December 2007 "The one where babies walk the walk... and talk the talk"

[Arcadie]

I'm sorry - I couldn't last out. Welcome to the new thread.

PMSL at randomly keeping chips on the pushchair

Clara I also laughed at your "real alcohol" post. I have vague recollections of ds having been screaming for hours at 4am, me taking some rescue remedy and then squirting some into his mouth too . I have no idea whether I actually did it or just thought about doing it...

Yet another vote for your friend being optimistic I had a quick tot up and DD can say 23 words clearly and either off her own bat or without too much prompting. Then there's another dozen or so which she will copy but aren't that clear yet. She will sometimes suddenly come out with a new word quite clearly but then they might not make a reappearance for a while. Perhaps your friend is counting all the words DC has ever attempted?

Not sure what to suggest with the hitting. DD does have the odd bad day at nursery when she thumps someone - usually her friends - but then on occasional days another child will be doing the same thing. Nursery generally just part them and distract them onto something else so that the violence isn't made a big fuss of/rewarded by attention and that does seem to work.

Daniel makes car noises - DH rang up on his way home and I put him on loudspeaker, so DS could listen. He asked him "what sound do cars make" and ds started buzzing away
He is so frustating at times! Went to a bfing event organised by SureStart at a local open air cafe, he was a real handful wanted to be off walking. Unfortunately he is a bit like the Duracell bunny he'll start off walking in one direction and won't stop, so I was constantly running after him and chasing him down. Then I stood him on a chair (with me holding him). Then he wobbled and I ended up spilling my lukewarm coffee down me. Then he fell over and I fell over trying to rescue him.
It was so embarrasing. And of course all the other mums had little non moving babies and looking all smug Luckily the HVs who were there all know me and dote on Daniel which made me feel better. Most of the mums were ok but there was a couple making cat bum faces (can't you keep your child under control). Yes well you wait til your little darlings get to his age and see how you fecking deal with
Sorry needed to offload a bit there.
He is also cutting molars number 2 - 3, 2 is halfway through, number 3 is just showing hence him being somewhat grumpy. He has been in our bed last few nights after waking up around 10-11pm screaming the place down My poor baby.

700 words...or 700 different sounds that may or may not be interpreted as words....

or her child is very clever and will solve the worlds energy problems at the age of 15 at the same time as writing his third symphony!

Evie has about 12 words...she is clearly backwards...although she does do a very good no!

BT I feel your pain. It seems that everywhere I went with DS when he was about our los age there were people with well behaved 4 or 5 year olds or people with non-mobile kids. It is really hard to be part of an adult conevrsation / event when your kiddy is the only one that needs a constant eye on them. Am so pleased to be reaching the point that DS is essentially self-sufficient for short-term entertainment and finally it's my friends who are having to do the discipling of their kids so that I can sit back and make cat bum faces offer practical help and non-judgemental support. But agreement on the your poor little man. Sorry to hear he's grumpy over night again.

Clairy - distraction is the only thing that works for hitting. Personally I think if you tell them off then you are reinforcing the negative behaviour....I always (when I am not tired and grumpy and being a good mummy/teacher) praise the postivie and ignore the negative (sadly most of the time I am too tired, grumpy etc and end up saying no)

hello all,

I've never considered how many words ds2 has, think is more than ds1 had at this age, we understand him, most of it is demanding 'dare' (for 'There') whilst pointing between what he wants and where he wants you to put it, he does a lot of signing too with random sounds that could be him trying to say the word, every animal says 'woof' 700 sounds very optimisti to me too!

clairey - if your ds is like my ds1 I would say distraction as he has the attention span of a goldfish but ds2 is more from the elephant family, if he decides he's going to do something then he just does again and again so I end up having to take him outside, is there anything that sets him off or is it completely random? sometimes you can spot it before it happens but I've seen children where it just comes out of no where and looks like they are just trying stuff on for size iykwim

Its my last week of work! hurray, mat leave here I come, 5 weeks and counting! its ds1's 3rd birthday this weekend so frantically trying to find a bike to buy him (nothing like leaving it to the last minute ) and got the family over for a BBQ but really can't be arsed - feel too tired to entertain, also feeling guilty for not throwing ds a proper kids party as all his 'friends' are having proper do's with entertainment and everything, am I just being mean? we couldn't really afford it and our house is too small to host loads of kids, I can only manage 1-2 with mums for coffee... I just hope he doesn't ask when his party will be

Cazzy I think I need lessons in that, I do ensure to always praise the positive but still feel like I spend my whole life saying No. Or ds don't hit, ds come back, ds get down... Generally I just remove him from the situation but he keeps going back.

Insy you're right, sometimes you can see it's about to happen (eg fighting over a toy) but othertimes I don't know where it comes from.

