Part of me can't believe that Christopher is already two and a half months old. He is, most of the time, a very happy and responsive baby! I say most of the time, because the last couple of days he has become a little fussy at the breast, straight away rather than after a while which would otherwise indicate wind as the problem. What the problem is this time I don't know. I will keep plugging on, hopefully it will resolve itself soon.
When he is not being fussy at the breast, he is either asleep, or sitting in his bouncy chair, or on someone, looking around at the world with interest, his eyes practically boggling at everything! He LOVES getting undivided attention of course, and rewards whoever is giving him their attention with huge smiles and coos, often he will do this for as long as 10-15 minutes! He hasn't yet done a true laugh, although sometimes it looks and sounds like he is trying, he will be smiling, and make a rather breathy sounding coo, usually when we stick our tongues out at him, or make an "ooooh" face!
His neck control seems quite good compared to Robert at his age. I suspect this is because he gets a lot more practise, as we lay Christopher on his tummy to sleep, and when he wakes up, he will lift his head to look around.
He also sleeps very well in his cot. We try to make the effort sometimes to put him down while still awake, but we try not to let him get distressed. If he gets distressed we will go and get him, but we are for now simply trying to get him used to falling asleep on his own in the gentlest of ways, at an early age. So hopefully we can do the "hard" work now and hopefully avoid doing any sort of CIO. He has lately been finding his own thumb while laying in his cot, which means he often soothes himself back to sleep again during his naps!
Robert is, as ever, a lovely big brother. If Christopher is in his bouncy chair, and starts to cry, Robert will say "ohhhh..." in a sad tone, go over to him and stroke his tummy. He is so gentle! He loves "Brooo-ah" and will often go and sit near him and just watch him for a while!
Three word sentences are now commonplace to hear from Robert, including "Mama, dand up!" (Mummy, stand up!) and "Dada, ay cars!" (Daddy, play cars - often this is called out several times first thing in the morning when Robert is playing in his bedroom with his cars and wants Daddy to get up and play too! Daddy is not usually impressed! lol!)
His most adorable phrases though have got to be when he comes and gives us a hug, he will say "Gig ugg", and then he will usually give us a kiss, and say "Gig isss" (Big hug, big kiss).
Tonight, he ran into his bedroom after Jonathan had read him a story, and came out saying "eeed kie-l-yah gook!" a few times, and came up to me with his new finger puppet "hungry caterpillar" book. ("read caterpillar book")
When he is in the bath, he likes to help rub the shampoo into his hair. He'll then look at his soapy hands and say "ooop!" Then put them in the water to wash the soap off, he then looks again and says "no ooop!" And then, rubbing his hands on his hair again, he says "more ooop!" My little boy is so adorable!
I wish I had photos to add to this entry, but Jonathan's running a bit behind on getting them uploaded, the last ones I think were when Christopher was 7 weeks old. But there are lots more videos being caught up on, and in fact here's one! I made a card to be shown on Cbeebies, and it was the first one shown on the lunchtime read-out! :)
Showing posts with label talking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label talking. Show all posts
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
My big boy is now 2!
I can't believe I now have a 2-year-old. Although he is only a couple of days older than he was before he was 2, just knowing that he's reached that milestone makes him seem older in my eyes somehow. He is so grown up, and I know I keep saying it lately, but him talking more and more, which somehow wonderfully co-inciding with his second birthday, makes him even more so!
Every single day lately I am marvelling at his speech, his confidence, and his joy that I am understanding more of what he is trying to get across. Even in these last few days some of his pronounciations have become clearer and more like the words they are meant to be. "Please" has, since he started saying it, been pronounced "izz" and usually repeated several times, so "izzzizzzizizz". Today, when he asked for milky, or tv, suffixed with "please" it has been "ease". He is now regularly joining several words together to say what he is thinking about, seeing, doing or wants. "Mama eat oooma" was one of the things I heard today, meaning "Mummy eat satsuma".
His new verbalising is providing me with lovely and amusing insights to his world, finally getting a clue what he is thinking about while he is playing with things. This morning, he was walking around upstairs with a dustpan he found, touching it to the floor several times, and saying "gig, gig, gig, gig" meaning "dig dig dig dig" so he was either using it like a spade, or pretending to be a digger!
I really would rather do a big birthday post once Jonathan has uploaded all the photos from Robert's birthday, but while we're on the subject of Robert's talking, I'll mention that he got several train birthday cards. Robert is VERY into trains right now, and I would have attempted a train cake had I been braver ;) One of the cards he got was a HUGE train card, which was the shape of a train, and while yesterday he was infinitely more interested in his presents, today, he enjoyed playing with his cards, especially this large train card. He was telling me regularly about his "igg ain gard" (big train card), and enjoyed driving it along the floor, bouncing it on his new trampoline, and opening it like a "gook" :)
It is all so sweet!
He is also so comfortable with Christopher, and has accepted him so thoroughly and wonderfully. He is such a lovely big brother! For the most part, Robert will play by himself and not notice Christopher or interact with him, but occasionally he will ask for him, and want to cuddle him, or show him a toy, or if he cries in his bouncer, Robert will go up to him and rock it, or start talking to him. Today I was holding Christopher on my knees while I was sat on the floor, and kissing his cheeks. Christopher was obviously hungry, as he latched himself onto my lower lip and began sucking away. Robert saw this, came up to me saying "Broo-ah iss" (Christopher kiss) gave me a kiss, and then gave Christopher a kiss, and then wanted Christopher to "kiss" me again!
