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2007-01-12 - 10.11pm previous entry next entry
All okay!! And Boxing Day pics & video, and lots of talking stuff!
It's okay, my mummy is okay!! :D
Thank you so much for allll the messages and prayers and thoughts and well wishes, I appreciate them soooo much. Mummy saw the doctor and he did various things and asked various questions - I don't think he did an ECG though, hmmm. But anyway, he said it is not her heart, as it seems absolutely fine. He thinks it was possibly oesophageal pain and is not too worried about that. He gave her medication to take if it happens again, and if it works then that will comfirm an oesophageal "flare up" or something. He also gave her referrals for various scans, like for her spleen and gallbladder and pancreas and so on, but she doesn't want to have those. He didn't say she HAD to, so.... Anyway I am just SOOOOOO glad it is not her heart!!! Pheeewwww! :) She and Daddy both said they were glad I stepped in and made her go to the doctor, so that is good. I'm glad it all worked out well. Soooo relieved.
Yay!
So now I can get on with the million-and-one things that I still haven't posted about. Because I am getting SO hopelessly behind on it, I'll just start with those photos and video clips from Boxing Day and get that done and over with! We went to Neil's sister, Rosemary's house. Neil's mum and youngest sister were staying with them over Christmas, and his brother was also there over Christmas Day and Boxing Day, so when we arrived it was like a FULL family Christmas, in the end, for that side of the family - which was lovely! The only person missing was Neil's dad :( Nobody was sad though, it was a really happy time and it was so nice to go.
Ella is 18 months old now, and she and Arthur are able to interact and be interested in each other more and more every time we get them together. I LOVE how the cousins in this family are so close together! Arthur is 7 months older than Ella, and Ella shares the same birthday as Matthew - one year ahead of him! My brother's new baby is due a month before Matthew's first birthday. It's so nice. I know Rosemary and her hubby are planning to TTC again soon-ish, so I hope they'll conceive when they want to! She has lost soooo much weight in preparation, which is exciting to see! :)
Okay, video clips - here is a little clip of the three little ones playing on the floor together. Arthur was giving Matthew and Ella kisses, just spontaneously! Actually I am pretty sure they started out as nose-presses (which he does on people and things a LOT - I think his nose itches him or something, but he does have an annoying tendency to take that out on people!) but turned into kisses when everyone started saying how cute it was, etc :)
We got huge tins of chocolate for everyone as it was the easiest Christmas present to manage with zero time or energy to prepare much in advance! Also unless someone is on a diet or happens to weirdly hate chocolate, it's pretty much a safe thing to go with if you can't think of anything else! I know *I* love to get huge containers full of chocolate, hehe! Anyway, they DID go down well with everyone. And Arthur discovered the joy of banging them like drums, which very quickly inspired Ella, and so the two of them had a great time bashing the heck out of unopened tins of chocolates! I wish I had thought to get the camera on them earlier, as they were at it for a while, but it had to stop once Arthur got bored of using his hands and started doing a sort of quick-step dance on them to make a noise with his feet, haha! That was not so safe, especially if Ella copied, so that was the end of that. Matthew loved the noise, particularly because Uncle Ian was holding him so he could bounce and jump to it all he liked by pushing with his little leggies. That boy LOVES to push push push push PUSH with his lil legs. He can jump and bounce WAY longer than anyone's capacity to hold him in the right position! He would adore a door-bouncer, I'm sure. Arthur would never have gone for one. I know it will only be a matter of next-to-no-time before he's up on those legs and controlling the bounce himself though. *sigh* Anyway, the video clip! It's only short:
A few photos from the afternoon there � Arthur and Ella driving cars!...
