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2007-01-29 - 12.55am (urgh!) previous entry next entry
The latest on Arthur-Bean!
I am going to TRY to make this entry (I've been wanting to write about Arthur a bit) as quick as I can, as it's getting late and I am so so SO exhausted these days. I have been averaging 3-4 hours sleep (and not a solid block either) per night for about a month now, urgh. I am starting to really feel the deeper effects of it now so I must try to go to bed earlier. It's so hard to fit in time for myself without staying up late, and I REALLY need that time for myself at the moment. Matthew still wakes 3ish times a night, and once during the evening, and he often has patches where he wakes RIGHT up and won't go back to sleep for an hour. Which means I am up for an hour in the night, and the whole thing is just knackering. I don't particularly want to cut down his wakings yet, because I'm not complaining about those specifically - I still love those sleepy moments in the dark with my tiniest Boo! But I AM tired of the exhaustion. My eyes sting all the time lately, and I feel queasy and giddy a lot. I have been having to take painkillers in the morning for headaches every day for a while. I don't have any energy to take the boys out, most of the time. It's so bad of me :( I need to just GO TO BED and give myself a chance to get some decent sleep, for the boys' sake as well as my own. But by the time Neil comes home from work, I am just desperate to get to the part of the evening where the boys are asleep, we've eaten, and I get to unwind doing things that are just for ME. I can't seem to get a feeling of satisfaction over that, or relax enough if it's only 30 minutes or an hour. I need like the WHOLE evening lately. If the evening doesn't start till between 9 and 10pm because the boys have been difficult to settle and then I've picked up toys downstairs and we've cobbled together some dinner and eaten it, then I can not find that sense of "phewww, that's better!" from my own time if it's less than say 2 hours. So I'm always always up past midnight. Matthew always wakes to breastfeed between 9.30 and 10.30pm and sometimes Arthur wakes in the evening too, but he's very easy to settle, and it doesn't always have to be me. Everything can get strung out, anyway, and I can't seem to get to bed (without feeling like I haven't recharged for the next day) before 1am usually. Sometimes quite a bit later. I probably sound really stupid. But I don't know how to fix it. This yearning for enough "me" time after a long day with the little ones is so strong, it kind of feels stronger than hunger and more like oxygen, or something. I can't just squash it or ignore it. I tried once or twice but it just made me feel depressed and less "fresh" for the boys the next day. I was more impatient with them because I just felt crowded by them more, if that makes any sense. I need time to be me!!
So anyway. Tired, must go to bed. It's 10.55pm now, and Matthew has had his evening feed. I have had a bath and a nice dinner so that's a good start! I think I'll just write this entry and go to bed - that will still be a much earlier night than usual for me. Unless I write for HOURS, of course! ;) Which I will try not to do!
Thank you so much for the sweet comments on my last entry! I was a bit worried at first that I'd been TOO personal with my writing but I was encouraged by people's comments :) Thank you!! And thank you for the compliments on my sweetie-boys! :)
I wanted to write some stuff about Arthur, and post some of MANY photos that have been building up for a while. His speech is just continuing to develop SO fast, and I am missing making a record of it as it happens by not keeping up here. I love what Megan does when she writes things that Alex is saying, by putting them in a different colour so they're easily seen in the diary entry :) I think I'm going to do something like that. It will help me find things he was saying easily, when I skim my entries in the future looking for sweet nuggets of nostalgia!
I jot things that he says down on paper during the day, but then it only takes a few days before he's saying things in better combinations or new phrases. It's no longer about new words with Arthur, it's all phrases and sentences and sayings now. He has so many words that I don't really notice new ones any more - I'm sure he is still finding some, but I'm more quick to notice the way he puts them into context in sentences or something, rather than the actual words. His sentences are getting more grown up in their structure. He has started saying "I" instead of "Ah-yah", and he says "ing" words instead of the short version. Today, the boys were sitting on the kitchen floor eating apple rice cakes. Arthur sat himself RIGHT next to Matthew, squished up as close as he could get, and then beamed at me and said, "I sitting next to Mashew!"
There are only a few little words missing from some of his sentences now - like "I'm" instead of "I", or "it" (or "it's") - that gets missed a lot still. He has rapidly gone from a week ago, saying something like, "Wotsat?" with his finger on his ear when he hears a sound, to today: "What's that sound?!.... I think a pussy cat!"
He'll say a run of things now - I can't explain the kind of thing I mean, so here's an example: Today he was opening various pots of playdough (we pretty much do playdough every day), pulling off the lids to see the colours inside. He would hold a pot gleefully and say, "What could be?!" and then suddenly grab at the lid, saying, "Let's find out!" Once the lid was off, he'd peer inside and then announce to me with great fanfare, "It's.... TUR-GOISE!" hehe!