I sat down to feed Christopher, and Robert clambered up next to me to nurse as well. I'm so pleased that he is still enjoying nursing, I think it has really helped him to bond with Christopher, and accept him, and I know there are a lot of people out there that think that nursing a child past the age of one is a selfish act on behalf of the mother (women force their toddlers into nursing afterall, way beyond the time a child actually wants to nurse.. *rolls eyes*), and in some respects there probably are selfish reasons for me continuing to nurse Robert. One being that it makes my life easier, with regards to settling Christopher into our family, the ease of not changing things. Another being that it will probably be helping my weight loss (1 stone down since Christopher's birth so far!). And probably the one most people think of that mums continue to breastfeed, I enjoy the closeness and the cuddles. Robert is now so independant, even if he hurts himself and needs comforting, he rarely actually gets comforted by cuddles. Sometimes the only way to calm him down is to distract him and get him playing again. Nursing is one time he willingly comes up to me, lays down with me, and we get that physical closeness and quiet time.
It's been 2 years today that I first breastfed Robert. I think in some way Robert's birthday will always be a little bittersweet for me because it will bring back memories of what happened, and remembering that I didn't actually hold him properly until he was over half a day old. It's one of those things that will be around forever, I just hope it won't taint the day for me. One day I will hopefully find peace in it all, that it was just the way my little boy was destined to come into the world, maybe to make us appreciate him all the more, to make us more thankful each day for him. The "what ifs" in the first day swallowed me up. Now, the what ifs make me feel worse when I actually think them, knowing who Robert has become, and what we would have missed out on. But at the same time so thankful that if that was the way things were meant to be, we were still meant to be his parents, meant to bring him up, and he is here with us, delighting us each day. Maybe the key to acceptance is just acknowledging that things happen the way they happen, everything is for a reason. Maybe Robert's birth happened that way to show us how strong he is, how special, and to help us appreciate him all the more. And to prove to us each year that his birthday is an amazing reason to celebrate, not to get swallowed up in the "what ifs".
Every single day lately I am marvelling at his speech, his confidence, and his joy that I am understanding more of what he is trying to get across. Even in these last few days some of his pronounciations have become clearer and more like the words they are meant to be. "Please" has, since he started saying it, been pronounced "izz" and usually repeated several times, so "izzzizzzizizz". Today, when he asked for milky, or tv, suffixed with "please" it has been "ease". He is now regularly joining several words together to say what he is thinking about, seeing, doing or wants. "Mama eat oooma" was one of the things I heard today, meaning "Mummy eat satsuma".
His new verbalising is providing me with lovely and amusing insights to his world, finally getting a clue what he is thinking about while he is playing with things. This morning, he was walking around upstairs with a dustpan he found, touching it to the floor several times, and saying "gig, gig, gig, gig" meaning "dig dig dig dig" so he was either using it like a spade, or pretending to be a digger!
I really would rather do a big birthday post once Jonathan has uploaded all the photos from Robert's birthday, but while we're on the subject of Robert's talking, I'll mention that he got several train birthday cards. Robert is VERY into trains right now, and I would have attempted a train cake had I been braver ;) One of the cards he got was a HUGE train card, which was the shape of a train, and while yesterday he was infinitely more interested in his presents, today, he enjoyed playing with his cards, especially this large train card. He was telling me regularly about his "igg ain gard" (big train card), and enjoyed driving it along the floor, bouncing it on his new trampoline, and opening it like a "gook" :)
It is all so sweet!
He is also so comfortable with Christopher, and has accepted him so thoroughly and wonderfully. He is such a lovely big brother! For the most part, Robert will play by himself and not notice Christopher or interact with him, but occasionally he will ask for him, and want to cuddle him, or show him a toy, or if he cries in his bouncer, Robert will go up to him and rock it, or start talking to him. Today I was holding Christopher on my knees while I was sat on the floor, and kissing his cheeks. Christopher was obviously hungry, as he latched himself onto my lower lip and began sucking away. Robert saw this, came up to me saying "Broo-ah iss" (Christopher kiss) gave me a kiss, and then gave Christopher a kiss, and then wanted Christopher to "kiss" me again!
I sat down to feed Christopher, and Robert clambered up next to me to nurse as well. I'm so pleased that he is still enjoying nursing, I think it has really helped him to bond with Christopher, and accept him, and I know there are a lot of people out there that think that nursing a child past the age of one is a selfish act on behalf of the mother (women force their toddlers into nursing afterall, way beyond the time a child actually wants to nurse.. *rolls eyes*), and in some respects there probably are selfish reasons for me continuing to nurse Robert. One being that it makes my life easier, with regards to settling Christopher into our family, the ease of not changing things. Another being that it will probably be helping my weight loss (1 stone down since Christopher's birth so far!). And probably the one most people think of that mums continue to breastfeed, I enjoy the closeness and the cuddles. Robert is now so independant, even if he hurts himself and needs comforting, he rarely actually gets comforted by cuddles. Sometimes the only way to calm him down is to distract him and get him playing again. Nursing is one time he willingly comes up to me, lays down with me, and we get that physical closeness and quiet time.
