Showing posts with label playing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label playing. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

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!



Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Post birthday mega update

I've felt reclusive over the past few weeks, hence no posts. I think it's mostly to do with the change in season; it's now officially autumn! How can I tell? I'm wearing tights and Isaac is wearing socks, neither of which can be hung outside to dry.

Here follows an Isaac update of mega proportions.

Food

Isaac is doing very well with feeding himself nowadays; he mostly feeds himself with his spoon &/or fork & lets me collate the damage into one final spoonful. It's our little agreement. He eats and loves a wide variety of foods & usually has the same as us, which makes mealtimes very easy, but here are a few of his favourites.

  • Breakfast - still whole wheat cereal biscuits (Weetabix type efforts, but not made by Weetabix), home-made hemp milk & a mashed up banana followed by a piece of toast with either pear & apple spread or Natex (like Marmite, not as salty). He's also partial to lemon curd. Mmm...lemon curd...
  • Lunch - humous (plain, lemon & coriander, red pepper, sun-dried tomato, roasted vegetable) & mini bread sticks
  • Tea - it's a toss up between coconut-cauliflower chana or tofu saag. Yup, I know! The boy loves his spicy food! HURRAY!
  • Naughty tea - alphabetti on toast (when Mummy is: Just. Too. Tired.)
  • Fruit - blueberries. If he had his way and we were made of money I suspect he'd eat a punnet a day.
  • Snack - Organix alphabet biscuits or mini rice cakes (apple & cinnamon or pumpkin & carrot)
  • Milk - breast is still best for the Wiggler. We're down to three feeds per day now. 1st - before breakfast upon waking, 2nd - after 1st nap around 11ish & 3rd - before bed. He dropped the afternoon one himself. I gathered he didn't want it when he started to squirm & push away...three days on the trot! I'm not sure what we're going to do about milk replacement. Everyone else I know is moving onto cows milk, but we all know how I feel about that. I've read that almond milk is high in calcium & other vitamins/minerals/fats/proteins so may try that. It's pretty easy to make too, although will need to remember to soak the nuts. He had it before I started to make hemp milk so I know he isn't allergic to it and it's quite naturally sweet anyway. Hmm. *ponders*
 
Mobility

Isaac is well & truly on the move now. He still commando crawls everywhere, but really rather quickly! He's started to crawl on his hands & knees a bit too & sometimes he'll shuffle forwards upright on his knees. He pulls himself up using me & Simon, the sofa & the coffee table. You can tell how high he ventures by which shelf of DVDs is in disarray! 

Play time
Master Chef 2010
He loves playing with his different toys & spends the most time with his wooden ones and the things that aren't created as toys, such as empty containers, kitchen utensils, the telephone, camera battery chargers, spectacle cases etc. He loves things that make noise and enjoys smacking seven kinds of musical s**t of the keyboard. He also likes an app I have on my phone called Toddler Lock. It's basically a black screen on which you draw lines & shapes by tracing your finger on the screen or tapping it. It's good because only an adult or older child would know how to unlock the phone from the app so no deleted stuff! I don't like him using it much & only really use it as a last resort. (i.e.: when I'm coming around in the morning and his toys just aren't cutting it, or when we're out & about & have run out of things to play with, which isn't often as he's so easily amused!

He also loves playing with the dog. He lurches at her to give her cuddles now and has recently learned how to thrown her ball for her to chase. It doesn't go very far, but she joins in and  it's very cute to watch; I think Rinny is warming to him. It freaked her out massively when he started to move and she was very nervous. This created a catch 22 for her because she'd use me for protection, but at the same time Isaac would be using me as a climbing frame! No escape for the pooch. I like to think it's payback for all the times she never lets up with her ball. Revenge, dog, suck it up. 

Of course he loves having play time with Mummy & Daddy, although it seems we start out playing to entertain Isaac & then it turns into us playing & he's buggered off to do something else because he's bored with watching the paper aeroplane/bouncy ball go back & forth for the 80th time. He likes to climb on us and if we roll a ball at him he'll push it back. He also likes bashing balloons around - great fun! 

One of his favourite pastimes of late is taking off & replacing the lids of pens. Felt tips, biros, gel pens...whatever. Any kind of pen. He loves it. Hew also drew his first picture a few days ago. It's really a piece of A4 covered in green squiggles, but it made me proud nonetheless. He didn't even get any on the floor!

He loves swimming and I try to take him when I can. We usually all go together on a Sunday morning for the parent & child session in the teaching pool, but coughs & other activites have kept us away lately. Will see how we all are this weekend perhaps?

Dislike

Isaac really isn't a fan of having is nappy changed any more. I've found that giving him different things to investigate while I do it helps to distract him. I keep a small stash of objects in the drawer under his changing mat for this purpose.

Without sounding smug, there isn't a whole lot else that makes him upset or grumpy, other than being tired  or hungry & no one likes that do they? He's a very happy little chap & we're always complimented on his smile when we're out.


Sleeping

He's been sleeping through for a good few weeks again now. HURRAH! He goes to bed between 7 & 8pm depending on how he is & then wakes between 6.30 & 8am. He still naps twice a day. Times vary, again depending on how he is, but he has a morning & afternoon nap. At one point I thought he might have been gearing towards one big middle of the day nap because he slept for 2 1/2 hours in the late morning, but he's changed his naps so that it now seems to be the afternoon one that's longer. Go figure. Babies toddlers huh?

