Development Leaps

Oct 07, 2015 13:32

We seem to have developmental leaps all 'round at the moment.
Meanwhile, I'm surviving on coffee fumes.



In the last few weeks Mr3 has worked out that if we aren't watching him, we don't actually know what he's doing. This became apparent when one morning he appeared beside my bed holding a chocolate frog he had managed to obtain while I slept.
"Can I have this?"
"No. No chocolate before breakfast."
"Ok."
Normally that wold be that. This time however I emerged to find he had eaten the large chocolate treat and was too full for real breakfast.

So, all chocolate has been rounded up (I think) and moved out of reach. We need to do the same with everything else, because he is getting in to *everything*.
Monday he discovered David's Lego room, and was found sitting on the chair in there blissfully playing with dad's lego. I have found my old lego for him to use instead, but he is still going in there so may have to secure the door somehow.
Morning conversations now go along the lines of:
"What have you been doing this morning?"
"... Stuff."
He has worked out he doesn't have to admit to anything, and we might not find out.

Toilet training is mostly going well. In the mornings he mostly takes off his wet nappy himself, and uses the potty for poo. One day he even took the nappy off still dry, but hasn't repeated that one. I suspect I'll have to take a chance and just put him into bed without a nappy to see how he goes. I suspect he is actually staying dry until the morning.
On Friday he had taken off his wet nappy, used his potty, cleaned himself and washed hands, then put underwear and his PJ pants back on. For an encore he then went to the kitchen, poured his muesli into a bowl, and poured juice over the muesli.
This is when I turned up to investigate the suspicious noises, and slightly mortified he pointed out that the juice had gone everywhere. He hadn't been able to control the large bottle so it was empty and the bowl was full and overflowing.

Impressed by his initiative we cleaned up, drained some of the juice (but he insisted he wanted juice rather than milk on the cereal), and discussed the possibility of a smaller bottle of milk in the fridge to put on his cereal next time. I praised his restraint with the muesli, he had actually poured himself almost exactly as much as he could eat.
So now there is a small bottle of milk in the fridge, he's still asking for his own juice bottle, I may have to give him one at some point. Hasn't attempted his own breakfast again, possibly because he's busy playing with things he shouldn't, but does like to pour his own milk.
Today he insisted on drinking some milk straight from the bottle. D'oh, our bad habits are passed to the next generation.


At the moment the cats are being terrorised as he plays "the bad guy" or "the monster", chasing them with his foam sword. Twice he has let Abby out onto the balcony from which she has fled the building, the he has come downstairs to go outside in his PJs and slippers after her.

He's been growing and is noticeably longer in the limbs now. This has increased the number of scrapes and head injuries as he adjusts, and brought many new things into range. The potty also looks too small under him now, soon be time to move onto the toilet full time perhaps.

In the recent hot weather I've been putting Ms0 into dresses. Since I don't wear them much the topic hasn't come up, but now he asked if he could wear a dress. Initially I didn't have anything in his size, but when Ms0 and I took a trip to Savers last week I picked him up a skirt to play with. He then spent the three hot days gleefully dancing around in it before I insisted it had to be washed.
He's not impressed by the lack of pockets, but otherwise loves his dress.
(Also, it matches his sandals, and he's got a very good enguard stance developing).



Ms 0 seems to have been having her next Wonder Week, compounded by teething driving her a bit nuts. Some very clingy days and restless nights. Last night was good though, she had her 6 month vaccination in the morning and that may have helped with a 3 hour afternoon nap, and then going down to sleep 6:30pmish-5amish. She even went back to sleep after the 5am feed, which is the bit she had failed at the last few days.

This Wonder Week is the one that can come with separation anxiety as she starts perceiving distance and isolation, which might explain why she just doesn't want to be put down, at all. I'm visiting the Osteo more frequently at the moment.
Vaccination went well. Louder than previous ones, but she coped ok and no side effects.

Food is starting to progress, delayed more by my lack of time than anything else.
Guidelines have changed a bit since Mr3 did this. Now they say start at 5-6 months when they show signs of readiness (which is what did with Mr3 anyway), but also say to increase the variety and texture of the food much more rapidly than previously. Except where allergies are a concern, she can basically dive straight in to everything.
So we've added chicken and sweet potato, carrot and salmon are also prepared, all of them finely chopped rather than pureed. The chicken has made her gag a couple of times, but she seems to like the flavour of my chicken stock, and some of it certainly disappears. Next on the list is probably some greens and some dairy.


Last night we had our first meal with the whole family at the table. She can now sit fairly happily in the high chair with enough padding to stabilise her, so she played with her toy and I fed her some rice porridge+pear between my mouthfuls. Mr3 enjoyed having her with us, she enjoyed being with us, it was all very nice. Watching us eat also inspired some more enthusiasm from her for eating.
I can't remember how much I let Mr3 play with feeding himself, but I suspect Ms0 will probably get more of it, particularly since she's not as cooperative about opening her mouth to pop food in. (At the moment she likes to sort of lick it off the spoon onto her tongue, not actually a lick, but she gets the food off the spoon without it being allowed in).

We've obtained a non-slip mat for the bath, so now she's bathing in there instead of the baby bath which she is really too big for. She's also a tight fit in the Bumbo, so just as well she is accepting the highchair.

Mr3 has said a few times lately that he loves Ms0. He has also worked out he can spin her mobile for her if he gets his stool. I need to reattach a dragon to the mobile now.


Edit: After this post, on Wednesday night we were chasing Mr3 to try and put his nappy on for the night. Eventually he declared that he wanted to try with no nappy tonight, I'd picked up a mattress protector so after ensuring he meant it and understood the implications, I said ok.
And that was that. I'm adding this note nearly a month later, and there has been not a single nighttime accident. He goes to the potty before bed and in the morning, usually without any involvement from us, and we've declared him fully toilet trained at age 3.5.

mr3, baby

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