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2006-11-27 - 11.50pm previous entry next entry
Sitting Boo! And other updatey stuff...
At last, a moment to update again! It's already late so I'll just hurry up and get on with some news and photos!
Brief family news:
Neil: Applied for a job today!!! We're back to that thing we put on hold, where Neil gets a new job in a whooole new career, and we move house, and completely relocate to be where he gets a job. And I get mightily scared and need lots of prayer and stuff like that. But the job sounds SO great, and we are feeling optimistic! It's the exact same job that he got OFFERED when I was early in my pregnancy with Matthew (hence why we decided that he'd turn it down and put new job/moving house on hold), except that it's in a completely different part of the country. SOUTH of London though, which for some reason always makes me feel more easy in myself.
Alice: For the first time since Matthew was born, had enough time on Sunday afternoon to SEW part of a nappy (night nappy for Matthew), make a chicken casserole and set it to simmer comfortingly all afternoon, and baked a rather good chocolate cake complete with overly gooey chocolate fudge icing!! :) I even did a little bit of tidying in the kitchen (which still looks a dreadful state). All 3 boys were napping upstairs and I just felt sooooo.... warm and cosy and Sunday-afternoonish, and housewifey! :) It was lovely!
Arthur: Was left somewhere without Mummy or Daddy for the VERY FIRST TIME yesterday!!! Not intentionally. We went to church (yay!) and Arthur was tearing around the building energetically as usual. When it came time for creche, Neil picked him up and carried him there, and a lady whipped him out of Neil's arms and put him down with the toys, and when he looked for Neil and asked for Daddy, she told Neil to go and sort of stood in the way to block Arthur's view. So Neil went, and came to find me in the service, where he whispered unhappily about what had just happened, and how he didn't like it. I didn't like it either. I mean, everyone thinks we're nuts for always staying with Arthur in creche, but that's our choice. We're not always going to do it. He has gained security from having no concept of us ever NOT being there if he needs us, before he's ready to make that break. Anyway. I love that Neil and I both feel the same way about it :) But also, neither of us feel ready to "let go" of Arthur in that way!
Anyway, we both left the service and crept up to the creche door (which has a panel of glass in it so you can see through) to peep through and see if he was okay. I looked first, and I was pleased and proud to see that he was perfectly fine. He was sitting at the play dough table with two other toddlers and an adult helper, and he looked very much in-charge, hehe! I couldn't hear sounds through the closed door, but I could see him pointing at the other kids' work, and working hard on his own play dough, and all the time his little mouth was opening and closing in continuous chatter! I saw him engaging cheerfully in conversation with the adult helper. He looked happy and confident and cheerful and enthusiastic. I felt happy and proud and pleased, and then as I stepped away to let Neil see, I felt a twang of a sort of left-out-ish feeling :( It's so hard to let go of being a part of every second of his life, and not be there to hear and see every little thing that he says or does. Everything in me wanted to go in there and take part with him, but I knew we had to take our baby boy and go back to the church service, because our BIG boy was doing so great without us. Boo hoo! But YAY for Arthur! I went in with Matthew once he got too noisy for the service, about 30 minutes later, and Arthur was having a great time. I got glowing reports on him and also many comments from the helpers about how he stood out clearly from the 6 little boys his age as a real "live wire" that you need to keep your eye on, hehe! He has like a double dose of enthusiasm and energy for everything. He goes at twice the speed. He was just having a lovely time! Since he did so well, we plan to leave him every time now. Church creche is a great introduction to this step towards independence for Arthur, because it's in a familiar place where we've always been there with him, it's only for a short while, and we're in the same building if he needs us. Neil and I have been asked if we'll go on the rota for helping at the creche, probably once a month. So we'll be with Arthur on those occasions. We think it's time we could leave him without us on the other occasions. I am going to leave strict instructions though, that if he hurts himself even a little bit, or gets upset asking for me, I want them to come and get me RIGHT away. I see them hold sobbing kids for like 10 minutes before they go and get the parents, and I don't want Arthur to be made to wait for us that long, if he needs us and is upset. I also still want him to have milk if he has hurt himself and asks for it.
Matthew: He is doing great! He is 5 and a half months old tomorrow. Two more weeks till we start him on solids!!! I know he'll be EAGER! He is already very obviously ready for solids, except I have no idea what he weighs. I will get him weighed next week maybe - the appt only clinic that I want him weighed at is on Wednesdays, so I'll have to hope they have an appt left for next Wednesday.
Matthew has very good hand-eye coordination (another thing that we were proud to receive a comment on at church yesterday!) and can pounce (!!) on something very accurately with little warning. He is like a little cat sometimes! He watched me eating a custard cream biscuit the other day with absolute calm and stillness, back and forth to my mouth, and then SUDDENLY swiped with his hand and literally grabbed me by the wrist and pulled my biscuit-laden hand to his mouth before I could even react and pull it back! He is strong when he wants something too. He did not get the biscuit though ;)
I have been giving him "touch tastes" of apple whenever Arthur and I eat an apple together (we always share - he likes a few crisp slices from my apple, which I prefer to crunch into with my teeth!). I put my finger onto the juicy part of the apple, and then touch his lip. He grabs my finger with both hands, opens his mouth with tongue ready to taste, and sucks for all he's worth! You should see his eyes - round like saucers! He loves the taste of apple. I give him as many touch-tastes as there are to give him until we've finished our apple. He never gets tired of it. He has tried to squiggle and roll his way to Arthur's sippy cup when it was left on the floor near him too. He is sooooo ready for solids!
I am not going to bother with that crappy rice cereal this time around. We're going straight to veggies and fruit. I can't decide which to give him first, but I am thinking either apple, banana or sweet potato. I can't WAIT actually! I'm quite excited about it! I'll still be glad to wait till 6 months, but I'm excited all the same! Today I bought some new little food bowls to feed him from, and that was exciting :) We are getting rid of Arthur's highchair, as it was a bit of a nightmare in the end, though it looked all nice and cheery. We want something much more adjustable and with a tray that removes. We're going to buy a really nice one and use any money that we're given for him by family at Christmas, to reimburse ourselves. So the highchair will be a gift from family, but we'll get to use it now. Or whenever I find the perfect one and buy it! Which needs to be soon!
Matthew is now rolling over and over with ease in both directions. He shoved himself forwards a foot last week, whilst on his tummy, and a few days ago Neil and I watched with our chins on the floor as he used his toes and elbows to scrobble along the floor about a foot, to reach a toy that he had his eye on. He was on his tummy, and he used his elbows in a sort of army crawl with his head up, looking ahead at the toy. He dug his toes into the carpet and pushed, bending his knees and re-applying his toes to the carpet now and then! Yikes! He hasn't done that since though. But it did make me feel awfully panicky when I watched him! I suddenly thought, "Oh my goodness, it really is going to be no time until he's crawling everywhere, and THEN I'm in trouble!" Arthur's hard enough to keep an eye on with my TWO eyes, and I have no idea how I'm going to keep track of two little eager explorers with plenty of mischief to be made around the place! I just think he is SO eager to get hold of things that he's interested in, that he's just motivated to MOVE! Here's a photo of Matthew being eager for a toy that's juuust out of reach:
Success!! :)
For the last four or five days, I have been trying to give Matthew a bit more practise at sitting, because he doesn't really get "sat up" much. And he's strong and eager. Arthur was doing leany unsupported sit for a few seconds at exactly Matthew's age, so I thought I should at least give Matthew the opportunity to build those muscles up and practise balancing a bit. He started like this:
And got a bit better over a couple of days:
And playing with Daddy helped too:
I could let go for maybe a couple of seconds before he leaned too far this way or that. Then yesterday he was having some naked time on the floor mat before bed, and I sat him up without a nappy in the way and he SAT, although he was kind of leaning over his legs quite a bit. He didn't fall, until he suddenly lurched to the side to reach a toy, but I caught him in time. After I put his nappy on, I sat him up again to see if the nappy made any difference, and apparently it did NOT, because here is Matthew SITTING on his own! Slumpy, but independent, hehe! (please excuse the smudgy photos, but somebody's little fingers had been all over the lens without me realising till just now, when I uploaded about FIFTY smeary photos! Tsk!)
Yay for my clever sitting Boo Bean! I know he's going to be so happy to be able to sit and look around better, as he gets used to it and stronger too. And it'll be so much easier for me to just plop him down sitting. Today when I have sat him down, he has sat well but used his arms in front of him to prop himself. One time he saw a toy about a foot in front of him that he wanted, and he walked his hands further and further forwards until he was folded right over onto his legs! If he knew how to push his legs out from under him as he went forwards, he would be able to work on crawling and going from sitting to crawling. I know that's going to happen WAY too fast for me anyway!
Oh I have run out of time to write any more! I soooo wanted to write more stuff, there seems to be so much to catch up on all the time. Arthur is saying more and adding new words every day and it's hard to keep up with his funny little phrases and the tones of voice he uses as he says certain things. I also still have a few video clips to post here, and some photos from last time that I didn't get chance to post.
But for now, here is Matthew being scrumbly:
And my sweet lil boys - another Arthur-requested photo session! He was pressing his nose into Matthew in the first photo - something he does with toooo much vigour to anything and everything, and the reason we tried him on antihistamines for a week (no joy). He bangs his nose as well, really hard. He says it itches him. The doctor hopes it's his teething. We're always having to tell him not to press too hard on Matthew with his nose! He was watching Thomas the Tank Engine (quelle surprise!) and Matthew is beginning to look at it when it's on too, and he stops and smiles when he hears the theme. *sigh* The theme drives me CRAZY! It's nice, as far as themes go, but still... Here's what I sing when Arthur asks me to "sing trains":
They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight,
Arthur thinks they're really great!
Gordon is his favourite train,
but to me they're all the same.
He wants to watch them all day long,
so constantly I hear this song.
Driving parents round the bend,
Thomas and his friends!
I know, I'm silly. But re-wording songs keeps me sane, sometimes! ;)
Anyway - photos of my sweet boys being all relaxed together, one blue-eyed and one brown-eyed! They are so precious! I love them so much :)
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
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Nathan at 8 months... - 2008-10-12