It's been 2 years today that I first breastfed Robert. I think in some way Robert's birthday will always be a little bittersweet for me because it will bring back memories of what happened, and remembering that I didn't actually hold him properly until he was over half a day old. It's one of those things that will be around forever, I just hope it won't taint the day for me. One day I will hopefully find peace in it all, that it was just the way my little boy was destined to come into the world, maybe to make us appreciate him all the more, to make us more thankful each day for him. The "what ifs" in the first day swallowed me up. Now, the what ifs make me feel worse when I actually think them, knowing who Robert has become, and what we would have missed out on. But at the same time so thankful that if that was the way things were meant to be, we were still meant to be his parents, meant to bring him up, and he is here with us, delighting us each day. Maybe the key to acceptance is just acknowledging that things happen the way they happen, everything is for a reason. Maybe Robert's birth happened that way to show us how strong he is, how special, and to help us appreciate him all the more. And to prove to us each year that his birthday is an amazing reason to celebrate, not to get swallowed up in the "what ifs".
Sunday, 21 November 2010
So excited!
My biggest boy turns TWO on Tuesday. I am so excited, but so sad that he is growing up so quickly. These past two years have been the best of my life, and also the hardest. I love everything about him, and what he has helped me to become.
Before I became a mother, I was selfish, I was lazy, I had no real purpose or drive. I'm still a little lazy, but I am a lot less selfish, and I have the best reason to get out of bed now in the world! I love my cheeky monkey so much, I find it hard to describe. He sometimes does things I don't like (what toddler doesn't?), and I sometimes find it frustrating or exasperating, but it doesn't make me love him less, in an odd way, when I think about it, it makes me love him more! Maybe not RIGHT at that moment in time, but overall, it does!
I think about him, and realise how lucky I am to be his Mummy. Not least because he is such a gentle, kind little boy, he takes things on board very quickly, and I think this can't be all parenting (I feel like it would be arrogant for me to assume responsibility for him generally being a charming little boy, I think he was just born this way, although hopefully Jonathan and I have nurtured it a little!), because sometimes it just seems like he "knows" what to do. Am I being lulled into a false sense of security? Have the terrible twos not set in properly yet? He certainly does paddy a bit when he doesn't get his own way, if he takes a toy from another child and we make him give it back for example. I guess though I just think of such behaviour as normal for a child of his age, and try not to make a big deal of it, or let it define him as the child who "always takes toys off other children", or get frustrated with him for doing so.
Anyway I've got side tracked a little.
His speech just goes from strength to strength lately. It's not uncommon to hear him say things like "Dada eed gook" (Daddy, read book), or "Gah-gee izz" (Milky please) or "More ick Mama" (more drink, Mummy). Yesterday we were driving past some large buildings, one of which had a taller section on one end, and from the back seat, we heard a gasp, then a little voice piping up "Oooooh! Gig bow-ah!" (Oooh, big tower!) He can tell us if something is red, blue, green, black, and occasionally yellow or pink. He's not so sure on orange or purple. He now requests songs and sings along with us! "dee-goh dee-goh eeee dar" being one of them - guess the song, you win a virtual pat on the back if you get it right! He joins in the actions to "wind a bobbin up" (so cute!) and the wheels on the bus, and likes making a diamond shape with his fingers during the whole of twinkle twinkle. Him learning to speak, and his rapid development is just astounding, and is one of the things that more than anything else, has made him seem to have grown up loads in such a short space of time. Because he was walking at 9 months, still a baby!! Walking didn't seem like such a big boy thing to do, but talking, wow, definitely seems like he's grown up so much now!
I can't wait for Tuesday, when he turns 2 properly, although we've had a small birthday celebration already today for him with my dad and step-mum, brother, sister-in-law and 3 year old nephew. I felt a tear prick the corner of my eye again as I took in his cake and sang happy birthday to him, which I was not expecting to happen! I can't wait til he sees his presents on Tuesday! We've bought him a trampoline (he's started BOUNCING on the bed and sofas!), a wooden garage for his matchbox cars, and some playdough cutters and a rolling pin.
How I love my BIG little man!
Before I became a mother, I was selfish, I was lazy, I had no real purpose or drive. I'm still a little lazy, but I am a lot less selfish, and I have the best reason to get out of bed now in the world! I love my cheeky monkey so much, I find it hard to describe. He sometimes does things I don't like (what toddler doesn't?), and I sometimes find it frustrating or exasperating, but it doesn't make me love him less, in an odd way, when I think about it, it makes me love him more! Maybe not RIGHT at that moment in time, but overall, it does!
I think about him, and realise how lucky I am to be his Mummy. Not least because he is such a gentle, kind little boy, he takes things on board very quickly, and I think this can't be all parenting (I feel like it would be arrogant for me to assume responsibility for him generally being a charming little boy, I think he was just born this way, although hopefully Jonathan and I have nurtured it a little!), because sometimes it just seems like he "knows" what to do. Am I being lulled into a false sense of security? Have the terrible twos not set in properly yet? He certainly does paddy a bit when he doesn't get his own way, if he takes a toy from another child and we make him give it back for example. I guess though I just think of such behaviour as normal for a child of his age, and try not to make a big deal of it, or let it define him as the child who "always takes toys off other children", or get frustrated with him for doing so.
Anyway I've got side tracked a little.
