Thank you for the comments and notes on my last entry! :) Megan, we don't have an exersaucer, but I think Matthew would love one! We don't have the space for one though, either to store it or for Matthew to use it. I think he'd get frustrated doing one push with his legs and hitting furniture every time! He loves to jump too, and people watch me knackering my arms while he jumps and jumps and JUMPS with me supporting him, and say we should get a door bouncer. I think he'd love that too, but again, no space. I know they only take a doorway up, but the only doorway we've got downstairs is to the kitchen and he would be rather in the way, bouncing in there! We'll have to make do. He will outgrow this stage before I know it, I suppose, so it's okay.
Thanks for the well-wishes over potty training. We did not start potty training yet. I looked online and found some potties that have lids, and I was about to order one at Kiddicare.com, but then since we were about to head out to buy big boy pants, I thought I would just check Argos to see if they had anything like it, and they DID - this one! I reserved one at our local store and we went and picked it up when we bought the pants, yay!
When I was getting the boys ready for our shopping trip (the day before yesterday), Arthur was all excited about it. I told him we were getting Big Boy Pants with whichever pictures on them that he liked. I told him we were getting a special potty that was just for him to use like a big boy, and he was excited about that too. He wanted to go NOW! :) When we were all ready with our shoes on and everything, I said, "Yay, let's go!" and Arthur suddenly went anxious looking and said he didn't want to go. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "Don't want big boy pants, don't want potty." He looked worried. I told him we didn't have to buy them today and we could stay home instead. He said, "Yes...." and then in a small voice, "I think I like a lilloo bit milk onna sofa..." bless him! That's his thing when he is feeling unhappy or insecure or has hurt himself or something. He just wanted the comfort because I guess the idea of ACTUALLY going and doing this "Big Boy" thing was suddenly a bit too much for him. I was all ready not to go at all, but he nursed for a minute and then jumped up gleefully, shouting, "Now let's go SHOPPING!" hehe! So we did!
We went to Woolworths and bought two packs of big boy pants, age 2-3. Arthur had a moment of the same unsure thing where he didn't want to look at the pants or buy any, and I was going to leave it but then he chose Thomas the Tank and Bob the Builder pants. He wanted Fireman Sam too, but we'll save that for another time, further down the line. We went to Argos and picked up the potty, but I didn't tell him that's what we were doing. He didn't see it or know what was in the box, as I didn't want to push the issue. Because he has been a bit reserved about it, I haven't started anything to do with potty training yet, except that we've opened the packs of pants and they're strewn around being looked at in awe from time to time, or being used as chew toys by Matthew, hehe!
Arthur was really good in town. He only had to be put in the tandem pushchair twice for not stopping/coming to me when I called him, and he had no tantrums at all. Not that he usually has tantrums but then I rarely take him places like that so I don't know if he WOULD have tantrums in crowded public places. If I take him out, we go to open spaces without a ton of people. He needs to run and run and run, and burn off energy when he goes out. He LOVES big open spaces outside! Sometimes I feel like it's not that fair on him to take him to places where he has to be so restricted, and we don't have any actual need to go places like that very often, so... He DOES sometimes need to go places with people and cars and stuff to learn about how to behave in those settings, I think. Yesterday we went into town again (two days running, wow!) because Arthur was going crazy in the house. The weather was awful, but hey ho. It did not go so well, and Arthur completely ignored me the entire time. On the way up in the lift from the car park, I calmly explained to him about staying close to Mummy and stopping when Mummy said stop, etc. He nodded and seemed all set. We literally took a step out of the lift and he instantly disappeared down an aisle in a big department store. I called him but he did not stop or come back, even several calls later. He went so far and so fast that the only way I could tell where he was, was from the people further across the store parting awkwardly as though something small was barrelling through them at about knee height, at 90 miles an hour! Urgh.
