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2007-03-18 - 2.45am previous entry next entry
Weigh-ins for the boys, Arthur's "talk" and other newsy stuff...
It keeps being too long between entries and it's starting to drive me crazy! I always feel like I have SO much to write to keep up with everything, and lots of photos to post too. This weekend I've had several opportunities to write my diary but I just haven't wanted to. It sometimes gets so that it feels like a chore to update, because there is so much to "get done" in an entry that I can't just enjoy writing for pleasure like I used to. I just ended up flopping on the sofa in front of the TV for the last couple of evenings instead, and was surprised that it felt like a blessed relief. I don't know why it gets so that I feel like my diary is a source of actual pressure. It's not other people, it's me. I SO don't want to miss things here. I want to record everything that means something to me. Which is tooooo much stuff to keep up with at the moment! If I let some of it go, then when I next update, I feel like I can't write the latest stuff till I've filled in the gap with the older news first. So I write that, and then it gets too late or my entry gets too long, and so the latest news gets put off till next time. And by the time I write again, it's OLD news and I have more "latest news" which has to be put off for the old news, etc. It sometimes feels like I'm chasing my own tail, but I CAN'T just decide to not write my diary! I don't know why, even. I just can't imagine not writing my diary. I know if I didn't write here, whole CHUNKS of my life with my little ones would vanish out of my memory (within a scarily short space of time) and I don't want that! I just can't figure out how to record the memories without the huuuuge-o task of doing so, and the subsequent pressure/chore feelings. It has been so nice to just put my diary out of my head and RELAX in front of some comedy programmes and a movie for a couple of nights. I think I would like to do that more often, but when I'm updating my diary, it takes me HOURS - at least three solid hours when I'm writing a long update (which I always have to these days, to keep up). And the times when I'm NOT writing my diary, I'm thinking how I MUST write my diary soon because I'm getting crazy-behind. Urgh!
I have no idea how to solve this! Any advice?
Well. For now, I will continue as normal! I don't want to miss stuff if I can help it! The stage of life I'm at now is absolutely crammed full of precious little nuggets of experience that can't, can't be lost in the mists of time!
Matthew cut his first top front tooth yesterday! It's toothie #3. The other one is about to come through. I reckon it might be through tomorrow, but we'll see. He has that grey dent/hole type thing in his gum, which always starts from 3 days before the tooth comes through it, and it's been there about 2 days now. He's doing well with them so far - MUCH better than when he cut his first tooth, thankfully! I can't imagine him with a toothie grin, top and bottom! His little baby bottom teeth are soooo cute, sticking up out of his gum like they do! They are such teeny weeny little teeth, and they have a tiny gap in between them. I don't think I ever saw such tiiiny teeth before! Everything about Matthew seems so tiny to me.
Speaking of which, FINALLY I get to update about his 8-month check! It was done a couple of weeks ago, at 8 and a half months. He passed all the things they check at that stage with flying colours. He crawled to the door to meet the Health Visitor, and she said as she stepped into the house, "Crawling beautifully! I can check that one off then!" :) He sat and stood with support and all that stuff just while we were chatting, so she didn't need to ask me about those things as she could see them for herself.
He was weighed and measured - oh bum, I've left his red book downstairs! I can't remember the exact stats, so I'll just get it....
Okay, he weighed 17lbs 1oz at 8.5 months. He is STILL dropping on the percentiles chart, urgh. He is now at about the 7th percentile. But he's happy and healthy and reaching milestones early, etc. So the health visitor was not worried. He still nurses about 4-5 times during his "day" and about 4 times over his 10-12 hour "night". He eats anything and everything, as you know! He actually ingests a lot, much more than Arthur ever did at this age. I don't give him big portions yet because he will EAT it, and despite his weight being on the low side, I want his nourishment to be at least 90% breastmilk till he is 12 months old. He has no shortage of breastmilk and is still fed on demand there, day and night. So I'm not worried about his weight really. He's my little peanut!! I love his littleness!
