8:12 p.m. - 11 February, 2007
Update on la family Graveney
Man alive, long time no post. I thought I'd take this opportunity of Zach sleeping because he hasn't had a long sleep today and Nic in the bath to try and write an update on the past few weeks - feel I've been v. slack but I find it all hard work as you have to resize then upload the photos and I can't be arsed with the faff, lazy moo! So, this entry has no pics but the next one will be a pure pic fest of how my beautiful kiddies are changing.

I thought I'd do a summary post of things both my babies have been doing, so here goes (sorry for the lack of whizzy stuff, like bold print - I've got NO idea about html):

ZACH-MAN - my little 14 week old

- Sorry to any men that read this, but Zach has been fabulous at breastfeeding from the get go and I'd forgotten how very much I enjoyed it and want to continue with it for as long as he wants - the way I did with his sis. He's been absolutely brilliant and really focused and concentrated on what he's been doing, however, he's also reached the stage I think all babies do when they become increasingly aware of their surroundings ie a world away from the boob and he regularly pulls away to examine what's going on around him before going back on, which is then repeated quite a few times, making it quite difficult to suss whether he's had enough. The only time that he is like a man with a mission is at night when he wakes - once but usually twice - we lie down, I feed him, he feels back to sleep - yay!!!!

- another breastfeeding anecdote I'm afraid is again what Nic used to do - come off the boob to give you the most wonderful crinkly eyed, gurning smile, before turning back to the job in hand. It can be a tad frustrating when I've got things to do but then I see that little smile and melt, forgiving him anything.

- laughing. I think I said in my last post how smiley my little chap is (when he's not overtired and screaming his little head off). He's now developed a full on laugh which is gorgeous!!! Again, with Nic, while she laughed, she always made us work quite hard for it, whereas my little man is a bit more giving of his giggles. I spent last night with him on my lap for 15 minutes laughing - I'd laugh and he'd laugh his little head off back. I have never in my life felt so darn funny!!!!

- teething. That's another thing I'd forgotten - how quickly they teeth. Can't remember how old Nic was but my little boy started dribbling like a good 'un from about 10 weeks, followed by trying to stick his whole little fist in his mouth to relieve the pain. Have bought some Ashton & Parsons powders which we used for Nic, as well as bonjella and a teething ring. The frustration with the teething ring for him is that he can't hold it, but he'll gnaw at it beautifully and quite ferociously if you keep it poised in his mouth.

- hand/eye coordination. He's discovered his hands and holds his little fists in front of his face and just gaze at them for ages. If he thinks they're fascinating, just wait til he fully comprehends baby toys.

NICOLEE

- a couple of times she's decided to react a bit more physically with Zach. She forgets sometimes that he's a fragile little thing and will clamber all over the bed before we realise that she's actually managed to step on his arm. The two things she has done is slap his head and poke his eye - she seems to be fascinated by his oral and aural orifices and we sometimes need to really watch her around him. Otherwise, she wants to cuddle him and she even helped me change a complete outfit on him yesterday - you could see there was a real sense of satisfaction for her for helping me so I should really do that more often.

- references to Zach. Nic is wonderfully inclusive about her little brother. If we're going on a trip and you deliberately miss Zachy out, she'll always state 'and Zach too'. I love that she's quite happily and naturally encompassed Zach into her little world - both physically and mentally.

- her language is as phenomenal as ever she's learnt to say things like 'Do me a favour mummy/daddy' when she wants something, 'Ill show you' when she wants to demonstrate anything, as well as I'll do it later. She's also got 'Don't do that it's rude/silly' which has been applied to her - it's always good when your kids turn the tables on you!!!

- self elbow satisfaction. Am not sure if I'd mentioned before that Nicoe has a bit of an elbow fetish/comfort thing which we have been desperately trying to break, at least at night seeing as it's a bit restrictive for us in putting her to bed at night. We've now developed a new routine of saying good night to her, telling her we love her and then leaving the room - leaving the door open and loitering around on the stairs. The reason this works is that Nic now rubs her own elbow and is perfectly happy so long as she can call out mummy and be reaussured with a 'Shhh, go to sleep', which works with varying success depending on how much sleep she's had during the day.

- nursery. EEEek, we've started looking at nurseries for Nic for a couple of reasons - firstly, that it'll be great for her developmentally mixing with other kids her own age and secondly, that my 70 year old parents can't cope with looking after two Graveney kids. I've already been to see one place and it took Nic along. Once I was there, I had real mixed feelings about it all and the scarey realisation that when we send her to nursery, that it will mean that I'm handing her care over to someone who isn't family and who doesn't know her. Frightens the pants off me that it means partially letting go of my baby!!! Nicole had an absolute ball - she was off playing with the other kids and the activities the minute her coat came off. I finished chatting to the woman running the nursery and said that we may very well have theatrics if I told her we're leaving as she was in the wendy house having her hair combed by a couple of the older girls, so the woman said, just sit, chill, have a coffee and let her play for a while. I went into the wendy house as you can't see out of it and told Nic not to worry and that I'd be in the corner having a coffee and then left her to it, thinking she's bound to come out to check that I'm still there. Did she heck????! 5, 10, 20 minutes passed and, nada. The only time she came out was to offer me some pretend tea. By this point the girls combing her hair had also dressed her up in a fairy costume - my girl's obviously very compliant!!! Part of me was so gutted that she hadn't come looking for me and another part of me was "you go my lovely little girl"!!!!

- understanding concepts. Nicole likes to have a joke with us these days, demonstated by referring to me as daddy and to Zach as Nicole. She also gets what magic tricks are and will do some herself - don't think she'd get admitted to the Magic Circle in a hury though as she does her 'tricks' in front of your very eyes, showing you exactly what she's doing.

- nursery rhymes. Nic is the nursery rhyme queen!!!! My mother in law has been reciting these to her since she was a baby but it's only in the last couple of months that she absolutely loves reciting them, so she'll break out into song at the drop of a hat, sometimes deciding that everyone needs to join in by saying "all together now". It is utterly gorgeous watching her sing, especially when she does the actions to the songs. You'd think she'd be a born performer but the minute you ask her to sing a song in front of people she doesn't know very well, she just clams right on up.

Ok, so that's where I'm going to stop now. I'm still very up and down in dealing with 2 kids - I have some superb days where it all goes very, very right and Zach has enough sleep, meaning that he's not a grumpy boy and allows me time to play with Nic AND that the two kids have one sleep during the day at the same time. Then there are the other days that are just horrible where it all goes so terribly wrong and Zach cries and I don't know what he wants and I don't get to play with Nic who then acts up and I just end up stressed and miserable. On those days I want to run back to work. However, am hoping and thinking that the good days will become more frequent than the bad and that, as is already happening, I'll totally enjoy my gorgeous babies.

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