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2007-03-13 - 10.45pm previous entry next entry
Lots of photos of my little boys!
It's already soooo late (again) and I meant to write a big long wordy update but I wanted to include a few new photos with it, and when I uploaded my camera stuff, there were 67 photos on it!!!! So then I had to resize and all that jazz. And now it's crazy late and I haven't done anything but fiddle with photos this evening! Urgh.
So I decided since there are soooo many photos, this will have to be a photo entry to catch up (with brief descriptions - well, as brief as I know how to be, anyway!), and then I won't have such a backlog of those, and I can concentrate more on the writing next time. I am also SO behind on emails. My poor parents haven't had photos of their grandsons in almost THREE months! That's just terrible :( I must get them emailed, but there are literally 200-300 photos to send them. Yikes.
Okay, enough with the chat, or I'll never get to bed! Oh, but Matthew is 9 months old tomorrow!!!! How surreal it is, every time he turns a new month old. It just doesn't seem possible that I have a 9-month-old baby! Or will have, tomorrow. Three months tomorrow till his first birthday. Nooooo! I am desperate to slow down his babyhood! I am loving it so much and I don't want it to rush by too fast! He's such a precious little baby boo-bean. I need to write about his 8-month check. I'll try to do that next entry.
Photos!!! Here is a rather blurry set of photos, which I took because I wanted to record something that is a VERY common view for me these days. Matthew is a real "ankle climber". Arthur never was. He was too interested in crawling or pulling up to explore AWAY from us, whereas Matthew is constantly pulling up on my legs as I'm trying to walk, and clutching at my clothes, etc! He's very clingy today because he's teething (still no top front teeth but the gums there are SO red and swollen and they surely can't be much longer coming?!), so there has been more of it. But otherwise he's generally happy, just climby-on-me-ish! Sometimes it does drive me a bit crazy. But he's so cute all the same, so it doesn't matter! It DOES drive me slightly mad when Matthew is climbing up one of my legs and Arthur is whining and screechy and hanging off the other one. But such is life with a two-year-old and a baby, and honestly? I wouldn't swap it for anything (this said hours after they've been asleep and I've had time to regain my sanity a little!)!
So, here is Matthew this morning. Yes, I am wearing pyjamas AGAIN. At least they're not pink this time! :) And I did get out of them by the afternoon. *sigh* He drops to his knees and crawls off between my legs after he's had enough pulling and climbing!
Arthur is a real sweet and sour combination these days! Delicious in general, and sometimes completely sweet and lovely as he has always been, but other times just reeeeally hard to be around and know how to handle. He seems to get a little worse week by week at the moment, but I know it's just his age. Since a few months before he turned two, I've been browsing posts on parenting forums about 2-year-olds and their behaviour, etc. I thought Arthur was doing the "two" thing early by having some meltdowns and stuff, so I looked. BOY was I wrong! Now I really know I am in the "two" territory! Before there was definitely an increase in tantrums and stuff, but it's absolutely nothing compared to this now. But at least I know from reading all those posts over the months, that it's normal, he's at EXACTLY the age everyone seems to say it peaks at (but the peak lasts for several months), and it DOES go away. Weirdly, the mothers desperate enough to post messages about their two-year-olds and complain that everything was okay a few weeks ago, but now it's unbearable (!) had 27- or 28-month-olds. Mostly boys, but still plenty of girls. Arthur just turned 28 months and he has been like this for maybe 2 or 3 weeks, getting worse gradually. So at least I know he's RIGHT on track, hehe! It looks as though we just ride it out. It can't be easy for him, either.
He has had a few REALLY sweet moments today, lots of cuddles and affection and being helpful. But he has also had a couple of screaming meltdowns and plenty of whining and angry "NO! Stop that Mummy!" type of phrases!