Today he came to me holding out his finger, and saying, "Hurt my finger, I need cuggol (cuddle)" Then it seemed to dawn on him that he could ask for MILK because I will give him milk when he gets hurt, if he asks me for it! So his face suddenly lit up and he said, "I need MILK!" with a huge beaming smile, hehe! I'm pretty sure he didn't actually need milk, but he got some anyway, just for being cute, hehe ;)
He has a lot of playdough cutters, as I bought a whole load from someone at eBay when I first started stocking up on playdough stuff for him to use at about 18 months. This seller had accumulated LOTS of cutters and accessories during her time with little kids in the house, and was selling them as a big lot - lucky me! So we have a fantastic set of playdough stuff for very little money :) Some of his cutters are dinosaurs, and since before he was two, he has been picking out the - uh-oh, here's a challenge to my spelling skills (or lack thereof!) - pteradactyl? Wait, I'm so anal about these things that I need to spell check it before I can continue ;) Only one letter wrong, go me! Pterodactyl, then. Anyway. It's the only one of his dinosaur cutters with wings, and he calls it "ter-dac-tyl". He did that as usual yesterday, as he pulled the cutter out of the box, and it hit me that it seemed crazy to have him pull out the other four dinosaur shapes and just say, "Di-saur!" (like George from Peppa Pig, hehe!), just because I had only taught him that one word for all of them. So I told him the actual names of the dinosaurs as he pulled the cutters out one by one.
TODAY, the first cutter he pulled out of the box when we were doing playdough was a dinosaur, and he brandished it at me and declared, "Triceratops!" clear as day!!! It WAS a triceratops too, although he might have sounded it slightly like "TWY-ceratops" but it was almost exactly the right pronounciation! I was amazed. He also remembered stegosaurus, but only when I prompted him by reminding him that it had spines on its back. Diplodocus he didn't remember until I told him again. I love how he pronounces that - "Dip-pop-oh-lus!" or something similar, hehe! The other dinosaur cutter is Tyrannosaurus Rex, which is a bit of a mouthful! He definitely didn't remember that one from yesterday, and it came out a big jumbly disintegrating word starting with "ty" and then a victorious, "REX!" punched on the end of it, hehe! The other thing I loved was that, if he didn't know the name, he simply said to me, "I don't know name!" :)
There's more talk-y stuff, but I must post some photos before a boy wakes and time runs out, or something!
We had SNOW last week!!! Yay! Our first snow this winter! It was about 2 inches - more than we'd usually get, but it melted within half a day. By the time I'd sorted the boys out and had breakfast and put Matthew down for his morning nap, it was starting to really melt, so I knew we wouldn't be able to wait till the afternoon to go out and see it properly. The back garden didn't seem to "take" the snow very well - it just sat about in white clumps on a very muddy lawn, so I didn't really want to send Arthur out into the back garden. But the front driveway was better. The car was parked on it and it still had an unblemished blanket of 2-inch thick snow - plenty for a little person who was new to snow! The actual driveway was mostly just wet rather than snowy, but never mind. So we went out on the driveway and I kept popping in to listen for Matthew (he never woke and took a lovely 2-hour nap!).
We bundled up, but it was sooooooo cold. Arthur refused to wear gloves or mittens. He wanted to TOUCH the snow and feel what it was like. His hood kept falling down and he refused his hat. We were only on the driveway and I had every intention of whipping him back inside quickly because I was freeeezing! I kept asking if he was cold as he busied himself carrying bits of snow back and forth, and he'd say (rather impatiently), "NO! I alright!" hehe :) If I said, "Mummy is reeeally cold! Can we go back inside now?", he'd reply (every time), "Jus' lilloo bit longer?..." That's one of his key phrases in life actually! He uses it for EVERYTHING - a bit more milk, staying at some activity a bit longer, when he doesn't want to go downstairs right away after waking from a nap, etc. It's so earnest and irresistable, and I think he knows it! ;)
We built a teeny-tiny snowman on the driveway, from snow that we took off the car. We took a couple of plastic bowls with us to make shapes in the snow, and to fill with snow, etc. One of those ended up being the snowman's rather oversized hat! He had little stick arms and some stones for a nose and eyes. Here is Arthur helping to build it. He was so excited to carry the snow in the bowl from the car! He got all business-like about it, and kept saying to himself, "Now, FIRST thing I do..." - it's probably something he hears me say to myself a lot as I struggle to organise my brain each day - "Now, the first thing I've got to do iiis..." hehe!
