Alex
Alex is getting very definite about what he wants. Tonight when he was (finally) ready to lie down and go to sleep, he patted his bottom to show me what he wanted done. Then when I stopped he grabbed my hand and did it for me :)
A few more words would be helpful ('goo-gah' seems to cover most things), although pointing and screeching eventually gets the message across! And when my Mum or Dad are here and have to go, if they try to hand him over he screeches, pushes me away and turns the other way.
Alex is not quite walking yet, but he's working really hard at it. He can stand for a while by himself, and he's quite proud of himself! Although it's hard to stay upright when you're waving your arms around in the air in delight or flicking your lips with your fingers to make blub blub sounds... He can walk reasonably well just holding one hand now, so it's more about balance than strength I think.
He's a very cheeky boy - he knows full well what 'no' means, and generally he does the exact opposite... eg if he's got hold of something he shouldn't have, once I ask for it back, he immediately crawls at full-pelt to the other end of the room. It's amazing how fast he can crawl.
He'll zero in very quickly on no-go zones if I leave doors or safety gate open. Eg the bathroom (too easy to topple over into the bath) and the laundry (cats' food and tray). He also seems to be able to suss out straight away what the most dangerous/least appropriate part of a room is.
Now he's getting quite big and strong, I have to protect Clara from him as much as the other way around. The main issue, apart from the usual sibling argy bargy where one wants what the other one has got (although they don't want it the other 99.9% of the time), is Alex pulling Clara's hair. It really hurts, and it's hard to get him to let go. Ditto on pulling the cats' tails. He used to be quite gentle with the cats, having been taught to pat pat gently, but now it's more like whack whack, and either grabbing their fur or their tail.
A few more words would be helpful ('goo-gah' seems to cover most things), although pointing and screeching eventually gets the message across! And when my Mum or Dad are here and have to go, if they try to hand him over he screeches, pushes me away and turns the other way.
Alex is not quite walking yet, but he's working really hard at it. He can stand for a while by himself, and he's quite proud of himself! Although it's hard to stay upright when you're waving your arms around in the air in delight or flicking your lips with your fingers to make blub blub sounds... He can walk reasonably well just holding one hand now, so it's more about balance than strength I think.
He's a very cheeky boy - he knows full well what 'no' means, and generally he does the exact opposite... eg if he's got hold of something he shouldn't have, once I ask for it back, he immediately crawls at full-pelt to the other end of the room. It's amazing how fast he can crawl.
He'll zero in very quickly on no-go zones if I leave doors or safety gate open. Eg the bathroom (too easy to topple over into the bath) and the laundry (cats' food and tray). He also seems to be able to suss out straight away what the most dangerous/least appropriate part of a room is.
Now he's getting quite big and strong, I have to protect Clara from him as much as the other way around. The main issue, apart from the usual sibling argy bargy where one wants what the other one has got (although they don't want it the other 99.9% of the time), is Alex pulling Clara's hair. It really hurts, and it's hard to get him to let go. Ditto on pulling the cats' tails. He used to be quite gentle with the cats, having been taught to pat pat gently, but now it's more like whack whack, and either grabbing their fur or their tail.