Since we last saw you...

Isaac's had a birthday

we've been to some play groups

we've taken Rinny for walks

Isaac's kicked some footballs

we've hung out with friends and tried on their sun glasses [post cake]

Isaac' been to a Halloween party with his sisters

and we've done a fair bit of mucking about

We've also had our fair share of tantrums, snotty noses, bloody lips, nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!s, heart ache and tears. It's all about balance, right?

Life is still settling. We'll get there and hopefully my words will come back too and I can articulate myself again. Until then eh?

Pre birthday update

Hello pie fans!

Well, it's been a few weeks at least...actually a whole month (again, I know) since any Isaac related news. So here goes.

Isaac is now TEN DAYS shy of his second birthday. WTF? WHEN? When did my little baby boy suddenly nearly become TWO?! Best get on with birthday presents and cake!

Until a few weeks ago he didn't like slides. He could climb up them, but then didn't know how to do the next bit and no amount of Mummy help would teach him. Then we were at a local messy play morning (that happened to have a slide) and he observed a little girl's technique. Now? There's no stopping him! Literally. He spent half an hour sliding that day. The next time we went to a kids play area he spent another good half hour sliding. He can't get enough! Everywhere that has a slide must be slid upon. He loves the sliding. Nuff said.

He has lots of new words and ways to express himself now too. He says penguin! But called them pengas (with a soft g). TOO CUTE! It's because we have a lovely book (Me by Emma Dodd) that we read at night. I ask him which one he wants and it's usually either 'penga' or 'beebee' (Star Baby by Margarent O'Hair). He loves his bedtime stories. 

And talking of bedtime. I got him a duvet this week to see how he gets on with it. I plan to take the side off the cot soon and want him to be used to sleeping without his sleeping bags before we take the plunge. They've been so incredibly helpful, but I think it's time to move on, especially as I'm starting to think about potty training...but not quite yet. 

Other favourite words include: "Mum! Look!" "Where go?" accompanied by open hands gesticulating 'where?' "Cake" remains a firm favourite. Anyone would think that the boy lived on cake and cake alone. I do feed him a range of foods (when he'll eat them)! Cake seems to be a general term for food or being hungry. He knows "cook" now too and takes great pleasure in telling me that I'm cooking. There are loads, seriously. They all make me smile and some of them make me chuckle. He's ace.

He sees me with my Mummy bag of endless pockets and depth and apparently decided that he wants one too! He purloined this one of mine during an unpacking fit one day and gets very upset if he has to go anywhere without it. I decided I didn't really like it being dragged everywhere because it's one of my favourites so I have made him one of his own in a messenger style. It's pretty good, even if I do say so myself. It will get its own glorious post when I get around to taking pictures of it!

This was taken last Sunday on a walk up at Shipley Country Park. Yet another lovely place to walk the dog and take Isaac to see greenery and wildlife. He loved looking at the birds and the big pond there. He's very good at walking and walks nearly all the way into town without wanting to be picked up now. That's pretty good for one with such little leggies! We still use the hip seat, but much less now as he boldly strides about checking everything out.

The best thing I've bought for him to play with this summer has been his sand and water table from ELC. Hands down. He'll spend an hour at this thing playing with the sand. The water didn't do so well and ended up as part of the sand, so now it's just sand in there. Admittedly he chucks the sand all over the garden, but hey, he's having fun. That's the main thing. 

He still loves his books and we've snuck in a few episodes of Timmy Time on the BBC iPlayer. My GAHD he LOVES TT. Seriously. Then again I love it too. It's beautifully made, has simple story lines without (like a lot of kids TV) being horrifically dumb and makes us both chuckle. We love how different the characters are; even the two grown up characters in it are a hoot! 

Enjoying Mummy's hairband.

On a more serious note: he seems to be adapting well to our new house and living without Daddy. They see each other every other evening and every other weekend. He gets to see his sisters a fair bit too which is important because he loves them so very much. It's important for them to see him too, of course. I'm sure the change in circumstances will have affected him, but I'm doing all I can to make things right for us. We're still busy meeting up with people (when parcel collection doesn't scupper our plans gah!) and going out to parks and on dog walks etc. Busy keeps us happy. He met his French cousins for the first time last week which was great - they all got on famously!

We're headed south this weekend to scatter Grandpa over the Solent and pay our final respects. It will be emotional I'm sure. The whole family will be together again which will be nice. Blended family is a strange one, but seemingly the norm these days. Isaac will grow up not knowing any different. For that I am grateful; he won't remember Mummy and Daddy being together so less pain there than if he did...I hope? Only time will tell. 

Anyhoo, back to happy thoughts of the all important second birthday! See you next month? Or maybe before...

Boy in a box!

