It's craaaazy late and I'm tired out, but Matthew just went back to sleep after a feed and I had this stuff ready to post, so I wanted to just bash it off and get it posted on the day it was relevant!
It's Matthew's half birthday today! Happy 6 months to my tiny boy! I can NOT believe it has been 6 months. Seriously. Here's my six-month-old boy this morning!...
I have no time for chat tonight, but I wanted to write that Matthew was weighed and measured yesterday by my own lovely Health Visitor, who was not in the least bit worried about his weight at the previous weigh-in, and thinks he's healthy and doing great! I heart my health visitor! I wish I had been making appts with her all along instead of going to the drop-in clinic. Oh well. Anyway, Matthew weighs 15lbs 7oz, a better gain since last time, and it puts him at the 12th percentile - going up again! :) Also, my clever boy has managed to double his birth weight EXACTLY (well, 1oz over!) at 6 months old, so he is 100% ready ready ready for solids! He measures 67.5cm long (26.5 inches) which puts him at the 50th percentile, so he's long and lean!
And today he is 6 months old, so the waiting ends, and the mucky fun begins! If I had been remotely organised, his first solid food would have been an organic banana or sweet potato. But I have been ill since the weekend (the boys' cold but it seems to have affected me differently, and worse) and yeah. Oh, I never got chance/I forgot to mention that we decided to do baby-led weaning this time round. I started to do that with Arthur but chickened out and it never happened! The only thing baby-led we did with Arthur was let him wait when he didn't want to start solids at 6 months. He chose 8 months, thank you very much! With Matthew, if he doesn't want solids now, we'll let him wait.
The main thing with BLW is giving them no purees, just FOOD. I like the idea of slightly altering that idea, because I want Matthew to experience new textures and flavours (since that's what weaning to solids is supposed to be about, not getting food into them! Did you know that 95% of a baby's intake should still be breast milk or formula till 12 months?! Apparently, anyway). And purees are another type of texture, especially the grainy ones. Plus, adults and children eat all sorts of foods, not just solids hunks all the time. We eat sauces and smooth things too. So I plan to do a bit of spoon feeding too. Mostly I just want to be able to hand Matthew a piece of prepared food and have him choose what he wants to eat of it, and how. It's a messy way of doing it though!
I have been reading this GREAT website about baby led weaning, and also this FAB article on guidelines for baby led weaning. It totally finalised any thinking I had on the matter!
But today's rather disorganised start was home made apple puree - a braeburn apple, as it's a taste Matthew already knows from the touch tastes I've been giving him, and a few days ago when I was holding him in one arm and the apple for his touch tastes (that I'd just sliced for Arthur) in the other hand, he grabbed the hand with the apple in it and rammed it to his mouth! He started sucking on it for dear life, and once I'd checked that it had no bits flaking off, I sat him down to suck on it all he liked! I swear he nearly sucked that apple dry! Arthur wanted to sit next to him while they "eat appoo!" together:
I have to admit, he grabbed the same apple about 2 seconds after I took a bite, and before I could wrestle his strong little baby grip, he had sucked off a tiny chip of apple about 3mm by 7mm. He gagged on it a fair bit but didn't vomit, and then to my surprise, instead of working it out of his mouth, he swallowed it! I found it in his otherwise-breastmilky poo 2 days later, unchanged, hehe!
Anyway, today it was slightly grainy-textured smooth pureed apple, with the cooking water. He made faces, but didn't seem as repulsed as Arthur was with his first solids (anyone here remember Arthur's "pear face"?!! Hehehe!). He wasn't ultra eager, but he definitely didn't reject it. I never tried to put the spoon in his mouth, just touched it to his lips, and if he opened then I moved it over his lip a couple of mm to let him suck it. Otherwise I just put some on the tray and some on two spoons and let him at it! He definitely swallowed some and gagged very briefly, but didn't seem to have a huge issue with it. Arthur was very excited!
Part of the excitement was the new highchair that arrived yesterday! After MUCH researching online, etc, I got a Chicco Polly Double Phase Highchair. Cheap on eBay, but new in the box still. It's so versatile and adjustable, and the tray removes so he could sit at the table with us. Anyway, here he is - Matthew's first solids!
And 3 video clips of the same session - trust me, you would be bored with the whole 20 minute movie! So here are 3 much shorter clips! They are from YouTube which always seems to have a sound delay, so that the sounds don't tally up with the visual, tsk. But oh well. It gets worse at the video goes on, but these aren't too bad for it.
Of course Arthur was upset that the feeding had finished and then when it came time for his lunch (about 10 minutes later) he INSISTED on having it in "Ma-Ma's beeb boy tair"! He climbed in it (I had it on low setting, nearest the floor) and tried to strap himself in, so I gave in and let him. But, I really want him to stay in his big-boy booster seat at the table, and for this highchair to be Matthew's, as they'll start eating meals together soon enough and I don't want a big fight over the chair then! Here's Arthur getting to be in the new chair for his lunch:
Matthew started making new vocal sounds in the last couple of days, but today I am REALLY noticing it. He's SHOUTING "day-day-day-day!!" and "lay-day-lay-gay-gay!!" and stuff like that, just exactly like Arthur did at 6 months. I have him on video (see his video clips link over there on the left!) doing just that. Matthew's voice, when he says those same sounds, is absolutely identical to Arthur's. It's like I'm hearing Arthur's voice. So weird! I can't get used to it! Maybe that's one thing they WILL be alike in?! Their voices :) I have a video of Matthew making his new sounds, but YouTube hasn't got its act together yet to make it viewable, tsk. Next entry, then.
Oh, I do have a couple of video clips of Matthew and Arthur jumping and dancing (ish!) to Blame it on the Boogie this evening before bath time! Matthew lately LOVES to be held standing and shove and kick and jump with his legs. He could jump for EVER, waaaay longer than my arms can take the strain! He loves to be held near Arthur, and if Arthur turns to him and jumps with him, Matthew gets this adoring happy gaze on his face and just stares into Arthur's eyes, and he shrieks and squeals with excitement! He LOVES his big brother! Here they are, my sweet little boys!
The other new thing to mark 6 months, unfortunately, is that Matthew fell out of bed at bedtime this evening :( It was awful! I was about to put him in his cot when I noticed his sheets could do with a change. I had a change with me so I put him on my bed (right next to the cot) and started to change his sheets. That is fine because I always stand against the edge of my bed while I change the sheets, and I turn my head to Matthew every couple of seconds to keep track of him on there. Neil had taken Arthur downstairs from his bath, to get him dressed. Suddenly he shouts upstairs, "Oh NO! Where's the potty!" (hehe, it might have been funny without the incident that followed!), and then, "ALICE! Where's the potty!" with a kind of tone that just irked me (since I had no more idea than he did where the potty was and I was busy with Matthew). That was the distraction that did it. I took 3 steps towards the bedroom door and yelled back that I didn't know, maybe it was on the sofa under stuff, but I didn't know. That is literally all I did, and then I turned back to the bed, and said, "OH MY GOD!" because Matthew was head and shoulders off the mattress and in motion, and I knew that even a few steps away I would not get to him in time. I moved fast and I think I got there in time to catch his bum and legs as his head hit the floor :( My poor poor baby. It's his first real bang, and such a shock too. He really did hit the floor head first from bed-height, on a not-so-soft carpet, and then as I caught his lower body, his face smooshed on the floor as he tried to turn. He cried sooooooooo much, I never heard him cry that much before, and I felt AWFUL. I also felt so piddled off at Neil for distracting me, even though it wasn't his fault at all, it was mine. I shouldn't have allowed myself to be distracted like that. Ugh.
Matthew cried for a while but he calmed down when I walked with him and held him reeeally close and talked soothingly in his ear. I wanted to see his head and face before I breastfed him, to see if he had hurt himself badly. He has a red mark on his head but no swelling, and a sort of friction mark with a little swelling on his top lip and nose :( Poor lambie-boo! He breastfed for a long while and after that he was chatty and reachy-for-my-nose-y and happy, so that was a relief! I am never NEVER leaving him on the bed again. Though, I don't know what I'll do the next time I need to change his sheets... hmmm. Anyway, it was horrid.
I have SO much else to write about, and I have been meaning to write this week, to make an entry before Matthew turned 6 months, but I haven't felt well in the evenings and there just hasn't been time. Today is the first day I'm starting to feel a tad better, just very tired. Which makes me stooopid for sitting here typing when I should be catching up on sleep! So I'm going. But I will write other stuff soon! Thanks for the comments after last entry! :) They brightened my day!!! And thanks to Sarah for being wonderfully generous and sending your old Buggy Board! And Jemma for sending all those fish oils (and the treat, mmm!) for Arthur! He has taken about half a tube of one today, but that took allll morning, gah! He didn't go for it direct from the tube, and he isn't a big drinker (other than my milk!) so the rest of the tube mixed into 1/3 of a cup of orange juice took all morning just to consume half - which is all he took in the end. So I'll try again tomorrow! Thanks so much! I hope they help him!
Another go at a diary entry - we'll see how far I get this time!
Count me in for Snot Fest 2006, urgh. Arthur's cold remains mild, but Matthew's got rather worse during the night. We didn't get to sleep till 3am (second night running) and I slept with Arthur till 5am when Matthew needed feeding again. Neil slept in with Matthew as he sleeps through snuffly sounds better than I do! Poor Matthew has been really unhappy today.