His speech just goes from strength to strength lately. It's not uncommon to hear him say things like "Dada eed gook" (Daddy, read book), or "Gah-gee izz" (Milky please) or "More ick Mama" (more drink, Mummy). Yesterday we were driving past some large buildings, one of which had a taller section on one end, and from the back seat, we heard a gasp, then a little voice piping up "Oooooh! Gig bow-ah!" (Oooh, big tower!) He can tell us if something is red, blue, green, black, and occasionally yellow or pink. He's not so sure on orange or purple. He now requests songs and sings along with us! "dee-goh dee-goh eeee dar" being one of them - guess the song, you win a virtual pat on the back if you get it right! He joins in the actions to "wind a bobbin up" (so cute!) and the wheels on the bus, and likes making a diamond shape with his fingers during the whole of twinkle twinkle. Him learning to speak, and his rapid development is just astounding, and is one of the things that more than anything else, has made him seem to have grown up loads in such a short space of time. Because he was walking at 9 months, still a baby!! Walking didn't seem like such a big boy thing to do, but talking, wow, definitely seems like he's grown up so much now!
I can't wait for Tuesday, when he turns 2 properly, although we've had a small birthday celebration already today for him with my dad and step-mum, brother, sister-in-law and 3 year old nephew. I felt a tear prick the corner of my eye again as I took in his cake and sang happy birthday to him, which I was not expecting to happen! I can't wait til he sees his presents on Tuesday! We've bought him a trampoline (he's started BOUNCING on the bed and sofas!), a wooden garage for his matchbox cars, and some playdough cutters and a rolling pin.
How I love my BIG little man!
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Christopher is 7 weeks old!
Can you believe it? 7 weeks ago I was in hospital, having been induced, and waiting for things to kick in. It's amazing how fast time flies when you've got a newborn, compared to how slowly they drag in the last weeks of pregnancy. It's strange though, I look at Christopher, and drink in his expressions, typical newborn jerky movements, and find myself transported back almost 2 years to the last time I had a tiny baby. And marvel in how I am back there again, and yet, how long ago those 2 years seem. I find it hard to remember Robert as even a year old, and still very slightly doddery on those little legs of his.
His confidence in the last year in every respect has grown massively. He now climbs, jumps, runs around in circles with no fear whatsoever, which for the most part is ok but when he is running in circles very fast, having done so for 2 minutes already, and getting dizzier and dizzier and closer to that wall or table each time, gives me a heart attack!
His confidence and ability in speaking too has grown immensely in even the last WEEK! He now will copy words we tell him, especially when given a choice, to communicate his prefered activity. "Do you want to sleep, or play?" I asked him yesterday when he woke from his nap and he was still groggy and a little tearful. "Day." he said.
His words ARE still very babyish, in that most aren't prounounced correctly unless they begin with "d" "g" or "m". And even then not always ;) His new favourite activity is "dee-doh" (playdough), which he keeps trying to eat. "Erd eat dee-doh!" (Robert eat playdough)
He remembers an awful lot of words now as well which he comes out with spontaneously even long after we told him. He found a "gon-kah" under the table, and brandished it at me, which made me realise that I really SHOULD get around to finding all the conkers we collected a week or two after Christopher's birth and binning them!
And here he is examining the stalk on his apple "Dalk!"
He is just so adorable, and I feel sad and yet excited about his new leap in language development, as it's the end of another chapter in Robert's life, and the start of a new one, where he becomes even less of a baby and more of a little boy. But oh my goodness, how lovely that he is talking, and I can see that the more he learns to say, the less frustrated he becomes. And now is the time when I can really start putting the strategies in "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, Children Are From Heaven" to use. Although I will need to read it again, as I've forgotten some points!
As for the tiny boy, he was weighed on 3rd November (I don't think I remembered to say in the last post, how much he weighed. He weighed a stonking 10lb 5oz last Wednesday! Which saw him gain almost 3lb in 4 weeks, and shoot up from the 25th to the 50th centile! Absolutely thrilled with that weight gain, and so so thrilled that it's me that's growing him still! That's one of the best things about breastfeeding I think, when it goes well, is seeing them thrive on what me, his mother, is providing him.
This photo makes my heart melt. What is it about a baby's soft hair that turns me into a puddle of mush?
Last night he slept from about 9.15pm til 3.45am. Usually he seems to have an internal alarm clock which goes off around 2am for a feed, followed by one at 6am, but it was great he went so long, and hopefully we can push it forwards by an hour so he sleeps til 5am or nearer that! My feeds in the middle of the night are usually with very full breasts, and therefore the poor little fella, when he triggers a let down, pulls off spluttering of course, and in the middle of the night I don't worry so much about where the milk goes, it must just go everywhere, but I can't be bothered to worry! Even though it does mean that Christopher isn't as settled for feeds as Robert was, I am so grateful that I have such a good supply, as it means I don't worry about whether he's getting enough!
Something I intend to do this time round is treasure each and every moment with Christopher, not wish him onto the next new thing, because I know that before long it will be gone, and he'll be all grown up. It's taken me this long to realise I should treasure each moment with Robert, now he's starting to talk, he has truly become a little boy now and his babyhood seems to be an eon ago.
His confidence in the last year in every respect has grown massively. He now climbs, jumps, runs around in circles with no fear whatsoever, which for the most part is ok but when he is running in circles very fast, having done so for 2 minutes already, and getting dizzier and dizzier and closer to that wall or table each time, gives me a heart attack!
His confidence and ability in speaking too has grown immensely in even the last WEEK! He now will copy words we tell him, especially when given a choice, to communicate his prefered activity. "Do you want to sleep, or play?" I asked him yesterday when he woke from his nap and he was still groggy and a little tearful. "Day." he said.