You know the general consensus that the box is always better than the toy? Well, here's all the proof you need.

And then it was June

Where does the year go? I blink and I haven't posted anything for over a month (again, I know). I've been sorting out pictures this morning and the month of June so far is looking shockingly empty Isaac photo-wise. The ones I do have are taken on my phone, so not the greatest quality.

Isaac continues to be a source of joy and happiness for me. He's always up to something hilarious which is really him learning, but could just as easily be mistaken for him trying to make me laugh. His latest favourite thing is a battered old Roses tin from Halloween a few years past. He likes to sit in it, wear it as a hat, throw it around and generally terrify the dog with the loudness of it. Poor Rinny looks like she's going to have a heart attack sometimes, but how to and indeed why kerb the enthusiasm of a child? It's tremendously difficult to snap him these days so most pictures are a blur of Wiggler!

He's recently discovered his pockets and loves to put things in them. We recently went on a short shopping trip to a local home store and I asked him if he wanted to take some toys with him. Off he went to find George Pig (borrowed from Roisin) and his little brontosaurus and put one in each pocket.

He's much more precise with a pen now and his scribbles are very controlled. I'm interested to see what he will draw when he'd older as I understand that boys draw differently to girls, not so much the things/objects.

He's in his own big room now so all his toys are up there with him. He really loves it and it means we have mostly reclaimed the living room! It also means his sisters' room stays tidy when they aren't here.

He's such a clever little boy. I know I'm going to say things like that because he's my son, but he really is a clever one. He always gives us his plate when he's finished. He's more than capable of drinking out of a regular glass at meal times. He loves to put his books and toys away when he knows it's time to do s. His words are coming along now and he'll try to copy me when we're reading a book. He particularly enjoys Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Goodnight Moon, Star Baby and For Just One Day. He still loves his Richard Scarry book and we keep that in his room so we can ready him different bed time stories. I'm getting very excited about reading him longer bedtime stories as he get older, bigger books like The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, Just So Stories. Then there are Grimm's Fairy Tales, Aesop's Fables etc and the myriad new books in the children's literature section of the book shops that I haven't even begun to explore yet...there a just so many truly great books that I've known and loved that I want to share with him! I think it's important to share stories and toys from times gone by because, if I'm honest, kids culture these days scares me a little in that it seems to treat children like imbeciles, not little people who are going to be adults one day. I just hope his love of stories and books continues.

Trying on hats in H&M

He has a very serious side too where he's desperately trying to tell me something, but he just doesn't have the words yet. Gesture helps us a lot in understanding him and he understands pretty much everything we say to him. His attention span is phenomenal for one his age; he'll quite happily sit and play with the same thing very intently for up to twenty minutes! I was playing with him on & off with the same thing for an hour the other day! Of course there are times when he'll pull out every single toy in his room and not be interested in one of them for longer than thirty seconds. Some of his favourite toys include cars, dollies, his push along clacky dinosaur and his farm animals.

He likes walking around the shops with me; he'll chat to the shop assistants, peruse rails of clothes (with some of the cutest/funniest faces you've ever seen) and sample textures and smells, he likes to take things off shelves and then re-stack them - he never leaves a mess. I'm really a very lucky Mama! He LOVES the shoe department the most, particularly massive high heels! I guess it's because he doesn't see them at home so they are a novelty.


HE EATS VEGETABLES NOW! Almost forgot that! How? Simon and I have decided to change our diet and eat more simply during the week (steamed vegetables, grains and a simple sauce) so we thought we'd implement the change on Isaac too and so far no complaints. He's eaten butternut squash, ASPARAGUS!, potato, carrot, and green beans! We are most pleased. He also like lentil dahl as long as it's whizzed up to a smooth paste. He LOVES bread and is always asking for toast. Since he decided to eat vegetables I'm much more relaxed about his vitamin & mineral intake and if we have a bad day then I'm not so stressed. Some meals he'll eat loads and then at others next to nothing. We're all trying to limit our cheese intake and highly processed foods such as Quorn and tofu which looks to be more achievable now. Happy lady! Eating out is now much easier as a result also and waitresses and waiters alike are powerless to resist his cheeky grim and charm. Eating out food that tends to be cheese related because obviously that's all that vegetarians eat. When are restaurant management going the EDUCATE THEMSELVES?! Pigs may fly.

Lunching with Mama

So, that's enough waffle for this month. I shall leave you with the Wiggler doing his ghost impression. Not that he knows what a ghost is, but it was a very good impression none-the-less complete with shouting and staggering!

Crazy child...

We ain't been up to much...

...just pottering around the house & garden.

Click image to enlarge

Blanket Love 2

Click image to enlarge 

As I've said before, he really does love this thing!