After that we made hand and shoe prints in the measly bit of snow left on the driveway....
.... and then stood around looking at things for a while and ferrying more bits of snow to nowhere in particular (!) and then I made my reluctant boy come back inside, as it was just getting too cold. His little hands were all red so it was long time we went and warmed up. He went straight to the window and watched the snowman :) We had made him facing the house so that he and Arthur could "see" each other when Arthur looked out of the window. Arthur kept waving and saying, "Hello fnowman!" (he still pronounces "sn" sounds like "fn" which I think is soooo sweet!), and sometimes he would exclaim in surprise, and whip round all shiny-eyed to say, "Fnowman waving Ah-yah!" I explained to him carefully that the snowman would melt soon, and about what it meant when things melted. The snowman lasted about 6 more hours - long after all other traces of snow had vanished - but he was only a little lump with a huge bowl perched on top and a couple of stones lying in front of him by the time Neil got home to see him!
When Arthur woke from his nap that afternoon, the first thing he said through mega sleepiness was, "Build fnowman 'gain?" I explained that there was no more snow, and then Arthur wanted to go to the window and check on the snowman (who was nearly melted away). He stood watching him for ages, saying things like, "Oh no! Fnowman arm falling down!" He didn't seem too distressed about it though! It was such a sweet first experience with a bit of snow for him. He has seen snow before but he won't be able to remember it, as he was too little.
Let's see, what else has Arthur been doing? Oh, he has got the hang of jumping with both feet recently. He's been bouncing fit to jump for ages, and could jump into the air with both feet if he was on something bouncy like the sofa or a mattress, but he can now purposely launch into a two-footed jump from the floor, leaping up and landing smoothly. He can also jump continually, up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down (ad infinitum). He is SO excited about this new skill, and practises it endlessly around the house! *sigh* He makes me tired just sitting still and watching him, but he NEVER seems to use up any energy! He jumps with such glee and so much tension in his little body due to all the excitement, and calls out constantly as he jumps, "Ah-yah DUMPING!" He's soooo proud :)
Lately I've been looking online for some good activities for toddlers to do at home. We don't get out as much as would be ideal for Arthur, so I want to make sure he has lots of stimulating activities at home. Plus I love to do them with him! I'm vaguely intrigued about the idea of home-schooling (no further thoughts on it for now, other than - hmmm, I'm vaguely intrigued!) and figured since he's eager and bright and I'm interested and find it fun, I might as well start some of the home-schooling ideas for pre-schoolers with Arthur now. I have been looking around online for ideas. This is stuff I would probably write more about in my new diary to see how it pans out before sharing a ton here, but I'm happy to write about what we HAVE found a success so far.
Here's a great idea for toddlers. It's messy, but at least it's DRY mess!
1. Buy packets of various dried whole foods from the supermarket - we used orange lentils, red kidney beans, macaroni, sunflower seeds, black turtle beans, and chick peas:
The lentils aren't in the photo because we'd already bought them a week before and just used them on their own, to pour and sprinkle and spoon and so on:
2. Pour into various pots and bowls, and provide other empty containers and different sized spoons and hand-whisks and stuff. I didn't get a photo of this because Arthur was enthusiastic and started tipping and mixing before I could whip out the camera!
3. Let your little one tip and mix and stir to his/her heart's content!
4. After he had fun for a while, I sat with him and talked with him about the textures and the sounds the grains made as they tinkled into containers, etc. We decided the lentils sounded like the rain! I also showed him how he could sprinkle them gently using his fingers, and things like that.
5. Invite a couple of favourite friends for tea and play cooking with the grains!
6. Finally just let the whole thing dissolve into MESS (I had the train-track set up around him for a reason!!), and provide even more fun with just messing great swathes of lovely-textures seeds and bits around on the floor with your hands!
7. Involve happy little helper in the tidy-up! Arthur loves this part, because he gets to use the dustpan and brush. He has his own toy one, but he much prefers the real authetic one! I didn't get photos after the big mix session, but I did after the lentils:
And there you have it! Arthur LOVES this activity. He was actually silent for like 10 minutes straight at first, just pouring and tipping and mixing - he was that enthralled! And that is unheard of for Arthur! He talks every 10 SECONDS, I kid you not. He never seems to stop! It kept him busy for almost an hour, but it did get pretty messy and he got more "flingy" with the stuff near the end! Always a good sign that it's time to pack away and move onto something else!