Here is Arthur this morning. He looks remarkably relaxed for the fact that the most glass-shattering screechy scream is eminating from his open mouth. He was annoyed with me about something:
Here he is hating me for making him stay on the sofa till I say he can get down, after he did one of the million things I'd asked him not to do repeatedly today:
BUT, then a bit later, after Matthew was asleep for his nap, I took Arthur up to bed and breastfed him to sleep as usual. When I take him off the breast, he usually stirs and starts to say that he wants some more milk, but he's always asleep and still has his eyes shut even. It always comes out as a slurred mumble, and he gets as far as, "I like shmmoremilll...." and then he's too far gone into sleepiness to form any more words (or even finish the word 'milk'!), and I slip away :) I don't care that he is two and still needs to nurse to sleep. He can go to sleep without nursing because he does it every night at bedtime. I LOVE nursing him, and he prefers it as his way of falling asleep. It does create the odd issue when Matthew won't settle and Arthur CAN'T get to sleep for his nap without nursing. But that's rare, and it's well worth it just to have these magic moments with him still.
So I nursed him to sleep, and he did the slurred mumble asking for more milk, and then just lay there unconscious. I lay for ages just watching him sleep. He looked so beautiful to me and I couldn't even imagine the annoyance and frustration he'd brought up in me earlier. He was QUIET, and still - two rare things for Arthur! He has such round pink little cheeks, and such rosebud lips. I love his long dark eyelashes - he gets those from Neil, and Matthew has them too but not so dark. I love them! He was wearing such a "grown up" little outfit - blue jeans and a shirt - and earlier I'd been telling him what a big boy he looked in his shirt and jeans, just like Daddy wears! He looked so grown up to me earlier, but all that fell away as I watched him sleeping, and even with his big boy clothes on, he just looked like a baby to me, all round and pink and sleeping peacefully with his arms outstretched.
I did leave eventually, but I couldn't stop thinking about how he'd looked to me just then, and after a while I went back in with the camera to make a record of it :) Here he is, having his afternoon nap today:
Those were taken with the flash (he didn't stir). He has a blackout blind so he sleeps in the dark even in the day. His room was approximately this dark (without the flash!):
Here are a few of Matthew, taken a couple of minutes after I took the above ones of Arthur. It is completely necessary to my sanity that my children nap at the same time in the afternoon! I will arrange my ENTIRE day to achieve it! ;) I need that time out, and it has been really hard to learn how to juggle it, but WELL worth it. Here's the tiny man:
No blackout curtains for Matthew, who is a better sleeper anyway, but I am currently trying to finish attaching blackout lining to the curtains that hang in his room. So far they've been in a pile downstairs for over a month (having barely got started) and there's a big sheet of blue fleece (nappy-making fabric) over the window instead. *sigh* I wish I had double the hours in a normal day! I'd get everything done that I needed to, probably.
The boys play together SO sweetly, completely spontaneously, and for LONG periods of time. I feel so blessed that they get along so wonderfully, and that they are already entertaining each other and playing like this with only minimal supervision at times, at such a young age. I didn't expect it till Matthew was MUCH older, so it's lovely! They pretty much make up their own games. Matthew is emerging as a very playful little boy. He isn't the giggler that Arthur always was as a baby. He does laugh and giggle every day, but less than Arthur did. Mind you, I never met a baby who laughed as frequently and heartily as Arthur! He is still the same today :)
But Matthew is very playful. Now I think about it, he's shown many signs of that since the early months, but I didn't put it down to anything until now. Interesting. He makes fun for himself putting things on his head - that's one of his favourite things to do right now! He pulls clothing over his head - anyone's, and clean or dirty will do! He pulls it onto his head and then falls down with a thud! And laughs about it - funny boy! It's even better if someone else comes along and plays with him - peekaboo goes down well, but the boys also have a game they seem to have made up which Arthur calls "Gimme!" hehe! Matthew picks up a sock or brick or anything fist-sized, and holds it out to Arthur with shining eyes and big excited smile, and Arthur grabs the other end and tugs vigorously at it, jerking Matthew's arm like crazy, and saying, "Gimme, gimme, gimmeeee!!" I'm not sure where it has even come from! Anyway, Matthew LOVES it! He squeals and gasps and giggles and eventually the item is yanked from his grasp, and then he picks something else up to have Arthur do it again!