He went in the pushchair for that but was quite happy, as though he'd had his fun and he didn't mind the punishment a bit, therefore. He got out later and did the exact same thing. We went to Woolworths again and he gave me the slip within a minute or two, and I ended up having to park Matthew on the centre aisle and RUN through the shop up and down aisles trying to catch up with him. I was cross with him and he went back in the pushchair, but again, he didn't seem bothered at all. So frustrating! He stayed in for a while, and then got out to ride in a Postman Pat van for littlies, but was scared silly by the loud music it played RIGHT in his ear (why do those things have to be SO loud right in the kids' ears?!). We went in another shop and on the way out, the alarm went off so I froze with the tandem pushchair half over the threshold, and turned to see if a security person was coming (I hate moments like that - everybody stares at you like you're a shoplifter!), and at that instant, Arthur took off at a run out of the shop. We were in a pedestrianised area but it didn't go very far down the road beyond that shop, so I was worried. I yelled for Arthur to stop and come back, but as before, he didn't. He turned a sharp left and went instantly out of my range of sight. I panicked and left Matthew in the shop doorway, and ran out of the shop. I couldn't see him ANYWHERE, and it wasn't crowded at all so he couldn't be lost amongst people. The little menace had ducked around the store front which was curved, and hid in the nook furthest away from the door! I was SO angry with him when I found him, urgh. I had just about had enough. It's just NOT on for him to do that, it's not safe. We have a wrist-link that we could use (sort of like a leash for a dog!) and also reins, but he's a bit old for reins I think. Neil said maybe we should use the wrist-link. I know Supernanny recommends that as a punishment out of doors for kids who won't stop or come back when their parents call them. That soon clears the problem up, so maybe we'll try that? Being put in the pushchair seemed to be a similar solution for us, but yesterday he was just not having any of it. I didn't want him confined to the pushchair for the entire outing, as that would defy the point. He needed to burn off some energy at some point.
In the end, 5 o'clock struck on the church tower in the market square and the most beautiful peals rang out from the bell tower. I LOVE music from church bells. Not the dong-dong-dong type, but the tuneful peals that rise and fall and make your heart soar and plummet and tears come into your eyes. I could listen to it forever, really. I ran us all to the church and we stood in the grounds and listened. It's enclosed there, so Arthur got to run and run (which he did constantly, and didn't stop once except to ask me to wipe the mud off his hands when he overbalanced and fell on them, climbing a grass verge). Matthew and I sat and stared up at the bell tower, totally engulfed by the beautiful sound echoing right into our ribcages! It was gorgeous. The music lasted 5 minutes and then we came home. So at least Arthur had some run-around time.
He did slip my grip in the underground CAR PARK on the way home, and shot across it into the open space (there were only a few cars left, but still, that is NOT on!). Soooo dangerous. I called him, but again, he didn't stop or come back. He got smacked - first time in public for him. I think I would not have liked to do that if there had been people right there loading their shopping into cars, but there weren't and so I did.
We do smack Arthur, by the way. I know I don't write about it here anymore, but we do. I write about it in my home journal, which I WILL someday open up properly. The difference between when we used to smack him and now, is that before now we used to get so frustrated and think, "Urgh, our discipline methods are just NOT working, I don't know what to do!" and smack him out of frustration and just sheer desperation to get the point across and the authority that was necessary for whatever the incident was. We weren't happy with doing that at ALL. Arthur doesn't respond to other types of discipline. I don't care to hear suggestions any more - he really doesn't! Maybe it's our fault for not doing it right or not persevering, but this kid is NOT easy to discipline, trust me! No kids are, but you know.
We NEVER wanted to smack our kids as a discipline method. The difference now from before, is that Neil and I have officially CHOSEN to use smacking as a discipline method, and we're settled with it. There, it's said here. We smack our child. Think what you will! We do not beat, harm, or traumatize our child, and believe me, it is 100x better than before when I was smacking him with HUGE-O guilt and out of frustration, feeling at the absolute end of my tether. The more gentle discipline methods we tried left me actually smacking him MORE and less gently than how we do it now. It would just get to that point.
I don't believe I need anger management. I really dislike smacking Arthur, but in the type of way where I really dislike having to discipline him in ANY way that he doesn't enjoy over something. I do not lose my temper and whack him with rapidly fraying control like I was beginning to over the frustration of the other methods we tried not working. It's a calm and controlled thing and he knows exactly what happens and how it works. The fact that he's still in nappies is helpful at the moment because we prefer to give him painless "swats" on the nappy rather than the type of smack that will inflict pain in any way.