Okay I only got that far! Arthur woke and he's been crying and crying but we can't figure out what is wrong. He woke as normal but then got all upset once I was in there. I told him the breasties had gone to sleep again, and he got upset, but just seemed to stay upset about anything and everything. In the end I think we got too involved in it, because we were concerned to understand what was wrong, but he was asking us this and that and his voice was too upset and sleepy to understand him very well, so he got frustrated. And he'd ask to go in Daddy's bed, and then cry and cry once he was in there but not be able to tell us what else he wanted. He has a tummy ache which seems to be wind. In the end I just realised the poor child probably just wants to go back to sleep and all our fussing is just confusing him! So we cuddled him and then did as we would at bedtime - I kissed him night night and left, and Neil put him in his bed and patted his back a little. I hope he's settling now. Amazingly, Matthew slept through all that noise, which lasted a while!
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, poor Matthew! He is teething as well (no teeth still) and we've run out of teething powder - ohhh Arthur is crying again and Matthew is stirring. Awake now. Back in a bit.
Back again! Matthew just stared around at me and then put his head back down and Arthur sounded so unhappy that I went back in to him. Now he's settling better with Neil and I have got them some Karvol (he's really congested now after all the crying on top of his cold), and put the tumble dryer on, and now I'm back. Matthew still asleep for now. Every evening is like this at the moment. It's a wonder I am not having HUGE issue with it, but although it's difficult and frustrating, it doesn't feel too dreadful or anything - yet! The days and nights are just whizzing by so fast right now that at least it's not like I have to get through a draggingly lonnnng day after a lonnnng and tedious night. It's hard but it passes.
So Matthew - I was on the new rota to help in the creche at church this morning (all the parents are on a rota for one type of kids' work or another, whatever they prefer) and Matthew just wasn't well enough to take out, poor love. He slept dreadfully last night and then only had a 30 minute nap during the morning before church so I knew he needed to stay home to sleep properly, if nothing else. He is just all pink in the face and his eyes are puffy and his nose is pink and full of goo, and his cheeks and chin are poor and rough and red and teethy :( Poor baby boy. Arthur is perky as ever even with a cold, so Neil took him to church and did my shift at the creche. I'll do his when it comes around in the New Year. Arthur had a lovely time and did lots of running around so that is GREAT! Matthew napped okay, but eventually he was so miserable that I gave him Calpol. We've only ever had disasters when it comes to giving him Calpol, but this time I used a sachet instead of a syringe or spoon, and I sat him in the Bumbo with a bib on and let him suck and chew the sachet. It worked! He gobbled it down, probably thinking, "FINALLY, she's given me solids!" hehe! And he didn't spill a drop. He was miserable for 15 more minutes or so, and then I breastfed him again and after that he was suddenly beaming and playing happily with toys on the floor, so I guess the combination of mama milk and Calpol did the trick!
Arthur was very concerned about him when he got home from church. He kept saying (with REAL feeling in his tone of voice, so sweet!), "Poor Ma-Ma, dot sore head! Ma-Ma poorly 'day!" (poor Matthew has got a sore head - Matthew is poorly today). If someone is poorly, according to Arthur, they apparently always have a sore head! One time recently, Neil came home from work early with one of his bad headaches and had to go straight to bed. I explained it to Arthur and since then he has been really big on people (and toys!) having a sore head. His trains and cars have all had times since when they have "dot sore head... dot go up bed, make head better!"
Arthur turned 25 months old yesterday! I know he's kind of getting old for still counting his age in months, but I can't help it! I think I'll still be writing here one day, "Oh, Arthur is now nearly 69 months old!" hahaha!
His talking has really come on lately, and weirdly enough Neil and I have just noticed that TODAY he has suddenly started saying everything extremely clearly. ALL his words are clear and completely understandable to everyone today, all of a sudden. Many of them were before, but he seems to have suddenly neatened up all the ends to his words - things like words ending in "ing" - they end in "ing" today instead of "in". He uses four-word sentences constantly, and I guess he's using more than that too, but I have stopped counting words-per-sentence recently. He still uses plenty of simple two-word sentences too.
This morning I sat with a notepad and paper for 10 minutes while Neil got Arthur's things together for going to church, and I just listened to things Arthur was saying and jotted a few down - ones that particularly made me smile or caught my attention. I wish I'd had longer, because he comes out with SO MANY funny phrases and new words all the time now, but here are just a few little examples:
"Ah-yah share Mummy's toas'!" - I brought my toast in to eat while I watched him play, and he likes to share my breakfast (having had his an hour or so earlier). He says share so clearly, and his latest thing is putting the 's on the end of people's names when he's referring to something that belongs to them, which I'm quite impressed by! :) That's a new thing in the past week or so.
"Oh dear, no 'pace up!" - playing with his toy cars and lining them up on the shelf of his toy unit - there was no space left, and he constantly chats and narrates his play to nobody in particular. He was saying that there was no space up there for his bus.
"Geen light, GO!" - playing with his cars, and pretending they were waiting at a "red light". He loves shouting "geen light, Mummy GO!" when we're out in the car and I'm stuck at a red light. He watches for the light to change to green and then shouts that from the back of the car :) He plays traffic lights a lot with his cars now. I hear him say, "Wait geen light.... Geen light! GO!" hehe :)
"Daddy take Ah-yah turch!" - just before they left to go to chruch -self-explanatory, but sounded very cute when said with such excitement and pride, chest puffed out and everything! ;)
"Oh! One miss!" - Arthur says this a lot if something is missing from a set of toys. "Miss" is his word for "missing".
One of his latest phrases that he goes round saying ALL the time at the moment is, "Dood idea!" with nodding head and very "approving grown-up" expression, hehehe! He must be mimicking me, because I tell him "good idea" when he suggests things all the time, and I suppose I must make that face when I do it too! ;)
Another thing he plays a LOT at the moment, is shopping. Often, all his toys are "go shopping!" when he makes them drive off somewhere along the carpet. He sometimes tells me he is going shopping too. This morning I was in the kitchen getting my toast, and Arthur sat on the kitchen floor for a moment, chatting randomly, and then shuffled out on his bottom. As he left, he called out, "Bye Mummy!" with a casual wave in my direction. I said, "Oh, bye Arthur! Where are you going?" and he replied, "Ah-yah go shopping!" I said, "Oh, that's helpful! What are you going to buy?" The reply came from the other room, "Buy bed (bread)..." I called, "What else?" and he said, "Buy tyeese" When I asked, "Anything else?", he replied, "Buy kickin nuggits!" hehe! I never buy those, so I have no idea where that came from! When he is finished "shopping" he comes back and declares cheerfully, "HOME NOW!!" He's such a sweetie :)
Another of his newest much-used words at the moment is "lovely", which I really like! I use it a lot, I think. Arthur has suddenly taken a shine to it, and uses it for things a lot, and he does use it in context really well too. Everything is "luvwy!" at the moment. This afternoon I was lounging around in pyjamas still (feeling crap) and I felt chilly so I went upstairs and unearthed my really nice fleecy dressing gown from where it has been hiding since last winter. It is luxurious and deep red, and has Winnie the Pooh embroidered on it. I love it! I put it on, and when I came down, Arthur did a double-take as he looked up to see me, and then exclaimed in surprise, "Oh! Mummy look luvwy!" HOW cute is that, seriously?! I wanted to just squidge him right up! It's the first time he's had the words to use and complimented me with them! So lovely!
This morning though, he said the word lovely in such a way that made Neil sure he'd learnt it from me, hehe! Arthur asked for milk and so I sat on the sofa and said, "Come on then, lovely!" As he climbed up, he gleefully shouted out, "CAM AWN, LUVVLY!" (no "w" sound in there for once either!) in a real London accent, hehe! Neil called from the kitchen that it was MY doing (he has a slight Yorkshire accent from when he was brought up there)! ;) I don't know where he got quite that Cockney an accent, because mine isn't that strong, but maybe it was just his exaggeration of the phrase or something! Anyway, it was funny :)
He counts quite well, but mostly just repeating the succession I think. Although the other day we were stuck in a traffic jam and he said, "Ah-yah count cars!" and stretched out his arm to point at them as they went past the window. The first car went by on the other side of the road (isn't it always clear when your side is gridlocked?!) and he said, "Onnnne...." then another, and I heard, "Twoooo..." Two more followed, one after the other, and he said, "Threeee.... Fooouur..." He pronounced the numbers soooo much more clearly than I have heard him do before. He counted three more cars go past, "Fiiive, sick, sevum..." and then there were no more and he lost interest. I was boggling that he was counting them so accurately and pronouncing them clearly, but then the next time we got stuck in the same jam further along, he counted again, and this time four cars went past, and were counted as, "Onnne... Twoooo... Eiiight.... Eiiight...." hehe ;)
Ohhh there is so much more that I could write about Arthur and the things he is doing and saying, but Matthew is beginning to stir again and he has done quite well - 3.5 hours now since he was last awake and feeding - so I should think he'll need a feed soon. I will post a ton of photos, then, and get this entry up, before another string of interruptions occur!
A few photos of Matthew trying to get the mini football that Arthur was holding while I changed his nappy! Arthur was thrilled at first and kept saying, "Ma-Ma get ball! Ma-Ma pay (play) ball!" but he was less impressed as Matthew clutched and clambered his way across Arthur to try and reach it, hehe! He's very tolerant of Matthew clutching clumps of his flesh though, even when it hurts him. He's a lovely big brother!
Mallory knitted Arthur and Matthew some hats!!! Thank you Mallory!! She sent them all the way from The States! I have known Mallory through Diaryland since she was in High School and I was ill with M.E. She feels like an old friend now :) It was so exciting to receive a special present from her in the post after all this time! I took fifty thousand photos of the boys modelling her hats ;) Here are a few that came out nice - Arthur liked trying BOTH of them on, and since they are both so lovely and stretchy, they both fit BOTH of the boys, pretty much! Arthur also enjoyed poking his finger in the hole at the top of his brother's hat, and playing "Ah-yah HI-din!" under his own ;)
A few photos of me being Lucky Mummy of the Year, doing something I reeeally love - holding my small Mathie-Moo-Loo (the nicknames get stranger) and just wanting to eat him up with how cute he is!...
