March 2005 part 6 - Toddling towards summer!

[leogaela]

And her it is!

Well done Harrison!! One good thing I found with the walking is that the clothes don't get so filthy. Was constantly having to pre-soak all of Lauren's crawling stage stuff as the knees were filthy.
Lauren has had a miserable cold for a week, with huge amounts of horrid stuff spewing from her little nose, but on the mend now.
How much do yours understand? Although Lauren doesn't utter a single word yet, she understands an enormous amount. Quite amazed. Will go and get a nappy at changing time. Can point to all main body parts. Knows the names of all our office staff. Gets her shoes when we are going out. Puts her book back in the book box and will get another one when I tell her. And she loves carrying out instructions. Very useful if she's moany, as she brightens up as soon as I ask her to do something for me.
Don't know what happened to the words she could say. They seem to have vanished. Never shuts up but no words yet, let alone two word sentences like Iris!

LEO!!! The last pic of Niklas was from DECEMBER!! Has the poor child suddenly developed two heads and you're now hiding him from us?:) We are all dying to see pics of him.
Anyone following poor Popsycal's sleep thread? She really is having a nightmare time with sleep issues. Need to encourage her to come back here and chat. Maybe we can offer some support.

Well done Harrison :o! Isn't that all the babies walking now? What an early bunch of walkers they all are!
Jambot , I know! We haven't taken any worthwhile photos for months, Niklas just wouldn't stay still enough. We took some good ones at the weekend though and I was going to download then last night, but I left the camera in the car and dh was out with the car!
Niklas is gorgeous :o, and just gets more gorgeous :o!
Niklas understands a fair amount, but I don't think he understands as much as Lauren alhtough I'm not sure if his understanding of Swiss German is better than his English so its difficult to say.
Last night he was sooooooooo cute, I was at home alone with him which is always quite tough after a day at nursery, he is always very tired and very hungry. I was cooking, he was complaining, and complaining, then he gave up complaining, went to the cupboard and got one of his plates and brought it over to me, it was so sweet, but made me think of Oliver's 'please sir, can I have some more'!
Pidge - you mad Mummy! Its a shame that finances dictate so much how many children we feel we can have. Actually I think having a whole houseful of children would be really lovely but you need help to really get the best out of it. My childhood memories of my mum (I'm one of 6 and my dad never even changed a single nappy in his life ) sadly are her standing peeling endless potatoes from a huge sack or standing at the sink washing up - I guess today you would have a dishwasher and buy pre-washed potatoes that don't need peeling though!

Busy, thanks for asking about work. I don't quite have the same enthusiasm as you and Pidge, but it is much better. I have 3 projects now which puts me in contact with a few more people and the developers have started work on the project that was really dragging me down, so its great to see it moving forward. I also find 3 days is just not enough time at work to get everything done. I am also getting much more sleep and doing much more sport, both help a huge amount :)!

I'm off to find Popsy's thread now :(!

Hey, well done Harrison! Walking is tops.

Aren't our kids gorgeous? This is such a great stage. I laughed out loud at Ethan 'arresting' Freya. So funny. I love the way they just want to join in on everything but haven't really got the foggiest what's going on.

jambot - comprehension comes well ahead of production in speech (not surprisingly) and believe me 99% of what Iris says is utterly unintelligible even to me and dp. And the other 1% which we hear as 'real words' would appear to be gibberish to your average observer. I only wish her sleep was as well developed as her speech - today she was up at 5.20am again. Just when I thought we'd cracked it with her sleeping through till 6.15am 3 days in a row.

Pidge, sympathies on the early mornings. Niklas still wakes up between 5 and 6. I actually like the idea of getting up early, but the reality is something else.....

Pidge and Leo - Don't wish to frighten you, but Ethan still gets up between 5 and 6 most mornings, and he will be 5 in a couple of weeks time! The advantage now is that he will play/draw in his room until his alarm goes off at 6.45am.

Aaaah Jo! That is not what I wanted to hear. This has been such a shock after Cleo and her 7-7 champion snoozing. In fact I had thought recently about starting a mumsnet thread asking people when their babies started sleeping in later. Hoping to get some reassurance. Oh well, at least the self-entertaining stuff sounds good!

Speaking of sleep ... it's 9.30pm and I'm off to bond with my duvet!

I was with some friends today, moaning about Harrison waking around 6.30am the past week or so and how tired I feel (how quickly it passes when I thought I would be in heaven if he'd sleep until 6 ) They looked at me very enviously, one's DS starts the day at 5.30am most days and the other's DS has started getting up at 6am after waking 3-4 times in the night since her DD was born 8 weeks ago. God, I almost felt like I was lucky

Isn't this weather great - makes me feel so happy about everything (except getting up at 6.30 )

Harrison's molars are on the move again He woke at 5am this morning and I've had five of the most disgusting nappies to change. His bottom is also very sore looking - poor baby.