Rain + wellies = happy boy

20 months today!

He certainly is!

Writing about someone/thing regularly is like when you see a person everyday; you don't always notice the changes you would if you only saw them periodically. Being able to go back and look through these pages to see what Isaac was doing a certain amount of time ago is truly great. I've never kept a written record of anything for this long; sure we take photographs and smile when we flick through them, but to see, in black and white, your own words describing sensations and emotions from events past is really quite special. I'm so grateful that it is so easy these days to keep loved ones up to date with things they may not otherwise hear about entirely, proven by Nanna's many trips away and Grandad's recent four month trip to India (from which he has now safely returned - welcome back Grandad!)

Seven weeks ago Isaac was walking confidently at home, but not so well out and about. Now he's off! Everywhere! Properly! When he wants to go faster he does this funny forward lean that reminds me a little of Good Robot Bill & Ted. He much prefers walking over being carried, but still asks to be carried occasionally. It's (understandably) usually when he's tired or unsure of somewhere. We use the hip seat more than the carrier now, preferring it for its ease in getting Isaac on & off quickly while he's transitioning to independence. We still use the carrier for long periods, e.g.: our walk on Dartmoor; we used it successfully on my back for the first time then too. Now he's bigger the back position seems to feel better than it did before. Hip position still dubious.

We made the decision to not use reigns: we are fortunate that much of our outdoor high street is pedestrianised and that many of the pavements in town are wide. Isaac doesn't like walking along side busy roads too much yet; he doesn't really run off or make us chase him when we're out (give it time, you say) and he knows to stay close to us so the idea of them seemed a bit redundant. He's developed the kid thing of walking into people's paths which I guess I did and you did and every child that's learning to walk tall in the world does. Most people aren't bothered by it which is nice.

The major development has been his words and little phrases. It's all very exciting! He's been babbling Isaac speak for months and months and month and his grown up words have been brewing for a while, but now they're tumbling out of his little mouth! Shoes! I wan s-tory! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! (Rinny - possibly his favourite word) Am fiiiiished! (I'm finished) Nanny! Daddy! Mummy! Byyyyyyyyyyyye! No! Mmmm! (yes) Brush teeeee! (brush teeth) Fish! (thank you Tracey :-D) Toast! House! Down! Out! Door! Obviously the babbling continues which is just too cute, but it's lovely to hear him use grown up words to help him understand us.

A few miscellanea:

Nap times are still settling. Until today, for about two or three months, Isaac has had only one, two hour day time nap either before or after lunch which has been fine. Today he's had a morning nap of about three hours, but I'm not convinced he'll last until bedtime! What is it they say? A well rested baby sleeps better at night than a tired one? We shall see...again.

He has started to gingerly climb out of his car seat on his own.

He found his nose the other day. Delightful!

I had my first night away from Isaac four weeks ago when I went to stay with a friend in London. It was all good and nothing went wrong, not did either of us feel anxious about it at all. Win!

Isaac is now officially dog biscuit giver. No complaints from Rinny since the hand over.

He likes to flash his belly at us! It's so funny and he knows it's funny which makes it even funnier!

He's had his first proper haircut.

We've abandoned snacks completely. I'm not really sure why we included them in his daily eating regime, other than the girls have always had them and our HV said we should. However, we get on better without them. The End. (©RR)

On the whole things are going well right now (phew!) The sun has been shining lots which keeps us outdoors and busy. Isaac continues to make us chuckle and smile regularly and helping him learn about his world is staggeringly brilliant!

We're all really looking forward to summer; winter seemed awfully long this year. We've got lots of things planned so I'm sure it'll fly by at a rate of knots. The kids (and us if we're honest) can't wait for this year's Just So Festival. It'll be totally different now Isaac is walking and he'll be two weeks shy of his second birthday. Hopefully some other festivals too, if finances prove favourable, and definitely some camping, barbecues, visits with friends and days out in general thrown in for good measure.

Meet the blanket

Isaac has a blanket. It is the blanket from his pram and early on he forged an unbreakable bond with it. He doesn't sleep very well without it which has pros & cons. He'll sleep pretty much anywhere with it. Without it, we're basically screwed. As the whole Premium Economy section of our flight to Newark found out recently when the air hostess took it away to stow for landing (because a blanket is, like, so dangerous and heavy and pointy sharp!!) and he screamed. For 45 minutes. Traumatised, distraught, nothing-Mummy-can-do-about-it-right-now-until-the-plane-lands-and-the-captain-turns-off-the-seatbelt-sign screams. Thanks lady! 