The second of my children to INSTANTLY favour Auntie Lil above any other new family member! ;)
That's Arthur's new Thomas outfit, by the way. Minus the padded gilet/waistcoat thing, as it was too warm in the house for that. Matthew was wearing red fleece trousers and a little top with a very detailed design on the front with reindeer and Father Christmas and presents and stuff, saying, "Christmas Delivery!" :)
Ella's favourite hidey hole in her home is in the kitchen under the work surface, and Arthur just about fits in there too! They played a sort of hide and seek game in the kitchen together, which was very cute. Us adults had NOTHING to do with it, they entertained each other, which was lovely. Ella went in, and Arthur got highly excited and went in too. Then he popped out and round the fridge, which made Ella peep out looking for him. When he saw her peeping, he got all squeally excited, and then she would duck back in and wait, and sure enough, he'd go and peep in to see where she went, whereupon Ella would SQUEAL with excitement and then Arthur would do his little excited hopping thing and then squeeze in again with Ella. And repeat the whole thing again many times! Hehe! Here's a photo of them squeezed in there together:
Uncle Ian helps Matthew gives kisses to Auntie Rosemary (who is delighted and admittedly broody, hehe!)...
... and to Ella...
Auntie Rosemary and Arthur helping Matthew to open one of his presents from them:
I love the photos from Boxing Day. They give me such a warm sense of FAMILY. I love that Neil's family is bigger than I have ever known from my own family. I keep finding myself just staring at him and his siblings - all FOUR of them together. My own family consists entirely of single-children or two-children families. And there are only 2 two-children families (including me and my brother!). The rest are all single-children. My whole childhood I longed for siblings, and thought wistfully of having lots of children, and of my kids having lots of brothers and sisters, and maybe even lots of cousins. I had ONE cousin. One! Seven years younger than me, and we saw him once when he was a baby and then not till his teens! I love big families. I really want one of my own. I get fascinated seeing several siblings together. It just interests me so much to see SEVERAL different combinations of the same parents. With two kids, it always seemed to me like there's one. Or the other. When there are more it's so exciting and fascinating, like the possibilities are ENDLESS!! Which of course they are :) I can't really explain my fascination very well. But anyway, I love to see Neil with all his siblings. They are all so different and yet share so many likenesses. Some look more like each other than others, and they have like one major trait that they obviously share together, and then loads of others that are unique to them. Neil shares more physical traits with Rosemary, and Ian and Lilian are very alike physically. Anyway it just intrigues me! I love allll that family around my children at Christmas :) I missed my own family a lot this Christmas but that's why it was just SO nice to see lots of other family instead. Neil's family really feel like my own family. It sometimes still feels VERY recent that we got married, but in other ways, like the way I feel with his family, it feels like forever. I like that!
Anyway, it was lovely! Matthew had a weird moment or two while we were there - the first of possibly many, for him. He is getting close to the usual age for separation anxiety to set in, and he has always struck me as a type of baby who would be more likely to go through that than Arthur (who, as I recall, NEVER did). He is less "attached", and more of an anxious personality, than Arthur. When we arrived there, I carried him in and stood around greeting people, etc. He watched everyone from my arms and got a lot of people cooing over him and stuff! When we got into the living room, he seemed just interested in looking around at everyone, and I needed to get things out of my bag which was right at my feet, so I handed him to Grandma (Neil's mum) and she sat with him on the sofa next to me. He looked at people and then looked at me. Then he looked at people and looked at me. He seemed perfectly calm. Then I bent down to pick something up out of my bag and suddenly he was absolutely hysterical! I mean, he reacted suddenly as though he had been badly hurt, physically. But I knew he hadn't. He cried soooo hard, I don't think I have heard him cry like that before even. I felt a bit bad afterwards because I just took him FAST out of Grandma's arms and walked away from the gathering. But all I could think about was taking him in my arms and calming him down, and I felt that something about the gathering was upsetting to him, so I had to get him away so that it was just me and him, to try and soothe him. I hope Grandma wasn't upset about it! She didn't seem to have a problem when we came back so that's okay.
Even in the few seconds that it took to reach him to take him from Grandma, his face was just streaming with tears and he was gasping and sobbing. His expression was sheer panic and distress, my poor baby! I didn't understand it really, and everyone was just saying, "Oh poor little thing, he's just overwhelmed with all the new people!" I guessed that was it, but I didn't really get it. It's so unlike Matthew. But then we don't usually go out and meet up with lots of people at once that he doesn't know, and I guess it's a new stage that he's coming to, not one we've known before. He cried and sobbed for ages, even in my arms, and when he had calmed down a bit, he would start up crying again just by looking over my arm at the people over at the other end of the room.
