Practising being two July 28, 2008
The Young Man is now eighteen months old…. and as my Mum says he is practising being two as in the terrible twos. Overnight my lovely natured baby has turned into a throwing things, having tantrums, not wanting to eat boy. 95% of the time he is still lovely but that other 5% of the time can be a real pain.
The hardest thing is working out how best to deal with this new behaviour. As much as I want to tell him ‘off’ when he throws things I know that he is really only doing it for attention so me telling him off is only giving him what he wants – albeit in a negative fashion.
Luckily Adman’s workload has dropped off and he has actually been at home for three weekends straight now and home every night. Its been wonderful and really nice to be family again.
My Mum is housesitting for friends for the next 7 weeks which will be even nicer as we will be able to get into our little family groove again.
Our house plans have just been finalised and are off to Council for consent shortly so hopefully building will begin in the next month or too.
Fingers crossed
All growed up June 25, 2008
The Young Man is now almost 17 months old. He is no longer a baby but I can’t quite call him a boy or even a toddler yet.
He climbs everything and can even climb by himself into his highchair, and try to strap himself him.
He still isn’t the worlds greatest talker but every day he is learning more and more words. His latest word is ball… but he pronouces it like baoooollll. For some strange reason he seems to have a canadian accent.
He still loves going to his carer and and excitedly calls out her name all the way on the drive to her house. Unfortunately she is going on a 8 week holiday at the end of the month and he is having to go to another carer. I am hoping that the transistion will be fine especially since he has been to her a couple of time before. But who knows…. they are fickle young things these children.
This box is his favourite toy at the moment- he likes to put things in it and then put the lid on it. He has even tried to put the lid on when he is sitting in it!
I know it won’t last for long but at the moment he likes to help with the housework!
Status Brown May 9, 2008
We have always been really lucky with the Young Man and never had to deal with the whole exploding nappy situation…. well until last weekend. The Adman and I had planned a trip away to the coromandel to stay with friends and although I was looking forward to it I knew it would be hard work. I didn’t think however that the actual trip there would be the hardest part.
We left just after lunchtime as the Young Man hadn’t had his morning sleep so we figured we would get a couple of hours on the road with him asleep. Uh No…. He slept for exactly 40 minutes. About 1 1/2 hours into the journey he started getting really grizzly. We still had at least another 2 hours to go so we didn’t really want to stop. In our wisdom of very experienced parents (ha) we decided he was grizzly because he was tired and we should just ignore him and eventually he would go back to sleep. After about 1/2 an hour of constant grizzling and occasional high pitched screams I decided we needed to stop. The plan was that we would stop at the next town and have a coffee and let the Young Man have a bit of a stretch.
As I started to get the Young Man out of his car seat I suddenly realised what the problem was…. he had pooed. And not only had he pooed but it was everywhere. Poor little man. Poor Me having to try and tidy it up.
Usually when I need to change his nappy when we are out and about I do it in the back of the station wagon however it was filled to the top with all the baby paraphernalia. So I attempted to change him in the passenger front seat. Close your eyes and imagine a baby slipping into the back of the seat while poo is being smeared all over the leather seats and the baby is trying to get away from the poo but all he is actually doing is getting it all over you. That’s the picture I was having to deal with.
While all this was going on Adman was doing goodness knows what. I finally managed to get most of the poo off the boy but still needed to get the poo-ey clothes off him. This needed to be a two person job so I asked Adman if he could help out. Around he comes and pulls out a handful of wipes – oh not wait – it was the last handful of wipes- and proceeds to start wiping the poo off the seats. Too bad about the baby covered in poo or the wife covered in poo – obviously the seats were most in need of cleaning up.
So there we were standing next to the car in the main street of small town NZ with a butt naked baby and a Mum covered in poo and a Dad rumanging through the back trying to finding more wipes. Eventually we were all put back together and back on our way. I think it wasn’t until we got home that I actually recovered.
finally April 23, 2008
After a week of to-ing and fro-ing we have finally come to an agreement over a revised price for the land. YAY now the fun starts!! planning our dream house and building it!! scary!
I have been addicted to googling strange things again…. today’s latest one was “is 14 months too young to do forward rolls?” Yep that’s right the Young Man is now successfully doing forward rolls ( or rolly polys as we call them in NZ – do they get called that any where else?) He thinks its the most funniest thing and if I hadn’t packed the video camera away in one of the several thousand boxes being stored in my Mum’s garage I would have recorded it for prosperity and attempted to post it up here ( that would be a full learning experience in itself).