It's also NOT a good activity to do with Matthew around, as he crawls so fast now all of a sudden, and his eyes nearly pop out of his head with excited curiosity when he sees little bead-type-things strewn all over the floor! He can hardly wait to practise his pincer grip on them and get those bad boys into his mouth. *sigh* So, we do this when he's napping! I also have to make VERY sure that I've picked up every last bean or seed. He'll be sure to find that one stranded chick pea, and then there'll be trouble! I'm working on re-claiming my kitchen floor from the hideously messy state that it's been in for so long - though you can see that I'm not getting anywhere in the above photos!
Today I have almost my WHOLE kitchen floor clear and swept!!! Yay! The boys have spent almost the entire day in the kitchen, such is the novelty, haha! We have been able to use floor toys that don't work on carpet - the type that you press and they go, or you pull a string and they flap along the floor. Since we only have hard floor in the kitchen, and the kitchen floor has been horribly messy for many many months, it's like a BRAND NEW activity for them to have floor toys on hard floor! They have never conceived of such a thing, hehe! They found it so exciting and played together happily for ages in there.
Okay, it's getting late. A few more photos and then I MUST go to bed.
Arthur is really trying to dress himself a lot, usually on the spur of the moment when he spots something to put on, and he already has clothes on! Here he is putting a top on inside-out, and a pair of jeans, despite already having a pair of pyjamas on! He didn't succeed with the jeans as they're quite difficult, but he did soooo well with the top! He is always so smiley and proud of his achievements :)
Here's a picture of tired-and-slightly-dishevelled me with my alert and happy monkey-boy, after my lovely jubbly lie-in one weekend a couple of weeks ago:
Arthur has such a sparkly little personality! I love him soooo! He is just a bundle of spark and mischief, and he's getting clever with some of it, which is more of a challenge for Neil and I, hehe! He is still doing lots of monkey things when I'm otherwise occupied ;) Pretty much every day he does something monkeyish while I'm upstairs putting Matthew down for a nap. One day it was an entire box of my panty liners, with their individual wrapping and interesting sticky peel-off stuff strewn everywhere, and panty liners stuck here there and everywhere!
Neil got some chocolates for his birthday - he loves mint chocolates. They were up on the kitchen surface near the back, way out of Arthur's reach, but he knew they were there and kept bugging me - "I like eat Daddy's cuh-cuck! Ah-yah need cuh-cuck!" etc! Of course I said no and that was that, but later I had to go upstairs and put Matthew down for a nap. All too quickly, that familiar "too quiet" silence came from downstairs, and Matthew settled down quickly so I tip-toed down carefully to see what Arthur was doing. As I got about half-way down the stairs, I heard this excited whisper from the kitchen in THE most mischievous tone I think I've ever heard him use: "Ah-yah EAT cuh-cuck!" It was a whisper soooo filled with excitement that it was almost a silent squeal! He repeated that sentence a couple of times, and then I arrived at the kitchen doorway to see him carrying the big laundry basket, juuust about to PUT IT AWAY where he'd found it! That's the first time he's been sly about something like that! He often gets it out and puts it against the cabinets to climb on and reach something that he shouldn't from the surfaces, but he ALWAYS leaves it there and so his secret is revealed to me when I come back downstairs! He knows he is not to get the basket out in the first place, and I put it where it's difficult for him to reach and get it out. So, he'd done that anyway, and was actually about to put it back so that I might never know he'd done it! He'd climbed up, unwrapped a mint chocolate and left the wrapper in the box of chocolates, and then set off (mouth FULL of gooey chocolate!) to put the basket back where he found it! Clever little monkey! He looked visibly shocked to see me, but he couldn't seem to help this HUGE grin spreading in a rather chocolatey way across his face! His eyes were shining in that "I've been mischievous and I'm LOVING it!!" kind of way that I see so often these days! I love my monkey though :)
Here is another sight that I came down to after putting Matthew down for a nap, a week or two ago:
Hiding behind the bread will NOT make it all go away! ;) He still had to get told off and help me to clean the bread up. He had taken a bite out of most of the slices. Just one bite per slice, of course! ;)
Okay there is still sooooo much more - stuff that's sitting here on my note paper that he's said, and also quite a lot more photos, but Matthew has just woken and had a long snuggly breastfeed in bed, and I've just noticed after all that, that the time is nearly 1am! Tsk. I DO feel better for the "me" time though, as always. It feels worth it for that, but I always feel pretty crap for it in the morning! I can function surprisingly well on this little sleep, once I am used to it, but that isn't good all the same. And I'm starting to not do so great. So I'm going to bed right this minute and hoping for a not-too-disturbed night with the boys! Maybe tomorrow I'll go to bed earlier? We need to go to the supermarket tomorrow and I want to bake a couple of banana cakes before our bananas completely expire and get wasted.
I'll be back soon to finish the rest - I hope! :)
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