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2006-08-28 - 10.03pm previous entry next entry
Big_update_part_two,_and_more_photos
Another entry at last, yay! Not sure how long for though, because it's after 10pm and Arthur is weirdly wakeful this evening. He has woken twice this evening already, crying for me and wanting to nurse. He has been all soaked with sweat both times so maybe that's all that woke him. I hope he's okay. He's teething STILL, and seems quite bothered by it all the time really. His nasty nappy rash has at least eased off for the time being, but his cheeks are red and it looks like his gums are sore. He is working on his eye teeth (canines). He has one bottom one fully through, another bottom one half through, the little white tip of a top one poking through, and a very red swollen gum where the fourth one will soon be. Poor Boo. But after these, there will only be the 2-year-old molars to go - four more teeth and he is FINISHED with baby teeth!! Yay! I will be so pleased, really. He has had a horrible time with teething since he was 10 weeks old.
Speaking of which, Matthew is nearly 11 weeks old now and has been pretty obviously teething for the past week or so. This week he has been worse than last week, and today and yesterday we actually had to give him a mini dose of teething powder. He has been drooling like CRAZY for a couple of weeks, and chewing on his hands now that he's found them. The last couple of days, he has made his index finger red and puffy with how hard he's biting it. Neil gave him his knuckle to bite on this afternoon when he was crying and crying and CRYING, and he went all quiet and gummed Neil's knuckle for like 10 minutes straight, as hard as he could. He also has a bit of a nappy rash this evening which I reckon could be part of it all. Poor babies! I ordered some teething rings for him, with my online order of oven locks and oven knob covers, etc, which have suddenly become necessary with our new oven! Its door and knobs turn and open sooooooo smoothly and easily and Arthur just keeps on fiddling with it. We tell him no and take him away from it, etc, and he generally minds us but then when we're not there for a moment he'll still go and play with it. I found him shoving his ride-on car in the oven yesterday with great effort and concentration! So we decided to be safe and order an oven lock (which I hope will fit) and some covers for the oven knobs). He knows not to go near the oven when it's on because he understands the concept of it being hot and that he can get hurt.
Anyway, so yeah, teething boys. But we're all okay other than that. Neil and I are tired out of our MINDS, but that's the way it goes at the moment. Neil feels like he's getting a cold this evening. Urgh. I hope he isn't. We REALLY don't need to get sick with anything right now.
We took the boys for their immunisations last week but the appts were mixed up (my fault, I think??) and I had the wrong time, so it turned out that we had MISSED their appointments a couple of hours earlier - I felt soooo bad. Three other people could have had appts that covered our big jab session! And we were just a no-show, that's so bad. We waited a while in case the nurse could manage to see us anyway, but she was out until her next clinic started, so we had to reschedule. The next available appointment was SEPTEMBER 13TH!!!! I'm so annoyed, that is such a long wait when Matthew is behind on his immunisations already and I had really wanted to get Arthur protected with the MMR before we started going to playgroups when the start up again in September. But oh well.
We did get to see the Health Visitor though, and she weighed Matthew again for me. He weighed 11lbs 13oz (exactly a whole pound lighter than Arthur at the exact same age!) and that puts him at around the 25th percentile again. She said he looks healthy and happy, and she isn't concerned about his weight gain. She wants to see him again in a month, or for me to take him to the drop-in baby clinic in a few weeks.
Arthur is awake AGAIN - only 30 minutes after the last time. Hmmm. Hopefully he'll settle back to sleep easily - Neil is in there with him now.
Anyway, it looks like Matthew has chosen the 25th percentile, since he has been there for the last two weigh-ins, which is fine. I just still feel a LITTLE bit concerned, since the last time, he was just above the 25th, and this time he was just below it. He is difficult to feed - I mean, he is not a big eater. Soooo different to Arthur! He won't feed for long, and he's fidgetty while he does. Today has been particularly difficult, and I feel like he hasn't really had much milk today at all, as all his feeds have been very brief and on-and-off-ish, and it has been very hard to keep him on the breast for more than a minute or so. He did have a long feed at bedtime though, and went to sleep on the breast (which hardly ever happens) and actually pulled off in his sleep when another let-down of milk happened, so I know he had had enough milk that time. He seems full at the end of these ridiculously short and fidgetty feeds though, and burps and brings up some milk, etc. He doesn't seem hungry again for a few hours afterwards. But they are so SHORT, surely he can't be getting enough, or enough of the right kind of milk?! His poo is normal though. He gets hind milk for sure when he is on a breast that Arthur just had a feed from too. Anyway, I just hope he isn't gaining too little and dropping down that percentile chart even more. I shouldn't obsess over the darn chart, I know, but I can't seem to help dwelling on it a little. Tsk.