Arthur has his 8-month check late, at 9.5 months, but he was weighed at exactly 8.5 months too. For comparison, Arthur was 22lbs 11oz at 8.5 months!!!! He was at the 80th percentile, taking barely ANY solids (he only started tiny tastes of solids for definite at 8 months)! My diary says that he had gained a whole pound since his previous weigh-in TWO WEEKS earlier!!! And by his "8-month" check a few weeks later, he weighed 23lbs 3oz! These boys are SO different!
Matthew measured 69cm (27 inches) long, which puts him at about the 20th percentile. He is pretty much keeping to his percentile curve on the chart for length. Arthur was 75cm (29.5in) at his late 8-month check, putting him at the 80th percentile again.
For head circumference, I felt a bit shocked to discover that Matthew is at the FIRST percentile - exactly halfway between the 2nd and 0.4th percentiles on the chart!! His measurement was 43.5cm (17 inches). But, I did know that he has such a tiny lil head :) So I suppose it shouldn't be such a huge surprise. There's just something about figures and stats being a bit shocking when they are at either extreme on the chart, I suppose. He has only had two other measurements for head circumference, and those were both RIGHT on the 25th percentile, so I'm not sure why on earth he's dropped right down like that. It makes me nervous, though I don't know why it should. But the health visitor didn't comment on it at the time, so maybe it's okay? Arthur's head circumference was nearly 2 inches more than Matthew's at his age! But then, it's obvious that Arthur has a completely different head shape to Matthew anyway. Arthur has been wearing age 3-5 hats over the winter!!
So, my little Mathsie-peanut!! He's SUCH a tiny boy compared to his brother! Can you imagine if they had been twins or something?! I come across non-identical twins from time to time who are just SO completely different in body type, etc, and it's just amazing to think that they're twins at all! But then, the same differences occur in different-aged siblings and not so much notice is taken. If Arthur and Matthew were twins (obviously not a realistic possibility, but still!), they just would have been amazingly different babies to see side-by-side. They are teething at about the same rate (Arthur's first top front tooth came through within the same week that Matthew's has) and at 9 months both were doing the same things, motor-wise, pretty much. Arthur didn't start crawling till 8.5 months, whereas Matthew was 6.5 months, but Arthur literally went through crawling, pulling up, cruising, and climbing in a 2-week period! Matthew has progressed more gradually, so that at 9 months, they have pretty much been at the same stage. I think Arthur was already doing MORE than Matthew, even! He caught on SO fast, that boy! But wow, they would have been SO different to look at! Anyway. I just found that interesting :)
Matthew was due a nap before the Health Visitor had finished, and was getting tired and cranky after being weighed and measured. He was too upset to pay attention at the fine motor skills tests - even picking up a raisin did not tempt him!!! But the Health Visitor asked me if he was doing those things and I told her he was. He did pick up a raisin just before she left, so she got to see him do that one. He transfers objects from hand to hand to explore them, and he tracks objects out to his peripheral vision, etc. She wasn't sure if he might have a slight squint in his right eye (well, the right eye as you look at him, so I guess that's HIS left eye). I was totally surprised by that as I've never noticed any sign of one, and I remember I actually thought Arthur had a squint when he was a few months old. I took him to the HV and asked her about it, and then to the doctor, but he was fine. So I was surprised not to have noticed anything and to have someone suggest that my baby might have one this time around. She said she might be wrong, and she can't actually confirm it with her test - it's that slight - because he was very active and moving about a lot. Usually she would refer to a doctor for a squint at this age, but she's not sure so she wants to re-check it at 12 months. She also wants to weigh him again at 12 months, and do his head circumference again too. I KNOW he's a healthy baby but I DO hope he's picking up a bit on those charts by then. It makes me feel like they're watching and he "should be" moving up or else something isn't going right. And I don't like that feeling. Something deep down just automatically feels like "something" is my fault. Probably just a normal way for a mother to feel, but anyway. I don't like it.