When I spoke to my mum about it later, she said she thinks he must have been okay with the unfamiliar people because he was keeping me in his sight to ground himself and feel safe. Which did ring true - he did keep on looking at people and then giving ME a very direct look, and he did keep "checking" with me very frequently. She thinks he must have looked for reassurance JUST as I ducked out of sight to pick that thing up from my bag, and that was enough to completely panic him in that situation. Poor lambie love! My heart just SCRUNCHES with love for this little beanie boy, and especially on occasions like this, when he becomes oh-so-vulnerable and NEEDY of me to feel safe and secure. Sometimes, without me, his whole world is panic and confusion. I can't even put into WORDS how that makes me feel. I don't think there are words that cover the range of emotions it gives me. I guess if you have babies, you know this feeling. It's the most incredible surge of PURPOSE mixed with uncontainable LOVE and PROTECTIVENESS, and the kind of joy that makes me want to sob, but there's also a sadness in there that he is so miserable and frightened without me. There is something in there also that I can't describe, a sort of.... I'm not even sure it's a RIGHT way to feel... a sort of POWERFULNESS that just feels amazing. Like pride, perhaps? I. Am. MUMMY! Only *I* have the ability to make my baby feel better when he is like that. It's an awesome feeling. Anyway, all that is rolled into ONE emotive feeling. It just feels too much to contain really, but it's an amazing way to feel. I do love my baby boys sooooooooooo!
Well, later on, Matthew needed a nap so we put him down for his sleep in Ella's cot upstairs. He went off okay, and I was worried about hearing him when he woke, as we came back downstairs to mingle. They assured me we'd hear if he cried, but I felt so upset because he did wake and cry without us being there the INSTANT he woke, and someone else had to tell me, "Oh, he's crying..." rather than me hearing it for myself. That just feels allll out of whack for me, as it's not how I have ever done things with my babies. I like to keep them very near to me and be aware of their every sound at all times. I like to be right there the INSTANT they need me. But by the time I'd raced up the stairs to get to Matthew, he was once again absolutely distraught - red-faced, streaming tears, expression of absolute panic :( Poor Boo! I don't think he had a horrible time there, and he was happy to be held by everyone through the afternoon or play on the floor without Neil or I being right there with him, but he hasn't been the same since. He has gone straight into proper separation anxiety. Maybe he was just on the edge of that anyway, and the visit tipped him over the edge? Anyway. He cries when I leave the room. Not always, and actually it's a little better this week than last, so maybe it did distress him more than I thought?
He got very upset at church last Sunday. I was exhausted with a headache so I stayed home to sleep, and Neil took the boys. Neil was wearing him in a sling facing out (my fabbo husband!), and when he walked into the big hall full of people, Matthew had a similar distressed melt-down to the one he'd had at Rosemary's. My whooooooooole heart just squeezes with an overwhelming urge to protect him, and hold him soooo close to me that he's almost back in my body again. I remember feeling that way with Arthur, because I described it similarly. I think I described it as having such a longing to hold him close to me that it was almost like an urge to push him right through my very skin, so that he was almost back inside my body again! Like only that level of closeness, the type I had when he was in my womb, would do, to satisfy the urge I felt. It's a strange way to feel. And it can't be satisfied once they are born and detached from you physically, so it leaves me feeling hollow and like I can't reach that itch that I'm longing to scratch. I don't feel that way all the time though. It's just sometimes, when things trigger me to feel extra squeezy and protective towards one of the boys like this.
Anyway, the day went wonderfully other than that! We were pleasantly surprised by the car journeys there and back. The last time we attempted that journey was in July or August I think, and it was a NIGHTmare. We vowed never to attempt it again, I think! But what a difference a few months make in the lives of a baby and a toddler! It's only an hour's drive there and another hour back. For two under two, that was HORRIBLE. Matthew screamed the whole time and Arthur wasn't too happy either. This time, we had Arthur's Thomas the Tank story CD that he got for Christmas, and Matthew is past the stage where he screams the entire time he is in his car seat, so it was a completely different story. Arthur was actually silent for large chunks of the journey, listening to the stories!!! Amazing! He normally NEVER stays quiet, now that he's doing allll this talking. He narrates EVERYTHING at every second, to nobody in particular. He talks constantly, to us, to Matthew, to himself, to toys, to things he sees outside the car, etc. He sang along with some of the music on the CD, which was ever so sweet! Matthew just looked out of the window and cooed and babbled and watched Arthur sometimes (Arthur faces forwards and Matthew backwards on the same back seat, so it's quite easy for them to see each other at the moment). He was fine. He didn't even nap on the journeys! He is getting older so fast....
