Developmental milestones and education

There's been no solid decision yet, regarding the education topic yet, but Jonathan really isn't keen at ALL, so I think we will probably be school-schooling I guess. :S But I think Robert will have a good headstart when he goes, I've been doing some activities with Robert to do with letters, but mainly, if I'm writing words down, simply sounding out the letters, and saying in passing "Oh, can you see a Rrrr, Robert?" and getting him to point out a letter shape. Small things like that. And we say things like "what sound does cat begin with? c-c-cat" and today, he just came out with, almost out of nowhere, "Mummy, sheep begins with 'Sh'!" I was gobsmacked! He's doing so well, and seems to enjoy looking at his letters, and remembering what a certain sound looks like written down. He's getting more and more confident in tracing over letters too, his pencil control is getting really good, although he still needs help in holding his pen, as he holds it often with the tip pointing up instead of down, so he's folding his hand over a LOT to try and get the nib on the paper.

Toilet training is going ok... he now tells us whenever he needs a poo, and will take himself off to the toilet (he sits on his toilet seat now to go, very very rarely on the potty anymore - and sometimes even insists on standing up like he sees Daddy doing - arghh!). He's pretty much poo- toilet trained, because last week he accidentally did a poo in his nappy, and he was very distressed about it. I've been taking a more casual approach to potty training now that he will do poos in the toilet, and that is to simply leave him unless he says he needs to go. I will occasionally prompt, but if he says no, I leave it. I know it's not necessarily a true indicator of whether he needs to go to the toilet or not, as once when he was in pants and trousers, I asked him if he needed to go, and he said no, then 2 minutes later he wet himself. But as he is in a nappy still 90% of the time, I'm not too fussed as the wee gets caught. I know one time will come a time when he will not want to wee in the nappy, or else when it gets to summer we'll just go no nappies at all and spend lots of time in the garden so it won't matter either way. I am quite relieved that things are progressing, albeit slowly!

Christopher is still not saying much at all. Although I believe he has now said "nah" meaning "no" (!!) and "yah" meaning "yes", as well as "dah" meaning "down". Late December, when we were at my dad's house, Christopher started climbing the stairs, and I said to him "Christopher, come back down!" He looked at me through the banister, and said "Nah!" and before hand any babbling he would do tended to be "dada", so this very strong "nah" could really have only meant one thing!! Cheeky monkey!!

He's beginning to show his interests and his personality more and more now, he loves animals, and building blocks of any kind. He LOVES music, and is always swaying or bopping along to music when it comes on, and likes to play instruments! He's beginning to show lovely caring attitudes, loving kissing people and his toys, and also showing a real helpful side, in that if he sees Robert doing something, putting things away mainly, Christopher will help. He quickly identifies what specifically is being put where, and will easily find just the duplo bricks to put in the duplo box, or just the toy dinosaurs to put in the pot. He came to help empty the washing machine when he toddled into the kitchen to find Robert had started to do this for me (I asked Robert, who occasionally obliges such requests! And other times says "it's ok mummy, you help yourself" haha!). The other day, I was making the boys' dinner, when I suddenly heard a CRASH, turned around to see Christopher at the kitchen gate, a broken glass in front of the gate on the kitchen floor, a mug in his other hand, and a rather shocked expression on his face! He'd evidently found the mug and the glass in the other room, and picked them both up to bring them in to me! Luckily, the glass being on the kitchen floor with a gate in between it and him, meant I could quickly nip the mug out of his other hand to stop it meeting the same fate as the glass, and start sweeping up the glass. Bless him, he was only trying to be helpful!

He is also still quite clingy, and has a bit of a temper on him, if I don't pick him up in one of his clingy moments. Or if I was holding him but had to put him down for any reason, he SCREAMS blue murder! He has also worked out how to turn on the TV!! I'm not sure actually that even ROBERT knows how to turn on the TV! And aside from me and Jonathan, his favourite person seems to be Jonathan's dad! It's actually quite sweet to see him cuddle Steve's legs and lift his arms to him the way he often does with me!

Anyway, that's about it that I can think of off the top of my head for recent news and stuff the boys are doing! Here's a couple of pics of the boys just before Christmas time :)