When the HV checked his hips, they were fine, but when she turned him onto his tummy to check that his leg creases were symmetrical (which would indicate no hip problems, when holding the legs straight and knees together), they WEREN'T at all. When he was on his back, his creases were symmetrical, but not on his front. She suggested seeing the GP just to double check, as it MIGHT indicate a slight mis-alignment with his hips that would need looking at and treating. But when you put Matthew on his tummy, he INSTANTLY gets mobile and tries to wriggle away if you hold him. He did this with the HV, but then went still for a few seconds as though he knew he was stuck (!) after she didn't let his legs go, so that's when she checked his creases. At the end of the visit, she put him on his tummy again and I put a toy in front of him. He didn't try to move away and his creases were perfectly symmetrical :) So the HV said not to worry about seeing the GP after all, and that he was obviously very eager to be mobile all the time!
She weighed Arthur too, but with clothes and a nappy, so not awfully accurate. He weighed 31lbs which put him at the 75th percentile, and measured 93.5cm (37in - just over 3ft tall!), putting him at the 80th percentile for height. I reckon his weight would probably be around the 60-70th percentile if he had been weighed accurately, and that would actually be right in line with his normal weight. Since I got pregnant with Matthew, his weight went down to the 60th percentile (I was worried it was because my milk dried up during pregnancy, but they told me it was much more likely to be due to the fact that he started walking around the end of my first trimester) and stayed there. So he is following his curve well, which is nice to see! :) I am so annoyed because I have lost Arthur's red book with all his previous chart stats and stuff. I know it's in the house somewhere (ugh, it's such a DUMP!), but I haven't been able to find it for months. The Health Visitor wrote his latest measurements on a slip of paper and put it in Matthew's book instead. Anyway, it's recorded here too, for prosperity!
My desk here is literally AWASH with pieces of paper with things that Arthur has said, written all over them! I am so behind on recording these precious little memories! I keep not getting around to putting them on my diary, so the pile of papers gets bigger and bigger! Some if it is sadly out of date now, and I guess I won't get to record those things. But so that this doesn't happen again, I'm going to get started on some of the things Arthur has been saying recently!
* Looking at photos of Matthew when he was only a few months old: "Awww! Mashew tiny in this picture!" :)
* Driving past a HUGE display of beautiful daffodils one day - we'd previously been discussing about flowers and trees and stuff that God made, etc: "Look at orla (all the) daffo-deews!! God made the daffo-deews! Thank you God for daffo-deews!" We drove round them FOUR more times, he loved them so much!
* Bennie (my brother) and Sarah came round to look at slings and cloth nappies (32 weeks now, wheeee!!), and Arthur took GREAT joy in showing them our entire collection of newborn sized cloth nappies (about 50, plus wraps!), one at a time! He knew much more about them than they did, and handed each one to Bennie in turn, saying, "Dis a wrap.... An' dis is a nappy.... Dis is an insert..." etc! In the end, Bennie was half buried in nappies, and suggested to Arthur that they put the nappies back in the box. Arthur took the first nappy from him, saying, "Good idea, Bennie!" hehe! He sounded like he was a teacher talking to a pupil!
* Giving Matthew a toy to play with (this one is a few weeks ago now): "There Mashew, my swee' dahling..." :)
* After his normal nursing session one morning (again, a few weeks ago now), he asked for some more milk a little while later. I gave him a little and then said no more (it was getting too near to lunch time). He asked, "I like a lilloh (little) bit milk..." And I said no. He said, "I like some TINY bit milk?" and I said he couldn't even have a TINY bit of milk! ;) I went in the kitchen after a while to prepare the lunch, and after a few minutes, Arthur sauntered in casually, running his hand along the fridge as though he had nothing in particular on his agenda, and then hugged my legs gently and looked up at me with the most angelic look on his face. Then, still hugging my legs, he said, "Mummy, swee' dahling?" So I replied, "Yes, Arthur?" and he said, "I'd like some lilloh bit milk!" Smooth-talking little monkey! :) He used his MOST winning tone, and the sweetest cuddle to my legs, and fancy calling me "sweet darling" like that?!!! He knew exactly what he was doing! The WORST thing about it, is that I did nurse him, just a little bit. *sigh* He hasn't used it on me since, so hopefully it wasn't TERRIBLY the wrong thing to do, and he DID eat lunch all the same. But I just couldn't resist his charms, hehe! ;)
He uses funny little phrases in response to things we suggest or say now, that make us laugh all the time. Some of them that I've written down are:
* "I cer'nly DO, Daddy!"
* "That would be nice, wouldn't it Mummy?"
* "Oh, thank you Mummy!" or even, "Thank you for showing me, Mummy!" :)
* He says, "Have a nice day, Mummy!" when I wave him off on his pretend car, and "Be care-foh Daddy! Be care-foh onna ladder!" when Neil goes into the loft - with such genuine concern in his tone! He even couldn't concentrate on a story while his daddy was in the loft, and walked off after a while saying, "I just checking see if Daddy alwight..." and then I heard, "ARE-OOO ALWIGHT DADDY?!!" as he shouted up the ladder! He only came back when Neil had called down that, yes, he was alright thank you, and he would be careful on the ladder coming down. Bless :)
* Matthew was interfering with a game he was playing with his trains one time recently, and Arthur called from the living room (sounding most annoyed!), "I need some help wid dis litter (little) boy!"
* He was sticking the cut n play veggies together and the carrot wouldn't line up JUST SO for him, so he got frustrated and called to me, "I having a problem with the carrot!" I love how easily he communicates issues or frustrations now!
* He's starting to get very serious and sort of acting like he's the grown up person teaching US things, sometimes! A couple of weeks ago, we were driving over a bridge that went across the River Thames, and he shouted from the back of the car, "I see the sea!!" So I started to explain that it was a river, and he interrupted me, saying, "It's act'ly water" in a very serious tone!
* Today he was sitting with me on the sofa, looking up out of the window, and he pointed out and said to me, "You see doze white clouds?" When I didn't respond right away, he repeated the question, so I said, "Oh yes, I see them..." Then he told me, very seriously, "Dat means it gun rain!" and nodded his head at me wisely! It DID rain, an hour or so later!
* One for my personal treasure trove: Arthur finished nursing one time a couple of days ago, and smiled up at me, saying, "That's nice milk, Mummy!" LOVE that one! :) He wanted Noddy to have some Mummy milk later that day, and insisted on tandem nursing with Noddy. He eyed Noddy with some amusement as he nursed, and then I said to him, "Do you think Noddy likes Mummy's milk, Arthur?" and he immediately came off the breast and said, "Ohhh YES!" as though it was crazy to suggest otherwise! :) It's frustrating for me, because Arthur uses the rise and fall of his tone SO much in how he delivers his little sayings, and I CAN'T bring that across here at all. It sometimes makes for more than half the cuteness of what he's saying, so it's frustrating to me that I can't record that here :( But oh well.
* A couple of days ago, we were playing with playdough and he was looking for the parts of a set of coloured stamps to make patterns in the playdough. He found one, and sat up, saying very matter-of-factly, "Well, we've found the green... Now where's the blue?"!! Some of the things he says sound SO grown-up. Most of the time his voice is still so chipmunky and his sayings so sweet in their toddler pronounciations, but sometimes he comes out with a perfectly pronounced, even-toned phrase that makes him sound like a much older child. It's so weird to hear him like that. NICE weird, but it's just something I'm reeeally not used to hearing yet!
* I asked him if he was going to share a toy with Matthew the other day, and he calmly replied, "No. I jus gon' hold it allbyself!"
* "allbyself" is a BIG phrase right now! About 50 thousand times a day, I hear the phrase, "I wan' do it allbyself!!" He can say it more clearly ("all by my self") but he is usually so intense in his frustration over something that he HAS to say it super fast so that it sounds like one word! That's how it is most often used at the moment.
* One time recently, I was cutting something out of a piece of paper, and Arthur wanted to use the scissors when he saw me. I told him that he was too little and that they were for Mummy and Daddy to use. After whining, "But I waaaaant toooo!" and still getting the same response from me, he stopped and looked thoughtful, and then said, "When Ah-yah grown up?..." so I said yes. There was a pause of about, oooh, 5 seconds (!), and then Arthur called out cheerfully, "I grown up now!! I use it now!" :)
* He was watching Matthew one time and suddenly said, "I wish could go out wi Mashew...." (aww!) I explained that Matthew was too little to walk and run with him yet, and he said, "When Mashew grown up..."
* I asked him, "Do you want to go out to the supermarket?" and he answered, "No, I just staying home thinking." He adopted a "musing" pose, semi-reclined on the sofa, with his finger on his chin, and then suddenly he shoved his hand RIGHT down inside his trouser leg to the ankle, and said, "I looking in my pocket!" Funny boy! He comes out with such silly things sometimes! ;)
* At dinner one evening (macaroni cheese and salad):
Arthur: "Mummyyy? What are you chewing?"
Me: "Cucumber, Arthur."
Arthur: "Cucumber?!?! Mummy, don't eat cucumber with the pasta! It weew mess it all up!"
* Last period I had, I came downstairs in the morning and took some painkillers straight away for my cramps. Arthur asked me what I was doing, so I told him I was taking some painkillers because my tummy hurt, here (and I patted my tummy where it hurt). He watched me take them, and then got a pained expression on his face and started patting his tummy in the same spot, saying, "I need some pinker too! I like some tablers just like Mummy. I got a sore tummy too!" I especially love "pinker" for painkillers, and "tablers" for tablets :) Neil calls them tablets, so that's where he knows that one from.
* We were looking at a picture with two mice on it, and I said, "There are two MICE!" Arthur frowned at me and said, "No, not MICE - mouse!" It sounds simple, but I actually found that pretty hard to explain to a two-year-old who doesn't count or understand plurals yet!
Except, on that subject, Arthur has recently started to count to three! In his Toddler's Bible, there are pictures of pairs of animals with the Noah's Ark story. He counts each pair, "One, two" pointing to each animal as he counts. I think that's repetition since I count them with him like that as we look at them all. But there was a donkey on the opposite page to the one with a picture of a pair of donkeys. When I asked, "How many donkeys are there?" he counted the pair, "One, two..." and then pointed to the other one and said, "Three!" He did that several times over the next few days with other pictures in his Bible. And when he only saw one animal, he'd say, "Only one fnail (snail!)... I think the other one disappeared!" and look all worried! So I now know he can count one of something, two things, and identify a third thing as well!
He also finally realised recently that "Mummy haven't gotta willy...." I told him what ladies and girls have instead, the word for which I am not about to write here because of gross googlers, and he repeated the word with such a tone and facial expression of "Oh my gosh, what a completely ridiculous suggestion!" hehe!
