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2007-02-25 - 11.48pm previous entry next entry
Birthday and potty training (?) and photos
Soooo much longer than I meant it to be, again! Also, soooo much to write, once again. Photos galore, also.
I guess I need to bullet-point it again this entry, otherwise it will get craaazy.
* Thank you for all the sweet birthday greetings! :)
* My birthday was fairly crappy, though. I was going to enjoy a blissful lie-in and a relaxing day, since Neil had taken a day off work to let me do this (lovely Neil!), and also go for a walk by myself, and maybe go out with the boys and Neil as well, at another time. At 8.30am, I was woken by the next door neighbours having PVC windows and doors fitted throughout their house. Ugh. What are the odds?! They've lived here for like 12 years! Tsk. Of course that was a noisy-beyond-noisy job that lasted 8 hours straight. Ugh ugh ugh. By 9am I had a headache, and that headache went on to take its place in the Headache Hall of Fame. It lasted 12 hours, scoffed rudely at the three doses of co-codamol that I took over the course of the day, and meant that I could hardly do a THING, let alone anything nice or relaxing. I couldn't go to bed to get better, because of the awful noise. And it was sooooo sore that at times I couldn't even look at my little ones or smile or break into any sort of facial expression. I NEVER get headaches that bad. Except, I used to get headaches that bad (almost identical too, with the ignoring-the-painkillers thing, and the length of time it lasted) the day before I got my period, before I had any kids. I stopped having those after I had kids (thank goodness!). Hmmm.
I am currently on day 25 of my latest cycle and no signs of ovulation yet, so it's dragging out for sure. I wonder if my body is getting confused! I never ovulated this late, even on other postpartum cycles. I figured maybe I was not going to ovulate and I'd just get my period and my body was NOT happy about it! But, I had that headache again the next day, AND the next, but it was milder each day. The fourth day (yesterday) I had it in the morning but it was very mild and then it cleared up and didn't come back. And no period. Weird.
Anyway. So my birthday kind of sucked really. I DID get some cards and a seriously HUGE amount of my favourite type of chocolate biscuits though! Neil had a headache the night before my birthday, which was when he had planned to go out and buy the few other things he wanted to give me on my birthday. So he said I should have a "second" birthday on Saturday, when I felt better, and he was home from work, and he'd had an opportunity to go shopping! :) But it didn't happen, in the end. Eventually it will though, and I'm looking forward to it! I felt REALLY bummed on my actual birthday, but I don't feel so sore about it now. My birthday has been and gone, and oh well, these things happen! I'm happy and healthy and have all that I have ever wanted (my babies!) so I did not stay blue about it for long. It WAS lovely to come here and read my birthday greetings that you guys left though, in light of how rubbish the rest of the day was! Thank you! :)
* Neil had bought me a Marks & Spencers birthday cake!!! I have yet to find a more delicious shop-bought cake than M&S birthday cakes. In my late teens, I used to ask my parents for one 'specially, when my birthday was coming up. It was a really pretty cake. When the boys were ready for bed that evening, my headache was starting to ease off, so Neil and Arthur went into the porch with the door closed, so that I couldn't see, and they put the candles on the cake and Neil lit them. I kept hearing these muffled squeals and squeaks of excitement from Arthur, hehe! I sat on the sofa and held Matthew, who was way too wriggly to hold, since he knew something was going on in the porch and wanted to investigate! They turned out the light and came in, Neil carrying the cake and singing "Happy Birthday", and Arthur just soooo excited that his feet seemed to barely touch the ground at all for all his jumping and hopping about! He blew the candles out for me, of course :) Here are some photos of afterwards:
So, you can see, my birthday ended on a good note! :) The neighbours chose HIDEOUS windows though. *sigh* But never mind.
* I don't think I can deny much longer that Arthur is basically ready for potty training. Yeurgh! He has asked to wee on the toilet once since the time I mentioned last entry (was it last entry?). We can't get rid of the noisy fan in the bathroom, as the bathroom is in the centre of the house and has no windows, so it has to have that vent with a suction fan. Mummy suggested that maybe we could take him to the toilet if Matthew isn't napping, and have him use the potty when he IS. I wondered that too, but kept thinking maybe it's holding him back a bit, to refuse him access to the toilet once he's potty trained! But I do not want to mess Matthew's sleep about. Neil and I either don't use the toilet while Matthew is napping, or else we go but we don't switch the light on (or flush till he wakes, yuck!). So it's not like this would be an exclusive rule for Arthur that we're not adhering to ourselves. We just neeeed a bigger house. Well, not NEED, but our little home has been feeling very cramped for a long while now.