I think the last of my pregnancy weight is pretty much off now. Someone told me at church last week that it was nice to see that I had got my figure back (!!!) and I notice tops I had to buy in desperation a couple of months ago (like the one above) are starting to hang off me a bit now. I still need the extra boobie space but the rest of my frame seems to have returned to normal - yay! Jeans are now fitting normally at my pre-pregnancy (after Arthur, that is) size 12. If it weren't for the milk-ness of the situation, I think I would be comfiest in size 12-14 tops, but I'm still mostly wearing 16. I haven't weighed myself in a bit so I'm not sure what I actually weigh.
Still no post-partum period. I was crampy exactly as though I had my period, for exactly the normal length of time that a period usually lasts, and then it went! I have had the odd fertile symptom, and today checked my cervix for the first time since I was pregnant - sorry for the squeamish of you that are innocently reading this without knowing me (more than you ever wanted to, hehe!) from my pregnancy/trying to conceive diary! I considered making an entry in that diary about stuff like this, but I decided I like leaving the last entry there for now. It's a nice closure one from when Matthew was new, and I have no reason to be writing there for a good while yet, so that means you guys have to lump it with me talking about girlie stuff here ;) Anyway, hmmm, maaayybe fertile signs, but who knows. I had my period back already by this time after having Arthur, and had already ovulated at least once, but nothing yet this time. I am tandem nursing though, so it could be that. I'm in no hurry to see things start up again yet!
Also, no post-partum parsnips yet - six months in - which I think is about the same as it was after having Arthur. I can't remember when we got around to it last time. I have zero interest, no, a MINUS score of interest when I am flowing with breastfeeding hormones, and that is a common thing so I'm not worrying about it. Neil is very understanding about these things, and too knackered anyway, hehe! So yeah. I know my hormones will kick in eventually and I'll be back in the game again ;) In fact, getting interested in parsnips is usually a good heads-up that I am getting fertile again. So, that's good to know. Matthew will be 18 months old this time next year (how crazy is that?!). Our current thinking is to make another baby by then (or around that time?) - so that somehow means, with "next year" only a few weeks away, that we're hoping to get pregnant again NEXT YEAR! Yikes! But we're leaving it open, to see how we feel (especially considering how hard it's been this time round), and what is going on in our lives, etc. We will be moving house, and probably completely relocating next year, so that might be enough on our plates for 2007! We'll see. It certainly won't be in the first half of the year anyway, as the summer is the earliest we would consider TTC again even if everything seemed perfect for it.
Anyway, I am getting off track! Photos! I have more to post and Matthew stirs a little more now. Here he is being scrumbly the other day, in a rather fitting outfit that Mummy bought for Arthur when he was Matthew's age. Matthew doesn't fill it out properly yet, but the colours suit him better than they did Arthur, as they match his eyes better. The words mean something like, "I am the best present!" :) I love the look on his face - it's like he knows exactly what those words say, hehe!
A couple of me and my sweet little boys last week:
Arthur is awake again :( He is saying "Hurt", poor lovey. I hope he's okay. Neil has gone to bed so he's in there with him. I'll go in if he gets really upset, I think, unless Matthew wakes for his feed. Better hurry up and post what's left to post.
I took some photos (posted last entry) of the boys in the spare bedroom after their nap one day during the week. Arthur was still asleep when Matthew woke from his nap, and the sun was shining into the bedroom so warmly, and Matthew was so cute and pink and gummy-smiley, that I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and laying him on my bed to take some photos of him in the nice light. The light came out more yellow than I thought it would but that's okay. Anyway after I took a few photos of Matthew, Arthur woke and toddled through to see us. He was sooooooooo sleepy from his nap! He was interested in Matthew on my bed, and so I let him get up there too. I took some photos of them together, and I think I'll post all six of them, because they have quite a nice progression - starting with Arthur completely dopey and zonked after his nap, just arriving to see what is going on, and then he gradually looks more and more awake in the photos, till in the last one he is his usual vibrantly energetic self! I love Matthew's calm gazes in these photos too. He is just like that, but I can see that he is going to be MUCH more animated as he gets older. He is already starting new expressions and reactions to things that remind me more and more of Arthur. I am sure I will go grey within 6 months when they are aged 2 and 3! ;) In the last photo of the boys, my dad commented that Arthur's expression is an EXACT replica of one he saw many many times on my face when I was very little, especially the times when I was causing mischief! ;) He said he was surprised at the similarity, even the facial features and shining eyes and rows of teeth (as he calls them!) and everything. I guess Arthur's challenging monkeyness is all my own doing, heh. Oh, the irony ;)
But they are just THE most precious little people! I love them soooo much! For all the difficulty of things lately, and the crappity sore throat and achy-coldy-ness that I am currently experiencing, and Monday looming a matter of hours from now with two snotty but energetic beany-boys and Neil at work, even so I just feel like letting out one of those lovely long contented sighs.... *phssshhhhoooooaauuuwwwffff*
I am back when I promised but frustratingly can't type a proper entry right now. Matthew just woke as I was preparing to start writing a diary entry, and now I have settled him back to sleep, he is stirring every time I try to type anything :( I guess it's going to get harder to write my diary as he gets older, as I'm typing right next to his cot and he'll be increasingly disturbed by that. We so need more space in our house! There is not one single place for our computer to go other than here.
Okay, since starting this I have settled Arthur after he woke, and Matthew is now in a deeper sleep so hopefully I can get a diary entry written after all. It looks like Arthur woke earlier and then went back to sleep on top of the covers, so now he's cold and waking easily. I put him back in bed, but he woke asking for milk. I am re-night-weaning Arthur at the moment. I hadn't really noticed but since his nasty tummy bug I have been breastfeeding him again if he wakes during the evening and the "cut-off" time, after which I don't nurse him, was getting gradually later and later. Recently he's been breastfeeding if he wakes till about 2am. For the last week it has been really hard with the boys at night. They have each been waking 3 times in just the evening alone, every night, and not at the same times, so that's a crazy SIX times my evening is disturbed to go and resettle or nurse a little one. I haven't been able to get anything done, like my diary, as a result, and it has also started to just drive me crazy a bit. They also both wake in the night, Arthur a couple of times (usually resettled by Neil) and Matthew at least 3 times these days. So I figured it was time to re-night-wean Arthur.
Last time he was night-weaned he was sooo much younger - 13 months old, I think, and it was because I was just into my second trimester in my pregnancy with Matthew, and totally knackered from the night disturbances. He was waking about every 1.5 HOURS at that stage. Oh my gosh.
Oh MAN. Matthew is waking! Maybe I can't write an entry after all? Will just try to settle him....
Back, but he's a bit restless. Both boys have colds at the moment - it's only Matthew's second cold. So far their colds seem really mild so I'm kind of hoping it will stay that way and maybe they are being helped by my milk, but then I know Arthur has had plenty of stuff that was really nasty despite the immunities in my milk. But they are not too bad at the moment. We're at the sneezy, runny nose stage (the beginning) so far, and I know it will get more bothersome as they get gunky and congested in a couple of days. I will be tiptoeing around the house like a little fairy, sprinkling Karvol all over everything, like it's magic fairy dust, hehe! Anyway maybe that is why Matthew is more wakeful right now, but he's been fine before this and still wakeful. He is mostly disturbed by rolling onto his back. It wakes him and he doesn't like sleeping on his back. I thought it would get easier as he got used to doing it, but no sign of that yet, and it has been a month or two so far. Urgh.
Anyway. So now that Arthur is older, I can use a different approach to night-wean him - one that I have heard good things about from other mothers who still breastfeed their toddlers. I simply go to him and when he reaches for me, saying, “Mulk!” I tell him that Mummy’s breasties (don’t ask why on earth we call them that, it just seemed to happen – Arthur calls them “bests” :) ) have gone to sleep and so she can’t give Arthur milk right now. The first time I said that, he cried and tried asking again, and cried some more when I told him they were asleep the second time, but after that he pretty much went to sleep. He didn’t wake again that evening! The second evening he cried but didn’t ask again, and didn’t wake again the rest of that evening either. Then he got a sore throat and would wake in the night saying, “Hurt!” and asking for a “cuggoo”, so once we were able to get him to tell us where it was hurting and realised his throat was sore, I nursed him again in the night. I want to soothe his poor throat if it hurts, and it’s only for a time, till he feels better. I’m more than willing to do that for him. He didn’t want water in the night like usual. Since then he has been a little bit poorly with starting a cold so I’ve been nursing him in the evenings and up till about 2am again, if he wakes (which he does). Tonight when he woke I told him Mummy’s breasties had gone to sleep and he forced a cross-sounding cry for a few seconds, and then turned over and told me crossly, “Mummy burp!” which, politely translated, means, “Mummy, please pat my back like you do when you burp Matthew, and that will make me feel sleepy again” ;) He went to sleep quickly though.
It’s so late now, with all the disturbances this evening. I can’t really write much more now, which is a shame, as I soooo wanted to just write cheery waffle and post photos, etc. That kind of diary entry is such fun to write!
I think I am just going to post a bunch of photos and then go to bed. I want to write lots of things that Arthur is saying these days, before I forget them, but Matthew is so stirry while I’m typing, so I’d better not for now :( I’ll try again tomorrow or the next day, maybe. Here are some photos, so that I don’t get toooo behind on those!
Thank you so much for the comments – thanks Jemma for the fish oil link, will try to get some soon! I removed the blinkie that said, “Co-sleeping, breastfeeding, no-spanking mama!” I had actually forgotten I had that one, and I feel so embarrassed that it has been there all this time declaring me to be a no-spanking mama after I had stopped being one. Also the co-sleeping – we’re a co-sleeping family in that Arthur co-sleeps, but I’m not the co-sleeping parent any more.