His words ARE still very babyish, in that most aren't prounounced correctly unless they begin with "d" "g" or "m". And even then not always ;) His new favourite activity is "dee-doh" (playdough), which he keeps trying to eat. "Erd eat dee-doh!" (Robert eat playdough)
He remembers an awful lot of words now as well which he comes out with spontaneously even long after we told him. He found a "gon-kah" under the table, and brandished it at me, which made me realise that I really SHOULD get around to finding all the conkers we collected a week or two after Christopher's birth and binning them!
And here he is examining the stalk on his apple "Dalk!"
He is just so adorable, and I feel sad and yet excited about his new leap in language development, as it's the end of another chapter in Robert's life, and the start of a new one, where he becomes even less of a baby and more of a little boy. But oh my goodness, how lovely that he is talking, and I can see that the more he learns to say, the less frustrated he becomes. And now is the time when I can really start putting the strategies in "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, Children Are From Heaven" to use. Although I will need to read it again, as I've forgotten some points!
As for the tiny boy, he was weighed on 3rd November (I don't think I remembered to say in the last post, how much he weighed. He weighed a stonking 10lb 5oz last Wednesday! Which saw him gain almost 3lb in 4 weeks, and shoot up from the 25th to the 50th centile! Absolutely thrilled with that weight gain, and so so thrilled that it's me that's growing him still! That's one of the best things about breastfeeding I think, when it goes well, is seeing them thrive on what me, his mother, is providing him.
This photo makes my heart melt. What is it about a baby's soft hair that turns me into a puddle of mush?
Last night he slept from about 9.15pm til 3.45am. Usually he seems to have an internal alarm clock which goes off around 2am for a feed, followed by one at 6am, but it was great he went so long, and hopefully we can push it forwards by an hour so he sleeps til 5am or nearer that! My feeds in the middle of the night are usually with very full breasts, and therefore the poor little fella, when he triggers a let down, pulls off spluttering of course, and in the middle of the night I don't worry so much about where the milk goes, it must just go everywhere, but I can't be bothered to worry! Even though it does mean that Christopher isn't as settled for feeds as Robert was, I am so grateful that I have such a good supply, as it means I don't worry about whether he's getting enough!
Something I intend to do this time round is treasure each and every moment with Christopher, not wish him onto the next new thing, because I know that before long it will be gone, and he'll be all grown up. It's taken me this long to realise I should treasure each moment with Robert, now he's starting to talk, he has truly become a little boy now and his babyhood seems to be an eon ago.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
31 weeks 3 days - HORMONES! Arghh!
Well yesterday saw another BLIP in the old hormones level. I had a horrendous night's sleep which didn't help, due to newly acquired suspected thrush! First time having it, boy this baby doesn't like to give me an easy time of it! Now, despite the heartburn, swollen ankles, SPD, I am thinking what an EASY time I had of it with Robert!!! Well last night's sleep wasn't all to do with thrush, part of it was due to Jonathan. I was already awake-ish when he came to bed, due to suspected thrush, then he woke me up more... then he fell asleep and started SNORING arghhhh! Then Squidge decided that was a good time to wake up and start playing football and gymnastics with my insides. So I had sleep from 8pm (went to bed early as I was sooo tired with no nap!!) til 11pm, then I was awake from 11pm til 3.30am-ish. I was NOT impressed when I looked at the time!! Went downstairs to get away from the freight train next to me, and despite loud ticking clock I managed to get to sleep, until I was woken up at 5am when Robert started crying. Went back upstairs, climbed into bed next to the quieter train (due to also being woken up by little mister), and promptly fell asleep until proper waking up time at 7ish.
So yes, not a brilliant night's sleep, but probably better than some I have tolerated in the past!! But having been tired before hand anyway I really could have done with the 8pm-7am unbroken sleep that I was aiming for!!! So yesterday I was a bag of tiredness, itchiness, painfulness, and generally fed up to my hind teethedness, and at one point was curled up on the bed with J and R downstairs, crying into a nightie with such emotional pain that it made me draw my knees up as high as Squidge would allow. Jonathan came up after a while as I was going into the bathroom for some tissue, and seemed horrified and worried to see me in such a state.
While I was on the bed I did feel like just BAWLING as loud as I could but didn't want to because of Robert downstairs. I only remember one other time feeling that intensely, strangely enough it wasn't around Robert's birth, the tears came easier and quieter somehow then. It was when my ex-boyfriend broke up with me over the phone, in the middle of my teenage depression, while I was in school. Everyone was in lessons, I skipped my double maths lesson and just walked around the school field bawling my head off, not caring about how loud I was because there was no-one else around.
But anyway, yesterday. I went and hugged Jonathan as best I could with banister in the way and bump, and he did the sweetest thing he knew what to do. "Do you want a cup of tea?" I think I might have laughed at that point, he knows me too well to know that sometimes there are no words he can say, no real comfort he can bestow on me at that moment in time, sometimes all I need is to get back to normality and know that he cares, and that's his way of showing it. So he told me to come downstairs, and that he'd make me a cup of tea. I still felt like any moment fresh tears would erupt but the "bawly" moment had passed. Robert was getting on with playing with his cars on the carpet (MUST get him a road mat!!).
The afternoon went well, and I got a decent amount of sleep last night, so despite itchiness, fed-up-ness regarding all over the place blood sugar readings etc, I felt less tired and a lot less grumpy!