Anyway, I am wondering about getting Arthur a potty that has a proper loo-seat type thing, and a lid. I don't know what to do really, and nor does Neil.
On Thursday, Arthur was trying to poo in his nappy. He's a bit more constipated since we have been having family meals (that I cook) because he won't eat them and so he's not getting a balanced diet as a result, like he used to by eating jarred toddler meals. We are still persevering! I would worry if he wasn't still breastfeeding - how I LOVE basically everything about breastfeeding my toddler! :) Anyway, so he'd been trying to poo a few times that morning and eventually getting cross and saying, "Not working!!" Then later, I was in the kitchen putting some clean nappies away on the shelves above the tumble dryer (which is where the nappies live in our house!), and Arthur was clinging to the highchair leg and straining again. He was sounding very annoyed about things (!), and then suddenly he said, "OH!" and stood up with a shocked expression and his hands turned palm-upwards. There was a pause, and then he said, "What happened there poo?" So I thought, uh-oh! And asked him what DID happen. He looked like he was trying to find the right words to describe it to me, and finally said, "Poo went.... BOOF!.... inna nappy!" and he punched his fists forwards hard on the word "BOOF!" to emphasize his point! Hehe! When I told my mum that, she said, "It sounds like he's definitely ready for potty training!" She said if he can communicate such precise details so clearly with me, then it's definitely time to start. The checklist (of readiness) says about the child being able to tell you when they have pooed or weed, and also that you can tell when they are doing a poo by their behaviour, etc. He has been doing those things for many many months, but this is pretty clear!
(p.s. his description definitely looked accurate to me when I changed him a few minutes later!)
Yesterday I sat with Arthur folding clothes from the tumble dryer (still his favourite activity EVER, even over playdough or painting, or anything on TV!), and while we folded I started to talk to him about potty training, just to sound things out. Here's how the conversation went - it started when we were folding some of Daddy's pants (UK for underwear, not trousers!):
Me: Arthur, did you know... in the shops you can buy pants that are Arthur's size, just like Daddy's?
Arthur: Ohh yes?
Me: Did you know... you can buy pants that are Arthur's size, with Thomas the Tank Engine on!
Arthur: (awed silence)
Me: You can buy pants that are Arthur's size, with Bob the Builder on, and Postman Pat, and Underground Ernie. Would you like to wear some of those pants?
Arthur: Oh yes pleeease!!!
Me: Those pants are for big boys, and Arthur is getting to be a big boy now. But d'you know what that means? It means no more nappies. Would you like it if you wore no more nappies?
Arthur: Oooh yes pleeease!!!
Me: If you don't wear nappies like a big boy, then you have to do all your wee-wees and your poos in the toilet or in the potty. Would that be okay?
Arthur: (very matter-of-factly) Ohh yes.
Me: (emphasizing carefully) It means you don't do your wee-wees and poos in your nappies any more. You wear big boy pants and you do all your wee-wees and poos in the potty or the toilet. Are you okay with that?
Arthur: Yes! I wanta do it NOW! (gets up) I wanta go out shop and buy some peshal (special) pants NOW!
Which we couldn't, right at that moment! But you see, things are definitely rolling along, and I think *I'm* the one who is dragging her heels, not my toddler, like I always thought it would be! I know our days are numbered with Arthur in nappies, and I feel sad and wistful when I look at his cloth nappies on their shelves, or when I fold my favourite ones onto their piles when they come out of the tumble dryer. I can't remember a time since we knew we were getting ready to try for our first baby, that I wasn't MADLY excited about using cloth nappies! I was sewing them from January 2003, almost two years before Arthur was born! That's four years that I have thought of cloth nappies when I think of my children. I NEVER once thought of my own children NOT wearing the lovely things. I just never thought far enough ahead to consider them when they were potty trained and out of nappies. I'm so sad that this exciting time is coming to an end with Arthur! Yes, I did just call the nappy-wearing stage an exciting time ;) I just feel this weird sense of... relief that I have another baby already and he will be wearing their lovely cloth nappies for a good while yet! I am in the middle of several sewing projects that I never get chance to finish - nappies for Arthur that are half-sewn, wraps that are bigger than the usual toddler sized wraps, because Arthur is toddler-sized but is long in the rise, so most toddler wraps don't fit him any more. I just sew him ones that DO. I picked up a half-finished wrap today and went to sew it, and got this huge wave of sadness just looking at it in my hands, because maybe there's no point in finishing it for him? He might never get to wear it, or get much use out of it now. Matthew will, one day, but it's not about that, it's just this sadness that the JOY of cloth nappies is nearly over with my first child. Not that I wanted to keep him in nappies forever! It just feels a bit like an empty hole, looking at his enormous collection of nappies on the shelves and knowing he's done with them. Or will be soon. Boo-hoo!
