Saturday, July 25, 2009

news

Firstly, although I titled the last post 'monkey see', I'd like to point out that I do not feed Ollie by laying on top of him!

Heard at the playground today "Look at me! I'm on a swing!" Our longest sentence yet.

We had been going really well with potty training before Ollie was born, mainly by letting Patrick run around without any pants on. However, we weren't keen to push it afterwards, and then it just got too cold to let him run around bare-arsed. We've been waiting for him to get back into it, and recently he has been obliging: yesterday he went into the bathroom, pulled down his trousers and attempted to rip off his nappy. I'd call that 'ready'. But I'm not sure that day care will agree with Patrick's preferred method of relieving himself: he wants to stand up (like daddy) so the potty is out, but he doesn't want to stand on a stool either. No, he likes to stand up ON the seat and pee into the bowl. So far, he's also peferring to poo in his nappy, so underpants are a good way off yet.

We got a referral to see the ENT specialist about his ears because of the jagged holes I had seen there, and went to see him on Friday. His ears have now healed completely, which is wonderful. It also means we don't have to battle with ear drops. Yay!

Ollie is growing up so fast: he's three months old already, smiling, learning to use his hands and cooing happily at most opportunites. He's in size 00 already which is a pity because all the summer stuff I bought him was 00 and he'll be way too big for that when it warms up. He is sleeping well- most nights from about 1030 until 3 or 4 am for a feed and then again until about 7. Mostly I can convince him to stay asleep after that feed too, so that I can get up, showered, breakfasted and do the same for Patrick too before his next feed at 9. Of course now that I've put it out there, he'll change completely. I can't believe we're already halfway through exclusive breastfeeding and soon he'll hit the solids- it all feels like it is going so very fast this time.

Patrick is an excellent big brother, he loves to kiss and cuddle Ollie (as well as breastfeed him). I'm looking forward to the day they are big enough to play together. Oliver already loves to watch Patick run around the room and smiles at him when he is being talked to. I had been concerned that Patrick might get jealous and resent Oliver for taking up all of my time, but to be honest, if anyone loses out in the attention stakes, it is Oliver: toddlers, apart from being demanding, are also physical too- we regularly get pushed and pulled in the direction Patrick wants us to go!

MrT is finally on his extended leave: 3 months of accrued leave and 3 of long service leave. Strangely, having two adults at home makes everything take longer, which is a surprise, but I can no longer plan my days just around me and the boys. I'm sure we'll work it out... just in time for me to go back to work.

Finally, here is Patrick's latest T-shirt design: I thought it was a nice little play on words. I put it on a red t-shirt: originally i thought black, but that just seemed too obvious. He's going to wear it for the first time tomorrow with his black train pants when we go to the miniature trains; not sure how many of the punters will get the joke.



Speaking of which, I can't decide which of these to get: decisions decisions!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

monkey see...

Thursday, July 02, 2009

NKOTB

Having Oliver has been such a different experience to having Patrick that it's as if I'm having my first baby all over again. For a start, I'm not as depressed as all hell. I have good days and bad days, but overall, it's been amazingly positive. I missed out on so much joy with Patrick, I'm beginning to wonder how I managed to get through it at all.

Oliver is just such a different baby it is hard to believe these two are brothers sometimes. I now know why people say that babies have their own personalities right from the start! As stressy as Patrick was, Ollie is chilled. As blondie as Patrick was, Ollie is dark; as scrawny as Patrick was, Oliver is triple-chinned chubby; as startly as Patrick was, Ollie is snoozy.

But they both are champion boobie gobblers!

To illustrate just how laid back Oliver is, I'll share a story that is as much about my bad parenting as it is about Ollie's personality. We had a picnic lunch the other day at these trains. Whilst T and P were off catching the train to nowhere, I had just fed a snoozy Ollie, and he was laying down on the picnic rug, snuggled up in his blanket. But sleepy as he was, he was just obviously not comfortable. Something was giving him the irrits. I'd just changed him, so I was pretty sure it wasn't nappy related. I'd also not had any coffee or chocolate, so i was pretty sure it wasn't caffeine, either. But every time he looked like he was about to doze off, he'd squirm. And wiggle his head to and fro. Hmmm: maybe it's the wool in his hat that's giving him the shirts, I thought. I pulled it off his head, and there, underneath were two little black ants running around his poor bare noggin.

Now, if this had been Patrick, for a start, there is NO WAY IN HELL he'd just drift off to sleep on a picnic rug. Ohhh no. He would have needed to be swaddled, put in the sling, rocked, patted and sung to for at least an hour before the sceaming settled. And that's even without the ants!

I'm loving Patrick to bits right now, even though he is doing some really, really testing toddler behaviour. Like the running off caper. I thought he'd learned his lesson, but, uh, no. Today as we were leaving the playground he ran the other way. I thought I'dd call his bluff by continuing to walk home and wave good-bye to him. Hm. BAD idea. He waved back. And continued running. I had to park the pram and make a sprint for the opposite end of the park to prevent him from running onto the road. I picked him up and told him I was very, VERY cranky with him. This is normally enough to get a "sorry mummy" out of him, and sometimes even a pouty lip and a sniffle (he's learning remorse! It's awesomely cute). But today he just grabbed my face and started to kiss me, so that I couldn't tell him off any more. (Not quite "get your tongue out of my mouth I'm kissing you goodbye"). Monkey.

The point being that the bad start with Patrick hasn't eroded my love for his awesomeness now, so I can harly wait for Ollie to grow up. It's pretty fun to be me right now.

Mostly.