August 2005 toddlers

[Azure]

Here is the new thread for the new year.

Update on DS2. He is confident walking and has a very camp run. We have taken down the main stair-gates as he can cope well enough with walking up and down (the stairs have lots of spindles), and he worked out how to open the gates ages ago anyway. Not many words - a form of mummy, daddy, grandma and grandad but that's it. He is a lovely, happy child with a beautiful laugh. If he wants you to come with him he grabs your clothes and pulls you along. He loves playing with cars (lining them up) & trains (we have all the Thomas ones plus tracks from DS1) and his favourite toy is the big sit-in coupe car at his grandparents', although he can't move himself forwards in it yet, only backwards. He's never needed a haircut, although his curls are long when wet. He loves baths and the swimming pool. I just wish he would sleep later than 5am.

Hi Azure! And hello to everyone else too.

Colin&Caitlinsmommy - so sorry to hear about your mil, but it sounds as if you are now getting round to getting your family life back on track, which is wonderful. You have had such a hard year! Caitlin sounds delightful, a real little charactcer

Twiga, congrats on the pregnancy and good luck with the driving test! I didn't know there was anywhere in Scotland you could find out the sex of your baby (without going private). Let us know what you are having!

Bramblina, all the best for your dh and his lorry, and for your future family plans.

Tigerlion, don't worry too much about the tantrums - it's a phase he will work through. The best advice I have seen is to just ignore him during the tantrum (if he is somewhere not safe, eg car park, then hold him firmly but don't look at or talk to him), then once it is over, act as if it never happened. Eg if the tantrum was over not getting his pudding fast enough (!), then give him his pudding once he has calmed down, as if he had waited fine for it. I find it helpful to bear in mind that children often find their tantrums as upsetting as we do - they don't like losing total control like that!

Pookey - I love that about the toast! How cute.

OK - ds. He is toddling around a lot now, but still fairly unsteady on his feet (he has a lot in common with penguins atm!!). We need to get him some proper shoes now to encourage him to walk around outside - atm he is buggy-bound as we only have indoor shoes. He has about 20 words but also babbles constantly and loves to have "conversations". He makes us laugh so much, he has a wicked sense of humour. If he sees anyone with a bit of midriff showing, he runs up squealing with laughter and tickles it!! He still thinks that all animals are "cat" and both the dds get called "eye-lie" indiscriminately (a corruption of dd2's name), much to dd1's disgust!

Up until now he has been having two daytime sleeps of about two hours each (plus sleeping 13 hours at night!) - but is getting ready to drop one of those naps now. Yesterday we didn't put him to bed in the morning, only in the afternoon, and he was absolutely fine - but by 9am this morning he was exhausted and has been asleep for nearly two hours now! I think we are going to have to do this gradually . He loves going to bed (strange child!!) - if you ask him "is it time for a nap?" he gets all excited and puts his arms up to be carried - bless him.

Sorry, didn't mean to go on quite so much!!

oh goody a shiny new thread!

ds is walking very confidently, and running too! has about ten words and roars when you ask him what a lion says! he dances to Hi5 in the morning and loves music and jumping in puddles.

i got my very first tattoo yesterday.....based on footprints taken when ds was 4 weeks old.

Hi everyone - how nice to have a new thread.

Twiga lovely to hear from you and congrats on No2 - hopefully we can meet up sometime when we are both in the area.

Sorry to hear about your MIL C&Cmommy, glad you are with your DH now though.

I still havent seen my DH this year think i might be luck and have him home tomorrow though so lots of wishes that the wind doesnt get up and he's stuck.

Loving being back to a stay at home mum, dd has changed alot in nature and is more chilled out since i have stopped work which is lovely, after taking those few steps before xmas she has stopped again she no longer crawls but bashes about on her knees only its so strange to see, has a good range of words though prefers not to use them and babble - loves barney (Arnee) and points to the tv and says "elly ona" when she wants to watch barney. She has a massive love of dogs, so much so she started going made in the supermarket shouting hiya and waving i was looking about to see who we knew only to discover its was the dog on the andrex roll!!
opps better get going or be late for DS
take care all xx

Hi all, DD has tried to prove me wrong today by walking from one end of the room where DH was to me then turned round and walked back, she was so pleased with herself.