Thank you SO much to Sarah for the wonderfully generous offer of the buggy board!!!! I don’t have an email address to get in touch with you, but I’d love to take you up on your offer! Does my email not work even with the “nospam” taken out of the address? I added that in there to prevent spam emails. If not, just leave me your email and I’ll get in touch straight away! Thanks so much!! :)
Okay, no photos after all. It’s nearly 1am and Matthew woke all snotty and snuffly, and Neil and I can’t get him back to sleep so I’m rapidly bashing this last sentence off and posting the entry with Matthew watching me excitedly and squealing! Urgh. Night night. Will update again tomorrow I hope.
I'm still here! Sooooooooooooo much to write about (or so it feels) and I'm so behind, and I really wanted to thank people and comment, etc, on the comments that were left for me after my last entry. Boys have been very wakeful for the last week at least, and it has been hard to find time in my evenings to do things online, especially the clattery typingness of a diary update. Here's hoping nobody will be disturbed by it tonight!
I'll have to be much more brief than I wanted to be on some of the stuff I was going to waffle on about for aaaages (you know me!), and maybe throw in the odd bullet point thingy just so that something-or-other that I meant to talk about gets a mention, before it gets too late. I have a headache and it's already 9.30 so I can't write as much as I'd hoped tonight. Also still haven't had dinner so that will mean even less time left to write here! Better get on with it!
Thank you all so much for the comments and support re. the discipline issues with Arthur from my last entry. Thank you Valerie for the great links - I have bookmarked them all and will read the pages when I get the chance! Thanks also to Jemma and Fiona for the more detailed suggestions - don't worry about leaving 3 messages Fiona! I felt completely deflated after reading the first one so was glad of the other two when I saw them!
I must try those fish oil supplements for Arthur (thanks for the reminder, Jeannie!) - Jemma, would you mind passing on the link to the place you got Jaya's again? Thanks!
I did just want to comment on some of the helpful suggestions that were made though, because maybe I am not writing enough detail about the way I handle things with Arthur in general. Most of the suggestions in the comments are things I already do, believe it or not. I guess I don't write about them because the impression seems to be that I don't do them, or that I should consider trying them, etc. I do a LOT of distracting and redirecting with Arthur. I communicate with Arthur verbally a LOT over things that I want/don't want him to do. I put myself in his shoes a lot of the time.
That time at the park, I did see it from Arthur's perspective. I knew he wanted to stay and it wasn't his fault that I had to hurry him to go. I felt bad that I was doing that long before it got to the smack, because I already had my feet in his shoes and knew it wouldn't feel fair from his point of view. But he HAD to come, despite all that. We were getting soaked and Matthew desperately needed to get home for a feed and a proper nap. It was my fault that it had gone so wrong but at that stage it couldn't be helped and he still had to come. I think I DID mention in that diary entry that I had tried explaining, being playful, distracting him, etc, before it got more pressing and I ended up smacking him, but I would like to explain that I had actually spent the previous twenty minutes being cheery and patient and sensitive with him as I tried to get us going in the direction of the car (when I started to wonder if it might rain and Matthew began to get grizzly). I did all the verbal things I could think of to make the transition easier. I explained that we had to go soon, and why, I acknowledged that he was having fun but that we would come again another day. I gave him time as we walked back. I didn’t constantly insist that he hurry up – sometimes I stopped and let him dawdle or talked to him about this leaf or that tree that he was looking at. I didn’t want to seem pushy ALL the way back, and I was trying to be sensitive to him over that. I played games of running and hiding with him whilst pushing the pushchair to get us moving that bit faster in the right direction, which had him laughing and squealling with the fun of it. I gave him a ton of "in ___ minutes, it will be time to..." warnings (which I do all the time, by the way, advanced warning - for all sorts of things - I read a book (Supernanny, I think) that suggested that for toddlers a while back). I tried distractions, like talking enthusiastically about what we'd do in the car or when we got home, to try to motivate him. It's hard work to keep all the effort coming for those things when you're also keeping one eye on your increasingly miserable baby and another on the increasingly stormy clouds ahead, and you don't FEEL cheerful or enthusiastic, you just want the kid to do as you're asking and hurry up so we can all go home! But I did put in the effort, and I felt dreadful that in the end we were all standing in the pouring rain, nowhere near the car, and Matthew screaming in huge distress, and I ended up having to choose between smacking Arthur to MAKE him do as I asked of him, or standing in the rain till he felt like moving. I just can't think of anything else I didn't try at that point. I felt crushed to get somewhat "condemned" for it after all that, as though I had not considered the positive parenting things that I tried so hard with for 20 minutes in the first place, till I had no time left to pursue them any longer.
BUT, I only say all that to just respond to some of the comments, and I guess to explain myself, to stand up for myself a little. I greatly appreciated the positive comments and suggestions. I especially took from Fiona’s comments the need to be more POSITIVE with Arthur. I am a kind and positive mummy, but when I stopped and looked at my parenting lately, I can see that I have started to let the positive-ness slide a little. It was helpful to be reminded of that, and I acted on it straight away. It’s hard to keep it up day after day when I am so so so tired all the time and Arthur never has a quiet or mischief-free moment, it seems! When it comes to the times when I am feeding Matthew upstairs and Arthur gets up to mischief downstairs, I have tried explaining and talking with him many times. I always tell him that I’m going upstairs to feed Matthew, or “settle” Matthew (I started saying that one time when I wondered if he was acting up BECAUSE I had said I was going to feed him), and I always try to settle him with a toy or something good and distracting before I go. I usually set him up with his Duplo farm, or his toy cars or something. Those keep him busy for a while usually. Lately, Thomas the Tank Engine is a complete lifesaver, as he is enthusiastically distracted by watching that for a good while at a time. But he still tends to stop doing those things and get up to no good the moment I’m up the stairs! I can’t feed Matthew downstairs (I have tried several times) because he’s at an age now where he’s too distracted by anything and everything while he feeds. He literally does not feed, or he gets a tiny amount of on-and-off milk, a TON of wind, and more milk spurts over things than into Matthew as a result of the old overactive letdown that I still have! He wants and needs a quiet place to take his nourishment, and he deserves as much. He also isn’t doing too great on the weight gain front, so I don’t want to compromise him on feeds. I really need him to get as full a feed as possible, so I have to take him up where it’s quiet and where he’s used to being fed, away from distractions and noise. Sometimes I put the baby monitor on and then I can talk to Arthur through that a bit (!!) as he can hear me through it down in the living room. After my last entry, I have started trying to remember to be really positive with Arthur when I come back downstairs, if he has been “good” while I’ve been away. I think I was doing that anyway, but I’m trying to be even more so.
I’m also trying more to ignore the screaming, spitting and head banging. I phoned Meg a couple of days after my last diary entry because she was getting married on Saturday (yay Meg!!) and I was all bummed that we couldn’t go (too long in the car with the little ones, etc) so I wanted to tell her and just wish her a happy wedding day, etc. And she got to hear what she’d just read about in my diary first-hand, as he started screeeeaaming and screaming so loud that I couldn’t hear her at all. He had also climbed up onto the bookshelves from the back of the sofa, urgh. But I do find it very very hard to ignore those three things. Screaming just twangs my every nerve, spitting is offensively GROSS, and head banging just presses on my instinctive parent panic button! It’s hard to work against such strong reactions to those things that he does, but I am trying. I am generally fairly good at coming across calm despite that, and when he bangs his head on the floor (like, as hard as a hitting a nail with a hammer) and I KNOW it’s because he’s frustrated by a specific thing, then I will speak soothingly to him and tell him I know he’s frustrated about such-and-such, and explain why it has to be so, and tell him it’s okay to be frustrated, etc.
I don’t know why I’m trying to justify myself as a parent here. But it is making me feel better to write this stuff.
Oh, thank you Jessica for the note about head banging and autism. I also am not worried about Arthur and autism, because he doesn’t appear to have any of the key whatsits for autism. He is sociable and verbal, and is meeting developmental milestones normally. He looks everyone RIGHT in the eye and enjoys company. I think his head banging is most commonly down to frustrations, and the rest of the time it is probably a sort of controlling behaviour. Sometimes I see him do it with one eye on us to see how we’ll react. He knows we don’t like him to do it.
Lately Arthur has started peeing on the floor on purpose. Urgh! We are NOT potty training yet. I think he is showing lots of signs of readiness. He will tell us, “Need wee…” or “Need poo” before he does them, even in his nappy. A few days ago he did a poo so I was changing his nappy, and he told me, “Need poo” so I knew he needed another and sure enough, about 2 minutes after the clean nappy was fastened, he pooed in it! But that really encouraged me to hear him be able to tell me well in advance that he needed to go. When he is undressed ready for his bath, he will say, “Ohhh…. Need wee!” and then piddle on the floor shortly afterwards. He CAN hold it and know he needs to go, at the same time, but he mostly chooses not to. If I ask him to stop weeing, he does so immediately, but then moves somewhere else to continue. We do have a potty, so we offer it to him at that moment if he has said he needs to wee. He prefers to piddle on the carpet for a second or two, stop weeing, take 2 steps back and piddle again for a couple of seconds, and then when we ask him not to wee on the carpet, to run across the room out of our reach and repeat the piddle, step back, piddle exercise till he’s empty. *sigh* We sooo need our carpet professionally cleaned now, but methinks it’s a futile thing to do at this stage in the game! Best to just continue scrubbing away at little patches of piddle, playdough, breastmilk baby sick, toddler spittle and various spilled beverages and snacks for at least another two years!