One thing about Matthew is, he is MUCH more eager to talk than eat! Arthur was the kind of baby who would rather eat than do ANYTHING, hehe! Matthew can wake up after a LONG stretch without milk, suck luxuriously for a minute or so, and then turn his eyes up towards my face, realise I'm there, and then he can't seem to stay on the breast, such is his eagerness to smile and coo and "chat" with me! He tries to talk around the nipple but that doesn't really work! I chat and smile with him for a while, but then sometimes I have to tell him, "Focus on your milk, Matthew, we have plenty of time to talk in a minute!" and look over at something else for a moment. I hate looking away from him when he is trying to smile and "talk" with me, but I do it when he has hardly started his feed but won't continue for wanting to talk with me. He gets back to feeding till I look at him again, and then he breaks off to coo and smile and stuff :) He's a sweetie. His latest thing is blowing raspberries and bubbles. Arthur never blew actual raspberries with his tongue, but Matthew loves doing it, and if I do it back to him his little face lights up like a Christmas tree and he beams and beams at me. He loves raspberries :)
I am sooooooooooo behind on photos, but I have been meaning to write about what Arthur is doing lately, because he's changing so much all the time and I know if I don't write it down NOW, he'll change again and I'll forget this stage ever happened. So I want to write about it. Thing is, there's SO much to write about, and I'm not sure where to start after all this time not updating.
Let's see. He knows SUCH a lot of colours! I can't remember the ones I already said he knew a month or so ago. Over the last month he will accurately point out items in the colours: red, yellow, orange, pink, blue, green, aqua, brown, black, white, purple, beige, grey, silver, gold and turquoise. He did learn tan, but I think he has forgotten that one now. This last couple of weeks, we have taught him navy, khaki and maroon. I just tell him colours of things as he's playing with them, like, where I used to say, "Oh, you've got your car!" I now say, "Oh, you've got your red car!", etc. Or I ask him, "Where's your purple cup?" and he'll fetch it. When he used to fetch me a green cup instead, I would say, "Oh good boy, that's your cup, but it's not the purple one - that's the green one". He has this toy car in a really dark green. Lately all very dark colours are "dack" (black) so I thought I might as well teach him that there's such a thing as light and dark in the same colour. Yesterday he held up that toy car and said, "Geem!" so I told him it WAS green, but it was DARK green. That evening he held it out to me again and said, "Daah geem!" and he has done that twice today as well. He's very pleased with his daah geem car at the moment, hehe! A few weeks ago, he was pointing at all the things on the sofa and naming their colours (he loves naming colours on the things he sees these days - he will do it on walks, during ANY activity in the house, in the car, in picture books, etc), and he pointed at the sofa cushion and said something that I didn't hear properly, so I absent-mindedly said, "Yes, RED, clever boy" and he gave me a scornful look and pointed again and said, "Ni-MOOM" in a very direct tone! He was correcting me! The cushion was indeed more of a maroon colour than red. I was boggled, seriously. That boy is a smartie-pants :)
He is saying SO many words, more and more every day it seems. His words aren't clear and easy to understand though. He says them consistently but they come out sort of like "ni-moom" for "maroon" - almost there, but really you'd have to be Mummy or Daddy to understand it straight away! He keeps saying things I am SURE we haven't taught him. He has plastic fruit and veg in one of his toy boxes and he was sifting through them a couple of weeks ago. He suddenly plucked out the peach and brandished it at me excitedly, and said, "Peepf!" I have NO idea how he knew that word - we never have peaches, we hadn't played with that toy fruit for MONTHS, and I don't remember seeing any references to peaches on the TV while he has been around. Weird.
