18 month update
We're a bit behind - here's Graham's update!
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Ciaran's 18-month mark passed in a distinctly average way: he is now 81.25cms tall, which is almost bang on the 50th centile. We haven't weighed him, but judging by the little belly he's now sporting I imagine that's increased up towards the 50th as well.
He's had an extra day in nursery for the last month while his gran and grandad were off on holiday in New Zealand. The nursery staff have said he's now much more self-confident, which I suspect may have something to do with growing more comfortable with that environment - for the first 2-3 months after moving up from baby class to toddler class he would cry when we got there and have to be comforted by one of the carers there, but now he's happy to go off and play. He loves to read, and last week he spent most of one of the mornings sat in the book corner going through their book collection. Hopefully his confidence won't take a dip again when he moves up to upper toddlers, which we've been told could happen in January.
Singing and music continues to be a favourite, and also dancing. Strictly Come Dancing (the progenitor of Dancing with the Stars) has been on in recent weeks, and when the theme music starts he runs over to the telly and starts dancing and laughing. We took a short film of it to send to his grandparents, and during the intro he stands for about 10 seconds with his leg lifted off the ground waiting for the music to start so he can dance. Most recently he's been singing "three blind mice" to himself (presumably one he's learnt off gran and grandad, because it's not one we've taught him), and before that it was Old McDonald Had a Farm. Heidi took him to baby sign with her friend M and her son G, and just as everyone had quietened down to start singing it he piped up with "Ee-I-O?"
Words have come more slowly this month, but he's getting a bit better at letting us know what he wants. "Deek" is still drink, though these days it more often than not means "I want to drink out of your glass". The Christmas tree (tee!) went up quite early, and he knows the difference between a bauble (bo-bo), lights (he loves to have the tree lights on, and "DIGHTS!" is often the first thing he asks for of a morning) and a star (dar!). He's more technically adept as well, calling both the laptop and the desktop "teeter" - usually just before he turns them off - and similarly referring to the digital camera, which he REALLY REALLY wants to play with, as "meemer". He's started to put some words together ("bye bye mommy/daddy/cat"), and some of his new words include "bippo" (hippo) and "bra" (err... bra. Go figure).
Talking of hippos, incidentally, we took him to Chester Zoo with his auntie Hev the other weekend. He wasn't especially interested in most of the animals, except for one: Sabrina the singing Snow Dragon. Figures that we take him to see real animals and the one he likes best is the mythical one. Our favourite trick when we're out is to pull his shoes and socks off, which after repeated attempts to replace them led to his being pushed around the Christmas market this weekend in near-freezing temperatures with bare feet, something people were ready to let us know would cause him to "get cold" - thank you Messrs. Sherlock.
Sleep is, no pun intended, up and down. The week before last he only woke up twice during the night in the whole week, whereas this week has been a bit of a nightmare as he seems to be having trouble settling. We're not sure why; certainly the back room can get cold later in the night, but he that doesn't seem to be what's bothering him, as he never feels cold and doesn't seem to struggle to go back down because of it. Part of the problem, though, is that when he's waking up he tries to climb out of his cot, which inevitably causes his leg to get stuck between the bars, prompting a bout of loud crying. His right knee is currently quite bruised on both sides as a result of trying to slide his leg back in, which looks nasty, but there's not a great deal we can do about it because there's no real way of stopping him.
He's also got rid of one bad habit - spitting out his food - and replaced it with another, which is hitting people (us, mostly). We're not sure where he's learnt this from (our default suspect for bad habits is other kids at nursery, since it's the only time he's away from us), and he currently gets a stern admonishment and then taken out of the room for a short period if he continues, which has already reduced it quite a lot, though when he's tired of an evening he does still occasionally do it if he's not getting his own way. Hopefully in short order he'll work himself out of this particular habit.
When he is awake, though, he remains quite cheerful and inquisitive (nosey may be more accurate!) and is quite fun to be with. He always wants to join in with what you're doing and will often point things out to you, and if he sees mum and dad sat together on the sofa he'll run over for cuddles, which is nice as otherwise when he wants to be held (up!) it's only for the purpose of getting a better view!
Trick of the week: sucking in his aforementioned belly is apparently hilarious!