Something that seems stronger in a good way lately is the ferociousness of my love towards Robert. I look at him so often during the day, just look at his sweet face, and my heart fills up with love and I just think to myself "I LOVE this boy so much!" He is really no trouble at all, he is such a good sweet boy, who is showing more thoughtfulness and cheekiness and lovely scrumminess each day! Today I almost burst into happy tears when we got ready to go out (to toys r us, to buy him a sandpit!) and we told him we were going out, so he stood up, grabbed his big yellow monster truck (first thought: he was going to ignore us and carry on playing!) and went and put it in his car box! Then went and found some more cars, and put those in his box! We hadn't asked him to put his toys away but he just did it, went around and found all the cars on the floor, and put them away! (he missed one on his table which we took with us for him to play with in the car) I was so proud I can barely describe it!
When my dad called earlier this evening, Robert was still up, so after talking to him, I asked him if he wanted to talk to Robert, and well he can be shy on the phone! If asked to say hello or goodbye he simply waves and doesn't say anything! So I suggested to my dad that he ask him some animal noises. Robert can't resist making animal noises when someone asks him! So that way they get to hear him on the phone and he gets to hear them. Another good way to get him to talk on the phone is ask him to repeat words he knows. Car is a good one "Gar!!", as is zebra and tractor (pronounced breh-bra and braah-bra respectively! Very similar sounding! Both with very elongated R sounds in both parts!) Tiger is "Gie-gah!", banana is "nya-na". Another funny one is garlic, which he pronounced "Gar-yar" or occasionally "gar-lar" (he's seen me sat peeling garlic before which is how he's picked that up!)
He does do his best bless him and it's so sweet hearing his little words with his limited sound abilities. I'm pretty sure he's getting the hang of a very select few 2 word "sentences". One, mostly by habit, we ask him to repeat it, as he has a big blue car upstairs that he plays with in the morning, being "woo gar" (blue car), and the other which seemed to come entirely spontaneously today was "dada car" (daddy's car)
Something that melts my heart is the way now if he is still awake when Jonathan gets home, he hears the door open and close, stops what he is doing, looks at me with a questioning look, and says "dada?" at which point I can't help but laugh and say "yes, daddy's here, he's coming up the stairs!" and if he's in the bath he will sit and stare at the door until Jonathan pokes his head around, at which point he grins and says "Dada!", or if he is on the bed with me reading, or in the middle of pre-bed milky, he will climb off, run to the stair gate, and yell "DADA!" as he watches Jonathan comes upstairs. :) It must really make Jonathan's day coming home to that :) Robert loves his daddy so much! Apparently yesterday while I was catching up on sleep Jonathan took Robert out, and during their trip out apparently Robert seemed to miss me and ask "mama?" which is so sweet :) But then he says "mamam" for satsuma as well so maybe he was hungry and wanting some fruit haha!
I love my little boy so much :)
So yes, not a brilliant night's sleep, but probably better than some I have tolerated in the past!! But having been tired before hand anyway I really could have done with the 8pm-7am unbroken sleep that I was aiming for!!! So yesterday I was a bag of tiredness, itchiness, painfulness, and generally fed up to my hind teethedness, and at one point was curled up on the bed with J and R downstairs, crying into a nightie with such emotional pain that it made me draw my knees up as high as Squidge would allow. Jonathan came up after a while as I was going into the bathroom for some tissue, and seemed horrified and worried to see me in such a state.
While I was on the bed I did feel like just BAWLING as loud as I could but didn't want to because of Robert downstairs. I only remember one other time feeling that intensely, strangely enough it wasn't around Robert's birth, the tears came easier and quieter somehow then. It was when my ex-boyfriend broke up with me over the phone, in the middle of my teenage depression, while I was in school. Everyone was in lessons, I skipped my double maths lesson and just walked around the school field bawling my head off, not caring about how loud I was because there was no-one else around.
But anyway, yesterday. I went and hugged Jonathan as best I could with banister in the way and bump, and he did the sweetest thing he knew what to do. "Do you want a cup of tea?" I think I might have laughed at that point, he knows me too well to know that sometimes there are no words he can say, no real comfort he can bestow on me at that moment in time, sometimes all I need is to get back to normality and know that he cares, and that's his way of showing it. So he told me to come downstairs, and that he'd make me a cup of tea. I still felt like any moment fresh tears would erupt but the "bawly" moment had passed. Robert was getting on with playing with his cars on the carpet (MUST get him a road mat!!).
The afternoon went well, and I got a decent amount of sleep last night, so despite itchiness, fed-up-ness regarding all over the place blood sugar readings etc, I felt less tired and a lot less grumpy!
Something that seems stronger in a good way lately is the ferociousness of my love towards Robert. I look at him so often during the day, just look at his sweet face, and my heart fills up with love and I just think to myself "I LOVE this boy so much!" He is really no trouble at all, he is such a good sweet boy, who is showing more thoughtfulness and cheekiness and lovely scrumminess each day! Today I almost burst into happy tears when we got ready to go out (to toys r us, to buy him a sandpit!) and we told him we were going out, so he stood up, grabbed his big yellow monster truck (first thought: he was going to ignore us and carry on playing!) and went and put it in his car box! Then went and found some more cars, and put those in his box! We hadn't asked him to put his toys away but he just did it, went around and found all the cars on the floor, and put them away! (he missed one on his table which we took with us for him to play with in the car) I was so proud I can barely describe it!
