, more of a hobble.

Later, and with some encouragement, the lad managed hands and knees crawls. The object of Nathan's interest still has to be pretty desirable to justify the effort and he's not going very far yet, but it's a breakthrough nonetheless.

Nathan's becoming a champion thrower. When he used to throw things it was anyone's guess where they'd end up. Now we've got a pretty good idea.

Another tooth is poking through. This time it's the upper left outer incisor. It's put Nathan off his usual meals. He's only eating toast and crackers for the moment.

Mum and Dad went out for a meal for the first time in a year, and the second time since the lad was born. It was lovely.

A day of mystery and intrigue. Did Nathan say "Thank you" or not? Did he wave goodbye to Granny or not? Only time will tell.

Nathan's bottom was considerably higher than his head this morning. Those figs had the desired effect. The lad's going to be eating a couple of fig cubes at each meal for some time to come. We don't want to start worrying about that hernia again oh no.

We didn't go to Thursday playgroup, we went to the doctor instead. Nathan hasn't been eating well since Monday, and has been a bit constipated, with nothing forthcoming since Tuesday afternoon, which is unusual for the lad. The doctor listened to Nathan's abdomen which sounded normal, felt his tummy, no problems there. She recommended we increase the roughage content of the lad's diet. So it's been apple sultanas and fig (plus the ubiquitous cream) for lunch and supper . It's very sweet so Nathan loves it. Let's hope it does the trick.

We went for Nathan's second visit to the physiotherapist today. She was pleased with the lad's progress. Last time (two weeks ago) Nathan was sitting with his legs straight ahead of him, now they are bent. We need to get Nathan more used to bending his knees and putting his weight on them in a kneeling or crawling position. From the progress that Nathan's made since only yesterday we're encouraged that Nathan's only *that* far away from crawling.

Jo Jingles' theme today was shopping. Instruments were maracas and drums. Nathan enjoyed it a bit more than last week. Probably because it's more familiar to him.

Then dad and another dad, whose lad also goes to the class, walked to Woodley town centre. We had a meal at the cafe there. Nathan would have joined in but he didn't fancy his shortbread gingerbread man.

We got home and a friend who is a physiotherapist put the lad through his paces. She thinks that the pressure being put on the lad's hip joint when he pushes himself backwards to a seating position is caused by Nathan straightening one of his legs to grip the floor. If both knees where bent then the hip wouldn't get strained. She started "training" Nathan to bend both knees by doing it for him. There was noticeable progress, but Nathan was very tired by the end. So much that he fell asleep at 4:45pm, which unfortunately ruined his usual schedule with the results that Nathan was tired and grumpy for the rest of the evening.

Another Tuesday, another Silverdale Road playgroup. It's every child for him/herself and the lad's just about the smallest there. He had to be rescued a couple of times, but he still seemed to enjoy it until he got tired.

Nathan played steadily all afternoon. The extra Lactulose seems to have done the trick, and he's a lot happier.

Nathan's so improved from a few months ago. It used to be a feat when he posted balls into a box. These days the lad reaches back into the box and pulls the balls back out.

We've also had a repeat performance of the words pig and teddy.