Anyway. Other than that, I guess it's great that he seems ready and excited! I don't know WHAT I'm doing, of course. I'll take him to buy the big boy pants this week, and perhaps we'll get stuck straight in and start using them? I'm not sure whether to just GO for it and ditch the nappies except for night times, or take it more gradually, yet. I'm nervous to GO for it, because I can't be on with the accidents, if I'm honest. I would never blame Arthur for accidents - they are part of potty training and absolutely sure to happen! But I just don't want to deeeal with them right now. Our carpet is full enough with poo and wee as it is right now (yeurgh!). Or maybe we should just get the accidents over and done with as fast as possible and THEN get the carpet cleaned?! ;)
Anyway. That is the latest on that.
Matthew is letting go when he has pulled up to standing, and can stand alone for a couple of seconds at a time before thumping down on his bottom! At first I thought it was just a fluke, but he does it a lot now, so I'm pretty sure he's trying to do it. His two new teeth at the bottom are starting to really show now, though they're still only a few mm above the gum yet. No sign of any more yet, but he's still biting on things really hard and drooling like crazy.
He has taken to biting my NIPPLE lately. Several times a day I am nipped by those RAZOR sharp new toothie-pegs! Yowch! I am starting to recognise that it's happening more when he's had enough to eat, so I need to pre-empt him and take him off the breast before he gets nippy! I'm trying to react strongly enough to deter him, but it's not working so far! I make a sudden noise and pull away from him, saying, "NO biting!" and then that's the end of the nursing session. He just smiles. *sigh* I know that once he gets those top teeth, I will NEED to do something about it, otherwise I'm going to get actual bleeding injuries! This is where almost everyone I know says that it's time to wean when they get teeth and start biting. But I know that's rubbish, so I'll persevere! Arthur was not a biter. I don't think he EVER bit me, with any of his teething or anything. He was much more interested in the MILK, hehe! Matthew has always been less interested in the milk than Arthur. I think he'll self-wean much younger than Arthur for that reason. Another sad thought for me! But I do know there are things to try, to stop a biter from biting at the breast. So I'll try those things and we'll carry on!
* Photos! I have to go to bed, as Matthew has been awake and breastfeeding, and now it's got late. But here are some photos, taken today, of my little mobile man - a rare opportunity to take the kind of photo that I used to take of Arthur ALL the time when he was tiny, because Arthur and Neil were out at the park :) He is SO lovely! He just stood and patted my knees and explored a bit, and we listened to Elgar's Enigma Variations :) I LOVE that music. It gives me such a swell of patriotism! And there's a particular part that always makes me ache with... something, until I get teary. MUCH more so when I am looking at my precious little one whilst listening to such moving music. Anyway, here is my sweet little Mathsie (which he still gets called most of the time by me - I don't know why!). You can see a gleam of white on that bottom gum in one or two of the photos! And see his sofffft soft hair! It's as soft as it looks, perhaps even more so! It's GORGEOUS, I can't even describe how it feels to stroke! I love him sooooooooooooo much. So much.
And, not forgetting my other little scrumbly boy! Here are the photos I mentioned last entry, of Arthur with his new haircut and wearing his new big boy (no poppers in the crotch) dungarees - which I've just realised will be useless for potty training. Pfthth. Oh well! Here is my sweet (and ever-energetic!) Boo-Bean:
Isn't he lovely?! I am just continually SO besotted with my little boys. I just want to sigh and sigh with how happy they make me! I am so blessed. Thank you Lord!
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