I LOVE the way he pronouces things! His words are soooo cute! Like "peepf", that's one of my favourites! Another of my favourites is "bwips" (bricks). His little voice is so tiny and chipmunky, and I love how over-exaggerated his consonants are and how long and careful some of his vowel sounds are. I love how he tries so hard to make a vocal sound that he hasn't mastered yet, like the "ch" sound in peach, and it comes out all cute instead :) I know it'll change before I know it and get pronounced all normally and the cuteness will become less and less, and so I am just cherishing all these little newnesses while they're still new. Neil and I both feel that we'll be so sad when he learns to pronounce his name more clearly. He still says, "Aaah-yah!" for "Arthur" at the moment, and we love it! I wonder how Matthew will pronounce his name? Or Arthur's name, for that matter!
Matthew is starting to stir in the cot so I'm not sure if I've got much longer. His nights are the same as when I last wrote - a good block of sleep during the evening, usually 5 or 6 hours (though it was 7 and a half last night!!!) and then 3-hourly-ish after that first waking. He slept with me the whole night a few nights ago, because I was soooo tired I just couldn't stay awake while I was breastfeeding him in bed. All his night feeds are snuggled up against me in my bed, and then I sit up, burp him, and pop him back in his cot which is pushed right up against my bed. I have to admit, I really miss the snuggly closeness of co-sleeping with Matthew, but I need the space to sleep, and he seems happy as anything in his cot so it's working well for both of us. But I still sometimes miss the closeness of co-sleeping. It's so special. *sigh* I LOVE that I breastfeed him in bed at night though :) I'm glad we still have SOME snuggle time in bed at night!
Okay, some photos, before I run out of time! Here's one of Arthur just over a month ago, building a Mega Bloks tower! He loves building, but lately he is getting more and more easily frustrated with building. I think it's that stage where they get easily frustrated and have tantrums, etc, that's causing it. A brick will not go on properly and he'll smash the whole thing down, crying and screeching at it. Or he'll build it high and then it will topple before he's finished, and he's just angry and distraught about it. Poor lovey, it's such a hard stage to go through, learning about life's frustrations! I feel bad for him, because I know he only has outbursts and tantrums because things get on top of him and he doesn't know how to manage his emotions yet. That's all it is. It's hard for him. It'll pass, and each tantrum blows over, but it's still hard for him to be this age. I don't know why they call it the "terrible twos". I don't know ANYONE whose child has not been going through it BEFORE the age of two. It's just a toddler phenomenon, rather than specific to the age of two, that's all. Anyway. My toddler is frustrated a lot these days, and life is hard for him to feel in control of. I need to give him more of a sense of structure, I think. Toddlers thrive on structure, and I read that it helps them to feel more in control, so I must try to help him with that.
Anyway, I digress. I meant to post the photo of Arthur building a particularly huge tower! Here it is :)
He LOVES playing with his toy cars. He has loads of cars and trucks and lorries and emergency vehicles. I got him a pretty good selection of matchbox type toy cars, and he just adores them. He plays with them for ages, just running them around the floor or the furniture, or poking them into small spaces, naming their colours, or just naming the specific vehicles. He says, "car" properly, but his other pronounciations are hard for anyone else to know what he is saying. Lorry is "yah-yah", ambulance is "ahh-dan", police car is "na-na" for some reason! Fire engine is "en-nee". He has been consistent with these pronounciations for these words for a couple of months now, so we are very familiar with them, but nobody else knows what he's talking about, poor Arthur! One of his favourite things to do with his vehicles is make a long line of them somewhere - preferably along the shelf on his toy unit. He LOVES doing this, and spends ages lining them up and when the line is full he will carefully select one car to remove and replace with another one, complete with very cute serious commentary to himself as he does it, and "hmmm" sounds as he thinks about which cars to move, hehe! I managed to take a photo of him doing this a few weeks ago:
Arthur is showing some signs of getting ready for potty training, and he has been showing some of them for a couple of months now, but I am still not convinced it's time to act on it yet. He is still so little, and I am in no rush to see him leave behind his lovely cloth nappies! It's hard having two full time in cloth nappies, but I still love it to BITS, and will be sad when he is done with them! I know it's only been 10 weeks, but I still think it's going to seem really odd to suddenly only have one child in nappies and only one baby's cloth nappies to wash again! I'm so used to the vast quantities of two little people's cloth nappies to wash, and I love it! Plus I still have some sewing projects that are half done, nappies for Arthur - or fabric that I am LONGING to make into nappies or wraps for him, and I know Matthew will grow into them one day anyway, but I will feel sad to never get round to those projects before he's done with nappies!