Did I tell you that we tried a day of potty training to "test the waters" so to speak (no pun intended, haha!)? It must have been a couple of weeks ago.... Oh, it was the day before Jove's party, so it must have been March 2nd. Anyway, he was eager to put big boy pants on and sit on the potty, so we gave it a whirl. I was not about to go all gung-ho though. I just wanted to be easy-going about it and see how it went. Sitting on the potty got to be NO FUN after about the second time, and the total result over the course of one morning was 0 pees in the potty, and 6 pees in the big boy pants. Thankfully we have 10 pairs of big boy pants! :) There were a few puddles to clean up, which I did not mind cleaning at all. But he got so fed up with going near the potty, and he ended up refusing to let me change him out of pee-soaked pants and trousers, and in the end I just cheerfully told him he had done well wearing his big boy pants today and that we would try it again another day, and changed him into a nappy. He protested HUGELY though. I have read stuff about not stopping once you start with potty training, otherwise the child can feel like they've failed, but when I talked with my mum about it beforehand, she didn't agree with that. She said she had taken a very easy-going approach to potty training, and thought there was nothing wrong with you and your child seeing it as something to "give a try today and see how we go", and then if it doesn't go so well, to cheerfully say that we can try it again another time. It seemed reasonable enough to me, and it made it suddenly SO much easier to embark upon a bit of potty training now that the "all or nothing" mentality had lifted. Mummy said I was dry in the day times by 19 months but not a night for quite a while longer. My brother was a bit older, but he still wet the bed till he was 7 on occasion. She said it was NOT a difficult process, but it was gradual because she took it easy like she suggested. I like that approach, I think.
Anyway. We haven't tried big boy pants since then. I am not sure Arthur's really ready, since he was NOT keen on peeing on the potty. He was very keen to wear the pants and totally happy to do every single pee in them, no matter that it got him wet. He stills sits on the potty now and then when he's out of a nappy for bathtime, say. But I'm happy to wait a while longer. I'm happy to wait, full stop, really. Anyway, I just wanted to make note of that here.
There's more stuff to write that Arthur has been saying - let me just get those written down and then I'll HAVE to stop as it's waaaaay past midnight (and 1am, for that matter, urgh):
* Arthur was eating beans on toast for lunch and I was sitting next to him with Matthew on my lap (late lunch for Arthur, and Matthew was about to go down for a nap, but he was VERY interested in Arthur's lunch!). He said, "Paps Mashew might like some Ah-yah beans?" and offered some on his spoon, tentatively. Matthew ate them eagerly! Arthur asked him, "What d'you think Mashew?" :)
* When we were sorting socks recently, Arthur seemed to decide to give each individual sock a cuddle, for some reason! There were about FIFTY socks!! He took each one in turn and folded his arms over it, tucking it right under his armpit. Then he rocked his arms a little and said, "I just giving that one cuddle.... Ahhh! He's so lovely!... (to the sock:) Ahhh, uv you!" :)
* The other day he peered into the kitchen with a wrinkled nose and a frown, and said, "Dere's a smew (smell) in there...." and he looked over the floor. In a very doubtful tone (with matching expression!), he said, "The floor not look very clean to me.... Dere's a smew in there." I asked him what it smelled like, and he answered, "Smews like dirty..."!! Note: The floor was definitely filthy, but I could not detect any horrible smells in the kitchen, so I don't know where that came from!
* In contrast, we were upstairs after his nap one afternoon and he sat down in the hallway and looked around, and then threw up his hands in surprise, saying, "Wowww! Look how tidy tis HERE!" Hehe! It was NOT tidy, but in comparison to downstairs, it was absolutely pristine ;)
* He talks so sweetly to Matthew! He is always sitting down by him and looking RIGHT into his face to tell him things and explain stuff. I love watching the backs of their little heads and bodies as they sit side-by-side, involved in communication that is ONLY between them and nobody else. I can't wait till Matthew is talking too, to hear the sweet little conversations that will take place between them! Matthew sometimes listens to Arthur with such an earnest expression now. Arthur just chats to him whether he's listening or not, although sometimes if he's clearly NOT listening then Arthur stops to get his attention again!
One time a week or so ago, Arthur was sitting up on the sofa with me. I was eating a chocolate chunk cookie and Arthur was being allowed a rare treat of sitting with me and sharing a piece of my cookie. Matthew was playing with bricks on the floor. Arthur was acting SO proud to be sitting there doing something so privileged and grown up! He started talking to me about Matthew very much as though he was another grown-up with me, and Matthew was the only little one around :) It was more his tone of voice than anything else, that conveyed that. I wrote down the conversation afterwards:
Arthur: "I wonder what Mashew doing?"