We don't smack him in company, because it isn't nice for him or us (or anyone else). We use more distraction and restriction to deal with certain behaviour in those settings, but that does lead to him doing things we actually want to discipline him over, but don't do so much because we're out. The being-put-in-the-pushchair thing, for example. I was not about to smack him in the street for running off, but as you see, the result was that he got away with a ton of stuff that he shouldn't. We don't save up smacks for when we get home, either. That's not fair, especially at his age.
I am NOT a pro-smacking activist! I used to be a really anti-smacking person, and I still wince and feel sad for the kiddie if I ever see a little one being smacked when I'm out and about. But we have chosen to smack our little one for discipline purposes, and I have a new respect for my parents! I don't mean that I respect people who smack their kids (maybe I mean "understanding" more than the word "respect" actually), but I think I was a little narrow-minded before in that I was so determined that EVERYONE was wrong if they chose to do it. I have learned so much about so many things on my parenting journey, and most of it has involved completely (and sometimes radically) changing my attitudes about things or people. I am getting more open-minded, I think, and I HOPE I'm starting to let other people do their thing without letting it wind me up, even if I disagree with it.
(Bit of a disclaimer: after reading this back, I just want to make clear that I am not calling anyone ELSE narrow-minded if your viewpoint is that everyone who smacks their kids for any reason is WRONG! I felt that *I* was being narrow-minded. I know that sounds like I'm painting everyone who shares my previous mindset with the same brush, but that's not what I meant when I wrote that!)
Although Arthur did get smacked in the car park yesterday, at the same time I did decide that in some ways I had not been fair to him in the first place. He needed a different kind of outing. Given how wired he was before we went out, I should have taken him to an open space where he could run without me having to restrict him, and next time I will know better and do differently, and then I won't need to smack. I am always looking for ways to avoid that situation, but I will smack him if he disobeys me and especially if it's a safety issue.
So there you have it. I still quibble over the decision from time to time, and I save that kind of thing for the home diary. When I'm confident, you'll hear it here, hehe! It's too hard to hear criticism over something that is already a hugely emotional issue when I don't feel sure about what I'm doing.
Arthur is being extremely "two" this week. And last week, for that matter. He is actually being a bit of a nightmare at times. Lots of the time! Yeah. Not like himself at all really. Well, yes, like himself, but just a wildly mood-swingy version of himself! He isn't throwing a lot of tantrums as such. I do NOT want to deal with those more than I have to, and I work hard at diverting them when I see the pitch rising towards one. He is pretty easy to divert because he's so interested in so many things right now. Often a sudden, "Oh my goodness, I almost forgot!!..." type of exclamation from me at that rising-whining point, grabs his attention, and then I use exaggeratedly excited tones to suggest an activity that I HOPE will interest him and make him forget the tantrum he was about to throw!
He whines and whines and whiiiines, and it drives me crazy. Suddenly this week, his response to most questions (even NON questions) is an angrily shouted, "NO!", whether it makes sense or not! I had hoped we'd avoided that one, as most kids seem to go through that younger than Arthur is, but nope. Current much-used phrases driving me out of my tree are (don't forget to imagine the mosquito-esque nasal whiney tone!): "But I don't wannnntooooo!!" and, "I waaaaaant itttt!" when he had just said he wanted (or didn't want) that something about 0.2 seconds earlier. Then you give (or take away) said thing again, and the opposite phrase is whined to you. Keep changing and he keeps changing back and forth with you. Urgh! He whines like this through pretty much the entire of our family meal times.
Oh! I am doing family meals!!!! I am writing about it elsewhere so I keep forgetting to write about it properly here! I'm SO proud of myself! I am THE most disorganised woman on the planet, and have never been good at cooking meals or keeping to time, or even being organised to do either of the above, in my life before! I have been working so hard at it over the past month. For a couple of months now (from New Year) I have had the intention of organising myself and my household properly, and being a more effective housewife! I had a big goal of the house getting clean and tidy (NOT achieved in any way, shape, or form, so far!) and providing my boys with healthy home-cooked meals, which I would serve up every day when Neil got home from work so that we would all eat together as a family. I intended to get organised about it and make Menu Plans each week (very much like Megan has also started doing recently), and have exact shopping lists and learn to budget, etc. But it seemed such a huge mountain to climb. I didn't even know how to cook many things!