Anyway, I don't think he's done with them for a while yet, but still, he's definitely showing some signs of readiness. Not ALL the signs, but plenty of them all the same. He can (and does) pull his nappies up and down. He can control it when he wees, if he's peeing on the carpet and I ask him to stop, he does so immediately. I should point out, this is a rare occurrance! He very occasionally wees during his short nappy-free time before a bath, but I'm beginning to read his body language and know when he needs to wee when he is having nappy-free time. I ask him and he doesn't answer me yes or no yet. But he does tell me when he's done a poo, IMMEDIATELY that he's done one. He has only started doing that in the last few days - well, he's been telling me that he's done a poo, or needs to do a poo, for a while, but not right away. Now he comes and finds me and gets my attention so that he can give me a very serious look and say solemnly, "Poo." ;)
He seems to be hating nappy changes more and more (he never used to mind them at all), and especially hates being changed when he's done a poo, even though he wants to be in a clean nappy really. He likes to sit on his potty, and he knows what it's for. He makes such cute little pretend effort noises when he sits there, as if he's pretending to poo or wee, hehehe! He has never done anything on the potty though, and we never make anything of it. We ask him if he's doing a wee-wee or a poo-poo, but just casually as though we're asking him if he's cooking when he stirs an empty saucepan with a wooden spoon. I don't want to push him at ALL over potty training. I'd much rather he leads us through it, but I don't actually know HOW to potty train a child. I guess I should read up a bit and find out how it works. But for now, I'm just glad that he's relaxed with the potty. Except that sometimes he is um, perhaps a little TOO relaxed there, and wants to sit on it while he eats, etc, hahaha!
I bought Matthew a bath seat recently, so that it would be ready well in advance for when he's able to sit up properly and they are sharing bathtime together. When it arrived, Arthur instantly declared it to be a "poppee" and when he was having nappy-free time later, he was determined to pull it out of the packaging onto the floor, and wedge himself in it, making his pretend wee-wee and poo-poo sounds and cheerfully exclaiming, "Poppee, poppee!" I told him it was Matthew's bath seat, but he still insisted it was a "poppee" and spent the best part of an HOUR getting stuck in it and climbing back out of it, and playing with the spinning balls on the front, etc! Funny boy. Lately I have managed to convince him that it's Matthew's bath seat, and now he calls it a "bah-peep" instead of a potty and then says, "Mah-mah" so I know he understands that it's Matthew's bath seat now! Here he is the day he got it out of the packaging:
Another sweet word of Arthur's that he uses ALL the time, is "heppin" (helping). I LOVE this one! He is so eager to "help" all the time around the house, and I love it when he is vigorously yanking towels out of the tumble dryer and gasps breathlessly, "Ahh-yah, heppin!" He uses it so much now that it sometimes gets used when he's not actually helping as such. Like if he's riding his car all around the living room and he drives it up onto a pile of laundry or something, and I ask him to come down off the pile, as he struggles to get the car off the pile, he says, "Heppin!" So I wonder if he's using it for various things, like doing as he's told, as well as helping. He's such a total SWEETIE!! I love him so much! :)
Today Neil took him to the park and they climbed a big hill. Neil told him it was a hill, and when they got home, everything was a "heew"! The stairs were a "heew" and climbing onto the sofa was a "heew". He seemed so excited with his new word and he seemed to want to create a context in which to use it again and again!