Matthew LOVES music. He starts to flap his arms or jump his legs the instant he hears it, and if he's playing with something he'll get a startled "interested" look and drop what he's doing and twist his whole body round to where the music is coming from. I have played lots of different types of music for him and he seems to love it all. He has a particular liking for jazz, I think. He seemed extra happy and enthused, and it held his attention for much longer. It was extra lovely because it happened to be a CD of my daddy playing his own jazz compositions :) It was a lovely moment telling Daddy that Matthew had been so taken by his music. He loves to jump to music. Mind you, he'll jump pretty much any time you stand him upright! My jumping bean :) Here's a little video clip, taken a couple of days after Christmas, of Matthew and me. Arthur and Neil had gone out for a walk, which gave me some MUCH needed one-on-one time with Matthew. I put the radio on and just held him so he could jump, and I set the camera up to catch him doing it for a moment. I HATE how the sound is out of sync again. Urgh! But oh well:
Here is another little video clip, about 30 seconds long or something, that I took a few days after Christmas when Matthew's rocking on all-fours was a new thing. He spent so much time practising it, and Arthur was so excited about it! He liked to join in with Matthew and show him how, or just "wock a Ma-Ma!". I filmed a little clip of them rocking together. Matthew is the noisy one, for once, hehe!
And I think that is all the video clips caught up on now! I didn't post them all but I figured it was getting a bit overly video-clippy here around Christmas! All the Christmas and Boxing Day photos are also here now, phew! Now there are just fifty million photos to catch up on from after Christmas! Except I have posted the bath crayons and the finger painting.... There are still plenty that need resizing. I shouldn't take so many photos! Or else I should find more time to resize and post them. Or something! I hate to get so behind on stuff like this!
Talking of which, there is ENDLESS stuff to write about Arthur. He is changing so much all the time, and his speech is just coming on in leaps and bounds, seriously. Just in the last week there have been such huge changes. And then just in the last two days even further changes. TODAY there are things he's saying that he wasn't saying yesterday, and when I tell Neil about it when he gets home from work, he is all, "Wow, he didn't say that yesterday!" I guess he has just reached that stage in speech development where it really accelerates fast.
I can't even begin to estimate his vocabulary. I thought earlier on that I might try to write down as many of the words he uses as I can think of, but it's just a huuuge and time-consuming task, and I am sure to miss out a load of words. He uses HUNDREDS of words now. All sorts of words. He pronounces words more clearly every day. He says some BIG words with several syllables as clearly as Neil or I do. "Disappeared" has already gone from "diz-a-peerd" earlier this week to a totally smooth "disappeared", exactly as I would say it, tone and everything. Today he was looking for Neil (who was at work, as he knew!) and suddenly just held his hands up and said, "Daddy's disappeared!" - really fluently and clearly. He sounded like an older child, which took me aback for a moment. Today and yesterday that has been happening a lot. Ever since he started saying things, I have been his echo - if he says, "Ah-yah eat whan-wibv" (looks impossible to pronounce but go slowly letter-by-letter and you'll see it's a version of "sandwich", spoken by a toddler who hasn't mastered 's' or 'ch' yet, hehe!!) then I would automatically echo him, "Arthur's eating his sandwich, yes!", I suppose to reinforce the correct way to pronounce it and to build the sentence. Today and yesterday, for the first time, I have sometimes started to do my usual "echo" after he says something, only to realise that there is no need because I cannot improve on the way he just said it! Yikes! It is really making me feel startled, for some reason, when it happens. I mean, he still says LOADS in a very toddler-ish way, but it's just the odd thing that is coming out very clearly now.