I am SO proud of myself! This week has been my first week with a set Menu Plan from Sunday to Sunday. On Saturday I made the week's menu, and went shopping for ALL the ingredients to the exact number of potatoes, etc! I spent less and had that panicky feeling like I did not have enough for the week in my shopping trolley, but it was a great success!
It's Thursday now and the meal plan has gone perfectly well so far this week! Every night we eat between 6 and 7pm. Timing is the hardest part for me, and I still need to work on it. Before this week, we were eating too late and I felt all out-of-control by the time Neil got home, knowing I was running late and flapping about how the dinner wasn't ready, and the boys being late for their food and bed, etc. I was pretty down on myself over it. This week things are going so much better! We are eating better than we probably ever have before, or at least better than we have since we both lived at home and our mums cooked for us! We have dessert with every evening meal. It's good for the little ones (my baby-and-toddler cookbook says so, and it's another way to get them some healthy nutrients if you cook that kind of dessert), and I could use the extra calories. Neil's just happy that I'm determined to do desserts every meal, haha!
Here's my Menu Plan for this week - I had to change a couple of desserts round when I just didn't get chance to cook the one I planned due to an ankle-climbing small person and also lots of crying and whining (from two small people!).
Sunday 25th Feb:Main course
Roast chicken
Roast potatoes
Roast parsnips
Carrots
Green beans
Dessert
Vanilla ice-cream and banana
Monday 26th Feb:
(Make chicken stock from yesterday's carcass, strain and freeze. Freeze cut up left-over chicken as well)
Main course
Spaghetti bolognese
Lettuce
Cucumber
Dessert
Baked chocolate pudding and custard
Tuesday 27th Feb:
(Take fish pie (made last week) out of the freezer to defrost for tomorrow's meal)
Main course
Sausages
Mashed potatoes
Baked beans
Dessert
Fruit salad - I bought:
Nectarines
Bananas
Apples
White grapes
Kiwi fruits
And clementines :)
Wednesday 28th Feb:
(Take chicken pieces out of freezer to defrost for tomorrow's meal)
Main course
Fish pie
Lettuce
Cucumber
Cherry tomatoes
Dessert
Apple, raisin and cinnamon crumble with custard
Thursday 1st March:
Main course
Chicken stir-fry with rice, using:
Thawed chicken pieces from Sunday's roast
Frozen chicken stock from Sunday's roast
Carrots
Mushrooms
Sweetcorn
Peas
Rice :)
Dessert
Was going to be apple strudel but we had some chocolate pudding and apple crumble leftovers, so we used those up with custard instead!
Friday 2nd March:
Main course
Macaroni cheese
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Grated carrot
Dessert
Fruit salad (as Tuesday)
Saturday 3rd March:
No family meal today, as we're out most of the afternoon (more on that in a minute!) and the boys will have what my mum calls "Nursery Tea" - a little ones' meal early before bath time, and then Neil and I will eat after they are in bed - we still have a couple of evenings like this each week at the moment.
Sunday 4th March:
Main course
Beef and vegetable stew from frozen (I made it in bulk last week and froze it in portions)
Dessert
Rice pudding and jam to stir in! :)
I am finding it challenging to cook at 5pm or whenever I have to start, because although the boys are starting to play together (how LOVELY to be at that stage!) and occupy themselves for good periods of time, the cooking time is pretty frantic and stressy, because one or both of them will cry about something, or Arthur does not want me in the kitchen, he wants me somewhere else and is very "two" about it. Or Matthew keeps coming in the kitchen and eating fluff or crumbs from anywhere he can scavenge them (I DO sweep the floor, but he has special senses), and so I have to shut the kitchen door, and that leads to much wailing and banging on the door, which basically continues until I stop what I'm doing! Chopping onions and rubbing butter into flour are the worst things to have to do if Matthew is in that frame of mind. Lately I am trying to be more organised so that I nurse him shortly before I start cooking, and then he is usually way happier to play with Arthur, without me there, for a while. I know they are both so little and it's a lot to ask of them. They are so good really! Arthur has a tendency to get over-boisterous with his brother during play so I have to keep hopping back and forth between them and the cooking. Some days it's every few SECONDS, and that is very hard to manage. We always eat late on those days, and Arthur gets shouted at, and I hate both those outcomes.