Thanks for the great suggestion of the buggy board – I wonder if one will fit our 3-wheeler? Or if Arthur would actually stay on one for any length of time? It sounds like a great solution if he will. They are a bit expensive though. Maybe we’ll have some Christmas money to spend on one. I agree that Arthur needs to get out of the house way more. He is so pent up with energy all the time and I don’t/can’t get him out of the house to burn it off nearly as much as I should. It’s so hard to fiddle with Matthew’s naps and the timing of meals and outings. I am totally NOT succeeding with this aspect of juggling two kids at the moment. It seems so black and white right now – either Matthew gets the sleep he needs in the day and Arthur has to stay in too much, OR Matthew has to get sleep deprived and cranky when he would naturally sleep beautifully in the day, and Arthur gets to burn off about one-sixteenth of the energy he is overflowing with. At first I figured Arthur’s needs were greater and so Matthew had to lump it, and we went to playgroups and stuff. Arthur’s behaviour wasn’t much better for it though, as he still seems to have crazy energy to burn off (ie, those other 15 sixteenths!), no matter what activities and exercise I get him doing during the day. But it was better for Arthur that way. However, I have stopped doing that very often because it just became too unfair on Matthew. On days that we go out, Matthew only gets 30 minutes nap before we go, and often I have to wake him to go otherwise we’re horribly late. Then while we’re out, he dozes off for his nap when the time comes for it, but he is incapable of sleeping longer than 30 minutes (to the dot) when we’re out. So that’s 2x 30 minute naps and by then it’s the afternoon. Then he’ll be cranky and tired till another couple of hours have gone by and fall into an exhausted sleep, which never coincides with Arthur’s nap. So Arthur has to wait for his nap (since he breastfeeds to sleep or near enough, for his naps) till Matthew is settled, and gets WAY too tired. Or Matthew has to scream downstairs while I hope and pray that Arthur can get to sleep on the breast with that noise, and that he’ll hurry up about it so that I can go and relieve Matthew of his distress. Then by the time Matthew is ready to sleep again, Arthur is awake, or wakes wanting me JUST as I’m nursing Matthew or putting him to bed. Once Matthew has had two 30 minute crappo naps in the day, the rest of his day naps are poor quality and he wakes easily and won’t be resettled. So the usual result of taking the boys out in the morning is that Matthew gets 4x 30 minute naps – complete crap for him in terms of quality sleep (growth hormones are not even secreted in babies during day sleep until they’ve been asleep for an hour!), Arthur has his nap messed around, Mummy gets zero time when both boys are asleep at the same time, and everyone is cranky and strained by the end of the day.
When I am not trying to get to playgroups and other outings in the morning, I put Matthew down for his morning nap about 2 hours after he wakes in the morning (so usually around 8.30 or 9am, since he’s usually up around 6.30 or 7am). He goes to sleep easily and spontaneously takes about 2 hours, just like that! Sometimes he takes as little as an hour though, but nearly always 2 hours. During that time I can relax knowing he’s getting some good and much-needed sleep, and I have time to focus entirely on Arthur. We can do playdough or crafts, or play with his cars or Duplo, or do some housework that Arthur likes to help with. Things I can’t do well with Matthew awake. Then after Matthew wakes, often somewhere around 10.30 or 11am, he’s super smiley and eager to roll around playing with toys or watching Arthur for quite a long time. I have to do nappy changes for both boys and continue to play or interact with them both between things I need to get done, and before I know it, it’s time for Arthur’s lunch. He eats lunch around 12.30 usually. Then Matthew might be ready for another sleep, but Arthur tends to nap after 1pm so I make Matthew wait. He generally gets sleepy about 2 hours after waking from the previous nap. When Arthur is pretty much ready for his nap, I change both their nappies again and take Matthew upstairs. I nurse him and put him all sleepy into his cot and he goes off easily if he’s been made to wait a little for Arthur’s nap time. Otherwise if I take him up too soon, he’ll fidget and fuss for AGES and Arthur’s nap gets put off. Anyway, with Matthew going off to sleep, I can whip down and get Arthur and take him to bed, nurse him to sleep, and – voila! – a good stretch of peace and quiet and child-free-ness for ME!! I feel so accomplished when I manage to get both my little ones asleep at the same time to give me some free time in the day. It is surprisingly hard to do when I let any part of the normal structure of the day slide.
Anyway, for this nap, both boys tend to wake at the 30-minute point, BUT I can generally resettle them, and because I have staggered their naps by about 10 minutes, they wake at different times and I usually have time to settle one back to sleep just before the other wakes for the same. Sometimes Matthew doesn’t wake. Arthur occasionally sleeps a whole hour without waking! Sometimes I can get him back to sleep at the breast for another half hour, after the first one, but a lot of the time he is just UP and that is it, even if he’s still knackered and really needs the sleep. Tsk. Arthur’s sleep has always been a frustrating issue, right from the start. But HOW GLORIOUS it is to have a child who sleeps eagerly and readily! I think partly I have put in work with him that has made a difference, but also he just needs his day sleep and will readily take it, much more so than Arthur ever did. It seems crazy and unfair to him to deny him that because his brother has to go out. I don’t know. Matthew takes another 2 hour nap then, in the afternoon, and Arthur is usually asleep for maybe one hour of that if I’m lucky. That’s ONE HOUR for meeeee! Sooo nice. I generally just spend the whole time beaming from ear to ear with the sheer delight of it! I had no such experience when Arthur was a baby, and it’s just a real joy to have it now. I eat my lunch while they’re asleep because it’s so nice to eat in a relaxed manner and not have to guard my food from little fingers! Then I lie on the sofa and watch Neighbours or Doctors (or both if I’m lucky!) if the nap time co-incides with them. I LOVE that. I always used to watch them before I had kids, and for some reason it is the most relaxing “me time” I seem to be able to give myself in the day. It’s the thing that makes me feel the most like myself again, to just flake out and sort of “comfort-watch” the things I have watched for years. I love it. It doesn’t happen every day, but it’s so nice when it does.
Then I find I am recharged with enthusiasm (!) for the boys’ antics for the rest of the day, and I do not resent hearing waking sounds from upstairs. I feel refreshed for a little break all to myself, and accomplished and vaguely competent for having achieved it FOR myself by managing the boys’ naps so well.
Arthur then gets to take his time waking up (he is very groggy and cranky and clingy when he gets up from his nap), snuggling with me on the sofa and breastfeeding while something soothing is on the TV. My attention does not need to be divided between him and Matthew, because Matthew is on another nice long nap upstairs. There is still time after Arthur has fully woken up, to do another activity with him, like crafts or something, which he loves. Then Matthew is up around 3.30 (or sometimes he has a bit longer than 2 hours and is up by 4pm), and I breastfeed him again, and then do the nappy changes and the pottering around between the two of them, Matthew BEAMING from his contented rested state and happy to play and roll on his own for a long time while I divide my attention between them. Sometimes we phone Nana just before 5pm and Arthur speaks to her too – well, he says a couple of words and mostly just listens wide-eyed with his head tipped to one side, hehe! At 5pm-ish I get Arthur’s tea ready and Matthew is getting cranky by the time Arthur’s eating, as he’s getting tired again by then. From 5.30ish, Arthur is at his most exasperating, and Matthew is at his most tired and wants holding a lot or my constant attention. BUT, it’s only about 40 minutes, and then Neil gets home from work. The moment he’s home, after he’s said hello and given cuddles to the boys, and swung Matthew up and had Arthur show him what he’s painted, made, or drawn today, we get Matthew’s night nappy on and change him for bed (on a non-bath night – baths are every other night for the boys), and then I take him up and breastfeed him in bed while Neil gets Arthur ready for bed downstairs. Matthew is usually asleep by 6.45 or 7pm, and I am usually just settling him into his cot all sleepy when Neil brings Arthur up for me to read the “Bie-boo” with him and then breastfeed him in bed. Then when I am done, I say night-night to him and Neil stays with him till he’s asleep, which is usually about 7.30 or 7.45pm. Phew!
It’s SO much of a better day for all of us if Matthew gets his sleep the way he needs to. So much so that I have actually stopped with the outings because of it, even though Arthur needs those. I can’t seem to juggle it so that they both get what they need. We do sometimes get an afternoon outing, if Matthew wakes early enough, say by 3pm, after his afternoon nap. Then I will get their nappies and stuff done by 3.30, and we’ll be all bundled up and ready to go out of the door by say 4pm. Any later and it gets too late for an outing. We walk around the local area – Arthur walks and Matthew is in the pushchair. Or we go to the supermarket if that needs doing. Both things take long enough so that we’re not home till 5.30pm and Arthur’s tea is a little late, but it’s good to get out.
I’m not sure what else to do, to get Arthur more outings, without messing up the entire day for Matthew, and it having a big old knock-on effect for Arthur and me. So that is what we’re doing right now.
Wow, this is long! And waffly. I meant to write loads of other stuff, normal updatey things, and post a ton of photos again. I have taken so many lately! I also didn’t mean to be all serious and bang on about stuff for an entire diary entry!! I just meant to say that I did appreciate the comments soooo much and there was some really helpful advice there that I have taken on board. But I also wanted to address a couple of things from the comments, and thus I have waffled way too much, but hey ho. Now it’s crazy late (after midnight *sigh*) and I have to stop and go to bed. I will absolutely make SURE I find time to update again tomorrow or the next day – hopefully tomorrow - and continue with all the normal newsy stuff and photos!
Here are two to be getting on with, till next entry!
I have about 0.2 seconds to write because Matthew is napping and will wake in about.... 0.2 seconds, probably! I just managed to get Arthur to take his nap, and it's 2.45pm. Urgh.
Today is a bit urgh, in the small people department. They are both teething, and grumpy about it I think. They both had an amazingly late lie-in this morning, how weird that it's odd for BOTH of them and yet they did it on the same morning?! Arthur slept till 7.40am - absolutely unheard of for Arthur!! He's usually up and about by 6am. Matthew slept till 7.50, which is unusual for him too. He is often up by 6.30 these days, but sometimes might sleep till 7ish. But they haven't been all that cheery for the extra sleep, unfortunately.
