Little Miss at 9 Months

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Wow so our little lady turns 9 months old this week! Which means she has been in the world for as long as she was growing in my tummy! Her development seems to be coming on leaps and bounds all the time now and for the most part she is a joy to be around. She just beams with happiness when she smiles and melts our heart on a daily basis.

She is keeping us on our toes though. For a while we have been convinced she was going to be a crawler.. And she can do it… Or could if she wanted to. But she doesn’t want to. Nope, like her big brother she would prefer to walk, thank you very much!

So though she can crawl she more often is trying to stand and falls flat bless her… Unless there is something or someone to grab onto. We still had her on the highest cot level until this week but had to lower her after I came in to see her after her nap and found her on her knees, holding the side and about to stand. If she had stood up she basically would have gone head first out of the cot! Eek!

As she wants to walk around that also means we are walking around with her a lot. Not great for our backs unfortunately but I know it will only be in the short term as we did the same with Monkey and he walked pretty early.

Her sleep regression troubles have eased off a little thankfully. My Mum’s tip of rubbing her back helps if she is struggling to settle herself but for the most part she does get herself off to sleep quite quickly again. Phew! Less screaming does make the house feel a lot calmer.

She seems to have settled into a little bit of a routine for the time being… Where she sleeps from 10-1130/12 in the morning,3-4 in the afternoon and then 730pm-6am overnight. It is nice knowing a little bit what to expect but I doubt this routine will last long and, well, I know she can change at any given moment! She does so like keeping me on my toes!!

She is a chatty little thing and been saying dada or jaja indiscriminately for a while and it has been lovely to hear mama or maba come out recently too. I know she doesn’t know what it means but it is still lovely. She is getting more giggly as well and loves being tickled, which is obviously great fun.

She loves people, adores her daddy and still worships her big brother, smiling the second she sees him. She also likes grabbing him, which he takes in good spirits for the most part bless him.

This week we have had a some waving at people which has been lovely and is just another example of how we are entering what I see as the fun stage. Yes it is still hard work, but a little less so and with all of the learning and developments comes a lot of fun for all of us.

Siblings July 2015

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Another month has gone by so time for another siblings update 🙂 LM is getting bigger and more interactive by the day so her and Monkey are having more and more fun together. He loves ‘playing together’ and is generally very good even if she is having a bad morning which disturbs whatever activity he and I had planned.

It’s not all sweetness and light though as there is definitely some jealousy appearing in Monkey too. Nothing major or horrible but he is definitely a bit jealous of the attention his baby sister gets from us and relatives sometimes. Not surprising really as he has had everyone’s undivided attention for the last 3 years but now she is winning people over with her big eyes and sunny smiles!

Her biggest smiles are still reserved for her big brother though so here’s a few shots taken over the last month of our gorgeous pair having fun together.

I just feel so lucky to be their Mummy. It feels so soppy to say that but I look at them playing together, or just alongside each other and my heart melts. Then one of them starts whining or throws a wobbly and normal service resumes once more 😉

Monkey says at age 3

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Monkey is at such a cute age at the moment… I think I say that about every age but he really is and is coming out with the cutest phrases! Here are some of our favourite little comments I would like to record for posterity.

Walking around our local area he likes to comment on just about everything we see, which thankfully brings smiles from passers by in general. Some examples:

Oh look he’s running
That was a very friendly doggy
I don’t think that doggy will eat me
That was a very friendly man

He also likes to say hello to everyone too which is very sweet, and then tells me “I said hello.”

“I said” is one of my biggest bugbears at the moment actually. I ask him a question or tell him not to do something and am met with “ok, I said OK!” in response, which make sme very cross. I heard you the first time and please do not shout at me! I am not sure where he picks that up from but he is such a sponge at the moment and have to be so careful.

My parents accidentally shouted “oh Bugger” when they went the wrong way in the car recently and of course he repeated it – but I very impressed as they have managed to convince him that they said “bother” and he recently announced “Pops says bother!” so phew to that!

He has also picked up a few things from films that I am not such a fan of. He points and tells us what to do and when we have challenged him on it he says “Woody points” as in Toy Story… hmmm. He also pretends to spit and makes a “ting” noise!! Which we are not exactly keen on and I think that came from Toy Story too….. funny how he manages to pick up bad habits from a seemingly innocent film!

It’s not all bad though, he is a big fan of the Disney Cars film and loves Lightning McQueen & Mater, and comes out with the funniest things, including “I am Focus” which is what Lightning McQueen says. In London a few weeks ago we were trying to get him to go quickly down the stairs to the tube and he shouted “I am focus” making us chuckle a lot bless him!