Arthur is not eating a single bite of anything I cook for him. *sigh* He hates "family meal" and whines that he wants to get down from the table before he's even AT the table yet! We have a rule that he sits there till we're finished, and the meal is not drawn out at all - in fact it's a bit rushed for me, but we are going by the little ones' pace really. They're too little for sitting at the table for AGES just to watch us eat. Matthew eats absolutely everything I put in front of him. Everything! We are noticing that he has a distinct preference for savoury foods. He will eat the desserts, but he does it with little enthusiasm, hehe! We were surprised to find a baby who isn't that interested in sweet foods and SO totally eager for savoury food of any sort! The only exception for Matthew is desserts that are MILKY. Like his fromage frais. He also likes custard and rice pudding. Not so crazy about the fruit pie or crumble, etc that come with the custard, but he really likes the milky stuff.
With my new cooking thing, there have been too many new foods for Matthew these last couple of weeks to list, but he's currently eating new things like cherry tomatoes (halved), salad, sausages, cream cheese sandwiches and lots of other things. He doesn't bat an eyelid at new things and just shovels them right in to chomp on them, as though he's been eating them forever! Oh and he's on citrus fruits now, which he seems to like a lot. It's another potential allergy food which is checked off the list. He has had eggs in desserts (as in, cooked into pies and stuff, not actual egg yet), and also a little bit of scrambled egg, all with no problems - yay! The only thing left now, I think, is nuts. I'm going to wait till at least a year before giving him peanut butter or hazelnut spread, and hopefully he won't react to those things either. It will be a big relief to have all those things tried and tested with no problems. I can breathe a sigh of relief!
I'm so excited!! We're going to Jove's 1st birthday party (and naming ceremony!) on Saturday!!!! I'm so looking forward to it. I'm excited to see Jemma again as I haven't seen her since she was 10 weeks pregnant with Jove, so I have never even MET Jove yet!! I'm also eager to see Jaya. She and Arthur seem so much alike in their ways and energy levels (!). They are such a lovely family. We went to Jaya's 1st birthday and naming ceremony and it was lovely, so I'm really looking forward to Jove's! Yesterday we did pick up a little something for Jove in town, and Arthur (in his non-run-away moments) wandered around the shop aisles looking at things as he passed them and saying, "Hmmm.... We're looking for a peasant for Doooove..." very thoughtfully! Hehe! (don't worry Jemma, we will not be turning up with a random impoverished person on the day, hehe!)
Maybe I am painting Arthur in a bad light this entry? He IS challenging and boy has this week been hard with him! But his difficult-ness is part of "swings" in his temperament. So the upside of that is his sweet funny affectionate little self, which we do see in between crazy angry toddler mode! He also continues to say such sweet little phrases, and keeps us laughing all the time with the things he comes out with.
Also, who has taught my son to be such an 8-year-old boy?! We have no such influences around, and my husband DOES have a tendency for such humour, but I'm 99% sure he doesn't show it to Arthur. He still loves fart sounds and just things going splat or crashing in a funny way. At dinner the other day, I made baked chocolate pudding for dessert (cocoa - high in flavonoids; milk; egg - all that good stuff!) and custard, and he seemed excited about what might be coming next. When I got it out of the oven to show him, he went all giggly and when he could breathe enough to say something, he scrunched his shoulders up to his ears with glee, and with his most mischievous grin, he said, "We're having POO!" and dissolved into fits of laughter again. Every night there is now a point in the meal where he starts to giggle and does the gleeful thing, saying, "We're eating POO!" Silly boy! Except, also, urrrgh! Where is he getting this stuff from, and why-oh-why is it even funny, without the influence of other giggling boys to make it seem so?! *sigh*
Today he climbed onto the sofa with me and sat right on my tummy (I was lying back for a moment), and declared, "I going on holiday wiz Mummy!" I don't know where he heard the word holiday, as I don't think we've used it with him yet in context.