My SIL had twin boys today, very little but all fine, looking forward to seeing them over the weekend, will no doubt inhance my brooding!

Thanks for the new thread... hopefully it'll stop me reading every other post natal thread by accident lol.

Miaou - DS is the same. We say "is it time for night nights?" and he tries to climb in his cot! The last 2 months he's started sleeping through from 7-7. Absolute godsend and his timing couldn't be much better. The only thing we have done differently is he now eats a banana a day. Which I head have sleepy stuff in them... but that's probably conicidental! Bet I've jinxed it all now...

QR - DS loves dancing too. He can do loads of the moves on Boogie Beebies - especially the bit at the end. He also likes doing head, shoulders, knees and toes. But it takes him the entire song to work through once verse! He is fascinated with touching body parts at the moment. Wants to touch everyones ears. Also running a bit, in a VERY camp way. Hope you're tattoo is healing well. I want more than the one I got 10 years ago but DH isn't keen on them at all.

Josey, when do you move?

DSs talking is coming on very slowly, though we are being quite forceful about not letting him have things until he attempts to say something other than Baaaaaa. And consequently he's getting quite grumpy! Part of me thinks we're just being mean and that the HV should go to hell! The other part thinks that with DD due very soon it might not be a bad idea that he isn't getting 100% attention.

Oooh new thread! Lovely. Haven't posted for ages, so it's nice to catch up with you all.

Hope you all had a fab Christmas and lovely new year.

Many congratualtions for Twiga, and all you other ladies who are pg again. There are so many of us. Although sadly (!) not me!

Azure your ds2 sounds delightful, am oicturing his lovely wet curls!

Miaou some good advice about tantrums, I shall have to bear that in mind when ds gets started - which he does often!

Congratulations on your tattoo queenrollo - where have you got it?!!!
Ds has got a larger vocab now - says bye bye, grandma, mumma, daddy, dog, yes and answers questions by nodding or shaking his head. He knows ducks go quack, and goes 'raaaaa' when he sees his tiger.

Josey I'm glad your dh was home with you on your second post, and that your dd was walking, maybe she kept it especially for him!

Suzi - I didn't know that about bananas, but will try giving them to ds later in the day then! He's started to wake up regulary at night, despite sleeping through for the best part of a year. I think his teeth woke him, and he got used to me or dp going into him for comfort. so now he's waking nearly everynight. Any tips? We've tried ignoring him, and when we do go in we don't turn on lights, lift him out or talk to him.

Twiga congrtaulations might see you on another postnatal thread as I am 16 weeks.

Josey congrats on both counts - ds still not walking but he climbed the stairs today

Suzi2, I think their personality dictates a lot of how quickly they pick up things -being active and dancing is probably more your lo's cup of tea! ds picks up a lot of words from hearing the same stories - my ds loves the gruffalo, slinky malinky, room on the broom; stories with rhyme and cool pictures. Another good book is spot's 1st words as it has pictures of everyday scenes and ds points to things he recognises and sometimes will repeat the word.

Miaou ds thinks all men are dada

my tattoo

it's at the top of my left arm....is healing nicely now though i had a huge bruise round the inside of my arm for days....

You're brave QR, did it hurt? Think I'm too much of a chicken! But what a lovely reminder of his footprints.

i've wanted a tattoo for years and always been put off by the pain.....but told myself 'if i can go through childbirth i can do this!', i'm not likely to get loads and i knew i could bear the pain to get something done that means so much to me.
it did hurt, but not all the time....there were moments when i had to get her to stop but it took an hour and a half, and that was about my limit.

new development with ds....if i ask him do you want breakfast/lunch/tea he nods and walks to the gate to go down to the kitchen. he seems to have 'grown up' in lots of little ways over the last few days

How funny QR, thats EXACTLY what ds has started to do this week! If I ask him if he wants his lunch/dinner/tea he nods his head, and the same if I ask him if he wants to get down off the chair!