The last few days and weeks are beginning to get a little... different, shall we say?! With Arthur, that is. He has been somewhat of an energetic handful for a good long time! But lately he seems to be getting more "two-ish" or something. He's doing loads more things that require discipline, and he's responding angrily to discipline a lot more now. He has a lot more angry or frustrated outbursts at things - toys, being told he can't do/have something when he wants it, feelings he can't figure out how to express, etc.
Discipline is still the naughty chair, and we have a few house rules that mean he goes straight to the naughty chair if he breaks one, without a warning. Everything else, he gets a warning first and then if he does it again, he goes to the naughty chair for 2 minutes. If he gets off, his 2 minutes start again. He gets off A LOT. Like 20 times, sometimes. But I think he's beginning to get the picture. Our house rules are things like, no hitting, pushing, or biting people. He doesn't do these things out of malice, but he gets over excited/frustrated/enthusiastic over things and will thump Matthew with his fist on his back, or push too hard on him so that it hurts him. He doesn't bite. But it's a rule all the same, just in case he ever does! If he thumps gently enough so that Matthew is not hurt, then we warn him first, but if he just goes up to him and wallops him then it's straight to the naughty chair. We haven't had many of those incidents, but I am noticing a few more lately than before. Hmmm. The other morning he walked up to Matthew, who was lying on the floor mat on his tummy looking around, and kicked him in the head! Neil said he nearly walloped Arthur, such was his instinctive surge of feelings towards Matthew, but he didn't. He went on the naughty chair.
Arthur is doing stuff that is just a real pain to deal with, and when I'm particularly sleep deprived or knackered, I find it very hard to deal with. Especially if it's one thing after another (after another, after another). Jemma's entry about Jaya's monkey morning really made me smile - though it was HARD for her! It sounded so familiar, and I could relate so much. It's so odd in some ways, to have been reading all these diaries at Diaryland from when Arthur was born - some from during my pregnancy with him - of other mums with their little ones the same age, and see that they are all turning two and becoming rather a handful! It makes me feel better somehow - though I think Jaya has got the edge on most troublesome two-year-olds! ;)
I am not sure the naughty chair is working all that well, but I don't know what else to do really. Arthur has had a few smacks over the last few weeks, but I do NOT want to do that. I don't think it's the right way to go about it, and I don't want to hurt him in disciplining him, physically. Yesterday I put him on the naughty chair when we got home for something he did in the car park in town, and when I sat him there, he crossly smacked me in the face and nearly knocked my glasses off! He got an instant smack on the leg for that, even though that feels completely the WRONG thing to do (what does that teach him?!), and immediately whacked me in the face again. He did not try it again after the second smack, and I then followed through with the naughty chair thing as planned. I just didn't know what else to do to absolutely GRAB control of that situation and let him know that I would not tolerate that for even ONE SECOND. It had to be dealt with instantly, and very firmly. I do explain to him in no-nonsense terms, when I smack him - I don't just smack him and say nothing. But it does not feel right. I just don't know what else to do. He was already on the naughty chair and I can't be looking like I'm not sure how to handle it, when he hits me. But I don't know. Smacking doesn't have a great track record for actually WORKING in the long run, unless you have a child who is the type who'll respond to it well. I don't think it will work for Arthur. Some things depend on the type of child.
Arthur is like I was - a real handful (apparently it gets worse before it gets better, according to my mum!), and I got smacked a lot for stuff, and it had no apparent effect on my behaviour. I wasn't naughty, as in, a horribly behaved child, or anything. I just was like Arthur. Too much energy and very stubborn and independent with my mother! Apparently Mummy was the same, hehe. She told me that her own mother once had a friend tell her that if she had another like herself it would kill her! I think her mother was the same way when SHE was a child though. Mummy tells me it will "stand me in good stead" to deal with Arthur, but so far I am not noticing the benefits. If anything it just seems to make me more irritated by his behaviour! She also told me that a spirited child is WELL worth the hard work ;) Which does make me feel better! I already know he is worth any hard work, of course, and I love him to bits, but urrrgh he is hard work right now. I have a sneaky feeling he is just getting warmed up as well. I need some new ways to manage - both Arthur and myself.
He bangs his head like CRAZY at the moment. I hate it when he does that!
Oh Matthew is awake. I'll save this to Word and finish it later.
It's 9pm now, and Oh My Gosh I am so exhausted. I just feel like the flesh is hanging heavy on my face, I feel so so so wiped out today. Neil has gone for pizza (not that we should be spending the money) but I still feel like I'll be too tired to eat it. I just wanted to finish this a bit so I can post what I wrote earlier. There's still so much more that I wanted to write but I'll just have to try again another day.
I was going to write more about Arthur and the things he has been doing lately that are driving me crazy. Maybe there's no need? But I had wanted to get some of it off my chest, and also partly to make note of it so that one day I'll be able to read it back and laugh about it! I'm sure that day will come, and he's a COMPLETE sweetie pie outside of these maddening things, so it's okay!
Twice this week (it's only Wednesday), Arthur has emptied a full glass of water over the bookshelves with the hi-fi and all our videos on them. Yeurgh. He does it when I'm upstairs putting Matthew to bed. He climbs on anything, usually the laundry basket turned upside-down, to reach all sorts of things in the kitchen that he shouldn't have access to. I just don't know what to do about it! We have too little space to store all our things under lock and key, or too many things, but we pretty much need all of them, and our loft is just groaning from all the stuff in it that we can't throw away. At least he isn't climbing over the stairgate yet! I'm dreading that one.
He has taken to shouting, "Oh no! HELP!" when he thinks he's having trouble, only he pretty much cries wolf most of the time. I used to come running as he sounds so urgent with his shouts of "HELP! HELP!!" only to find him in a perfectly easy position for him to get himself out of! Sometimes ridiculously easy, like say he has one foot up on the sofa and the other on the floor! Cheeky monkey! I think he gets himself into situations just so that he can call for help to get out of them sometimes. He climbed into a little space on the shelf with the hi-fi (no idea how he managed to!) and got thoroughly stuck and shouted for help.
Every day he pulls all the videos off the shelves and takes the covers off. He has been doing this for maybe 7 or 8 months, but he really goes to town on them now. We just have nowhere else to put them. At all. Two videos are in the bin from having their insides pulled out, and nearly all of our blank videos (with things recorded on them now, obviously) have had their boxes ripped to shreds by Arthur. I feel like I should be taking a stronger line with him over it, but then they're right there for him to meddle with. I should put them away, but we've been over and over where we could put them, and there just isn't anywhere. We need a bigger house! Ours is tiny, but still lovely. I will be sad to leave it, but we were definitely outgrowing it before Matthew was born, even.
Yesterday he got poo out of a dirty nappy and dropped it on the living room carpet while I was putting Matthew to bed. Urgh! Oh, that reminds me - he shouts "HELP!" when he's pooing in his nappy, too. He gets anxious and tenses up, and shouts, "HELP! Poo! Mummy help!" He isn't constipated so I can't understand why he does it.
The other things that are bugging the heck out of me at the moment are screaming, shouting and spitting. I hear you all gasp in horror after all the sweetie-pie things I say about Arthur and how lovable he looks in the photos! ;) But yes, he does all of the above, and more these days than he used to. And I can't. Stand. It! It's a discipline thing - does this mean I'm not disciplining him right or something? I just feel like I have NO idea what I'm doing, none at all, over this aspect of parenting.
Sometimes when he's on the naughty chair, he SCREAMS like nails on a blackboard for as long as he can hold it, with as much force behind it as possible. It makes my ears wow and smart. And yet as per naughty chair rules, I'm meant to not bat an eyelid and keep ignoring him. It's sooooooo hard! Matthew used to be so frightened by his loud noises, especially a shout or scream. He would cry inconsolably, but now he is getting used to it! He just lies on the floor a few feet from where Arthur is sitting on the naughty chair and stares at him with a confused/intrigued/slightly disgusted expression while he screams his head off! So that's something at least - Matthew has been able to get used to it and isn't scared much any more. I usually pick Matthew up and remove both of us from the room that Arthur is in. I sometimes just wish I had a mute button, for a moment of peace! But especially when he screams or shouts. He often screams or shouts like that at random times, as though he has too much of something that is pent up and he's letting it out. He has sooo much energy all the time. It's like he doesn't know what to do with himself, and I don't know what to do with him either.
He shouts a LOT, just long wordless yells. I think he lets off steam doing it, or sometimes he is over-excited and has to shout and shout or it looks like he'll explode! But I hate it. I just don't want all that NOISE around me. I know kids make noise, and maybe it's wrong of me therefore, but I just can't stand all this forceful LOUD noise. I can't speak to him over it, so he can use it to effectively mute me when I'm trying to tell him not to shout or whatever.
Urgh. It feels like a bit of a battleground lately with Arthur. On and off, in between times where he's lovely and sweet and cheery and happy. He seems happy all the time, as always, but he gets frustrated at the drop of a hat more easily, and angry or pent up more easily. Is that just his age? I figure it is, but maybe I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I know anything about kids or parenting right now!
He spits just to see the drool hang down and pool somewhere, yucky boy! I hate hate hate it when he spits, and always warn him not to do it or else he goes on the naughty chair. I tell him it's not nice to spit and that Mummy won't tolerate it. He very rarely actually minds me, whatever it is I'm asking of him, which sucks and makes me feel embarrassed of either myself as a parent or of my own child. 'Cause either it's me doing something wrong or else Arthur is a little horror. What else could it be? My mum tells me that he's lovely and I'm not a crappy mummy, but that I have a LIVE one here and difficult ages are going to be all the more difficult because of that.
On Monday when he was on the naughty chair for something, after he had done screaming and got nothing out of it, he started spitting down the back of the chair. He didn't get off the chair, so when his two minutes were up I was meant to let him down if he apologised. But I told him the time was up, but I was not going to get him down from the naughty chair while he was spitting, because it was disgusting and I did not want him doing it. He didn't like that, and stopped right away. After he said sorry to me for the original mischief, I was giving him a cuddle and a kiss when he turned to the naughty chair and said, "Soy, tair, sbipping!" (sorry, chair, for spitting!) He has started to spontaneously say sorry to other things after he gets down, like if he threw a car across the room near Matthew then he goes and says, "Soy car, fwoah" (sorry, car, throw). He says sorry to Matthew nicely if he has hurt him. He just can't stay out of mischief for long, and so it seems like he's always on the darn chair. I am not sure about whether it's meant to be this way?
Annnnyway.
Some NICE things about Arthur! I love him sooooooo much. He has the cutest cheeks, which are being closely rivalled by Matthew's little cheekie-poos! My cold sore FINALLY bit the dust yesterday, and today I swear I nearly cried with the blissful relief and joy of plunging huge smoochy kisses into those soft little cheeks again! I have missed kissing my boys SO much! I could EAT Matthew alive. I kid you not. He is almost edible ;)
Arthur says some sweet things. He says, "Don' wuwwy!" in such a sympathetic tone that he must have heard from me, if something is going wrong, or he'll say it to Matthew with a hand laid on his back, if he's fussing or crying. He says, "Hang on!" at appropriate moments, when suddenly thinking of something or looking for a toy, or something like that. It's his sweet tone of voice that does it, those serious tones spoken in such a tiny chipmunky little voice! So cute.
He loves counting TWO of things. He says, "One... TWO!" and gets excited. He uses the word, "sy-tin!" (exciting) all the time lately! He says it with his shoulders hunched up and his fists balled up under his chin, huge gleeful grin on his face! Sometimes he SHAKES with the physical tension of such excitement, hehe! The thing he says, "sy-tin!" to most is breastfeeding :) How sweet! He'll nurse and then pop off and ask, "New bwest?" (asking for the other side), and while he waits for me to undo my bra on that side, he scrunches up with glee and whispers, "Sy-tin!!" He also says it when I am making him tea, especially if it's toast or soup! Or when I say we're going out in the car :) He also finds church "sy-tin!" which is sweet.
It was so nice to go to church on Sunday. First time in a few weeks again though. I WISH we could pull ourselves together to go more regularly. I miss feeling fully PART of a church. We're embraced as though we are, and we're members, etc, but WE lose that feeling if we don't keep attending regularly. We miss out. Did I mention that Arthur went out to run after the service, with Neil, and ran into a deeeeep puddle? He loves puddles, as you know! This one was like a LAKE. He was wearing his wellies, but that didn't do much good when he fell BACKWARDS and lay down in freezing mud and water, gasping at the cold! He got soaked, and I'm so glad I always take a full change of clothes and nappy for him everywhere I go! He did not seem impressed with getting that cold and wet! He just can't resist puddles though.
He tells me what Matthew is doing if I'm busy in the kitchen making lunch and I can't tell what's going on in the other room. I will call to him, "Arthur, are you okay in there?" and he calls back, "Yeah, okay now!" ("now" is added to many phrases, if they relate to RIGHT NOW for Arthur, eg. "Watch twain now" if he wants to watch Thomas the Tank Engine). So then I call, "Can you tell me what Matthew is doing? Is he okay?" and the reply comes, "Okay now!" I call back, "What's he doing?" and Arthur says, "Ma-Ma pay car, Ma-Ma bite!" which tells me that Matthew is playing with one of Arthur's toy cars (the safe ones for babies) and is biting it! So that is very helpful, and he likes to help me by telling me what Matthew is doing. He keeps up a running commentary on things like that anyway, even when I'm in the room, and he talks to himself and his toys during his play now too, which is really sweet to listen to! His little voice sing-songs up and down as he chats away cheerfully. It always makes me smile as I go about other things and listen to him playing and chatting! If Matthew is crying in the car, Arthur will leeeean out from his car seat as far as he can to touch Matthew's hand with his, and he says, "Oh Ma-Ma! Okay now..." He's such a sweetie. I think I say that a lot, now I come to think of it - "It's okay now" when the boys are crying over something and I'm intervening to make things better.
Okay I am talked out, and knackered, and I feel better for writing it all down and especially for finishing with LOVELY things about my little monkey boy! He is hard work. But also so precious, and I couldn't be without him, difficult stuff and all.
Oh, I almost forgot! I must post those video clips and photos that I kept forgetting to post the last couple of entries, otherwise they'll get too out of date to post. First of all, here is one of Arthur while I was getting his baked beans on toast ready at tea time this evening. I took it to use up the last 80 seconds or so on the camcorder tape so I could load it with a new one. Arthur likes to see himself ("See Ah-yah!") or me while I'm filming, and the camcorder has a rotating mini screen that I can turn towards him so he can see while I'm still filming him :) Also, you get to see our hideously messy kitchen. Note that I am not going to show you the surfaces though! The laundry piles are so awful - Arthur climbs on them like they are mountains. But at least they are CLEAN washing waiting to be folded! Anyway, here he is this evening: [edited to add: stupid audioblog keeps making this the wrong clip - one I have posted further on in this entry. I tried to change it back so hopefully it's this evening's clip again now]
The weekend before last, we decided it was time to re-decorate our little porch. The horrid old wallpaper from the previous owners was peeling off (not helped by Arthur, who pulls at it constantly!) and it was just long overdue. So Neil got Arthur to help him clear the coats and shoes from the porch, and then pull the paper off the walls! He was so thrilled to help! Tidying or clearing, and pulling paper off walls are exciting things for Arthur! ;) I took two video clips - one where he's helping to clera the coats, and the other where he's helping to pull the paper off. Also three photos of him pulling paper off with Neil. I love how he says, "Ank-oo Daddy!" every time Neil hands him a coat to put in the living room! For all his difficult behaviour lately, he actually is a really sweet polite little boy. His difficult stuff is reserved for us mostly. He says please and thank you nicely, and thanks people by name without prompting, unless he's toooo shy to even talk to them. He'll thank them if I ask him to though. Anyway, here are the photos and clips - the "clearing out" clip first and the "pulling paper" one afterwards:
And lastly, for now, here is the monkey boy playing a slightly crazy version of one of his favourite games - phones! He loves to snatch something to his ear (or neck, as it usually turns out!) and say, "Ah-row?!" (the way he pronounces "Hello" for the phone!). Then he says various conversationy things that he obviously hears when I am on the phone and does some fake laughing, and says, "Bye!" and puts it down again. One day last week, he was doing this, and suddenly it was like he went into overdrive and started picking up one item after another, having a quick conversation (they got faster and shorter over time!) and then putting it down to snatch another up! His conversation got narrowed down to "Ah-row?!.... Oh no!.... (short and weird sounding fake laugh!).... Bye!" He got so focused on it, and wouldn't even stop to tell me who was on the phone when I asked him. He usually says, "Nana!" :) I filmed him. He didn't even stop to try and get at the camcorder!
And right after that he played with his Wacky Stick with Matthew, telling me "Ma-Ma like!" which he says ALL the time for everything at the moment, and it means, "Matthew likes this!" He says, "Ma-Ma like bowl!", "Ma-Ma like bow wah-bees!" (Matthew likes me to blow raspberries on him!), "Ma-Ma like Pubbie" (Matthew likes Teletubbies) - the list is endless! Anyway, on this occasion it was the Wacky Stick ;) I really hope all those clips work - that they're the ones they're supposed to be. I'm having trouble at audioblog with that kind of thing at the moment. Clips keep replacing each other and not being the ones they're supposed to be, which is very annoying! I should move to You Tube, or whatever it's called.
[edited to add - this one might not be working either, tsk! It keeps changing with the one of Arthur from this evening.]
[edited again to add - it didn't work, so I joined You Tube and here, I hope THIS works!... It might take a while to finish uploading before it's viewable, but it's too late for me to wait up to confirm that it has worked, so I'll just have to go to bed and post this entry and be done with it!]
I have sooo much more to write! Oh well. But here are a couple of photos from 2 weeks ago - Matthew "reading" his book, and Matthew eating his toes - something Arthur NEVER did. He never played with his feet at all, maybe because of his time in plaster casts over those early months? Matthew is crazy for holding his feet and stuffing them in his mouth! Here are those photos:
And guess who went up onto their hands and knees today and looked just like a little square table?! Yup. He is soooo eager to move. He worked for ages to get his balance with his knees under him good enough to draw his arms up, and for all his efforts, he only managed it once. He tried to lift his head once he was on all-fours, to see ahead, but the combination of muscular effort seemed to be too much too soon, and he flopped back down. He is so gonna crawl before I'm ready! And 2 weeks till solids! I think I'll get him weighed next week. He's getting so big so fast!
I have more photos for next entry. I'll try to write again soon. Mallory, an email with photos is coming your way SOON! Thank you for the lovely lovely package for the boys! xxx
At last, a moment to update again! It's already late so I'll just hurry up and get on with some news and photos!
Brief family news:
Neil: Applied for a job today!!! We're back to that thing we put on hold, where Neil gets a new job in a whooole new career, and we move house, and completely relocate to be where he gets a job. And I get mightily scared and need lots of prayer and stuff like that. But the job sounds SO great, and we are feeling optimistic! It's the exact same job that he got OFFERED when I was early in my pregnancy with Matthew (hence why we decided that he'd turn it down and put new job/moving house on hold), except that it's in a completely different part of the country. SOUTH of London though, which for some reason always makes me feel more easy in myself.