He has such an imagination. He is ever-so like me. My mum seems to be saying so more and more as I tell her things about him lately. That running away in shops - I was exactly the same. My mum is therefore able to give me such nuggets of GOLDEN advice as: Never EVER take such a child (at this age, especially!) with you when you go to try on bras in the department store. My mum was just "between" bras when I slipped the curtain in the changing room and bolted for the escalators! Ironically, it was at the very same department store where Arthur legged it away from me yesterday. Oh the comic relief for my mother! But she is very good and offers me much sympathy and compassion at the same time as having the last laugh! ;)
Today Arthur came into the kitchen just as I was about to serve dinner, and said, "I think I saw a mon-ser!" On further questioning, he told me that, "I think the mon-ser is pink!.... Mon-ser going to eat fam'ly meew (meal) and sit in Ah-yah tair!" :)
Arthur has been having bad dreams for the last month. He has never had bad dreams before that we've known about, but I've read they are very common starting at about age 2, so I guess it's normal, but I hate him having to be scared in his sleep! He has recurring dreams that scare him, always with the same two scenarios. One is a monkey face. Matthew has a top with a monkey face on it, which is made out of leather (the face, not the top!) and stitched on. It's not the most appealing image, actually, and he hasn't worn it yet. I got it out as it's the right size for him now and when Arthur saw it, he immediately said, "Don' like monkey face! Mummy take it 'way" and seemed very unsettled and anxious. Since then, he has had quite a lot of dreams where he wakes up crying and when he is able to answer our questions about what's wrong, he says, "Don' like monkey face!" in a pitiful little voice. If he talks about it after a dream, it makes him cry just to say that sentence. He can tell me about feelings like if he was scared, so that helps.
The other dream he has is the one that happens most often now (the monkey face one was more frequent a couple of weeks ago and seems to happen less now - I put that darn top AWAY and I'll probably sell it on eBay or something now). I don't know where it has come from. When he goes to bed at night, sometimes he will suddenly look anxious and say in a whisper, "I think I heard some-sing strange..." (his sentences are getting so grown up now!) So I ask him what he thinks he heard, and he doesn't look at me but just continues looking at the doorway anxiously and says, "I think cow coming..." When he wakes from this bad dream in the night, he cries and says he doesn't like the cow, or that the cow was coming. At first we just comforted him and said there were no cows and it was just a dream, and didn't know what to make of it. Then I spoke to my mum about it and she vividly remembers when she was 3 or 4, having nightmares about an elephant coming in her window. Just that, and it terrified her. She said the WORST thing that adults would do was to say there was no elephant (there, there), because it made her feel alone and like they didn't believe her, so they couldn't help her! She suggested taking him seriously and looking for the cow to make sure it wasn't there, that kind of thing.
So the next time he had a bad dream about the cow, I talked to him about it the morning after. We were folding laundry and he was in a cheerful mood so it seemed like a good time to broach the subject:
Me: Arthur, you know you were having a bad dream about a cow?
Arthur: Yes... (serious tone!)
Me: Where was the cow coming from?
Arthur: (looking thoughtful) I wonder where cow comes from?....
Me: (trying a different tack!) Was the cow coming, in your dream?
Arthur: Yes.
Me: Where was the cow?
Arthur: The cow inna freezer (pointing at the freezer door across the kitchen).
Me: Was the cow in the freezer?
Arthur: Yes. (very uncertain tone)
Me: What did the cow do?
Arthur: Cow try to give Ah-yah cuddoh.
Me: Oh! Was that nice of the cow to try to give you a cuddle?!
Arthur: (shaking head very seriously) Nooo. Don' like cow give Ah-yah cuddoh.
Me: Was it scary when the cow tried to give you a cuddle?
Arthur: Yes. Cow scawy.
I can't fathom how this cow dream came about! But anyway. If he hears "some-sing strange..." now, we look in the freezer. Arthur seems worried looking in there, but he doesn't shy away from it or seem too frightened by me opening it or anything like that. He comes to look, and so I encourage him to check all the shelves, saying, "Is there a cow there?" and he always says no. When we've checked everywhere, I ask again, and he sounds MUCH more cheerful when he says, "Cow not here!" If he's in bed with the lights out for the night, we get Daddy to go and check to see if the cow is there, and Arthur seems to relax when Neil comes back saying he's had a good look in the freezer and there is no cow there.
Bless his heart! He's such a sweetie, and these vulnerable moments due to his overactive imagination make my heart just melt for him.