Arthur is very quick at picking up dance moves. Not specifically actions to childrens' songs, but actual dancing. I have noticed this in the past but I am noticing it more and more lately. He HAS to get that from Neil. Neil was really into dancing when he was at uni. He went out dancing a lot and was good at it. COOL dancing, you know, not the foxtrot or anything like that, haha! Me on the other hand - I am just unconfident about dancing and always have been. I have rhythm but I don't think I am naturally a very good dancer. I always just feel like I look stupid and get self-conscious. Neil's dad was also an excellent dancer and just looked naturally good at it on a dance floor. My mum always said that Arthur had that dancing "thing" that Neil's dad had, even when he was a little baby! He always enjoyed being boogied to music, any type of music. Matthew doesn't seem as thrilled about that so far, so maybe they'll be different in that as well. They are so different in so many ways! Anyway, Arthur loves to dance. He dances with his feet and his hips and his arms. Neil taught him this throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air move and he does that with such enthusiasm, it's SO cute to watch! He has rhythm and can move in time to the music, but the more excited he gets about dancing, the faster he goes and the less in-time he stays, hehe! He can dance whilst watching Neil dancing in front of him, and copy Neil's actions as he does them, really accurately. I'm impressed! I never danced that well, so it's nice to see him happily dancing away with Neil. Mostly he still just bops around crazily though, and jumps and turns around and around. I love watching toddlers dance! It's so cute :)
I have a million photos (or so it seems!) of Arthur at the park, from various outings. One from when it poured with rain and he got soaked despite having his raincoat on. He wouldn't keep the hood up, but oh well. He had lots of fun! Another time I took Arthur and Matthew to the local park with swings and we sat under a tree and had a picnic. It was an attempt at making eating interesting for him, and he did actually sit down and eat some of his sandwich, and a slice of apple, getting up and dashing about now and then between bites. Matthew got REALLY cross about being out (he still hates outings of any sort unfortunately) so we had to get up and move after a short while. We walked to the swings and Arthur ran and ran and RAN on the grass, and a nice guy gave him a tennis ball at the tennis courts, all for his very own. And Matthew cried the WHOLE time. But never mind. Arthur had fun. I found it hugely stressful but oh well. I guess I should persevere!
Anyway, here are a few photos from those occasions:
One time a few weeks ago, we went to the park with two other mums from church, and their little ones. One of them was my friend Katie and her little boy, Joshua. Joshie is Arthur's favourite friend and they really get on well together. If he knows he's going to see Joshie, he spends ages saying, "Goggie, Goggie!" over and over before we meet up with them! Josh was 2 in June so he's a bit older than Arthur, but they are just the sweetest little friends! He has a new baby sister who was born 11 days before Matthew so Katie and I have a lot in common! They were round here a few days ago for the morning and when they left, Josh waved so sweetly at Arthur and said, "Buh-bye Ar-fuh!" It was soooo sweet. They cuddle each other a lot and even give the occasional kiss :)
Anyway, so they were at the park, and so was another lady with her two little boys, aged 4 and nearly 2. The 4-year-old immediately took charge and declared himself to be "the leader", and directed the three little boys to take up some sticks and follow him through the park as we walked along! He was so sweet with them and treated them gently. Arthur was ULTRA excited to be playing with other children, and even more so to be following the lead of a big boy! He is so excited by bigger boys. He just wants to be around them all the time. They all picked up a small stick each and followed the boy around, and he gave them the task of "chopping down trees" (lightly tapping at every tree they passed with their sticks, pretending to chop it down). Arthur was BESIDE himself with excitement, and I was so thankful to have my camera with me because the cuteness was almost indescribable, hehe! He alternated between gazing at the other kids in adoration/excitement, and going completely rigid and letting out this huge squeal of excitement with a wiiiide-open mouth, like he just couldn't contain it and had to keep on squealing about it, hehe! The little boys sometimes looked a bit put-off him with his loud squealing, and they were so calm and quiet in comparison! Poor Arthur, he just couldn't seem to help himself! Katie commented that Arthur is very gregarious - he seems so eager to play with other children. I should get him more social time with other kids. It'll be easier once playgroups start up again for the new term in September.