Recently he's started to go upstairs to pull it out of his cot and drag it around the house with him. He looooooooooves this blanket and is remeniscent of Charles Schulz's Peanuts character Linus (who was secretly always my favourite character in the comic/cartoons). I wonder if he'll be like Linus or if the blanket is just for show? Anyhoo, he's perfectly happy being a pretender to the Linus throne so who am I to complain!

Isaac's excited face

Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls. I'm delighted to have captured on camera Isaac's very-excited-about-something-usually-food-related face. This face is a source of many giggles and guffaws at meals times for our family. He knows how to play it and that it'll get us going. When this face comes out we know we're onto a winner.

Without further ado: The Face.

Walking walking everywhere!

That's right folks, Isaac is officially walking! 

On his own. 

I'm so pleased! 

He's a sneaky snap I took of him at the park a few weekends ago. This particular walking episode lasted approximately 25 seconds and ended with him face-planting the slide. Earlier that day he also kissed the concrete and cut his little nose. So understandably, he prefers to walk at home more than out and about just now. He's practising where he knows it's safe before he unleashes his awesome new skill on the general public properly!

It's obvious that he wants to play on the climbing frames, but isn't quite sure what with the other children running around; it must be quite daunting really. He's quite a sensible and sensitive chap in many respects, this being one of them.

Continuation of a theme

So he still seems to like books!

Not sure if "Who's Who In The Ancient World" is what all 17 month old boys like to read, but seems to be gripping stuff...for 5 minutes at least!

So what did you do this Valentine's Day?

We did a little painting...

I know now what my primary school art teacher, Mrs O'Connell, meant by "the famous brown"!

How to be an Isaac for 20 minutes

Step 1: climb stairs

Step two: act guilty

Step three: gaze longingly into sister's room

Steph four: bask in laundry box

Fifth and most important step: pull faces at and admire self in mirror

Update, as promised.

This photo was taken at Fort Lauderdale beach on 23rd January 2011. Only a week has passed since then, but it seems that Isaac is quite different now. It serves to remind me that some things are inevitable and it's nice to remember them, even if they do all happen within a very short space of time.

Isaac has totally weaned himself from my breast milk. I always thought I'd be more upset about this than it turns out I am. I know that if he still needed it then he wouldn't have weaned himself, and he did wean himself. I continued to offer and he just didn't want it anymore. When they're done, they're done and that's the end of that. It's as though my body knew too. My breasts haven't swelled up to epic proportions, but I guess the amount he was taking gradually diminished and so my supply steadily decreased until it stopped production. As Vinnie Jones once said "it's been emotional", but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Our young man now wants to walk everywhere that he can. He LOVES walking. I think he'd prefer to never be carried again actually and seemingly never tires. It's been lovely while Simon's been here because we've held a hand each while Isaac confidently and carefully places one foot in-front of the the other between us. He really is very good and I'm sure, with a little more practice, that he'll be off on his own and, as everyone we meet delights in telling us, then the fun will really start.

He's had a growth spurt while he's been here and so now wears size 12-18 months. Finally he's the same age as his clothing size! Not that that is important at all, rather it feels strange not calculating sizes and weather! He's also outgrown his shoes and now measures a size 4 in the US which equates to bigger than 3 1/2, but not quite a 4 proper in the UK. Confused much? The only problem now is I can't bring myself to get rid of his old shoes. I've kept his first pair, but he was in and out of those so quickly that his second pair seem more like his first. Aah...silly old sentimental bugger.

Before he came away Isaac had a terrible time with teething, so much so that we resorted for the first time to the dreaded Calpol. It wasn't a decision we took lightly, but he was in so much pain that he couldn't nap and subsequently couldn't sleep. We've managed his teething well using Chamomilla and Gumomile until this point. He only had Calpol a couple of times, but it did the trick and he was able to sleep. Soon after arrived two bottom molars and two upper incisors...four teeth simultaneously!

So those are some changes we've experienced recently, but there's so much more that happens daily to make me realise how much of a little person he is now: his vehement dislike for vegetables (we keep trying in new and ingenious ways to no avail), his waving and saying goodbye to people and more recently saying "hiya" and waving hello, reactions to different things I whisper in his ear, the habitual fight at nappy changing time, his continued comical use of objects as telephones, his preferred use of a fork and spoon to fingers when eating, giving us proper kisses on the cheek at bedtime, how he looks at me to see what my reaction will be...this list is by no means exhaustive.

When I was younger I never understood why people wanted to have children, I found the idea (along with marriage) bewildering and somewhat ridiculous. Now, as I sit here pondering the life Simon and I created, there isn't a flicker of doubt that remains in my mind as to why we did. Isaac is the greatest joy, heartache, frustration and love I have ever experienced. I don't expect everyone to understand and I'n not saying children are for everyone, but I make no apologies for how I feel.