Insy am sure your ds1 will consider the bbq party enough If he is anything like dd then just being the centre of attention for a bit and having lots of doting adults around will be more than enough! I'm doing something slightly bigger this year for dd but it's more for us than her, I'm not doing a typical kiddie party with entertainment and games etc-plenty of time for that when she starts asking for it!

BT, add a bit of aggression and beating up other babies into th mix and ds is the same . Hard work isnt it...

Been up all night with poorly boy, high temp and snot. Maybe he was coming down with it at the weekend and thats why he was being aggressive [wishful thinking]

Hello everyone. Just emerging from the fug of D&V bug. In the end, DH and I both caught DS's tummy bug. Have at last managed to clean and air a stinking house and drag myself back to work. DH and I are at least half a stone lighter and reeling a bit. DS has been back to normal for a couple of days now. Little bugger darling is still habitually waking at 5.30 for morning time. DH and I are beyond tired. Am going to get black out blinds and have been leaving DS to cry for a bit but it so far hasn't altered his body clock... sign. Anyone any tips?

700 words - I don't believe it. DS is quite behind at talking, he's much more interested in actions and running about. It seems to me that the babies who are more mobile seem to be more behind with words. Anyone think so too?

Sigh not sign.

Hi Wizzska. Sounds like you're doing all you can. I'm lucky in that DD seems to be happy playing for a bit in her cot when she wakes up before calling out for me properly. She just has a couple of teddies but "chats" away to them. Sometimes she even drifts back off to sleep again. Dark room definitely helps with the latter. Its coming on winter here now so quite dark in the mornings til 7.30am and she rarely wakes before its light properly.

Sorry to hear about D&V bugs too

Clairey, my friend's DS sounds quite similar to your DD. I think she's estimated 700 based on a rough count of all the items in the house plus his body parts etc. Counting to 10 at 19 months sounds pretty incredible!

The only thing I've been told about the hitting thing is to try and much as possible to pay it the minimum of attention other than firmly saying stop and removing the other child from the situation if you can and paying attention to them. Its all about ensuring they get absolutely no reward (either positive or negative) for such behaviour. I personally am not a big believer in going to town on the positive reinforcement of good behaviour, just do what you'd do normally. But I guess the trick is not to get angry about the bad behaviour and let that influence how you are with him generally. Its also important to acknowledge that sometimes he has a right to be angry or frustrated. Sounds trite but I sometimes find myself saying to DD "I understand that you're angry, can I help you..." Only works if she has not yet tipped over the edge into tantrum mode tho!

Wizz Baa baa black outs v good and portable so you can get blackout whereever you go. They have saved my sanity on many an occasion.

God I feel like i have a newborn again today. Except he is massive and heavy and my arms hurt from holding him.

Wizz sorry you've al been ill, hopefully thats it for you all now. Blackout blinds help a little bit for ds but not a lot tbh. We have a little pot of dry cereal, raisins etc, a drink and some toys in our room now so that we can doze while he plays first thing.

Buzzy it wasn't that clever really, I'd always counted going upstairs so she learnt it through repetiton, she did learn to recognise the written numbers quite soon after but hasn't progressed at all in the last year < slight panic that I have stunted her by having ds>. My friend's dd however, was 2 last month and knows numbers to 49, the alphabet, days of the week and months of the year. She can also spell out her name . She is a blimmin genius!

Clairey - not sure how you can stop your ds, but in my opinion just the fact that you are seen trying to do something about it gets my vote. I can't stand it when mums leave their little horrors to do whatever they want without intervening, usually they are too busy gossiping and having a coffee. By the way, your dd does sound amazing for her age - counting to 10 at 19 months? Are you and your dh very clever too?

BT - I feel your pain too, this is a difficult stage and most of the time I am around people with older, self-sufficient children or babies who don't move. I don't think people remember or realise how much hard work it is when they are so mobile, but too young to have any sense of danger or responsibilty. I had dd2 on a canal boat last week for about an hour. It was not a fun hour!!! However I know it will get better as I have dd1 - I can't wait for the day they can both go off and play, leaving me to sit and gossip and drink coffee (see above)....

Wizz - another vote for Baa Baa blinds, they are DEFINITELY worth buying. They are quite expensive but you can use them forever, and take them away with you. We take them wherever we go - when we were in the Isle of Wight the children's room had black-out blinds already so we used them in our room! However on the early waking, I'm afraid I just thing this is quite normal at this time of year, I remember dd1 used to wake up about 5.30am all through the summer when she was a toddler. We just used to take it in turns to get up with her. Now we consider it a lay-in if we get to 6.30am with neither of them having woken (in fact I still sometimes check they are still alive if they sleep until 7am!)
Sorry to hear about sickness, sounds awful, hope you're feeling better.