This week Arthur has started filling in the "gaps" in his sentences, which have been missing for so long. He has started using the word "a" and "to" in his sentences, and combining them with other words, saying things like, "Hatta change top - got yoggut on it!" (hatta is "have to" which he is suddenly starting to use a lot). Or "Ma-shew dunna poo!" hehe!
He has a whole range of new verbal "concepts" that he is using now. If I ask him where Gordon is (one of his trains) and it's behind him, he'll look around and then tell me, "Bay-hyn Ah-yah!" (behind Arthur!). He is also starting to make use of the past tense in his speech a lot more. He says he "saw it" rather than "see it", to tell me he saw something at the park earlier, and he says, "been" instead of "go" too. He also understands and uses various phrases relating to possibility, like "I think so...." or "might be...." or even, "I hope so!" He also uses "maybe". And he says, "... be niiice..." (that would be nice!) if I suggest something he would like to do. He uses them all in context with good understanding. Sometimes he will want to switch on the TV to see if a favourite programme is on, and I tell him that I don't think it is on right now. He wants to check anyway, telling me, "Might be.... Hatta wait see! Might be coming next!" hehe :)
He also has the concept of who he is, a bit better now. I recently got so fed up of making fart noises on demand (!!) that I told him that Mummy doesn't make fart sounds, because she's a lady, haha! ;) He said, "Mummy, LADY!" and I said yes. He then said, "Daddy lady!" and when I'd stopped laughing (!) I told him that Daddy was not a lady. Since we were being silly about it in the first place, we went ahead and told him that Daddy is a BLOKE, hehe! So now he will proudly say that Mummy is a lay-deee, and Daddy is a BOKE! (p.s. Daddy makes fart sounds, because he is a bloke, haha!). After a few days this continued to include Arthur and Matthew, who he understands to be "Ah-yah BOY! Ma-Ma bay-bee" Just today he started using "I" and "Your" in his sentences. He told me "your turn", but I think he was referring to himself, because it was actually Arthur's turn to have his nappy changed (right after Matthew) and I often say, "Right, your turn!" to whichever boy it is next when I'm doing nappies! I do more often say the boy's name instead, but I think he's caught onto the "your" thing from that anyway.
Yesterday he was standing at the front window, under the net curtains, looking up at the sky with his head tilted to one side. He was in his own little world and I don't think he even knew I was watching him, or listening. He was mumbling away about cars and people and things he could see, and then he went all quiet looking up at the sky. After a while, he said, using a very thoughtful sing-song tone, "How'd sun come out?.... How'd coud (cloud) come out?.... How'd a'mals (animals) come out?.... How'd car come out?.... How'd hnake (snake!) come out?...." and then he paused for a long while, standing very still and looking up, and then said, "I wonder more?...." I have NO idea where that all came from! My parents are insisting it's his first poem, haha! They think it's too cute and have actually typed and printed it out on their computer, and they're going to put it up on their shelves with "Arthur, aged 2" at the bottom of the page, hehe!
He has developed a real friend in his dress-up Noddy doll. It's just a stuffed doll toy that has some zips and buckles and buttons on its clothing so that little ones can practise doing those things for their own self-dressing. It's about 14 inches tall, and Arthur just loves it! We gave it to him for his birthday a couple of months ago. Noddy is being practised on a LOT these days! Arthur gives him pretend baths in his Bob the Builder tool box, hehe! He holds Noddy's hand and says, "Come on, Noddy!" a lot, and helps Noddy "daw cay-yons" in his pretend bath, bless him! He suddenly stops playing with something to announce, "COME ON, NODDY! Time a lunce!" and then marches with him into the kitchen, where he straps him into his own booster seat at the table, and then fetches one of his own plates and a spoon from the drawer, and helps Noddy to "eat lunce"! He likes to make Noddy some food with playdough. We make him orange carrots, lots of green peas, and we have a great playdough plunger that squirts the playdough out like long spaghetti. So Noddy usually eats spaghetti, carrots and peas! Arthur can NEVER resist trying some himself. *sigh* No matter how many times I tell him not to put it in his mouth.