Well, it's getting so late again. Oh! I almost forgot, Matthew is doing a new thing today. We play a game where he reaches for my face while I'm breastfeeding him lying down in bed, and he looks right into my eyes before he grabs, and I catch his hand all of a sudden, whip it to one side and peep out from behind it, making a sound that is sort of like "keh-keh-keh-keh!" (excited tone). I have no idea where that sound came from originally, but I guess I must have made it once, randomly, and it makes Matthew smile so I keep doing it! Today he reached for my face while we were in bed, and I did the thing with his arm and made the sound, and his eyes lit up with his smile as usual. When I didn't do it again right away, his expression changed to this earnest look, and he started saying, "Keh! Keh!" to get me to do it again! He hasn't done any vocal stuff in terms of making word-like sounds yet, so this is a first for him. Arthur was saying "Mama" to me at 6 or 7 months, so this is one thing that Matthew is behind his brother on, but then I suppose I am not able to give him so much one-on-one (or ANY, for that matter) time as I did for Arthur. I wish I could give him more! When Neil got home I told him about Matthew's sounds with the game, and picked Matthew up in the hope that he'd give a demonstration. I turned him to face me and held his arm up, peeped out from behind it and said, "Keh-keh-keh-keh-keh!" and Matthew eyes lit up and he said, "Keh-keh! KEH!" I didn't say it right back to him because I was saying, "See!" to Neil or something, and that made Matthew make the "keh" sound SO forcefully that he lost co-ordination over how to form it and started straining with a "keh"-like grunt on the end of the strain, hehe! I should try to spend more time with him without Arthur's distractions, to encourage him in making sounds and that. It's so cute to hear him responding vocally to me, and see his little face as he makes such efforts to communicate with me!
Matthew stood alone today for a few seconds, and it wasn't by accident. Yikes. I don't know how long it will take him to walk. He's only 8 months so I'm thinking AGES yet, but Mummy walked properly at 9 months. I was 14 months. Arthur was 11 months and 3 weeks. But he only started crawling at 8.5 months so he went crawling to walking in 3 months. If Matthew does that then he'll be walking at 9 months - well, going on for 10 months. Which I can't believe possible somehow. One thing he DOESN'T do that Arthur was doing though, is walking when you hold his hands. Arthur was goose-stepping eagerly (hehe!) with underarm support from about 7 months. He'd walk all around a room like that and not stop till you did! Matthew acts like he's not sure what to do with his legs when I hold his hands while he's standing. He bounces and bends his knees and tries to jump. He even tries jumping forwards, like, propelling himself towards me by jumping instead of stepping! So perhaps that in itself means that he'll be a while walking yet. He is starting to cruise at the furniture, but Arthur got the hang of it in like a DAY, whereas Matthew is big on bouncing on the spot and seems uncertain of moving his feet one by one, even though he is trying it a little. He doesn't cruise far, only one or two side-steps at a time.
Oh, and Arthur surprised us by having taught himself to do forward rolls! He can do a perfect forward roll, putting his head on the floor and tucking it under, and then rolling over with his spine in contact with the floor all the way down. It looks really quite controlled, and he ends up sitting with a HUGE beaming smile on his face! Yesterday we just watched somewhat agog as he did continual forward rolls all across the living room floor! He can do one right on top of another. I don't know how he learnt - I recall having to be taught that at school! He does do a lot of flinging himself about on the 3-seater sofa though, almost absent-mindedly sometimes. Maybe he's been flipping over by accident while I've been upstairs putting Matthew down for a nap or something? Although, that idea sends shivers down my spine! It doesn't seem very safe! But anyway, he can do forward rolls :) I am thinking he would LOVE a toddler gymnastics type of class, if I can find one in our area. Neil suggested it while we watched Arthur doing his forward rolls yesterday, and I can't believe I never thought of it before for him. I'll have to look into that.
This week we finally applied for Matthew's child benefit. *sigh* Yes, he's 8 months old. Yes, they can only back-date payments for 3 months. Yup, you're meant to do it as soon as you have the birth certificate. It's a good example for you of exactly HOW disorganised a person I am, and what a completely LOOSE ship I am currently running! I still plan to change that, but it's such a big task that it's going to take a long time I think. At least with Arthur we got his child benefit at around 6 months instead of 8! *sigh*
Okay, really late now. Going to bed. Will try to update asap after Jove's party! :) I'll leave you with an "I've really got children who are big enough to play together!" photo :) Okay, they're still soooo little! But they DO play together so sweetly already, it's lovely! Playing with trains and cars on the sofa:
