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2006-12-10 - 12.16am (tsk!) previous entry next entry
Blessed mama, talking boy, lots of photos :)
Another go at a diary entry - we'll see how far I get this time!
Count me in for Snot Fest 2006, urgh. Arthur's cold remains mild, but Matthew's got rather worse during the night. We didn't get to sleep till 3am (second night running) and I slept with Arthur till 5am when Matthew needed feeding again. Neil slept in with Matthew as he sleeps through snuffly sounds better than I do! Poor Matthew has been really unhappy today.
Okay I only got that far! Arthur woke and he's been crying and crying but we can't figure out what is wrong. He woke as normal but then got all upset once I was in there. I told him the breasties had gone to sleep again, and he got upset, but just seemed to stay upset about anything and everything. In the end I think we got too involved in it, because we were concerned to understand what was wrong, but he was asking us this and that and his voice was too upset and sleepy to understand him very well, so he got frustrated. And he'd ask to go in Daddy's bed, and then cry and cry once he was in there but not be able to tell us what else he wanted. He has a tummy ache which seems to be wind. In the end I just realised the poor child probably just wants to go back to sleep and all our fussing is just confusing him! So we cuddled him and then did as we would at bedtime - I kissed him night night and left, and Neil put him in his bed and patted his back a little. I hope he's settling now. Amazingly, Matthew slept through all that noise, which lasted a while!
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, poor Matthew! He is teething as well (no teeth still) and we've run out of teething powder - ohhh Arthur is crying again and Matthew is stirring. Awake now. Back in a bit.
Back again! Matthew just stared around at me and then put his head back down and Arthur sounded so unhappy that I went back in to him. Now he's settling better with Neil and I have got them some Karvol (he's really congested now after all the crying on top of his cold), and put the tumble dryer on, and now I'm back. Matthew still asleep for now. Every evening is like this at the moment. It's a wonder I am not having HUGE issue with it, but although it's difficult and frustrating, it doesn't feel too dreadful or anything - yet! The days and nights are just whizzing by so fast right now that at least it's not like I have to get through a draggingly lonnnng day after a lonnnng and tedious night. It's hard but it passes.
So Matthew - I was on the new rota to help in the creche at church this morning (all the parents are on a rota for one type of kids' work or another, whatever they prefer) and Matthew just wasn't well enough to take out, poor love. He slept dreadfully last night and then only had a 30 minute nap during the morning before church so I knew he needed to stay home to sleep properly, if nothing else. He is just all pink in the face and his eyes are puffy and his nose is pink and full of goo, and his cheeks and chin are poor and rough and red and teethy :( Poor baby boy. Arthur is perky as ever even with a cold, so Neil took him to church and did my shift at the creche. I'll do his when it comes around in the New Year. Arthur had a lovely time and did lots of running around so that is GREAT! Matthew napped okay, but eventually he was so miserable that I gave him Calpol. We've only ever had disasters when it comes to giving him Calpol, but this time I used a sachet instead of a syringe or spoon, and I sat him in the Bumbo with a bib on and let him suck and chew the sachet. It worked! He gobbled it down, probably thinking, "FINALLY, she's given me solids!" hehe! And he didn't spill a drop. He was miserable for 15 more minutes or so, and then I breastfed him again and after that he was suddenly beaming and playing happily with toys on the floor, so I guess the combination of mama milk and Calpol did the trick!
Arthur was very concerned about him when he got home from church. He kept saying (with REAL feeling in his tone of voice, so sweet!), "Poor Ma-Ma, dot sore head! Ma-Ma poorly 'day!" (poor Matthew has got a sore head - Matthew is poorly today). If someone is poorly, according to Arthur, they apparently always have a sore head! One time recently, Neil came home from work early with one of his bad headaches and had to go straight to bed. I explained it to Arthur and since then he has been really big on people (and toys!) having a sore head. His trains and cars have all had times since when they have "dot sore head... dot go up bed, make head better!"
Arthur turned 25 months old yesterday! I know he's kind of getting old for still counting his age in months, but I can't help it! I think I'll still be writing here one day, "Oh, Arthur is now nearly 69 months old!" hahaha!
His talking has really come on lately, and weirdly enough Neil and I have just noticed that TODAY he has suddenly started saying everything extremely clearly. ALL his words are clear and completely understandable to everyone today, all of a sudden. Many of them were before, but he seems to have suddenly neatened up all the ends to his words - things like words ending in "ing" - they end in "ing" today instead of "in". He uses four-word sentences constantly, and I guess he's using more than that too, but I have stopped counting words-per-sentence recently. He still uses plenty of simple two-word sentences too.
This morning I sat with a notepad and paper for 10 minutes while Neil got Arthur's things together for going to church, and I just listened to things Arthur was saying and jotted a few down - ones that particularly made me smile or caught my attention. I wish I'd had longer, because he comes out with SO MANY funny phrases and new words all the time now, but here are just a few little examples:
"Ah-yah share Mummy's toas'!" - I brought my toast in to eat while I watched him play, and he likes to share my breakfast (having had his an hour or so earlier). He says share so clearly, and his latest thing is putting the 's on the end of people's names when he's referring to something that belongs to them, which I'm quite impressed by! :) That's a new thing in the past week or so.
"Oh dear, no 'pace up!" - playing with his toy cars and lining them up on the shelf of his toy unit - there was no space left, and he constantly chats and narrates his play to nobody in particular. He was saying that there was no space up there for his bus.
"Geen light, GO!" - playing with his cars, and pretending they were waiting at a "red light". He loves shouting "geen light, Mummy GO!" when we're out in the car and I'm stuck at a red light. He watches for the light to change to green and then shouts that from the back of the car :) He plays traffic lights a lot with his cars now. I hear him say, "Wait geen light.... Geen light! GO!" hehe :)
"Daddy take Ah-yah turch!" - just before they left to go to chruch -self-explanatory, but sounded very cute when said with such excitement and pride, chest puffed out and everything! ;)
"Oh! One miss!" - Arthur says this a lot if something is missing from a set of toys. "Miss" is his word for "missing".
One of his latest phrases that he goes round saying ALL the time at the moment is, "Dood idea!" with nodding head and very "approving grown-up" expression, hehehe! He must be mimicking me, because I tell him "good idea" when he suggests things all the time, and I suppose I must make that face when I do it too! ;)
Another thing he plays a LOT at the moment, is shopping. Often, all his toys are "go shopping!" when he makes them drive off somewhere along the carpet. He sometimes tells me he is going shopping too. This morning I was in the kitchen getting my toast, and Arthur sat on the kitchen floor for a moment, chatting randomly, and then shuffled out on his bottom. As he left, he called out, "Bye Mummy!" with a casual wave in my direction. I said, "Oh, bye Arthur! Where are you going?" and he replied, "Ah-yah go shopping!" I said, "Oh, that's helpful! What are you going to buy?" The reply came from the other room, "Buy bed (bread)..." I called, "What else?" and he said, "Buy tyeese" When I asked, "Anything else?", he replied, "Buy kickin nuggits!" hehe! I never buy those, so I have no idea where that came from! When he is finished "shopping" he comes back and declares cheerfully, "HOME NOW!!" He's such a sweetie :)
Another of his newest much-used words at the moment is "lovely", which I really like! I use it a lot, I think. Arthur has suddenly taken a shine to it, and uses it for things a lot, and he does use it in context really well too. Everything is "luvwy!" at the moment. This afternoon I was lounging around in pyjamas still (feeling crap) and I felt chilly so I went upstairs and unearthed my really nice fleecy dressing gown from where it has been hiding since last winter. It is luxurious and deep red, and has Winnie the Pooh embroidered on it. I love it! I put it on, and when I came down, Arthur did a double-take as he looked up to see me, and then exclaimed in surprise, "Oh! Mummy look luvwy!" HOW cute is that, seriously?! I wanted to just squidge him right up! It's the first time he's had the words to use and complimented me with them! So lovely!
This morning though, he said the word lovely in such a way that made Neil sure he'd learnt it from me, hehe! Arthur asked for milk and so I sat on the sofa and said, "Come on then, lovely!" As he climbed up, he gleefully shouted out, "CAM AWN, LUVVLY!" (no "w" sound in there for once either!) in a real London accent, hehe! Neil called from the kitchen that it was MY doing (he has a slight Yorkshire accent from when he was brought up there)! ;) I don't know where he got quite that Cockney an accent, because mine isn't that strong, but maybe it was just his exaggeration of the phrase or something! Anyway, it was funny :)
He counts quite well, but mostly just repeating the succession I think. Although the other day we were stuck in a traffic jam and he said, "Ah-yah count cars!" and stretched out his arm to point at them as they went past the window. The first car went by on the other side of the road (isn't it always clear when your side is gridlocked?!) and he said, "Onnnne...." then another, and I heard, "Twoooo..." Two more followed, one after the other, and he said, "Threeee.... Fooouur..." He pronounced the numbers soooo much more clearly than I have heard him do before. He counted three more cars go past, "Fiiive, sick, sevum..." and then there were no more and he lost interest. I was boggling that he was counting them so accurately and pronouncing them clearly, but then the next time we got stuck in the same jam further along, he counted again, and this time four cars went past, and were counted as, "Onnne... Twoooo... Eiiight.... Eiiight...." hehe ;)
Ohhh there is so much more that I could write about Arthur and the things he is doing and saying, but Matthew is beginning to stir again and he has done quite well - 3.5 hours now since he was last awake and feeding - so I should think he'll need a feed soon. I will post a ton of photos, then, and get this entry up, before another string of interruptions occur!
A few photos of Matthew trying to get the mini football that Arthur was holding while I changed his nappy! Arthur was thrilled at first and kept saying, "Ma-Ma get ball! Ma-Ma pay (play) ball!" but he was less impressed as Matthew clutched and clambered his way across Arthur to try and reach it, hehe! He's very tolerant of Matthew clutching clumps of his flesh though, even when it hurts him. He's a lovely big brother!
Mallory knitted Arthur and Matthew some hats!!! Thank you Mallory!! She sent them all the way from The States! I have known Mallory through Diaryland since she was in High School and I was ill with M.E. She feels like an old friend now :) It was so exciting to receive a special present from her in the post after all this time! I took fifty thousand photos of the boys modelling her hats ;) Here are a few that came out nice - Arthur liked trying BOTH of them on, and since they are both so lovely and stretchy, they both fit BOTH of the boys, pretty much! Arthur also enjoyed poking his finger in the hole at the top of his brother's hat, and playing "Ah-yah HI-din!" under his own ;)
A few photos of me being Lucky Mummy of the Year, doing something I reeeally love - holding my small Mathie-Moo-Loo (the nicknames get stranger) and just wanting to eat him up with how cute he is!...
I think the last of my pregnancy weight is pretty much off now. Someone told me at church last week that it was nice to see that I had got my figure back (!!!) and I notice tops I had to buy in desperation a couple of months ago (like the one above) are starting to hang off me a bit now. I still need the extra boobie space but the rest of my frame seems to have returned to normal - yay! Jeans are now fitting normally at my pre-pregnancy (after Arthur, that is) size 12. If it weren't for the milk-ness of the situation, I think I would be comfiest in size 12-14 tops, but I'm still mostly wearing 16. I haven't weighed myself in a bit so I'm not sure what I actually weigh.
Still no post-partum period. I was crampy exactly as though I had my period, for exactly the normal length of time that a period usually lasts, and then it went! I have had the odd fertile symptom, and today checked my cervix for the first time since I was pregnant - sorry for the squeamish of you that are innocently reading this without knowing me (more than you ever wanted to, hehe!) from my pregnancy/trying to conceive diary! I considered making an entry in that diary about stuff like this, but I decided I like leaving the last entry there for now. It's a nice closure one from when Matthew was new, and I have no reason to be writing there for a good while yet, so that means you guys have to lump it with me talking about girlie stuff here ;) Anyway, hmmm, maaayybe fertile signs, but who knows. I had my period back already by this time after having Arthur, and had already ovulated at least once, but nothing yet this time. I am tandem nursing though, so it could be that. I'm in no hurry to see things start up again yet!
Also, no post-partum parsnips yet - six months in - which I think is about the same as it was after having Arthur. I can't remember when we got around to it last time. I have zero interest, no, a MINUS score of interest when I am flowing with breastfeeding hormones, and that is a common thing so I'm not worrying about it. Neil is very understanding about these things, and too knackered anyway, hehe! So yeah. I know my hormones will kick in eventually and I'll be back in the game again ;) In fact, getting interested in parsnips is usually a good heads-up that I am getting fertile again. So, that's good to know. Matthew will be 18 months old this time next year (how crazy is that?!). Our current thinking is to make another baby by then (or around that time?) - so that somehow means, with "next year" only a few weeks away, that we're hoping to get pregnant again NEXT YEAR! Yikes! But we're leaving it open, to see how we feel (especially considering how hard it's been this time round), and what is going on in our lives, etc. We will be moving house, and probably completely relocating next year, so that might be enough on our plates for 2007! We'll see. It certainly won't be in the first half of the year anyway, as the summer is the earliest we would consider TTC again even if everything seemed perfect for it.
Anyway, I am getting off track! Photos! I have more to post and Matthew stirs a little more now. Here he is being scrumbly the other day, in a rather fitting outfit that Mummy bought for Arthur when he was Matthew's age. Matthew doesn't fill it out properly yet, but the colours suit him better than they did Arthur, as they match his eyes better. The words mean something like, "I am the best present!" :) I love the look on his face - it's like he knows exactly what those words say, hehe!
A couple of me and my sweet little boys last week:
Arthur is awake again :( He is saying "Hurt", poor lovey. I hope he's okay. Neil has gone to bed so he's in there with him. I'll go in if he gets really upset, I think, unless Matthew wakes for his feed. Better hurry up and post what's left to post.
I took some photos (posted last entry) of the boys in the spare bedroom after their nap one day during the week. Arthur was still asleep when Matthew woke from his nap, and the sun was shining into the bedroom so warmly, and Matthew was so cute and pink and gummy-smiley, that I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and laying him on my bed to take some photos of him in the nice light. The light came out more yellow than I thought it would but that's okay. Anyway after I took a few photos of Matthew, Arthur woke and toddled through to see us. He was sooooooooo sleepy from his nap! He was interested in Matthew on my bed, and so I let him get up there too. I took some photos of them together, and I think I'll post all six of them, because they have quite a nice progression - starting with Arthur completely dopey and zonked after his nap, just arriving to see what is going on, and then he gradually looks more and more awake in the photos, till in the last one he is his usual vibrantly energetic self! I love Matthew's calm gazes in these photos too. He is just like that, but I can see that he is going to be MUCH more animated as he gets older. He is already starting new expressions and reactions to things that remind me more and more of Arthur. I am sure I will go grey within 6 months when they are aged 2 and 3! ;) In the last photo of the boys, my dad commented that Arthur's expression is an EXACT replica of one he saw many many times on my face when I was very little, especially the times when I was causing mischief! ;) He said he was surprised at the similarity, even the facial features and shining eyes and rows of teeth (as he calls them!) and everything. I guess Arthur's challenging monkeyness is all my own doing, heh. Oh, the irony ;)
But they are just THE most precious little people! I love them soooo much! For all the difficulty of things lately, and the crappity sore throat and achy-coldy-ness that I am currently experiencing, and Monday looming a matter of hours from now with two snotty but energetic beany-boys and Neil at work, even so I just feel like letting out one of those lovely long contented sighs.... *phssshhhhoooooaauuuwwwffff*
I am so blessed :)
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