Noddy gets his nappy changed, because "Noddy dunna big poo!" and Arthur puts him right on the changing mat and marches off to fetch wipes and nappy and wrap, shouting over his shoulder to Noddy, "Back MIMMIT!" (back in a minute!). He returns with a surprisingly accurate collection of cloth nappy paraphernalia for a nappy change (usually Matthew's things, more appropriate for a smaller Noddy-type-person!), and he sits down with them at the changing mat, saying, "Come on, Noddy! Hatta change nappy! Dunna poo!" He lifts Noddy's legs in the air by the ankles with one hand (just like I do) and commands him, "Legs uppa air!" (legs up in the air - something I say to Arthur when I need his co-operation over that to clean him up) Then he wipes him very carefully with a cloth wipe, and for some reason his feet as well (!), and declares, "Make nice keen!" (make nice and clean)
After that, Noddy always "need milk Mummy, whoa-fa" (needs milk with Mummy on the sofa) and he is handed to me, so I put him to the breast (Arthur did NOT approve the first time when I put him to the breast OUTSIDE my clothes, no no! It HAD to be authentic!) and Arthur watches carefully while I make tiny slurping noises on Noddy's behalf. He giggles and looks almost embarrassed or shy, and then when he's finished nursing, Noddy "hatta burp", so he sits on my knee where I make a burp-ish noise for Noddy and that sends Arthur into fits of giggles! Then Noddy "need nap" and Arthur wants to take him up to his bed, but usually Matthew is sleeping and I don't want to go upstairs and disturb him so we stay down and put Noddy to sleep in a quiet corner. Arthur covers him with a blanket and pats his back sooo gently, and whispers, "Shhh, ky-et..." (quiet) until he tells me, "Noddy seeping!"
He is just so SWEET with Noddy! He is also starting to show his toys things as though they are real people, which is the cutest thing. At the doctor's the other day, he wanted to take Terrence (from Thomas the Tank Engine) with us, and I made sure he kept hold of him while we were there, as I didn't want him left behind. We had a bit of a wait when we got there, and I suggested he show Terrence the fish (there's a big fish tank there full of fish), and he went up to it and held Terrence up to the glass very carefully at an angle so that Terrence's face was at a perfect position for him to "see". Then he stood there quietly, just letting Terrence see, sometimes saying things in a little shy voice, like, "Look Terrence!.... Oh look, fiss!.... Look dat Terrence, lotsa fiss!" He looked so tiny against the huge tank, and even more so because he was wearing his big winter coat too. It probably doesn't sound overly cute here and now, but let me tell you it was one of the cutest things ever at the time, and I felt so burstingly proud of being his mummy at that moment (in the FULL waiting room) that I could not stop a huuuge beaming smile from spreading across my face! I felt quite embarrassed about it and held Matthew in front of me on my lap so that my face was more hidden, but I honestly could NOT make my muscles relax that smile. It just came upon me! Fortunately, everyone else in the waiting room was smiling fondly at him too, so that wasn't so bad :)
Let's see, what else is Arthur saying? This entry is getting sooooo long and it's very late now, but I want to finish this once and for all! He comes out with unexpected things sometimes - well, at least *I* don't expect them when he says them! He saw some giraffes on TV the other week and said, matter-of-factly, "Diraffe, got long legs"!! He lies down on the floor next to Matthew (still one of his favourite things to do) and says, "Ah-yah lie down floor, just like Ma-shew does!" That's a new thing in the last 2 days - "just like Ma-shew does". The "does" is new. He is using it in other contexts too. He points to Matthew's head and then to his own, and says, "Two liddoo boys!" :) And he says, "Ah-yah liddoo boys.... Ma-shew nuther liddoo boys!" (Arthur is a little boy... Matthew is another little boy!) Today he says "littoh" instead of "liddoo" - he is changing things DAILY. If they are both doing the same activity at the same time, Arthur likes to comment, "All littoh boys eat toas'!" or something. If I'm eating toast as well, he'll say, "Oh-body eat toas'!" (everybody eating toast!)