***
Ciaran's 18-month mark passed in a distinctly average way: he is now 81.25cms tall, which is almost bang on the 50th centile. We haven't weighed him, but judging by the little belly he's now sporting I imagine that's increased up towards the 50th as well.
He's had an extra day in nursery for the last month while his gran and grandad were off on holiday in New Zealand. The nursery staff have said he's now much more self-confident, which I suspect may have something to do with growing more comfortable with that environment - for the first 2-3 months after moving up from baby class to toddler class he would cry when we got there and have to be comforted by one of the carers there, but now he's happy to go off and play. He loves to read, and last week he spent most of one of the mornings sat in the book corner going through their book collection. Hopefully his confidence won't take a dip again when he moves up to upper toddlers, which we've been told could happen in January.
Singing and music continues to be a favourite, and also dancing. Strictly Come Dancing (the progenitor of Dancing with the Stars) has been on in recent weeks, and when the theme music starts he runs over to the telly and starts dancing and laughing. We took a short film of it to send to his grandparents, and during the intro he stands for about 10 seconds with his leg lifted off the ground waiting for the music to start so he can dance. Most recently he's been singing "three blind mice" to himself (presumably one he's learnt off gran and grandad, because it's not one we've taught him), and before that it was Old McDonald Had a Farm. Heidi took him to baby sign with her friend M and her son G, and just as everyone had quietened down to start singing it he piped up with "Ee-I-O?"
Words have come more slowly this month, but he's getting a bit better at letting us know what he wants. "Deek" is still drink, though these days it more often than not means "I want to drink out of your glass". The Christmas tree (tee!) went up quite early, and he knows the difference between a bauble (bo-bo), lights (he loves to have the tree lights on, and "DIGHTS!" is often the first thing he asks for of a morning) and a star (dar!). He's more technically adept as well, calling both the laptop and the desktop "teeter" - usually just before he turns them off - and similarly referring to the digital camera, which he REALLY REALLY wants to play with, as "meemer". He's started to put some words together ("bye bye mommy/daddy/cat"), and some of his new words include "bippo" (hippo) and "bra" (err... bra. Go figure).
Talking of hippos, incidentally, we took him to Chester Zoo with his auntie Hev the other weekend. He wasn't especially interested in most of the animals, except for one: Sabrina the singing Snow Dragon. Figures that we take him to see real animals and the one he likes best is the mythical one. Our favourite trick when we're out is to pull his shoes and socks off, which after repeated attempts to replace them led to his being pushed around the Christmas market this weekend in near-freezing temperatures with bare feet, something people were ready to let us know would cause him to "get cold" - thank you Messrs. Sherlock.
Sleep is, no pun intended, up and down. The week before last he only woke up twice during the night in the whole week, whereas this week has been a bit of a nightmare as he seems to be having trouble settling. We're not sure why; certainly the back room can get cold later in the night, but he that doesn't seem to be what's bothering him, as he never feels cold and doesn't seem to struggle to go back down because of it. Part of the problem, though, is that when he's waking up he tries to climb out of his cot, which inevitably causes his leg to get stuck between the bars, prompting a bout of loud crying. His right knee is currently quite bruised on both sides as a result of trying to slide his leg back in, which looks nasty, but there's not a great deal we can do about it because there's no real way of stopping him.
He's also got rid of one bad habit - spitting out his food - and replaced it with another, which is hitting people (us, mostly). We're not sure where he's learnt this from (our default suspect for bad habits is other kids at nursery, since it's the only time he's away from us), and he currently gets a stern admonishment and then taken out of the room for a short period if he continues, which has already reduced it quite a lot, though when he's tired of an evening he does still occasionally do it if he's not getting his own way. Hopefully in short order he'll work himself out of this particular habit.
When he is awake, though, he remains quite cheerful and inquisitive (nosey may be more accurate!) and is quite fun to be with. He always wants to join in with what you're doing and will often point things out to you, and if he sees mum and dad sat together on the sofa he'll run over for cuddles, which is nice as otherwise when he wants to be held (up!) it's only for the purpose of getting a better view!
Trick of the week: sucking in his aforementioned belly is apparently hilarious!