Our cheeky Monkey would be great at the Yes, No game at the moment as he rarely says yes. We ask him questions and he answers with I did, I have, I don’t, I were, I haven’t etc. Its so funny bless him!

He is getting more and more correct in his pronunciations lately and sounding less and les toddler… But there are still a few which we hope hang around.
“Nockynurs” (Binoculars) and “Serbatry” (Conservatory) for example!

We also adore his version of The Grand Old Duke of York. He is always singing something or other and love hearing his own versions of things!

Oh the grand old dukey north
He had some thousand men
He march them up the top of the hill
And march them down again
And when they up eh up
And when they down they down
And when they up they up they up
And when they down they down

He’s a very loving little boy and always tells us how much he loves us. He has also started saying “I love you soo much” when he is a bit sad or when he wants something. Learning emotional blackmail young! And if he gets told off he does the same. Yes I love you too darling but you must be more careful not to kick your sister in the head!!

I’m probably forgetting a few lovely phrases but that’s enough for now and in the words of Monkey “Goodbye Darlings”

Stealth Shuffling & Sleep Regression at 8mths

Posted by Caroline Elliott

We have been having a bit of an interesting time with our Little Miss of late. In many ways she has settled down, her teething and reflux aren’t bothering her quite so much and on the whole she is a very happy, sunny, smily baby and she can be a joy to be around. But she has reached a point where she very much wants to be on the move and that is making things interesting.

For quite a while now she has been really content to sit and play with toys. Honestly it has been amazing as Monkey never really did this. She focuses so intently on toys and can sit for ages and entertain herself while I play or craft something with Monkey or potter about with some jobs.

Now though, she so wants to explore wider surroundings. She is desperate to crawl and making slow progress towards being able to, with lots of rolling onto her tummy and pushing up. She also has quite an amazing skill, the stealth shuffle.

I mentioned a while ago that she liked to bum shuffle in the bath and she now does that in front of her eyes. But the interesting thing is that it is very difficult to detect her movement. She leans forward and sits back up and twists and turns around but seems to be in the same spot… but then all of a sudden she is on the over side of the room and we weren’t really aware of the move happening!

Nanny & Pops looked after her today and even they remarked on it. Our little stealth shuffler!

It won’t be long until she crawls either so we need to be even more vigilant about what is on the floor or within reach of little arms. A whole new world 🙂

Blurry shot… but you get the idea!

She is also moving around in bed a lot too and as a result we are struggling a little at nap times and bedtime which, to be honest, is driving us potty. We sleep trained quite young and she has been a fantastic sleeper, as long as she is tired and nothing else is bothering her. But lately even when she is tired and we can find nothing else to be the matter she is miserable about going to sleep and gets very very unhappy.

She also moves herself all over the cot and we come to check on her and find her rolled over, turned sideways, back to front, legs stuck through bars and all over the place. I won’t go into details but it has been stressful and there has been lots of rocking to sleep at a loss of what else to do sometimes.

I’ve read that 8 month sleep regression is common, though again it wasn’t something we experienced with Monkey,and are hoping it is just a phase! Anyone else been through this?

Once she is asleep she still sleeps well and wakes up very happy… we are just at a bit of a loss as to how we can help her remember how to fall asleep in her bed again!

Shared Bathtime & Silliness, Siblings June 2015

Posted by Caroline Elliott

With Little Miss getting older and more fun by the day her relationship with her big brother is really growing. She is now so stable when sitting up which has made a huge amount of difference – especially at bathtime! Sharing bathtime is just one of those childhood experiences isn’t it? Who doesn’t have photos of them with brothers and sisters sharing a bath? It is definitely something we were keen to start with our little siblings now that LM is reaching an age where they can have some fun together.

Sometimes they play seperately but LM just gazes at her brother in adoration the whole time.

She also loves splashing like mad (which gets both them and us soaking wet) and then looking to her brother for approval, which is just so cute!

I am looking forward to lots more bathtime fun with the two of them over the next few years!

There’s lots of other fun times now that LM is more and more engaging and is desperate to interact with her brother. Sometimes they play nicely and he will share his toys “Here you go” but other times he is less happy to share – which I think is pretty inevitable!

And just for silliness, I love this little sequence of photos. Sat together on the sofa, Monkey is trying to drink his milk but LM decides she wants it… as of course she wants whatever her big brother has. On this occasion he took it in good humour, but I am sure this will cause arguments in the future lol!

How have your siblings been getting on this month?

Monkey turns 3…

Posted by Caroline Elliott

My little Monkey turns 3 this week and I can’t quite believe it.

Three years since I became a Mummy! I look at him running around and chatting and singing and lolloping like a teenager and I wonder where he came from. Do you ever feel like that? My friends look at me like I am potty when I say that, but sometimes I find it hard to reconcile him with the baby that was created inside me.

Don’t worry I am not going to get all deep or profound, I just want to make a little record of everything that makes Monkey Monkey, as he turns three. The good and the bad. As he simultaneously amazes and frustrates me on a daily basis!

A lot has happened in the past year and he really has grown up so much, sometimes he seems so mature… but of course he is still a little tot really. Considering the fact that he was barely speaking at all this time last year, his speech is incredible now and improving all the time. We are suddenly realising that a lot of his babyish pronunciations are being replaced by the correct word. For example “cuityet,” became “biscuityet” and is now “Biscuit.”

He now questions everything ‘What you doing?’ ‘Where’s daddy?’ and my most recent favourite ‘What’s it all about guys?’ to hubs and I – not sure where he picked up that one! Like a sponge he is picking up words and phrases all the time and parroting them back, sometimes in the right context but not always! He is really trying to grasp the concept of time too, and sometimes he gets it right ‘we saw Uncle Simon yesterday’ and other times not ‘I went to play group tomorrow’ or ‘we going to the traypark (playpark) yesterday ‘

His imagination is amazing and just growing all of the time. He held up a piece of bread the other day and announced ‘look it’s a whale’ (and it was very whale shaped) then took a bite and said ‘now it’s a boat!’ In the same way that he saw a whale in his slice of bread, he sees letters everywhere too, in shapes that form in his bath bubbles, in the sand pit and in the lentils we play with. He loves letters but has retained his love of numbers too, randomly counting to 40 on a family walk, and reading the side of a measuring jug we are playing with, so he recognises numbers in the hundreds and thousands!

His imagination is helping at playtime too, playing with trains the other day he grabbed some cuddly toys and announced ‘tickets please’ and made them all give him pretend tickets, and he gives all his toys voices too which is just adorable. On another occasion, we had loads of fun playing with his motorbike outside where he wheeled up to my ‘petrol station’ (the swing) and paid me to fill up the tank (using a bubble wand) then I had to give him his keys, hehe. Almost everything has the potential to be a rocket ship too… with crayons, toy screws, cars and all sorts being vooshed around the house until I made him a very basic rocket which he loves!

He sings all the time and at the moment his favourites are the Postman Pat and Bob the Builder theme tunes, which he knows pretty much word perfectly (even if it does sound a little like ‘Postman Pat is a black and white cat’ sometimes).

He is such a caring little boy for the most part frequently giving us all (including LM) cuddles and saying ‘I love you so much’ which melts my heart everytime. He quite often asks us ‘are you ok?’ and when he is playing with cars now tells me to be careful so I don’t slip… potentially as a result of seeing me slip more than once!

He loves helping (which is great as it is often a good way to persuade him to do something) and particularly loves helping Daddy in the garden.

He also loves making his sister laugh, which is lovely.

On the flipside he is going through a fearful phase and seems to have a little separation anxiety. He has been having ‘bad dreams’ and getting scared of things he isn’t usually afraid of, including episodes of Postman Pat that he was watched many many times before.He says he misses us when he goes to playgroup and gets upset about going even though he does have fun when he is there. He is increasingly jealous of LM now and wants our attention when we are looking after her. Again getting upset at times which is hard.

He had to go in the buggy so he could play with the toys that are there for LM!

But then he is so contrary too and sometimes when we give him our attention he doesn’t want to know… but of course when we are busy he desperately wants our attention. He would swear black is white sometimes and if we say no we don’t have something, he will insist we do, which when we really don’t is incredibly frustrating! Though I suspect he is just being a normal three year old so try not to let it irk me too much.

Although we have times where he drives me a bit crazy, for the most part he is such a lovely little boy and I am so proud of him and I can’t quite believe he is my little boy.

Proud of my Monkey

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I only wrote an update on what Monkey is up to at the moment last week, but then he went and did two things that made me so darn proud to be his Mummy that I just have to share them.

Standing up for himself

We went on a playdate to one of our fave soft play places last week with good friends. Monkey and his friend were having a lovely time going up the steps and down the slide while us Mums were having a natter and playing with LM. Then to my right I suddenly saw an altercation.