When my dad called earlier this evening, Robert was still up, so after talking to him, I asked him if he wanted to talk to Robert, and well he can be shy on the phone! If asked to say hello or goodbye he simply waves and doesn't say anything! So I suggested to my dad that he ask him some animal noises. Robert can't resist making animal noises when someone asks him! So that way they get to hear him on the phone and he gets to hear them. Another good way to get him to talk on the phone is ask him to repeat words he knows. Car is a good one "Gar!!", as is zebra and tractor (pronounced breh-bra and braah-bra respectively! Very similar sounding! Both with very elongated R sounds in both parts!) Tiger is "Gie-gah!", banana is "nya-na". Another funny one is garlic, which he pronounced "Gar-yar" or occasionally "gar-lar" (he's seen me sat peeling garlic before which is how he's picked that up!)
He does do his best bless him and it's so sweet hearing his little words with his limited sound abilities. I'm pretty sure he's getting the hang of a very select few 2 word "sentences". One, mostly by habit, we ask him to repeat it, as he has a big blue car upstairs that he plays with in the morning, being "woo gar" (blue car), and the other which seemed to come entirely spontaneously today was "dada car" (daddy's car)
Something that melts my heart is the way now if he is still awake when Jonathan gets home, he hears the door open and close, stops what he is doing, looks at me with a questioning look, and says "dada?" at which point I can't help but laugh and say "yes, daddy's here, he's coming up the stairs!" and if he's in the bath he will sit and stare at the door until Jonathan pokes his head around, at which point he grins and says "Dada!", or if he is on the bed with me reading, or in the middle of pre-bed milky, he will climb off, run to the stair gate, and yell "DADA!" as he watches Jonathan comes upstairs. :) It must really make Jonathan's day coming home to that :) Robert loves his daddy so much! Apparently yesterday while I was catching up on sleep Jonathan took Robert out, and during their trip out apparently Robert seemed to miss me and ask "mama?" which is so sweet :) But then he says "mamam" for satsuma as well so maybe he was hungry and wanting some fruit haha!
I love my little boy so much :)
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
My gorgeous clever boy :)
I thought I'd make a post to do with my gorgeous son. He is now 18 months old (and 2 days!) and I just adore him. I love his chatting (which mostly is still babbling, although it's more "complex" babbling now!), and his mannerisms, and his spark and energy! His understanding of us and things we ask him are amazing, it seems so strange to think how he went from a tiny boy so unable to do anything for himself to one that now can follow instructions, and asert his wants and needs to us!
His communication is still mainly non verbal, the main word he uses is "again", which he sometimes uses to mean "yes". This caused some concern to the doctor who saw him for his 18 month review on Friday, who again questioned his hearing, and mentioned speech therapy. We said we weren't concerned about his hearing at all, and he HAS made huge progress with his verbal and non verbal communication since we saw the same doctor 6 months ago. So we will wait til he's 2, and if the doctor is still concerned then we will allow them to run hearing tests and anything else they deem necessary, as if it comes back all clear, and that he is simply a slow speaker, then we will be proved right, and 2 is still an ok age to pick up any more serious problems, so we are ok in waiting until then.
But he IS getting his wants across more and more. He signs "more" very frequently, we are trying to introduce more specific signs so that he knows there is a difference between "more" and wanting specific things, so we have a clearer idea. We are teaching him "drink", "food/eat" and "sleep" on a daily basis, as well as "milk". We sign "nappy" to him regularly too. He still needs prompting to sign for a few things, the only signs he does unprompted is "more", and "milk". He also understands what nodding and shaking the head means and how to use it approptiately, which is very useful!
If he signs "more" while looking at the table on which there is his food, and a drink, we ask him "do you want a drink?" and if it's what he wants, he nods his head and makes an affirmative noise. Then we ask him to sign "drink" and show him ourselves and he will sign back to us, and we give it to him. After his 18 month review I did worry if encouraging signing over talking was helping, or delaying things, but I figure (with some comments from people at a forum) that any form of communication is good, and it will help him be less frustrated while he is still coming to grips with talking.
Something that I think will help him immensely is that over the past couple of days he has rediscovered his love of books and will pull out book after book after book for me to read to him. As well as just reading the story to him I now on most pages point out various things on the illustrations, or ask him to point them out, and I am sometimes amazed at how he knows what something is! I asked him yesterday where the horns were on a picture of a cow, and he pointed them out right away, I wasn't expecting him to get them, and I spent ages wondering "how on earth does he know what horns are?" and then I realised in a few of his "that's not my..." books they have horns on them :)
He is also copying animal noises of varying creatures very well! He will do cow, dog, monkey, elephant, bee, wolf, snake, cat (sometimes), duck, lion (he loves this one!), and possibly a few others!
He has mastered so many physical skills now, he runs, walks along on tiptoes, steers his pushalong toys around obstacles, climbs up onto chairs turns around and sits on them, gets down from chairs slowly still facing out and letting himself drop to the floor, he can step up shallow steps properly, deeper ones he still either turns himself round to go down or he crawls up. If he stumbles while running he can correct himself a lot of the time and can avoid falling. He hasn't figured out jumping yet but that's only a matter of time I'm sure! He even had a good go yesterday on a balance beam at a toddler group (for their physical skills), first holding onto Janice's hands as he walked along, but then he got on all by himself and tried to take a step on it!
He is also working out humour! He has learnt that doing certain things will make us laugh, and so he deliberately does them in order to make us laugh! Certain facial expressions are his favourite way at the moment, but also noises he makes, some of his laughs will often provoke us to laugh too!