I took about 30 photos at the park that time, but there are only a few I feel comfortable posting here, as I don't want the other kids in my diary in case their mothers wouldn't like it. The ones I can post have the other kids with their backs to the camera, mostly, or just Arthur in the photo. Or they're too distant to see much detail. Here's Arthur with Joshie:
And a few photos of Arthur with the other boys, "chopping" trees - note the squeally excitement and the one where he just got so excited that he started RUNNING randomly, hehe! The other boys just looked at him like he was a bit nuts ;)
And a few of just Arthur - still excited, bless him! ;)
I can't believe it's almost time to think about an actual playgroup/nursery for him!!! I am thinking to start him at a normal pre-school playgroup when he's maybe 2 and a half. He'll start nursery in the afternoons once he's 3, but that's not for ages yet. Until he's 2 and a half I will take him to mother-and-toddler groups galore, as much as I can handle with Matthew in tow (who I REALLY hope will get more tolerant of outings and not make it so difficult that we have to keep leaving places early). I am DREADING the bugs and colds and yuck that will come with it, but that's just part of the territory when you're a toddler (or a mother of one!). It was my lovely GP who put my onto the idea of starting him at the type of playgroup where the mothers don't stay with their little ones, when he's about 2 and a half. She said to start looking around just before he turns two, in case there are waiting lists. I guess there are places he could go now where I don't stay with him, but I have no desire to take him to those yet. He's still so little, and there's really no need. He gets the same social/play/exercise/activity exposure at a mother-and-toddler group where I stay with him, as he would at a leave-him-there playgroup anyway. He is confident and never looks for me when we're at a playgroup, but for me, that isn't reason enough to test him yet. Same as at church creche (when we actually go!). I know they think I'm NUTS for sitting out the whole sermon in the creche with Arthur and one or two other babies and two helpers (it's a SMALL creche!). Every mother there is desperate to pry herself loose from her baby at only a few months old it seems, and will try endlessly for months on end, saying what a good morning it was for their little one when they only cried and had to fetch the mummy in 3 times that morning! They ask me every time if I would like to leave Arthur and go back to the service and I get some funny looks when I say no every time. Especially since Arthur is running around playing with toys, seemingly oblivious to my presence! But I am staying with him. I stick with Arthur like glue till he's 2 and a half, and even then I'll see how I feel. Maybe he'd be fine, but I don't care to test him. He's still just a baby. School is YEARS away. He doesn't need the practise yet, not for a long while. I am eager to give him plenty of "practise" at learning new things socially and activity-wise with Mumma close at hand. Whether he feels he needs me there or not, I will be there, and maybe that will help him feel more secure during this early phase, ready to be more independent when he's old enough to start trying that kind of thing.
Did I mention that he calls me "Mumma" now? I love it!!! I usually refer to myself as Mummy, but he calls me Mumma. It's not "Mama" any more, it's changed to sound slightly different now. I love the name Mumma. I almost want him to keep calling me that instead of Mummy, but then I fear that Mumma stands more chance of getting shortened to Mum than Mummy does. I hate "Mum"!! But I'm sure he'll end up calling me that - it seems like ALL kids do these days. But then, maybe I'll warm to it once he's the one calling me it. My brother and I still call my mother, "Mummy", or "Mim". I don't know where Mim came from! It's a more affectionate name for us to use for her than Mummy even, and we mostly call her Mummy. I love that we do, although I admit it didn't always feel cool while I was at school. I felt I had to try to avoid saying "Mummy" around my friends in case they laughed at me. I would say, "My mum" instead. I think I even tried calling her "Mum" once or twice and it just felt WEIRD and awkward, like I had called her by a name that was somebody else's and not hers. Anyway, I hope my little ones will call me Mummy, but I know they are probably more likely to call me Mum. But oh well.
Arthur is waking AGAIN. That's at least once per hour so far. He's moaning. I hope he's okay, poor baby. I wonder if we should give him some Calpol?
I have a load of photos of the boys together (some getting rather old now as they were taken a few weeks ago) and quite a few of Matthew, but I've run out of time. I need to check on Arthur (who is quiet again now) and get ready for bed (YIPES, it's after midnight!!!) because Matthew will probably wake for a feed soon - he's been asleep 6 hours now. I'll try to update again soon, and one day maybe catch up on all those diaries I'm missing!! Thank you for the messages again! :) Back soon!
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