I think I have a photo of them playing "Gimme!".... Yes, I do! It's from a couple of weeks ago:
It's a very joyful and blurry experience, hehe! I found a couple more from the same little photo session, one right after that particular game of "Gimme!" and then another game that Matthew likes to play (on his own) - Arthur calls it, "Playing Dropsie!" This involves holding one or more items, holding them up in the air and dropping them, preferably with eyes shut so as to be prepared for pain if it's a heavy item and it lands on your leg or foot! Then you pick the items up again and repeat ad infinitum. His latest version of this is starting to involve a lot of long-distance (seriously, I'm quite amazed sometimes!) throwing! Anyway, photos:
But Matthew just loves to put things on his head, or wrap himself up in clothes so that he falls over or can't see! It's the most fun when Mummy or Arthur (or Daddy, for that matter) play it with him. Here are a few photos of games like this that have happened recently around here (all initiated by Matthew and eventually "noticed" by Arthur!):
Matthew has started to be interested in helping with folding the laundry, just like Arthur was at his age. But Arthur's was absolutely pure PASSION, and Matthew is just curious. Arthur is delighted that he's showing an interest, hehe! Well, that and also slightly peeved to have to share his favourite activity with someone. And Matthew gets in his way a lot while he's trying to make piles. I tell you, Arthur is so unusual in this respect! He loves housework. He MAKES me do housework just so he can get to do some! He has always had a special soft spot for laundry. He unloads and folds (well, hands me each item in turn, saying what it is - "Another bottom wipe.... another nappy.... another insert.... teeea-towel.... another bottom wipe..." etc!!), and a new CRAZY thing is that I can now pull out the wet washing into the laundry basket, push it round in front of the tumble dryer, and call out, "Arthur! Could you put the wet washing in the tumble dryer for me please?" and he comes RUNNING! I get on with a different chore, and he literally loads the tumble dryer for me. He loves it! It takes him ages because he likes to put things in one-by-one (each wipe or sock individually!) and name them as he goes. When it's loaded, I shut the door and turn the dial, and press the start button. I see me being able to teach him to do that within a few months. I think he would be thrilled to set the tumble dryer going all by himself. He's very into "Do it allbyself!" these days!
Anyway. So far, they sit and "fold" laundry together. Which, for Arthur, means naming and sorting and unfolding things that I've folded to "just check" them again, and for Matthew it means lots of chewing. This boy is at his most content when he has a random sock (clean or dirty, he doesn't mind) either in his hand or in his mouth! He is almost always to be found clutching a sock (or one in each hand, odd ones usually!) as he crawls around the house. He scavenges socks! We have very few matching pairs these days as a result. Here are a couple of photos of the boys as I found them in the kitchen one day. They're not as recent as I thought, actually - about a month ago now already! When I saw them, I asked Arthur what they were doing, and he said, "We just folding, Mummy!" and then he crawled off into the living room, calling out, "Mashewww! Fowwow me, Mashewww!" And Matthew did! He squealed and giggled all the way behind his brother (there was a slight bottle-neck at the fridge) into the living room, where they stopped and played with bricks and trains together :)
I love my boys!!! I do, I do! They are just the sweetest little people I ever met. I love them so completely that I don't know what to DO with myself. Precious little loves...
And now Matthew has woken and nursed and gone back to sleep, and it's laaaate, so I'm going to bed now. I'll try to update again as soon as I can, to write the other stuff. I don't want to forget it before I write it! I have notes on what Arthur says, and Matthew's (and Arthur's) stats from Matthew's 8-month check written down too, but there's sure to be more that I'll forget, or it will just get toooo out-of-date to write, if I don't hurry up and do it soon!
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