Other than that, he's been a right happy chap all day and is now sitting here on the floor all clean from his bath, playing with Hannah's baby doll which he keeps hugging and kissing

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend

Had a busy weekend. DH's 38th birthday yesterday and Father's Day today, so DH milked it for all he was worth!
Wish all babies were born with their teeth. More trouble than they are worth. I get some great teething stuff from our local pharmacy. They make it up themselves and it sorts Lauren out if she's battling at all.
Very teary and moany today. Sceaming over the smallest fall or slightest thing going wrong. Fiddling with her ear quite a bit so hope it's not an ear infection.
I have a good friend whose 18 month old has never slept later than 5am. Drives her crazy. Feel very guilty her knowing what time Lauren sleeps until. Sometimes until 8. Shouldn't say anything as she'll probably be up with the lark in the morning. Only getting light at 7:00am at the moment, so it's helping her to sleep later. She's also been sleeping later since she went to one sleep a day.
When will you start yours at nursery? Here it's about 2 and a half or 3. They only start 'big school' the year they turn 7 in SA.
Think I will start Lauren around the middle of next year. If I fall pregnant in the New Year, I want to have time to settle her before the new baby comes along.

Happy birthday to your DH, Jambot.

DH is in Germany this weekend (for the football) so we had a nice, easy weekend at home. Yesterday it was Domi's school's summer fair. Today I took them to Battersea Zoo. I drove - first time I did that route and the relevant page of the map was missing - which I only realised once we were in the car so couldn't come back to check it out on the internet. Got there, eventually, after a drive through Putney, Chelsea, Clapham and then Battersea. The drive home was much shorter :) Domi and Sylvia loved the animals, esp the monkeys. Sylvia was calling "teddy, teddy" at every furry animal she saw, even at an owl!

Sylvia has been sleeping till later since we came back from camping, till 7 or 8. She goes to bed quite late, although tonight she's been asleep for about 15 minutes already.

Spooky Cristina - I had just come on line to check out opening hours for Battersea Park Zoo! We're off there tomorrow with my parents (on public transport though - I only drive in London as an absolute last resort!)

Spent today picnicking in my bro's garden over in Clapham, then hanging out on the common in the sunshine. Lovely.

Dp was doing the London to Brighton Bike Ride, so has already crawled off to bed after a 5am start, and much pedalling.

Pidge - funny that, I also often find I've just been or was going to go to similar places to you! Battersea Zoo was v nice, much improved since we last went there. Also more expensive (£5.95 adult and £4.50 child over 2) but they have a cafe inside and toilets and a much bigger playground than before. We also got our hand stamped so we could go out and come back again, as I needed to put some more money in the car park {shock] that you have to pay at weekends too. Battersea Park is SO nice, so much nicer than Wimbledon Park or W'don/Putney/Wandsworth Commons, which are the ones we know better.

Had the MOST fantastic time at Battersea Zoo. Iris was in paradise "ooh oohing" at the monkeys and generally squealing with delight. Cleo adored the tunnel that comes up in the glass dome in the middle of the meerkats enclosure! In fact whilst me and my mum and dad were having coffees in the nice cafe, we totally lost Cleo, and after several anxious minutes hunting and shouting for her, spotted her in the glass dome chatting to the meerkats!

The train there was brilliantly easy - but I couldn't have done it with my dad to lift the pushchair up and down the million steps at each station.

Glad to hear that you both had a fantastic time at the zoo, Pidge and Cristina.

It must have been a zoo kind of weekend, cos we took Ethan and Freya to Colchester Zoo on Sunday. It too was brilliant. Ethan fed an elephant and laughed when the monkeys showed their bottoms to Freya! It was a great day and everyone came home exhausted.

Hi all, we just had a good weekend. Satureday was just busy shopping and stuff, friends on Saturday evening.

Sunday moring I went cycling with Niklas - he really loves his trailer, he gets so excited when we are going to go out in it and the afternoon I cycled (dh drove with Niklas) over to the lake where we have our caravan. It was really, really, really hot, at least 30° so the swim in the lake when I got there was a dream :)! The water was a bit cold for Niklas though, but it didn't bother him once we found somewhere he could jump from to me in the water. He really is a water baby :)!
The zoo sounds great Pidge!

Hi everyone - have logged on quick while Grace is sleeping, and between chores!

Am v. envious Pidge and Christina - I love Battersea zoo. We used to live about 20mins walk away when Phoebe was a baby (moved back to Cardiff when she was about 18mths) and we often used to go there. Happy memories .

Grace is waking anytime between 5.30am-6.30am at the moment, despite black out blinds and black-out curtain linings! Mid you, if it's closer to 5.30am then she will frequently go back to sleep in our bed after a feed, so that's not so bad.

Running out of time now so will catch up more later - oh, well done to Harrison on the walking btw!

Oh,hello to evevryone!!!1

Mised a lot saince last time logged in.Somebody is walking,HOORAY!!!Somebody went to the zoo.Wonderful!!!I love the zoo and btw a was talking to my dad about it.we ahve in our town this zoo that is on the move all the time.And one drunk lady wanted to talk to a lion yesterday nibht and she got bitten by this lion.