He also LOVES us to sing! I have learnt that singing a song will stop a boy from wriggling while changing him, or getting him dressed, or will let us brush his teeth with little resistance! Which has made bedtime SO much less stressful I can't believe! There is now NO stress with bedtime at all, there was little before but now with no wriggles it's lovely! He doesn't really have a favourite song yet, he likes any song I sing really! But I tend to sing "if you're happy and you know it" while he's getting dressed as he then joins in the actions and it gives him something to do as well while I'm popping up his sleepsuit! He starts clapping as soon as I start that song, it's so cute! His face when I ask him "shall I sing you a song, Robert?" is lovely! His face lights up and he nods eagerly saying "Geh, geh" (again, again) hehe! So I sing him a song, and when I get to the end and stop, he'll squeal "a-GEH!" and I sing it again hehe.
Jonathan has been concentrating on the video backlog from Robert's birthday party onwards, so the photos we've taken recently aren't up there yet, which is a shame!
But here's a video he has put together which I can't help but feel teary about, a montage from birth to 1 year old. From a tiny, sleepy baby to a big boy, running around, with little pearly teeth... awwww :) I'm so happy I'll get to see another baby growing up, and also I can't WAIT to see how good a big brother Robert will be. I love him to bits and I can't believe there was ever a time he wasn't in my life!
His communication is still mainly non verbal, the main word he uses is "again", which he sometimes uses to mean "yes". This caused some concern to the doctor who saw him for his 18 month review on Friday, who again questioned his hearing, and mentioned speech therapy. We said we weren't concerned about his hearing at all, and he HAS made huge progress with his verbal and non verbal communication since we saw the same doctor 6 months ago. So we will wait til he's 2, and if the doctor is still concerned then we will allow them to run hearing tests and anything else they deem necessary, as if it comes back all clear, and that he is simply a slow speaker, then we will be proved right, and 2 is still an ok age to pick up any more serious problems, so we are ok in waiting until then.
But he IS getting his wants across more and more. He signs "more" very frequently, we are trying to introduce more specific signs so that he knows there is a difference between "more" and wanting specific things, so we have a clearer idea. We are teaching him "drink", "food/eat" and "sleep" on a daily basis, as well as "milk". We sign "nappy" to him regularly too. He still needs prompting to sign for a few things, the only signs he does unprompted is "more", and "milk". He also understands what nodding and shaking the head means and how to use it approptiately, which is very useful!
If he signs "more" while looking at the table on which there is his food, and a drink, we ask him "do you want a drink?" and if it's what he wants, he nods his head and makes an affirmative noise. Then we ask him to sign "drink" and show him ourselves and he will sign back to us, and we give it to him. After his 18 month review I did worry if encouraging signing over talking was helping, or delaying things, but I figure (with some comments from people at a forum) that any form of communication is good, and it will help him be less frustrated while he is still coming to grips with talking.
Something that I think will help him immensely is that over the past couple of days he has rediscovered his love of books and will pull out book after book after book for me to read to him. As well as just reading the story to him I now on most pages point out various things on the illustrations, or ask him to point them out, and I am sometimes amazed at how he knows what something is! I asked him yesterday where the horns were on a picture of a cow, and he pointed them out right away, I wasn't expecting him to get them, and I spent ages wondering "how on earth does he know what horns are?" and then I realised in a few of his "that's not my..." books they have horns on them :)
He is also copying animal noises of varying creatures very well! He will do cow, dog, monkey, elephant, bee, wolf, snake, cat (sometimes), duck, lion (he loves this one!), and possibly a few others!
He has mastered so many physical skills now, he runs, walks along on tiptoes, steers his pushalong toys around obstacles, climbs up onto chairs turns around and sits on them, gets down from chairs slowly still facing out and letting himself drop to the floor, he can step up shallow steps properly, deeper ones he still either turns himself round to go down or he crawls up. If he stumbles while running he can correct himself a lot of the time and can avoid falling. He hasn't figured out jumping yet but that's only a matter of time I'm sure! He even had a good go yesterday on a balance beam at a toddler group (for their physical skills), first holding onto Janice's hands as he walked along, but then he got on all by himself and tried to take a step on it!
He is also working out humour! He has learnt that doing certain things will make us laugh, and so he deliberately does them in order to make us laugh! Certain facial expressions are his favourite way at the moment, but also noises he makes, some of his laughs will often provoke us to laugh too!
He also LOVES us to sing! I have learnt that singing a song will stop a boy from wriggling while changing him, or getting him dressed, or will let us brush his teeth with little resistance! Which has made bedtime SO much less stressful I can't believe! There is now NO stress with bedtime at all, there was little before but now with no wriggles it's lovely! He doesn't really have a favourite song yet, he likes any song I sing really! But I tend to sing "if you're happy and you know it" while he's getting dressed as he then joins in the actions and it gives him something to do as well while I'm popping up his sleepsuit! He starts clapping as soon as I start that song, it's so cute! His face when I ask him "shall I sing you a song, Robert?" is lovely! His face lights up and he nods eagerly saying "Geh, geh" (again, again) hehe! So I sing him a song, and when I get to the end and stop, he'll squeal "a-GEH!" and I sing it again hehe.
Jonathan has been concentrating on the video backlog from Robert's birthday party onwards, so the photos we've taken recently aren't up there yet, which is a shame!
But here's a video he has put together which I can't help but feel teary about, a montage from birth to 1 year old. From a tiny, sleepy baby to a big boy, running around, with little pearly teeth... awwww :) I'm so happy I'll get to see another baby growing up, and also I can't WAIT to see how good a big brother Robert will be. I love him to bits and I can't believe there was ever a time he wasn't in my life!
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