A little boy, younger than Monkey but walking and talking (so difficult to gauge age) hit Monkey. I’m not sure why but Monkey was half climbing the step and had turned back and the little boy was standing on the floor and had hit him. Instead of hitting back, Monkey loudly and clearly said “Stop it!” to the other little boy (I hung back, it is always good to see if things can be sorted between themselves). Unfortunately the other boy then spat in Monkey’s direction and actually slapped him in the face.

Of course I intervened and started to say “Excuse me, that is not nice” but the boy’s daddy ran over and told him off and made him apologise. The point though? My lovely Monkey didn’t hit back, didn’t retaliate, but he did stand up for himself, using words, not violence.

That made me HUGELY proud of him. So proud it brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. His skin is like mine and turns red very easily so he had a bright red cheek for a while and the thought of him being hurt by another child also makes me quite protective!

I was also proud as he didn’t let it bother him. He didn’t get upset by it or stop playing. In the not too distant past an altercation like this would have really rattled Monkey. He would have been scared of the other child and of all other children for a while. This time last year he was terribly afraid of other children after being knocked over. So the fact that he was absolutely fine afterwards is just another sign of how grown up my little Monkey is getting. Definitely a proud mummy moment!

Naming his drawings

Slightly less dramatic but another proud moment was when Monkey was doing some painting at the weekend. He actually started to tell me what he was drawing. In the past when i have asked him what he is drawing or painting he has sort of looked blankly while he splodged paint around and said “I don’t know.”

This time though I didn’t even ask but he proudly announced that one painting was a plane, “Dusty Crophopper” from the film Planes to be precise, and that the blue splodges were footprints.

Then, my favourite, he painted a rocket ship with fire coming out of it!

His imagination is really growing lately and he is coming on leaps and bounds all the time and may be a daft one but again I was just so so proud of him for drawing actual things and telling me what they were.

Oh yes and here he is really proud of his “rainbow finger” too.

I love being his Mummy 🙂

My word of the week this week is, proud.

Little Miss at 6 mths

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I’m a little late with Little Miss’s 6 month update as we were away on holiday when she turned 6 months, but here she is on the day she turned 6mths old. Our little beauty! I can’t believe we made her, I just can’t!

I got her weighed this week at 6mths 1 wk and she is doing really well. Despite losing a little weight when she had Bronchiolitis and didn’t want to eat, her love of solids and her milk has meant she has put the weight back on and more, which is obviously is wonderful news and she is now 15lb8oz

So yes the weaning is going really well, for the most part. We have gone for the traditional puree style weaning as we started at a little younger than 6 mths, and because we found it worked well with Monkey. (I will go into more of this in a future post). Initially I made purees for her and just had jars on days out but while we were on holiday, jars were the easiest thing as I didn’t fancy making purees on my holidays! The problem being that now she mainly wants to just eat the jars and won;t touch any of the lovely healthy purees I am making at home. Which is really frustrating! So, for the sake of less stress, while we will keep trying her on homemade purees, we are using a lot of jars… so bring on the orange food I guess!

Meanwhile she is the oddest child when it comes to drinking her milk. She hates being held to feed and is much happier lying down while drinking (?) where she can wriggle around to her hearts content and have a good nosey at what is going on around her. Seriously, we get into the oddest positions while feeding her!

She also has a serious aversion to socks and they get pulled off all the time. We tried sock-ons but she pulls those off too and shoves them (and the sock) in her mouth and well the sock-ons felt like more of a choking hazard than anything so they have gone by the wayside now 😕

So what else is she doing? Chatting. Lots and lots of chatting which is adorable. It stopped for a bit but has come back with a vengeance again and is adorable. Here is a little clip of her chatting away in the bathy 🙂

She’s laughing a lot more now too and we have a gorgeous video of that but it has been vetoed as we make her laugh by saying her name over and over!

She’s not sitting unsupported yet, which is totally normal, but we had hoped she would be by now. Monkey was very stable sitting by 6 months and it is difficult not to compare… although he was a tummy sleeper from a few mths old so I guess he built up his muscles sooner than she has. We are eager for her to be able to sit properly though!

She still loves grabbing and Daddy’s ear is very much a target for her little hands at any opportunity. She also likes grabbing anything and everything that is in reach too, so we are having to be careful about where her little arms are heading! SHe is so inquisitive though and just loves grabbing and eating anything she is able to get her hands on!