Well,i have little news.Ksenia cought a scarlet fever so we spent mainly all this time fighting agains it.She is much better now but stil on the antibiotics and we are not allowed to communicate with kids at least till next week.And she is starting to talk.In russian.So funny she is.And reading the books.Oh,btw yestaerday we had a lot of fun with bubbles from foam.Ksenia was chasing and catching them like crazy and aat the end she spinned aroung and just felt down to the ground with dizzy head.So funny!!!!I just adore her.

That would be all.It been so a while and it is really hard for me to catch up with the latest news.

I hope evevrybody is good.
Take care!!!!!

Poor Ksenia with scarlet fever - so glad to hear she's on the mend. I hate it when my kids are ill - you feel so powerless, and at this age they don't understand what's happening to them. Plus they don't understand about needing to rest and want to go tearing about as usual.

My parents have been staying, which has been absolutely brilliant, and the girls have adored having them here. Iris has developed an adoration for my dad, which is sooooo sweet. They left yesterday and this morning she kept saying over and over again "bampa scone" = "grandpa's gone"!!! So cute.

Her other favourite utterance at the moment is the all in one word "Ionat" which means "I want that". A very useful phrase when you're 15 months and like demanding stuff!

Hello everyone - big hugs to Ksenia and I hope she's better soon.

Pidge, I am amazed by Iris and her words, she's sooooo clever and very, very cute. Harrison still only says 'no' but he's very good at saying it and nobody is in any doubt what he means. He does really understand what you say to him though. Today he did a smelly nappy and I said 'have you done a smelly poo'. He looked down at his nappy and screwed his nose up as if to say 'now you come to mention it ......'

His walking is going great and he's finally decided that it's his preferred method of moving around. He's gone from crawling everywhere to wobbling around like a good-un in just a few days. Better late than never !!!

Football's finished so off to catch up on the day with DH

Busy - what a hoot with Harrison and his nappy! Iris doesn't appear to care what she's sitting in. Though this morning she did manage to get out of her nappy, leaving a poo-filled wrap in the middle of the bedroom floor. Maybe that was a subtle hint to me to change her!

I'm having one of those very rare super-high achieving days. It's lunchtime and I've already fitted in a half hour run, have folded up two airing maids full of laundry, am on my third washing machine full of laundry, the first two having been put on the empty airing maids, plus I've made a lamb casserole for lunch and been up to the library and had coffee with a friend at a cafe!! Think I might have to have a lazy afternoon to recover.

In fact the afternoon's looking good, because it's dp's school sports day which finishes at 1, and he's coming home to be with us.

Busy is this the weekend for your RFL? How's the knee?

Busy - oh have just seen you're back running. Was getting my running and marchbabies threads in a tangle!! Good luck for the run!

Hello to everyone. Hope you have all had a good week.
We went along to Ethan's Sports Day on Tuesday. He had great fun, though Freya was a bit indignant about being strapped in her buggy for the races. It was either that, or she would have joined in!

Freya is a bit dangerous at the moment and can climb up the steps of Ethan's big slide. As soon as my back is turned she is straight over to it and trying to climb it. I'd say she can manage it 90% of the time, but am kinda worried about the remaining 10%. I ended up turning the slide over today so she couldn't climb up it.

Ethan and Freya are staying overnight with my mum and dad tomorrow night. Yahay! We are off to Belgos in Covent Garden with friends, and will probably take in a few drinks as well. Should be a fun night, and I am looking forward to the lie in on Sunday.

Hello everyone. We had a lovely day yesterday. Hannah was in a biathlon in Fareham so she, I and Harrison went down for the day with our blanket, our picnic box, sunhats, suncream etc etc etc. Set up camp with all the other mums and dads (it was a school thing) and spent a very enjoyable day watching the children running, swimming and all playing like mad things in the huge grounds in between their races.

Harrison toddled around all day and absolutely loved it. He zonked out in my arms at about midday whilst we were cheering some of the dads in their race, so I put him in his buggy under a tree and he slept for an hour and a half. Ready to face the world again when he woke refreshed and raring to go.

Hannah did really well and got second team in the 8-9 year old girls with two of her classmates. Eventually finished at about 4pm. Put the two of them in the car and they both zonked out so I had a very peaceful drive home.

Lovely, lovely, lovely

Sounds like a great day Busy. I lived in Fareham before we moved to SA. Was only two when we left so don't remember a thing though. I was born in Portsmouth. Both parents were in the Navy.
All fine here. Lots of rain which is leading to a slightly stir crazy child, but otherwise Lauren is full of beans. Saw a picture of a plane yesterday and then went straight to the window and pointed to the sky, going "pane, pane". Of course I thought this was the most intelligent thing a 15 month child has ever done!
She has also discovered that Daddy gives very nice back tickles, so she goes to him for her pre-bathtime tickle every night now. Puts her in quite a daze. She loves it. Took her for a booster injection last week. Can't actually remember what is was for, but she didn't even seem to realise she was being poked by a needle - too busy trying to scratch in the nurse's dustbin.
Only hassle with Lauren is that she's starting to get a bit fussy about what she eats. Things she used to love are suddenly chucked over the side of her high chair. Doesn't want to be fed at all - must do it all herself, which is a bit of a nightmare.