Me: "I think he's playing with some bricks. Isn't this a yummy cookie?!"
Arthur: "Oh yes! Iss yummy!"
Having finished, Arthur climbed down from the sofa.
Arthur: "I'm gonta see what Mashew doing!"
Me: "What's he doing?"
Arthur: (goes over and looks carefully, then turns to me with very grown-up expression) "He's playing wid bricks." (nods wisely!) "I'm gonta sit down wi' Mashew... I sitting down next to Mashew."
Me: "Oh, that's good."
Arthur: (turning to look into Matthew's face, and talking to him) "We had a yummy cookie Mashew! An' we had toas' an' pwisps (crisps!) an' yoggut as well! That was nice, waddunt it Mashew?!" He's such a sweetie :)
* Today Matthew was crying SO hard while we were trying to change him for bed. He was tired out and hates being messed with when he's tired. Arthur seemed very concerned and came to sit by his head while we changed his nappy and clothes on the floor. He stroked Matthew's head and held his hand, and leaned right over his face, saying stuff. I couldn't hear what he was saying at first over the NOISE of Matthew's crying, but I leaned in closer and heard Arthur saying:
"It justa bad dream Mashew... It's okay Mashew... I hee you Mashew (I hear you - something I tell him when he's crying and I'm unable to pick him up and attend to him RIGHT at that second)... There's no scary bad coming Mashew, it justa bad dream." Bless his heart! Arthur has been having MANY bad dreams lately, several per night for a while. They are about various things, but recurrent ones are about a "scary man" or the cow, or just something he can't explain. One night he just started shouting for me, not crying, and his voice was absolutely full of terror. He was shouting, "I don't like it Mummy, I don't like it!" So I went in quickly and he was sitting up in bed, trembling so violently. He couldn't even look at me or relax into a cuddle, and he just kept staring at the door. He wasn't asleep, they are always just bad dreams that he wakes from. Usually he cries but this time he seemed too terrified to cry even. It took ages for him to relax enough to have a proper cuddle, but I held him in the meantime and talked soothingly to him. He couldn't tell me what had scared him. He kept saying, "I don' know what it was" or, "It was some-sing... I don' know what..." His voice shook and his body shook, and I just felt terrible for him. I talked to him about what everyone was doing - Matthew was asleep in his cot, Daddy was downstairs watching telly, and Mummy was on the computer, and everything was okay in the house. I asked him if he wanted me to ask God to help him, but he said no, and I did not want to push that further without his consent.
In the end he suddenly sighed and said, "All gone now" and then he stopped shaking after a while and I nursed him and he went back to sleep. The next day I talked on the phone to Mummy about it, and she SUGGESTED that I pray with him!!!!! If you know my looonnnng-term history, my family are not Christians - well, my mum DOES believe in God, but yeah they have never been supportive of my becoming a Christian and all that stuff. So this was a happy moment for me, to hear my mum suggesting that I pray with my little boy!
That night I talked with Arthur at bedtime. We read some stories from his Bible about God helping people, and then I talked to him about how God helps us, and how he loves us. I told him that, if he would like, I could ask God to help Arthur with his scary dreams. He said, "Oh, that would be nice!" hehe! So I told him what I would say when I asked God, and since he still seemed eager, I prayed out loud with him. I just said, "Dear God. Please let Arthur have no more scary dreams. Please help Arthur not be scared any more. Amen." I wanted to keep it really simple for him. Arthur said, "Ah-MEM!" with great enthusiasm :) And then I told him that if he DID have a scary dream that I would come in and cuddle him and we could ask God to help him right then and there, to make him feel better and not feel scared about the dream any more. He seemed happy with that idea, so I nursed him and he went to sleep. He didn't have a bad dream that night, and he hasn't had any in the two nights since either! Praise God!!!! :) If he DOES though, I feel much happier knowing I can go in and we can call on God to help him with his fear.