Alice: For the first time since Matthew was born, had enough time on Sunday afternoon to SEW part of a nappy (night nappy for Matthew), make a chicken casserole and set it to simmer comfortingly all afternoon, and baked a rather good chocolate cake complete with overly gooey chocolate fudge icing!! :) I even did a little bit of tidying in the kitchen (which still looks a dreadful state). All 3 boys were napping upstairs and I just felt sooooo.... warm and cosy and Sunday-afternoonish, and housewifey! :) It was lovely!
Arthur: Was left somewhere without Mummy or Daddy for the VERY FIRST TIME yesterday!!! Not intentionally. We went to church (yay!) and Arthur was tearing around the building energetically as usual. When it came time for creche, Neil picked him up and carried him there, and a lady whipped him out of Neil's arms and put him down with the toys, and when he looked for Neil and asked for Daddy, she told Neil to go and sort of stood in the way to block Arthur's view. So Neil went, and came to find me in the service, where he whispered unhappily about what had just happened, and how he didn't like it. I didn't like it either. I mean, everyone thinks we're nuts for always staying with Arthur in creche, but that's our choice. We're not always going to do it. He has gained security from having no concept of us ever NOT being there if he needs us, before he's ready to make that break. Anyway. I love that Neil and I both feel the same way about it :) But also, neither of us feel ready to "let go" of Arthur in that way!
Anyway, we both left the service and crept up to the creche door (which has a panel of glass in it so you can see through) to peep through and see if he was okay. I looked first, and I was pleased and proud to see that he was perfectly fine. He was sitting at the play dough table with two other toddlers and an adult helper, and he looked very much in-charge, hehe! I couldn't hear sounds through the closed door, but I could see him pointing at the other kids' work, and working hard on his own play dough, and all the time his little mouth was opening and closing in continuous chatter! I saw him engaging cheerfully in conversation with the adult helper. He looked happy and confident and cheerful and enthusiastic. I felt happy and proud and pleased, and then as I stepped away to let Neil see, I felt a twang of a sort of left-out-ish feeling :( It's so hard to let go of being a part of every second of his life, and not be there to hear and see every little thing that he says or does. Everything in me wanted to go in there and take part with him, but I knew we had to take our baby boy and go back to the church service, because our BIG boy was doing so great without us. Boo hoo! But YAY for Arthur! I went in with Matthew once he got too noisy for the service, about 30 minutes later, and Arthur was having a great time. I got glowing reports on him and also many comments from the helpers about how he stood out clearly from the 6 little boys his age as a real "live wire" that you need to keep your eye on, hehe! He has like a double dose of enthusiasm and energy for everything. He goes at twice the speed. He was just having a lovely time! Since he did so well, we plan to leave him every time now. Church creche is a great introduction to this step towards independence for Arthur, because it's in a familiar place where we've always been there with him, it's only for a short while, and we're in the same building if he needs us. Neil and I have been asked if we'll go on the rota for helping at the creche, probably once a month. So we'll be with Arthur on those occasions. We think it's time we could leave him without us on the other occasions. I am going to leave strict instructions though, that if he hurts himself even a little bit, or gets upset asking for me, I want them to come and get me RIGHT away. I see them hold sobbing kids for like 10 minutes before they go and get the parents, and I don't want Arthur to be made to wait for us that long, if he needs us and is upset. I also still want him to have milk if he has hurt himself and asks for it.
Matthew: He is doing great! He is 5 and a half months old tomorrow. Two more weeks till we start him on solids!!! I know he'll be EAGER! He is already very obviously ready for solids, except I have no idea what he weighs. I will get him weighed next week maybe - the appt only clinic that I want him weighed at is on Wednesdays, so I'll have to hope they have an appt left for next Wednesday.
Matthew has very good hand-eye coordination (another thing that we were proud to receive a comment on at church yesterday!) and can pounce (!!) on something very accurately with little warning. He is like a little cat sometimes! He watched me eating a custard cream biscuit the other day with absolute calm and stillness, back and forth to my mouth, and then SUDDENLY swiped with his hand and literally grabbed me by the wrist and pulled my biscuit-laden hand to his mouth before I could even react and pull it back! He is strong when he wants something too. He did not get the biscuit though ;)
I have been giving him "touch tastes" of apple whenever Arthur and I eat an apple together (we always share - he likes a few crisp slices from my apple, which I prefer to crunch into with my teeth!). I put my finger onto the juicy part of the apple, and then touch his lip. He grabs my finger with both hands, opens his mouth with tongue ready to taste, and sucks for all he's worth! You should see his eyes - round like saucers! He loves the taste of apple. I give him as many touch-tastes as there are to give him until we've finished our apple. He never gets tired of it. He has tried to squiggle and roll his way to Arthur's sippy cup when it was left on the floor near him too. He is sooooo ready for solids!
I am not going to bother with that crappy rice cereal this time around. We're going straight to veggies and fruit. I can't decide which to give him first, but I am thinking either apple, banana or sweet potato. I can't WAIT actually! I'm quite excited about it! I'll still be glad to wait till 6 months, but I'm excited all the same! Today I bought some new little food bowls to feed him from, and that was exciting :) We are getting rid of Arthur's highchair, as it was a bit of a nightmare in the end, though it looked all nice and cheery. We want something much more adjustable and with a tray that removes. We're going to buy a really nice one and use any money that we're given for him by family at Christmas, to reimburse ourselves. So the highchair will be a gift from family, but we'll get to use it now. Or whenever I find the perfect one and buy it! Which needs to be soon!
Matthew is now rolling over and over with ease in both directions. He shoved himself forwards a foot last week, whilst on his tummy, and a few days ago Neil and I watched with our chins on the floor as he used his toes and elbows to scrobble along the floor about a foot, to reach a toy that he had his eye on. He was on his tummy, and he used his elbows in a sort of army crawl with his head up, looking ahead at the toy. He dug his toes into the carpet and pushed, bending his knees and re-applying his toes to the carpet now and then! Yikes! He hasn't done that since though. But it did make me feel awfully panicky when I watched him! I suddenly thought, "Oh my goodness, it really is going to be no time until he's crawling everywhere, and THEN I'm in trouble!" Arthur's hard enough to keep an eye on with my TWO eyes, and I have no idea how I'm going to keep track of two little eager explorers with plenty of mischief to be made around the place! I just think he is SO eager to get hold of things that he's interested in, that he's just motivated to MOVE! Here's a photo of Matthew being eager for a toy that's juuust out of reach:
Success!! :)
For the last four or five days, I have been trying to give Matthew a bit more practise at sitting, because he doesn't really get "sat up" much. And he's strong and eager. Arthur was doing leany unsupported sit for a few seconds at exactly Matthew's age, so I thought I should at least give Matthew the opportunity to build those muscles up and practise balancing a bit. He started like this:
And got a bit better over a couple of days:
And playing with Daddy helped too:
I could let go for maybe a couple of seconds before he leaned too far this way or that. Then yesterday he was having some naked time on the floor mat before bed, and I sat him up without a nappy in the way and he SAT, although he was kind of leaning over his legs quite a bit. He didn't fall, until he suddenly lurched to the side to reach a toy, but I caught him in time. After I put his nappy on, I sat him up again to see if the nappy made any difference, and apparently it did NOT, because here is Matthew SITTING on his own! Slumpy, but independent, hehe! (please excuse the smudgy photos, but somebody's little fingers had been all over the lens without me realising till just now, when I uploaded about FIFTY smeary photos! Tsk!)
Yay for my clever sitting Boo Bean! I know he's going to be so happy to be able to sit and look around better, as he gets used to it and stronger too. And it'll be so much easier for me to just plop him down sitting. Today when I have sat him down, he has sat well but used his arms in front of him to prop himself. One time he saw a toy about a foot in front of him that he wanted, and he walked his hands further and further forwards until he was folded right over onto his legs! If he knew how to push his legs out from under him as he went forwards, he would be able to work on crawling and going from sitting to crawling. I know that's going to happen WAY too fast for me anyway!
Oh I have run out of time to write any more! I soooo wanted to write more stuff, there seems to be so much to catch up on all the time. Arthur is saying more and adding new words every day and it's hard to keep up with his funny little phrases and the tones of voice he uses as he says certain things. I also still have a few video clips to post here, and some photos from last time that I didn't get chance to post.
But for now, here is Matthew being scrumbly:
And my sweet lil boys - another Arthur-requested photo session! He was pressing his nose into Matthew in the first photo - something he does with toooo much vigour to anything and everything, and the reason we tried him on antihistamines for a week (no joy). He bangs his nose as well, really hard. He says it itches him. The doctor hopes it's his teething. We're always having to tell him not to press too hard on Matthew with his nose! He was watching Thomas the Tank Engine (quelle surprise!) and Matthew is beginning to look at it when it's on too, and he stops and smiles when he hears the theme. *sigh* The theme drives me CRAZY! It's nice, as far as themes go, but still... Here's what I sing when Arthur asks me to "sing trains":
They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight, Arthur thinks they're really great! Gordon is his favourite train, but to me they're all the same. He wants to watch them all day long, so constantly I hear this song. Driving parents round the bend, Thomas and his friends!
I know, I'm silly. But re-wording songs keeps me sane, sometimes! ;)
Anyway - photos of my sweet boys being all relaxed together, one blue-eyed and one brown-eyed! They are so precious! I love them so much :)
I'm 41, British, and long-winded (!). I am wife to Neil, and mummy to Arthur (12), Matthew (10), Nathan (9), Benjamin (7), Samuel (6), Elijah (4), Lydia (3), and Rosalie (1)! I am child-with-lots-of-scabs-on-her-knees to my loving Father God. I am happy to be staying at home with my children, and we also homeschool. I'm eager to be a better wife and mother, keep my home better, and serve God better! I have a long way to go, but I have everything I need in Jesus Christ.
