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2005-10-04 - 11.05am previous entry next entry
Music and signs and updatey stuff
Phew, a moment to update at last! Arthur is napping and I may only have 15 minutes more if he only has a half hour nap this morning, so we'll see how much I can get done. We are going to visit my grandparents for lunch today so I will have to get Arthur up and ready as soon as he wakes. He is late for his nap this morning. I am going to tell my grandparents about the new baby on the way, so I'm excited! Also they haven't seen Arthur in a month so they are eager to see him. He is changing so much all the time! His hair has really grown and his arms and legs are getting longer and more in toddler proportion all the time. He is doing so many new things since a month ago. So it will be fun to see them.
I am sure I'm just waaaaay oversensitive but I'm really kind of hurt that nobody has made any mention of the video clips I posted here a few days ago. I know the video clips (and anything else) are not posted with any expectation of comments, or so that people WILL comment, but all the same, I feel hurt. I figured mini movie clips of my little one would be extra special to be able to post at my diary, since photos are always appreciated. I set up an account a few months ago which I have to pay monthly (only a tiny fee but anyway) so that I could post them here. They take me time and effort to make ready for uploading here. Also it's just a natural mama-bear thing, since *I* think moving images of my sweet little guy are pretty special. Obviously I'm going to find them more special than anyone else though! ;) But still. I wonder did anyone see them at all? Or did they see them but not think anything of them. Either way the stony silence after a rare movie clip posting hurt me somewhat. Thank you to Marlen for the congrats for Arthur on his first step! I thought that was also pretty big and exciting news, but obviously that's just me (and Marlen!).
Yeah, I'm sure the above paragraph just makes me SO much more likeable! ;) But I don't care. I was hurt. Now it's off my chest. There. Oh and by the way, I did NOT write the above to angle for messages in response!! I promise. I did it so I won't fester about it anymore. I will try to put it out of my mind now I have written it. On with the entry!
Let's see, what is new? Arthur has some new toys this week! I got him a few things more age-appropriate for around 12 months. He has wooden bricks already, but Boots did a 3-for-2 toys deal (I LOVE Boots!!) so I got this HUGE bucket of bricks free!!!
Arthur LOVES bricks! And an extra plus is that both Neil and I love building them, hehe! Arthur likes knocking our towers down and making lots of noise by crashing them around with his hands in a big pile! He also likes tipping the bucket up. He likes messy play!
He also got a pop-up-orchestra, which I was searching for specifically after I read a post on a parenting board that asked what were people's BEST toys that their one-year-olds received for their birthdays. I thought that was such a useful post, so I searched for the toys that people mentioned so I could see what they were like. After that I made a list of the ones I thought would be good to have, and the pop-up-orchestra was one. It's one of those dexterity-skill toys, where you have to turn a knob, pull a lever, push a button, etc, to get the different things to pop up. This particular toy also play a million different tunes and has lights, and Arthur LOVES any sort of music, so he is thrilled with this toy. He can't twist the knob yet, but the others he can do:
He got a set of "baby safe" musical instruments - rain makers and tambourines and bells, etc. - which he loves! You can see those in the pictures with the bricks. Oh and a red potty! I figured we might as well have one in the house for when it finally comes time to use it ;) Since I was already shopping and all.
The other new toy from my list was a shape sorter. So far Arthur loves the shapes and the way the ball rattles when it's full of them, but he hasn't got a clue about posting them in yet. I wanted a wooden one but couldn't find one I liked. I like this one :)
Lately we have a lot of music on for Arthur. I am teaching him the sign for music also, so that he can learn to ask me when he wants to hear some. He wants to hear music SO badly a lot of the time, that he already has a way of telling me! He climbs as close to the hi-fi system as he can and then makes frustrated growling sounds (complete with frustrated frown!) and bangs his hands on the sofa arm trying to get my attention! He watches the hi-fi the whole time he is doing this. He "asks" for music four or five times a day at the moment, most of the time he's awake really! He loves it. So I think teaching him to sign "music" would be helpful at this point!
We play him all sorts of music and he doesn't seem to have any that he dislikes, or prefers more or less. The thing we play the most is his "Little Kids' Praise" CD. I love that CD! There are fast silly songs and slow beautiful songs. I hold his hands with him standing and "dance" him to the fast ones, and he bops and bends his knees, it's soooo sweet! :) I pick him up and hold him close to the slow songs and I sing the harmonies. The loveliest thing of all is that he has started to "sing" with me when I do that! He lays his head on my shoulder and when I start singing his little head pops up and he lets out this little sing-song wailey sound, which he makes as gentle as he can, and he makes his voice go high and low - it's too cute, really. He stops abruptly when I stop at the end of a verse and starts again when I start singing the next verse :)
I LOVE singing with Arthur! I'm so glad he loves music. I pretty much knew he would, but I'm so glad to be at that stage already. I love the time I spend with him. I just love him SOOOOO much!!! :D
I am teaching Arthur several new signs at the moment. I evaluated which signs looked like they would be most relevant to teach him from now on and picked a few. He signs milk, but his more frequent way to ask for it is to pull at my top till he can peer down the front, hahaha! I actually love this, call me crazy but I do! I don't really even care if he does it in public. I am just so proud to be breastfeeding my nearly-11-month-old! :) I like that people can tell he still breastfeeds. He understands the signs for "more" and "medicine" but he doesn't sign them yet. He understands "up" but he can say that word now so the sign isn't so urgent really.
The new signs he is learning are "moon", "bath", "book", "no" and "stop". Bath is an easy one to incorporate as it's a regular thing we do each day. Arthur is as crazy about reading stories as he is about music (I love this about him!) and makes a lot of frustrated sounds trying to get us to read him a story, MANY times per day! So I think it would be good for him to learn to ask me for a story with a sign. He does ask in his own way. He now goes to fetch a book from his little collection, pulls one out, and tries to turn the pages himself, making lots of frustrated noises and looking at me pointedly! If I ask, "Do you want to read a story?", he relaxes and smiles and waits for me to go over. In fact I know he really understands that question because sometimes if he's getting into mischief somewhere, I can ask it and he will stop what he's doing and go to the books :) He loves his stories!
Talking of mischief, this boy can really get into some! Hence the signs for "no" and "stop"!! He does stop to look at me when I say, "Look at Mummy" to make the sign for him and tell him no, he can't touch that or whatever. He watches me signing very carefully. When he is writhing about while I'm trying to get a pooey nappy off him, I use "stop". He is momentarily distracted by it for the moment, but hmmm, we'll see how well it sticks! Neil uses it more and I guess I use the "no" sign more.
I chose the "moon" sign because we have a new part of our routine in the mornings now. Well, not THAT new, it's a few weeks old now. I discovered The Bear in the Big Blue House on channel 5 at 8.30! I just love it. I think it's so nice for little ones. I know he's too little for it yet though, and it's way too long a programme for him to sit through. I also don't want him watching a whole lot of TV, especially at such a young age. But I chose The Bear in the Big Blue house as the one thing to watch with him regularly. He plays while it's on though. I could just not have it on during that time, but I have to admit that *I* love it! ;) At the end, the bear goes upstairs to tell Luna (the moon) all about his day. Then they sing the goodbye song together. Not the type of song I remember from my childhood on English children's programmes, simple and irritatingly childish (!), but a really cool funky song with harmonies! I LOVE it! More to the point, ARTHUR loves it - he stops whatever he's doing to watch the bear and the moon, and goes still as a mouse during the song, just staring at them. So now it's part of our routine. When the bear goes upstairs to talk to the moon, I tell him let's see the moon and sing the goodbye song, and put him on my lap. I point out the moon and talk to him about it, that's why I want to add the sign so that he can learn to tell ME when he sees the moon. I sing the harmony with the goodbye song, and jig him on my lap for the closing music, and then switch the TV off the moment the credits roll and we go straight up to bed (it finishes at 9am) and he goes off to sleep at the breast in like 5 minutes flat! Every day. It's great :) I really like this new routine.
Sooo that's signs and music... what else is there to talk about? Arthur is still asleep! He has had an hour now, which is good.
Oh, his sleep! The night before last, I nursed Arthur at 10.45pm and went to bed. When he woke it was 4.10am!!!!!!!! YAY ARTHUR!!! So I nursed him, because he's teething and I am not gonna refuse him while he needs extra comfort at night, and he went back to sleep really quickly, and woke again at 7am!!!! Yay! He is regularly sleeping until 7am now, whereas he was waking like clockwork at 6am or earlier for the last few months. So that's good! Last night I nursed him at 10.15 and he woke at 2.45, so that's over 4 hours again, which is great for him. He did wake again at 5.30 though, but he was really cold and we had to change him into a warmer sleeping bag.
It's so nice and autumnal here! I am delighted! It's crispy and cool, and EVERY evening I am chilly and need to wear warm PJs and a dressing gown, or a warm jumper :) Yay! I love snuggling in bed on chilly nights! When we wave Daddy off to work in the mornings, I can see my breath on the air, and it smells FABULOUS out there!!! I'm SO relieved to have summer behind us :) Arthur is back in Grobags at night. We had him in the towelling ones a week ago because he was still getting sweaty when I nursed him, but I think it must have got a lot cooler because now he is in full winter Grobags and his arms still feel a little chilly. Our bedroom is the coldest room in the house though. We need to bleed the radiator. It's full of air so it's not heating the room properly.
I got a book from Amazon yesterday - Adventures in Tandem Nursing!! I am so excited to read it! I have read maybe a 3rd of it so far, and I'm just reading all evening where I can and when Arthur naps normally. I am finding out SO much that I never even knew about breastfeeding, and weaning processes, and the physical side of it all, and about the stuff I need to know - breastfeeding during pregnancy and tandem nursing once the new baby is born. I hope Arthur won't wean during my pregnancy. I really want to tandem nurse, but you can never tell what will happen during pregnancy with breast milk. So far I still have lots, which I'm relieved about! Arthur is still gulping and getting gaggy when he's full, and I'm still leaking and having an obvious let-down, etc. Most women find that their milk is all gone by 20 weeks, and many find that from very early on in pregnancy. So far so good here, and I'm 5 weeks tomorrow. I am taking each day at a time and hoping it stays as long as possible! I hope Arthur will still comfort nurse when there is very little actual milk, then we can continue our wonderful nursing relationship till the new baby brings NEW MILK! Yay!
Okay I need to get dressed and get things ready to go to my grandparents' so that I'm ready when Arthur wakes. It's 11am now and he's still asleep, so we'll have to go pretty much straight away when he wakes up. I'm glad of his long nap though, because I doubt he'll nap well at my grandparents'. I am taking the travel cot for his afternoon nap, but I think he will probably only take 30 minutes there.
Anyway, I will update again soon. I am behind on everything these days, including emails and replies to messages (Julie, I do mean to answer your questions from your messages soon!), and also I am a bit behind on my pregnancy diary, since I saw my doctor yesterday for "booking in" with my new pregnancy :) So I'll update about that when I can. I think we'll be at my grandparents' all day today.
Still no news on Neil's job - very frustrating since they said he'd hear either way by the end of September! Tsk. And he can't do his final year of his masters degree :( He was told last year that the (enormous) fee he paid was for the entire course, and now he is told that he must pay the same again for the second year, because the first payment only covered the first year. Of course it's THOUSANDS of pounds and we totally can't ever afford it, so Neil is forced to drop out and not get his qualification, which lowers his chances looking for a job in his chosen career :( Poor Neil. He is kind of stressed about it, but in another way, we are both relieved that he won't be taking on that HUGE workload of study this year when we have another baby coming. He has enough on his plate really. I just hope he gets a break with his job, or if he doesn't get this job he applied for, that he won't feel too down about it. It is covered in prayer anyways, and God has a great plan for Neil, so I know it will come good. I just wish Neil could see it that way though, when he hears bad news about things :(
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