Other googling that has taken place has included searching for venison recipes that include beer (long story but the Adman was very pleased with himself for catching a wild deer and decided that he wanted to cook it in beer – who know why!?) remarkably there were several recipes and the one we ended up using was a success!!
Home Alone April 17, 2008
For the first time since we moved in with my Mum I am home alone with the Young Man. My mum is in Dunedin at a Conference and Adman is away working. Its going to be just me and the boy until Sunday.
I have been spoilt over the last few months as I had forgotten what it was like to do the dinner – bed shift with the Young Man by your self. Luckily he was in a fairly good mood so it wasn’t too bad.
I had plans that once the Young Man went to bed I would have some tea and then get on my newly hired exercycle for half an hour or so. That was until I opened the fridge and saw that Adman had made me some nibbles ( carrots and celery and dip) and I spied some cadbury’s fruit and nut choc at the back as well. For about 1/4 of a second I thought well I could eat that stuff and then ride the bike. But the little devil on my left shoulder who I seem to listen to far too much told me there would be no point and I should just enjoy my night and do the biking tomorrow. So that is now the plan.
In much more exciting news there are now 4 women at work who are pregnant. I am worried that there must be something in the water and I hope that I am not number five!! As much as we would like to have more children its just not something we can consider at the moment. And I also have this thing where I only want one child at a time in nappies. At the moment our plan for child numero deux is waiting until the Young Man is about 2 1/2 before we start trying. Of course if something happened before that we would deal with it and be happy. As much as we like to think that we can plan these things sometimes you just never know.
You have got to be kidding… March 7, 2008
This week has been one of those weeks when all the routines I thought we had in place have gone out the window.
Monday morning saw the Young Man waking as usual at around 6.30 am. Off he popped to care at 8 am and I went to work. When I picked him up at 4.30 Diane told me that he had only had one sleep so was a tad tired. By the time dinner time came around he had hit the wall and was in the horrible stage when he wants a cuddle but doesn’t want to be held… where he wants to sit on your knee but wants to play with his toys – all the time while crying. That night we put him to bed at 6.15 and he went straight to sleep. The next morning he didn’t wake until 7am. I can’t tell you how excited Adman and I were about this. That day at care he had a great day and had his usual two sleeps. But then came night time… he went to bed at 6.30 as usual and seemed content. Half an hour later he was crying and banging the sides of his cot (a sure sign he is uber grumpy). Adman went in and settled him and he finally went to sleep at around 7.30. The next morning he woke at 5am and would not go back to sleep. At 5.30 I gave in and got up and gave him his bottle with the hope that he would settle back down but uh ah – no way. So up we got and spent an extra hour of playing (which was kind of nice really -despite his tiredness). That day at care he only had one hours sleep…. and it continues – a vicious cycle where lack of sleep creates a grumpy baby and the grumpy baby is so over tired he doesn’t want to sleep. This morning when he woke at 5.30 I just rolled over to the Adman and sighed and said “You have got to be kidding”. Luckily he was settled enough and was happy playing with his toys until 6am…. and of course he only had one sleep today at care.
I never realised it but sleep really is a cyclical thing. When he has a good nights sleep he has 2 decent sleeps during the day. When he doesn’t sleep well at night ( or have his full 12 hours) his regular day sleeps go out the window. I know that soon he will only need one sleep a day, but at the moment he still needs his two sleeps and when he doesn’t have them everyone hears about it.
In much more exciting news we think we may have found a piece of land to buy and build our ‘homestead’ on. It is half an hectare and is about 15 minutes out of town. We have decided that once we settle on our property next weekend we will make an offer on it and see how we can. We will have to offer less than the asking price as we need all the funds we can get to actually build on. Its an exciting time but very nerve racking at the same time.
Six things I have forgotten to talk about… March 1, 2008
- We have sold our house – we ended up selling it for a lot less than we wanted but its sold and now it means we can move to the next stage – buying a section and building a house. In two weeks time we will be debt free for the first time in our relationship. Although we didn’t get as much as we wanted we have ended up with enough to pay off our car loans and also pay back my Mum the money she lent up for our deposit when we brought our house. Although it means our deposit won’t be as big as we hoped it does mean that our next mortgage will be our only debt.