It's obviously a milestone they accomplish about this time.

SAdly, he's also started to bite again.

Queenrollo - how nice to have something that means such a lot to you. Josey, glad you're DS is back - it does sound like DD was keeping her walks for him (typical!). Suzi and Miaou I'm of your little ones sleeping so well. DS2 normally wakes up at 5am - we've just dropped his morning nap (when he was sleeping up to an hour) in the mad hope that this will encourage him to sleep a little later. This morning was promising when he woke up at 5.55, although DS1 woke up 15 minutes earlier (he normally sleeps until past 6.15am). DH has gone away for a week so it'll be my turn to get up first all week - fingers crossed for me. In the last 5+ years since DS1 was born I can count the number of times I've not been woken up before 7am on one hand, literally. Roll on those teenage years, when we'll be dragging them out of bed (ok, maybe not ).

Regarding speaking, although DS2 doesn't really say much I'm not forcing the issue. He'll learn in his own time - if he doesn't, that will be a problem to deal with anyway. Pookey, hearing your DS call any man dada reminds me of some rather embarassing times when DS1 called rather butch short-haired women dada.

Oh well it was good while it lasted DH is away again today!!! he got some scarey news yesterday which im trying not to dwell on but cant help myself! he has had a funny noise in his ear for months was palmed off as a ear infection,eventually has gone private to the hospital and was told that the main artery is either twisted or he has a tumour growing in it,they are trying to get a date for a mri scan, the thing is no matter what it is they will have to do and op and go through his nose,he was beaten up and left for dead 6years ago and had to have his nose rebuilt twice he now has part of his ear in his nose holding it together, so his nose may not hold an op, sorry for rambling im just so worried and cant show it to him.
DD has started to walk everywhere so excited by the whole thing she has stopped eating and sleeping argh! we bought her proper shoes on sunday and she walked from the back of the shop to the car with them on, she was still dragging her foot but has stopped with the aid of the shoes if only i bought them sooner!
DD has spells where she wont use her words at all, and for some reason she has gone back to her dummy in a big way and wont part with it where she was only using it for falling asleep as as soon as she was asleep she spat it out.
Love the tattoo QR
Suzi think we are going in the easter holidays now, mum moving into castle fraser in March till they find a house.
Anyway im going to go or you will ban me from posting again with my waffles

Thanks for all your thoughts.

I'm soooo sitting here laughing at myself at the moment. I was just reading how many of you are pregnant again, and thinking how crazy y'all are (in the nicest possible way, mind you). And then it dawned on me that I was pregnant with Caitlin when Colin was this age. Sigh. Anyway, congrats on all of you who are, and I'm glad it is you and not me.

Caitlin's finally doing better on the sleeping front. After a few weeks of adjusting to her bed, she seems to finally be sleeping through the night again. She's had a bout with absolutely toxic diaper rash, I feel so badly for her.

Shes having fun at Colin's preschool. She just jumps in and plays and does whatever the older kids are doing. I can't believe how she's so much more outgoing and fearless than Colin was.

Caitlin loves dancing like a bunch of yours do. The two of them make me laugh at the grocery store listening to the overhead music and bobbing their heads in unison.

She doesn't have all that many words yet, either. I know Colin had more at this stage. She does a better job communicating what she wants without words at this point, though. I sometimes wonder if she's just a bit lazy, because she can get her point across the vast majority of the time without words.

i have to dash but just wanted to say....Josey, you ramble away, i know how much this site helps me when i need a listening ear. i'm thinking of you and i'm sure everything will be ok.

Josey, how worrying about your DH. I hope he manages to get the scan soon, if only to put your minds at rest. Sounds like he's had to go through a lot already - fingers crossed it's all ok this time.

C&C'smommy, I love the idea of your two bobbing their heads to the supermarket music. DS2 can also communicate perfectly well with just pointing and grunting. If he doesn't get what he wants immediately he starts a meltdown, but soon stops when he realises he doesn't get any attention that way.