Still no real routine in sight and actually it was ok while we were away as she was flexible and fit in to our plans easily. Now we are home it would be lovely if she settled down, but so far she is more up and down than ever and one day she barely slept at all! She is so good at night though (apart from the 530am starts some days) so we can’t really complain

Another exciting little development is that we have discovered today that our little lady has her first tooth! Very exciting. Not sure why I feel so proud of her about it… but I do 🙂

She also loves her walker now and is starting to scoot about in it, especially when trying to reach a toy she can gum (now semi-chew) to death!

So there we have it, our little lady at just over 6 mths old – how the time flies eh?

Monkey visits the Theatre!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

For a while now I have been thinking about taking Monkey to see a show, and wondering how he would get on. There are so many great shows out there aimed at kids but none of the big ones seem to come to our nearest theatre and I was loathe to take a big trip to one for him then to hate it and want to leave immediately. Shortly after Christmas Auntie Ericha called with a leaflet from our local theatre giving the names of a few child-friendly shows, and, after a bit of umming and ahing I decided that it was worth a go. So this weekend the three of us (Monkey, Auntie Ericha and I) headed off to the theatre for Monkey’s first ever show!

We went to see a puppet show called Arthur’s Dreamboat, which is aimed at ages 2-8, perfect for Monkey at 2 years 9mths. It is about a boy named Arthur who has a dream about a wonderful boat. He wakes in the morning and wants to tell his family about his amazing dream but they are all too busy to listen to him. He has a boat on his head that grows the more people he tells and eventually the boat gets big enough for all of them to sit in!

Monkey did really well at the theatre, he sat really quietly to wait for it to start although he did keep asking how long it was until it started, thankfully it only started a few minutes late, when most of the stragglers had arrived! When the lights went out he wanted them to be turned back on but thankfully was ok with the dark once the show started. The little boy behind who I guess was a similar age got very unhappy at the darkness and cried his head off – I did worry that the crying would be contagious but he did really well and thankfully the little boy behind us calmed down too.

One of the first puppets to come on was a dog which Monkey did not like “don’t like that” and again I worried that this was the beginning of the end. Thankfully though he did enjoy the people puppets and when they were on he sat mesmirised watching and listening… but every time the dog came on, which was supposed to be funny, Monkey hid bless him! Not sure why really, most of the other children seemed to love it!

There is a bit where Arthur’s baby sister was hitting a lobster and Monkey really chuckled along. He was grinning away too, though it was so difficult to get a good shot of him in the dark I did manage to get a few pics!

We had a lovely time and I think he did really well as it was a totally new experience. It was 45 mins long and that is about the longest he has ever sat still, even when watching his favourite “postman pat film” at home he is usually up and down and all over th eplace while watching it so this was really good. Maybe we aren’t too far away from taking him to see a longer show, or even to see a film at the cinema!

Siblings February

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I am loving watching our two little’uns grow together, and joining in with the Siblings Linky really makes me stop and notice their relationship. At the end of January I wasn’t sure whether I would have much to join in with this month. Monkey seemed content to ignore his little sister for the most part and any display of affection was far too fleeting to capture. He loves her, he talks about her all the time and names the 4 of us and regularly talks about how we are a family. When naming characters he sees in books he always a finds a little one that can be called LM , but he didn’t seem that bothered with her.

Then he seemed to see that she is growing and changing. We have his old jumperoo down which fascinates him by itself (yes he has tried to get in it, no that is not happening :)!) and he loves it when she is in it. She isn’t overly excited by it yet I have to admit but he legs it over to her whenever she is in it, to show her all of the toys “look a sun, look a rainbow.” He insists on squeezing behind it, next to the wall and crouching down to her level where he sits grinning at her and stroking her, or rather tickling her “tickle, tickle!”

LM has been a little bemused although as always she loves watching her big brother. Then a couple of days ago I hear a shout from Monkey “look it’s happy, it’s happy!” as LM was giving him a huge grin. Bless him, need to work on “she” I think rather than “it” but he was so pleased to see her smiling at him!

So here are some cutie shots of Monkey and LM starting to have fun together! (And yes, Monkey had a haircut in between some of these shots :))

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

development

Little Miss at 9 Months

Siblings July 2015

Monkey says at age 3

Stealth Shuffling & Sleep Regression at 8mths

Shared Bathtime & Silliness, Siblings June 2015

Monkey turns 3…

Proud of my Monkey

Standing up for himself

Naming his drawings

Little Miss at 6 mths

Monkey visits the Theatre!

Siblings February