A few days ago, Arthur saw an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine with an engine called Arthur. We haven't seen that engine before, and at first he was saying, "Nooo, it not Ah-yah!", but then he heard the narrator CALL the engine "Arthur", and then he started to call it "Arsur". That's the first time he has pronounced his name any other way than "Ah-yah". "Ah-yah" is incredibly special to me, and I have LONG been dreading the day he got grown-up enough to stop pronouncing it that way, although I knew it would come. It's just the sweetest little name, the way he calls himself!
Yesterday he used the name "Arsur" for something, and when I asked him to say it again, he said, "Ah-yah". So I knew the end was nigh for my beloved baby name that he's been using! A bit later on that day, we were folding laundry and he was handing me items, naming them as he did so, as usual. He handed me a pair of his trousers and said, "Arsur's trousers..." I looked up in surprise and said, "Whose trousers?!" and he said, "Ah-yah's", but then the next item was handed to me as, "Arsur's seepsoot" and when I asked whose again, he said, "Arsur's" - waaaaahhhh! After that, ALL the items belonging to him were "Arsur's" and sometimes he got the 's' to sound more like 'th' even. A couple of times over the rest of that day, he referred to himself as "Ah-yah", but today he has only called himself "Arsur" or "Arthur" :( I'm sooooooooooo sad. I know you'll think I'm crazy, and it's just something to move on with, and even to CELEBRATE, because it's a big deal that he's finally pronouncing his own name in the proper "grown up" way. But I'm so sad to lose my "Ah-yah"! I'm just so glad to have him on video saying it, many times! My baby boy is growing up so fast.
Okay it's soooo late. I wanted to post photos, but there's just no time left. It's Mother's Day today, or it was. Neil forgot again, just like last year. By noon, I finally just reminded him to phone his own mother and he still didn't really mention anything to me about the occasion. I had to pretty much say, "Um, it's Mother's Day today..." before he said, "Oh, I forgot again! I sort of remember with my own mother but I guess I just don't really make that connection with you!" Hmmm.
Well, I have never been big on Mother's Day anyway, as my mum wouldn't let us celebrate it with cards or presents as she didn't want us exploited by the commercial side of things and spending our money on stuff. So it is not in my heritage, as it were, to celebrate it. BUT, I do feel like I am stretched to the max, giving everything I've got, to the "job" of motherhood. It's wonderful and demanding and rewarding and draining, and I wouldn't rather do ANYTHING else in the whole world. At the moment it's pretty intense, with two little ones, and there's this day that's set apart to acknowledge and celebrate mothers and all that they do, and I just feel like I would like a little recognition on that day from my nearest and dearest, along with all the other mothers out there. So I guess I feel a bit peeved that nothing happened for me on Mother's Day. Nothing happened after Neil remembered either. I did the food shopping, the day went as normal. I DID buy myself a lot of chocolate though ;) Really though, I should be happy enough on Mother's Day that I AM a mother, and that I have been blessed with two beautiful, healthy, happy children who love me. That is enough to feel fulfilled on Mother's Day!
Okay, I have to stop now! You're going to want to beat me about the head with whatever is close to hand when I tell you that it's 2.45am and Monday morning looms with Neil back at work after the weekend. I am stupider than stupid to stay up this late, even for a diary entry, because I KNOW I will seriously not be up to giving all that my little boys need of me tomorrow. And that sucks. I am just going to pray that God will help me tomorrow. Not that I remotely deserve it, but still.
Remind me to tell you about Arthur stuffing a yoghurt-covered raisin up his nose next time. It was nearly a trip to the good old children's A&E again, but thankfully we didn't have to go in the end! That boy...
Recent entries.....
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Christmas Eve! - 2008-12-24
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