My baby is yellow. Some time ago now, people like Landlady, Aunty (Landlady's sister-in-law) and many others have been asking me "why is his nose yellow?". I must admit that until then I had not noticed this subtle change in colour.. was it a nose-specific tan? I was at a loss. However, gradually, the rest of his skin took on a slightly yellow hue. It was then that I started to get suspicious that there was something more to this. I was pretty sure it wasn’t jaundice… his eyes were still a nice clean white, and he hadn’t been unwell. So reaching out into the dark recesses of my medical science memory I remembered one lecturer telling us the story of the Brisbane man who turned orange after eating a very limited diet… of carrot…. for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sure enough, in my attempt to give Toby his daily requirement of vitamins and minerals, I had been trying to include both green and orange veges in his diet (not 3 meals a day mind you!). I have also been using a lot more of the sweeter carrot, pumpkin and sweet potato in order to balance out the slightly bitter green leafy’s. A quick search on the internet confirmed my suspicions. In a perfectly harmless way, this diet has been slowly turning my baby yellow. We’ll see what a week without any orange veges will do.
(Toby and his cousin Elijah Hewitt who visited in April)
In other Toby news, the Boo has been zipping around on all fours at amazing speeds. The amount of time it takes him to crawl down the corridor towards the stairs is phenomenal – which has prompted us to design and have made some sort of barrier to block up the passage (regular baby barriers/gates are nowhere to be found here). Most of the time, the little fellow is content to entertain himself, provided someone else is nearby. His favourite games include batting an object away and chasing after it; using a plastic chair as a baby walker; making his escape down the corridor and waiting for someone to chase him down; laughing with Miranda (no particular reason necessary); eating paper (yummy!) waving water-bottles around dangerously and getting hold of anything he’s not meant to have. He also loves to kiss Loy and go for a walk down the street with anyone who cares to take him (there is usually no shortage of volunteers in the neighbourhood) and “talk” incessantly providing a running commentary on his activites. With such a wide collection of interests, he rarely gets bored. It’s my guess that he’ll be walking before we return to Australia, as he is already letting go of furniture or people and standing by himself for a few seconds at a time.
On the 11th of June, Toby will be turning 1… so we will have to organise a big celebration. It will be a good excuse to buy some of the home-grown luxury items we cannot afford on a regular basis (ah cheese, how we have missed you!).
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