Regarding my mission of getting DS2 to sleep longer in the morning, on Monday he woke up at 4.55am. I went in, patted him, and left. Boy, he didn't like that. I held fast, popping in with more pats and "night nights" a few times before it went quiet. Of course, DS1 then woke up. When DS2 made a noise again (around 5.40am) I went in all bright & breezy with lots of Good Mornings. Yesterday I'm a bit confused what happened. I heard DS2 at around 5.25am and when I got up saw DS1 coming out of his room "to see if he was alright" (thanks!). This morning DS2 didn't wake up until 6.10am, despite DS1 waking up at 5.30am and DH calling from the States before 6am. Fingers crossed I'm getting there with DS2 - just need to get DS1 back to his usual sleep pattern.

DS2 was so excited about the snow here this morning - we don't often get it in London. It took a very long time to walk to school, what with all the snowball fights.

Well I have discovered why DD has stopped eating the last few days, she has just cut too massive back teeth so she now has 10, to be honest her teeth seem to be so big I dont know if her mouth will house them all, when they appear.

she has been backing herself into one of the sofas and i have been saying ready steady go and she pushes off with her bum and runs to me, she last night started doing this herself saying eady eady ooooooooooo which set me in fits of giggles i must admit.

Josey - your poor dh. I hope that the op goes well.

On the walking talking thing it does seem that there is a lot of truth in 'late walker early talker', I'm trying not to worry about the walking so reverse of others. Ironically he has completely gone off stories (after i babble on about how literary he is) in the last day or two, so i think he is concentrating on getting more mobile.

We have all been poorly and ds has not slept well all week, I am knackered! Azure I hope you crack the early mornings soon - this week has reminded me how draining lack of sleep is. DS's sleep had improved amazingly in recent months, I would never have believed he could sleep for anything like 12 hours (when he is in good health at least)4 months or so ago. But it must be soo much harder with two to wake each other up - I am dreading that.

Wow QR your tat is so original looks kinda celtic!

Pancipants ds bit me on the cheek today. It didnt hurt, I think he got carried away with kissing. Ds's kissing can be rather frightening -he lunges forward with his mouth wide open like dracula! Thing is I told him off and he thought it was great fun so started pretending to bite my leg. I didnt handle it well - I am rubbish at discipline or whatever the correct term is.

DS has awful eczema on his face he has had three courses of antibiotics but it just seems to keep getting worse. If I tell him not to scratch he thinks my concerned face is funny and he scratches more grrr he is ultra cheeky!

Pookey lol (sorry!) at your ds biting you on the cheek, I can envisage him doing it! I know what you mean about not knowing how to handle it, sometimes by saying 'NO!' you make it worse. Although he hasn't bitten me since the weekend.

Josie - your poor dh. What a worry for you both. Hoping for good news with the scan.

Hello everyone.

I thought I had learned last time not to leave it so long between postings but no here I am again trying to catch up with everyone. I am thinking of you all as I read your posts- my sympathy for those with sadness and giggles especially at dd josey!
Love the tattoo QR, what a lovely thought. Keep meaning to ask is ds's name pronounced like samuel (the uel bit)? Never heard it before, it's lovely.
Ds had his 8th haircut last week! He looks about 2 as it's so thick and has quite chubby cheeks. Two people last week asked me was he 2 yet. He has about 20 words, and knows the noises of cat, dog, sheep, cow, horse, snake and tiger. When I ask "where's Daddy"? he says "wwuck" (work)! Late walker early talker here. He never lets up on wanting to learn- he's greedy for it and finds everything fascinating, I love it. Tonight I videoed him dancing, naked (bath time) in front of the tv to Scissor Sisters! The slightest beat or hint of music and the arms start bouncing, and the bum starts wiggling! Christmas shopping in M&S he came across a stereo on the floor playing Wham! Wake me up, he started dancing and an old lady came along and joined in! He just loves his shawl which I won't let him have till bed time, but if he's tired he'll ask for it ("sheaow") and milk. He is sleeping a good 13+hrs at night, though woke lastnight we're thinking it's teeth as they're still cutting, (josey I agree- where are they all going to go!?) however, he hasn't had a daytime nap since the beginning of December when he was unwell. When dh goes back to work I will get nothing done in the day! Latterly his naps were only 3/4 hr and that time was precious! Oh well can't complain as we're getting lie ins till after 9 just now! I am so chuffed he has no bottle, just a cup of milk with a story and straight to bed now. I was worried I had made him dependant on it, introducing it late but no, he's done himself (and me) proud. He loves it so much he asks for "mmmuck" pretty much all day!
Dh was laid off work (was casual anyway) last week so it's been lovely for us to have him home. We have been really busy with trying to get the business off the ground (hence my absence from here) so hopefully soon we'll be getting somewhere.