He likes to commentate at nappy change time ;) He often tells me, "Tank-you Mummy, take poo 'way" - what a sweetie! As I start to take his nappy off, he'll say, "No poo... just a big wee!!" :)
He knows his full name now, and says it ULTRA sweetly, but I don't tell our surname here so you don't get to know ;)
When he plays with his trains or cars, there's often a point these days where there's a "cash" and then he delights in bringing someone in to rescue things! He brings James in, singing out, "Dames a RESSOO!!" (James to the rescue!) :) If something goes wrong in his games or with Matthew, he'll often comment in a worried tone, "Oh no! What happened dere?!" If he hears a noise (small as anything, even) while I'm trying to settle him down for sleep at night, he'll sit bolt upright with a finger to his ear, saying, "Wotsat?!" and require a full explanation before he'll settle down and ignore the sound!
Today I was changing Matthew's nappy, and lately Matthew has this fun new game where the instant his nappy is off, he does a strong twist to one side and squeezes his legs together, the monkey! He can hold that taut position for as long as he darn well likes (seriously, a LONG time!) and I can't do a thing to clean him up while he does it. I find it quite exasperating after a while! He is too little to pull back or to respond to vocal commands and stuff, so it's hard to handle! He DOES respond to his name, so I try saying his name in various tones to see if one of them will make him flip back and relax for second so that I can pin him in place (!!) and get the nappy change done. If I get remotely aggravated in my tone, he maintains his taut position but starts to GIGGLE! I swear I am going to have all kinds of TROUBLE with these boys as they get older! I fear I shall go completely grey when they are aged 2 and 3! Yeurgh! Anyway, as you can imagine, this kind of game is RIGHT up Arthur's street. He makes haste to come on over and join in, barking "Ma-shew!!" at him in various tones and then giggling with him in response. Today when this oh-so-fun game was taking place for the 3rd time that day, I was starting to get a bit exasperated with Matthew and suddenly Arthur giggled and said, "Gooniss shakes!!"!! I guess I must have said, "Oh, for goodness' sakes!!" once or twice in the past when I've felt exasperated! Anyway he has been saying it ALL DAY since then, but what makes it so funny is that he uses it perfectly in context, and that somehow just tickles my funny bone to watch :) He had a biro today that was not drawing right when he held it at the wrong angle (he was signing his name in Nana's birthday card), and he would pick it up, try to draw, tut and say, "Gooniss SHAKES!" and then try again, hehehe! Funny boy :)
Okay that HAS to be all. I'm tired out and it has to be crazy late by now. I'm nervous to even look at the clock and see what time it must be! I've been writing this since 10.11pm! Urrrrrrgh, oh my bungle (new word for Arthur's benefit!) - it's 1.25am!!!! Thank goodness it's weekend and I get to lie in tomorrow, pfhfhfhffffffffffewwww! I heart my husband! We have been planning to have an evening where we do a "marriage MOT" tomorrow. I'm happy and Neil seems happy and things seem to be trundling right along, but we need to fix a lot of stuff in our marriage at the moment, or so it feels. I don't know if the stuff that feels like it needs fixing is just there because we're just recovering from having a baby and also coping with a toddler as well, and sleep deprivation, and hormones on my part, etc, etc. But, things are not as I think they SHOULD be, with us. Or as I want them to be. I am slightly dreading the huge heavy talk that it is sure to be, but it does need doing, and Neil agreed to it when I suggested it last week. We set this Saturday for the date, so that's tomorrow. I have no time to go into more detail here, and not much motivation to dredge it all up anyway, but suffice to say top of the list will probably be parsnips, God, and.... okay, parsnips and God, really. There is more, but they seem like smaller things. NOTHING is happening with parsnips OR God in our lives at the moment, and both those things need to change. We need to discuss why it's like it is, and how we'll change it. And stuff. I hope we won't both just be too exhausted and soup-brained to talk about it when the day is done tomorrow. I feel like that nearly all the time lately, like I shouldn't be operating machinery or driving! Speaking of which, I MUST GO TO BED!! Back soon, I hope. Thanks again for all the lovely supportive comments :)
Recent entries.....
Moving time... - 2009-01-04
Christmas Eve! - 2008-12-24
Long-overdue update, a few Nathey pics and a video clip :) - 2008-12-01
Lots of news! - 2008-11-03
Nathan at 8 months... - 2008-10-12