- Although I haven’t officially made the decision to flag the charity bike ride I haven’t been able to train for the last two weeks so it kind of means that I am running out of time. First of all my bikes gears gave up the ghost. Of course it took over a week to get fixed and in the meantime I have done something to my hip which means if I try to rotate it I am in extreme pain. My chiro is slowly making it better but biking is just out of the question.
- Up until Tuesday of this week we hadn’t had any decent rain since late December. Since Tuesday we have had constant rain. Its been a g*d send as it means relief for the garden as we were having water restrictions which meant I wasn’t able to water it so my lettuces, capsicums and beetroot were beginning to gasp.
- The Young Man has really taken a step up with his eating lately. Now he wants to try and use a fork or spoon and his taste buds seem to be ever expanding. The other night a gave him an olive to see what he would do – well he scoffed it down and put out his hand for more. Tonight he had homemade chicken fried rice and he ate probably about a cup of it – followed up with jelly and icecream for a special Saturday night treat.
- The Adman is away this weekend working. I used to dread weekends when he would have to work out of the area but now that we are back home its not a problem. My Mum is here and she helps out so much and makes all of our lives so much easier. This morning she even got up to the Young Man and let me have a sleep in to 8am – bliss!
- As a way to celebrate selling our house I am planning a night away for the Adman and my self. We have never had a night of luxury before so I am planning a flash hotel and some spa treatments for us as well as dinner at a very acclaimed restaurant. Of course the Adman is working for the next 3 weekends so it won’t be happening for a while but it will happen.
On the phone February 28, 2008
Out of the eight hours I spent at work today I spent 5 of them on the phone . The worst part was that for three of those hours I was on the phone to my boss who works in an office downstairs. We are currently working on implementing a new IT system for project planning. The best way to work out all the kinks was for both of us to sit at our computers and talk through the changes that were needed.
Those three hours have given me a great insight into IT geeks. It took us three hours to work out how we wanted it to look – goodness knows how long it will take for them to actually make the changes.
Today was one of those days where I felt like I was just treading water. I went from one meeting to the next with no time to consider what had been discussed or even to review what the next meeting was about. I am beginning to enjoy my new job and I even think that I might be doing okay at it. But its days like this that sometimes I wish that I would be happy to be a stay at home mum ( oh and also being able to afford to be!).
Today was also the first day that I had to work late. Luckily Adman was able to pick up the Young Man from Care but by the time I got home it was bath time and then bed. I feel cheated out of quality time with him. No time to play with him and his blocks, no time to chase him around the house. At least we got to brush our teeth together.
Now we are one…. February 21, 2008
A year ago we came home from hospital with a baby boy. He had dark hair and a black eye from the forceps. We were scared and full of joy at the same time.
The last year has been a pretty big one for our family. We have moved house, got new jobs and the Young Man has gone from being a baby to being a toddler. Every day he amazes us with his cheekiness and happiness. He is still in love with the cat and will chase he around the house trying to pull her fluff off.
Adman is enjoying the fact that now he can really “play” with him. Last week I came out into the lounge and they had built a hut – including a door sign that said “boys only”.
The Young Man has settled in so well with his carer and he loves hanging out with his new friends. Most mornings he is happy to wave me off as I leave. It makes leaving him for 8 1/2 hours a day bearable as I know that he loves being there. Who wouldn’t enjoy being somewhere where most days there are disco’s and the sand pit is open all hours.
The Young Man continues to be the bestest eater there is. He loves fruit and if I let him that would be all he would eat. His favourite fruit of de jour is watermelon and he will suck and chew on it until it gets down to the rind. Never mind the fact that he has watermelon juice all over him and is a sticky little mess.
The Young Man had a lovely afternoon tea for his birthday -despite the fact that he hadn’t slept all day and was ready to hit the wall at any minute. He loved his smiley face ice cream cake and was especially impressed with the bacon and egg pie.
Its hard to believe that we have a one year old in the house now. Its hard to believe that at one stage he was just a twinkle in our eyes and we were wondering what life would be like having a baby. Now we can’t imagine what our life would be like without him. Now we have a little man with ginger hair and a twinkle in his eye. We have been so blessed with a happy relaxed baby who sleeps all night and just loves life.
“Its my party and I’ll look smug if I want to…”