Misc

I sometimes think I have a mogwai rather than a human baby. The vocal similarities between Isaac and Gizmo are astounding. It's very cute. Then he does he's thrash metal growl and even that is cute.

We still use the carrier. I'm particularly grateful for this as the weather is decidedly more autumnal than summery now, brr! It's different to this time last year because I could put a hoodie over the top of him & the sling & zip it up around us both, but now there's a lot more of him so I usually unzip my sweater & have it on, but open under the carrier. This keeps us both warm & prevents Mummy from passing out through overheating. We shall see how this goes. I've bought him a coat for the colder months & we've still got the special socks to keep him legs/feet warm when it becomes bitterly cold. I shall sincerely miss him when he's too big to be carried, but that's a few years away yet! He likes being able to see everything from my perspective and is interested in it ALL. I would call him nosey, but that isn't the right word. Insquisitive methinks.

"Inquisitive" and pulling himself up, all in the space of 5 minutes!
We still meet up with the NCTs sporadically. It's so lovely to see them all growing and changing & to hear funny parenting stories. The ones that are going have nearly all gone back to work now so it's trickier to have a time when we can all meet up, especially with constantly changing nap times. C'est la vie.

Isaac's got his first real little cold & cough at the moment. I think that nearly 13 months without sniffles is pretty good going really. We've been giving him the Nelson's cough syrup & I've been taking echinacea for mine. Seems to have done the trick with the cough & the runny nosey-ness is clearing up now. It hasn't been traumatic in the slightest and hasn't interfered with food much either. In-fact, it only lasted a few days!

He gets on very well with his sisters and they like him lots too. They came to stay for a week last week while their Mum & boyfriend had a week away. We had a lovely time! I think I was dreading it; weekends are sometimes a strain when it comes to keeping them entertained, but no one was bored and I did lots of stuff with the girls while Isaac napped when we got home from the epic hour-long school run (so called because they live on the other side of Derby from us, but we managed just fine). Roisin started her reception class this year and is making some little friends of her own which is GREAT news. She's only been there a few weeks, but already it's made a hugely positive impact on how she is. Aoife is doing very well in her class, she really is a very bright little girl.



In short, it all going well. We're all poottling along happily. Nothing major to report. Rest assured when something massive happens, you will know!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Last week: a summary

Gosh it's been a week since my last post, and that was a hastily thrown together picture affair rather than a proper post. So. What have we been up to? Well...

Monday
Isaac & I do our food shopping together; he likes to check out new things so I let him explore stuff  from his perch in the trolley while we're going around the supermarket. Today he decided to sink his teeth into a red bell pepper before we got to the checkout! He looked at me as if to say "I know I probably shouldn't be doing this, but what the hey". Who am I to stop a mini-scientist? And besides. Isn't that the cutest little set of bite marks?


We discovered that Isaac is a BIG fan of cherries.

Nom nom nom

And also of eating bits of carpet fluff. Busted!


Tuesday
We went to a soft play with some NCT chums where Isaac had his first ride on a rocking horse! He loved it.


Wednesday
In the mornings after breakfast & while I'm doing the dishes, Isaac likes to drag himself around and discover new things. This morning he particularly enjoyed removing & replacing a cloth from the gap between the washing machine & the cupboard under the sink where we hang the tea towels. I now truly understand the saying "it's the little things".


Thursday
We were going to go swimming, but Isaac decided to sleep from 9.40am - 12.15pm! This meant there was no point us going (the pool we had planned to go to with a friend is about a 20 minute drive so by the time I'd have got him dressed, booby fed, in the car & there the session would've been over as the baby slot was from 12-1pm). So, no swimming last week. Plans? Forgeddabouddit.

Instead we went to clinic and got Isaac weighed. 17lbs 11oz! At this rate he's putting on 1lb a month which is pretty good going. He's still on the chart & doing what the piece of paper says he should. He sat up on the scales this time. I remember seeing other babies do that when I first started to take him to be weighed & I remember thinking "gosh look how grown up they are". Now our Little Man is growing up just like that, but he's still my baby boy...

Happy post-nap baberoo
Friday
Today was the start of the Just So Festival, but more about that in another post. Needless to say it was a totally insane rush to get everything ready & we didn't end up leaving until 3.15pm. Exactly what we didn't want to be doing. PLAN, ORGANISE & PACK THE NIGHT BEFORE NEXT YEAR! Before the craziness started, though, I managed to snap a shot of Isaac doing something he loves which is sharing his food. He really is a very generous child with his munch, despite putting a healthy sized portion away!

Observation
Since Tuesday Isaac's naps have become more regular. He sleeps for 2 hours twice a day with a good 4 hour chunk of day in between. This is great! We do more stuff during the day; he eats a small lunch  at 1 o'clock now instead of getting stroppy & chucking it about meaning he's full after tea and subsequently he goes to bed later (about 8pm) which means...*drum roll please* he sleeps through & gets up later!!! Between 7.30-8am. OH YEAH! I feel like that bit in The Matrix where Neo finally *sees* The Matrix. Lets see how long it lasts....!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010