Are all the dc still in cots? Has anyone even thought about a bed? Just a thought.
I read last week (think it was the Pampers booklet) that they become particularly attached to a comforter or similar at this age, may explain the change in dd and her dummy, josey.

yes you pronounce ds name the same as samuel...well we do! but call him Lemmy....
ds had his first proper meltdown yesterday...was playing in the garden at a friends and nanny arrived to take us home...so i had to remove him from football/garden. i felt bad because he had been enjoying himself so much!! he screamed and went rigid! great fun trying to get him into his car seat!
i have to dash, ds is napping and i have a million and one jobs to do!

Oh dear DDs new word is Bum!!!
for example if there is any shall we say passing wind nosies in the house she sayd oh dee bum, including when she has done the most rotten nappy, lets hope she doesnt do it in public, he brother thinks this is hysterical which all little boy at his age would. I blame it all on there father

having teeth brushing trouble think its since the teeth are on the go, she is getting an awful lot at once by the looks of it, she wont let me near her mouth with anything let alone a toothbrush, im trying to stand my ground but starting to get scared I will give her an phobia, last night i resorted to sticking a bit of toothpaste in her mouth in the hope it may do a little good than no good at all

about your DD saying Bum Josey. Regarding teeth brushing I would just hold off for a few days if you suspect her teeth are sore - it won't cause any harm, assuming you can get back in there again. I'm much better about doing DS2's teeth than I was about DS1 - DS2 does loves a toothbrush, though. DS2's favourite activity is trying to put his hand in the toilet or dropping something in it - whenever he spots DS1 going in for a wee he makes a dash to get in there. Strange child. He has dropped his toothbrush in an unflushed loo before now, which was rather unpleasant to retrieve. Luckily I have a stock of toothbrushes and could throw that one away.

Bramblina your DS sounds like he's getting on really well. Sorry to hear he's dropped the nap time but about the lie-ins. We didn't get a bed for DS1 until the equivalent of this November, i.e. 2 1/4 years. We didn't bother with a toddler bed but got a regular 3 foot single. He had a bed guard for a longish while and very initially still slept in his sleeping bag rather than move straight-away to a duvet, particularly as he was used to sleeping at any angle. I suspect we'll do the same for DS2. I guess it's different if someone needs to use the cot elsewhere.

Lol at Oh bum! Ds says it too, but then we realised he was saying "bing bong!" (the noise the ferry makes before it sets off, which we can hear in our house).

We took ds to get his first pair of shoes today, and he was not happy! He's been walking since November but we've not been able to afford any before now. He really didn't take to the idea of having something so clumpy and heavy on his feet! They took a picture of him (as they do in Clarkes when they get their first pair) and his facial expression is hilarious However he has "warmed" to them as the day went on. We will now be able to let him walk outside, hooray!

Bless at 'Bum'! Ds doesn't say very much, but is saying 'uh oh' (and wraggling his hands in a comical manner) every time he drops something, or falls over which was very funny 2 weeks ago, but is now wearing a bit thin, especially when he's throwing food on the floor, then saying uh oh as if he can't believe how that got there