Wizz we have black out blinds and a light on a timer, when the light comes on its time to get up, anything before then I make as dull as possible, no playing, only resort to milk if I think he's desperately hungry, don't take him into bed, I made mistake with ds1 of thinking its almost time to wake up so may as well just get up which I think reinforced it. Toby until last week would wake in night screaming, we put it down to new bed/room and rountine and him getting bit disorinated, gave him a quilt (my mums sugesstion) rather than grow bag and he pretty much sleeps through with one shout about 10pm, I think he finds it more comforting, btw neither of mine have even woken and played or sat happily, this am ds1 just climbed into Toby's cot at 6.15am and they entertained each other first time ever!

xposts - I second Claraq, anything past 6am is onsidered morning and if we get to 7am (v v rarely) I think they must have died in their sleep

Everyone seems to agree then that the black outs are the best things to try. Fingers crossed they'll at least get us nearer to 6am than 5. Thanks all.

By the way, while we are all discussing what our LO's are capable of, moving on from the "how many words" conversation, I am interested to hear how yours are getting on with drawing.

Dd2 is holding a pen really well and drawing nice little circles and trying (but failing)to draw faces in them. This is a lot earlier than dd1, although she too was ahead of many of her contemporaries.

I assume this, like a lot of the things that dd2 is doing earlier than dd1 (feeding herself etc), is because she is copying her older sister. Anyone else with older siblings finding the same thing?

Clara DD is only child so nothing to judge it against but she is drawing circles but not trying to do faces. She is very decided when she thinks she's finished a drawing. Sometimes she will use several crayons and do all sorts of lines and squiggles, other times she will do one solitary thing and then start a fresh page in her colouring pad.

She loves her magic easel (not sure of what the proper name is but it's like an etch-a-sketch and cost £3 in Asda). She draws something, says "gone" and pulls the level across to wipe the screen and then starts again. One of the best £3's I've ever spent

ok toby must be backward will make marks on paper but no circles, ds1 will be 3 this week and only just interested in drawing faces, MIL questioned his communication skills today she said he doesn't listen and she can't always understand what he is saying, having a crap mum day I think, feeling guilty for having babies so close together so I can't deadicate enough time and energy to each one

they are well behaved and sleep tho... guess MIL doesn't appreciate that or takes it for granted

Insy what's sleep? DD still wakes up twice in the night, and my MIL is always on at me to give her some sleeping potion that she used on her DCs and went as far as buying me some despite the big label saying not for under twos (and this was when DD was 9mths).

Are any of your LOs having a clingy phase at the moment? DD has taken to insisting that her favourite cuddly toy - Fluffy - has to go to nursery with her. This has been going on for a couple of weeks but normally I can take Fluffy away with me after dropping her off. Yesterday though some of the other children in her class came over when we arrived and took an interest in Fluffy and DD immediately clutched him to her chest. However when her favourite friend arrived she rushed over to him and made Fluffy give him kisses (and friend's dad also got kisses lucky man )

So yesterday and today Fluffy has had to stay at nursery. She's never been like this before, always quite happy to go without any kind of toy/dummy/comforter.

spiral - I say my ds's sleep, they have their ups and downs, ds2 has always been a more clingy baby and enjoyed his comforters - getting the dummy off him at 6 months was a battle and we swapped it out for a cuddly toy (well several that we interchange and he doesn't seem to mind which one it is as long as he has something to snuggle at nap and bedtime and it HAS to go to nursery, they said just to leave one there but ds refused ) we had problems with him waking screaming v recently when we moved him into cot bed and into ds1's room and gave him a quilt and he's sleeping through again, I think he likes to snuggle down with it, I have to go in sometimes and just say 'its ok/night/time to go to sleep' and sometimes put my hand on his back but he goes straight back to sleep - 18months is classic seperation angst time again if you believe the baby books.

Got my mum coming over this eve so going to have a sainity check from her about boys development just to make sure I'm not missing something that everyone else can see

Insy - there you are, you are certainly not a crap mum - you managed to do something I have totally failed at and get the dummy off your ds at 6 months. Dd2 might be able to draw circles (which isn't really going to get her very far in life anyway!) but she walks around half the day with the wretched dummy in her mouth! I take it away from her constantly but before I know it she's found another one lying around...or I give it back to stop the constant cry for "mummy mummy mummy" which everyone else assumes means she wants me but I know is because she can't say her d's yet and is shouting for her dummy!!

SQ - dd2 is very attached now to a stuffed cat I bought her from IKEA - so much so that we have taken the precaution of buying two more to be on the safe side. She caught sight of these two new ones yesterday by mistake - her face was a mix of excitement and total bewilderment!

I remember dd1 became very attached to her blanket around this age. We can't go anywhere without it now.

Where is everybody?

Am I really sad to be on here so often?

Where is my life and my friends?