Growing/Moving/Talking fast

Its been just over a week since we last posted. We haven’t done a huge amount, but we always seem to be busy. It must be the little ones keeping us on our toes.

We spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandad (or “Sammy and DadDad” as Eve likes to call them), and had a lovely time. On the Saturday we went for a nice walk along the disused railway line in the Meon Valley. Tess wore her bear suit and sat in the back carrier, while Eve walked most of the way, encouraging people to run with her. The next day the weather was not as good, but they still had a lovely time playing with different toys and Eve in particular set up a shop on the kitchen table where she sold her wares to Grandad. The fact that these had been stolen from their cupboards to start with didn’t seem to phase her!

Generally they were pretty good while we were away – Tess slept well both night and Eve slept well on one of them. It always seems very strange that they are sometimes good, and sometimes not so good.

Eve’s language skills are getting better every single day, and she is now able to copy us and just say new words. Today we had “Ketchup”, “Aunty Manda” and “Tuck me in” in the space of 2 hours this evening. One of her favourite toys at the moment is a dinosaur jigsaw with A,B,C etc written on it. She is now putting this together very well, although whether this is pattern matching or letter matching is hard to tell.

Another new word is her favourite dinosaur: Troodon.

Tess is now really moving pretty well. You leave her in a room and she will be moving towards the door to follow you by the time you get back. Becca reported that she was chasing Eve around the room today trying to get hold of a toy! She has also mastered the art of Peek-a-boo using either a blanket or a door…

Smiling and crawling

A walk in the woods with Grandma and Grandad

Tess enjoyed the walk on Mummy’s back

2 Dangerous monsters behind bars

What can I get you?

More teeth

Tess now has two teeth (the two front bottom ones), with 18 to go. In sisterly inverse symmetry, Eve has 18 teeth and 2 to go. We’re just waiting for her last two pesky molars and then she is done with teething! Hooray!

This may be a stupid thing to say but so far Tess seems to have been disturbed less by her teeth coming through than Eve was. She has been a bit grumpy, and has woken a bit earlier than usual in the mornings, but hasn’t been waking up in the night with them. So far. Famous last words and everything…

I’ve just taken Tess to be weighed and she is now 16 pounds 9 ounces, so she is continuing her assault on the percentiles. It is hardly surprising, given how much she has been eating. She gets cross if she isn’t given her food as soon as she sits at the table, and then basically keeps eating until we stop her. She can also now drink from a cup with a spout very well. Away from the kitchen table, Tess is now getting around using a commando crawl, which is getting faster and faster.

Eve is now repeating random words back to us and having fun putting words together into combinations. She can say most of the basic colour words (blue, green, red, pink, purple, black – yellow and orange sometimes), and can now count from 1 to 10 pretty reliably. She also recognises and names some letters and numbers – 5, e, m in particular. She is continuing to do some toddler boundary testing which includes some (thankfully relatively minor so far) tantrums and copying Tess when she squeals and blows raspberries (which Tess does quite  a lot – trying to be heard over the din Eve makes, I think).

We carved a pumpkin at the weekend which Eve enjoyed, but she didn’t really understand the trick or treaters coming to the door “mummy people at door” and was very scared of one costume!

Jaws II

Finally Tess has teeth! Or more accurately a tooth. One has now appeared on her bottom gum. It looks like a tooth, it feels like a tooth. Its probably a tooth.

We have had a good week, and  anice Friday off for me. Tess and I went to swimming after last week off, and had a lovely time. She always seems to enjoy herself although she does seem to get a bit grumpy after a while.

Eve shows the only safe way to use a laptop

Tess in her new bear suit

Growing fast!

Just a quick post to record Tess and my trip to the weigh-in clinic today. She tipped the scales at 15 pounds 12 ounces! A month ago she was 14 0, so this is a fairly big increase. This is very good, as she had started slipping down the percentile chart a bit. So she is now back up just below the 25 percentile, which is where she was  for the first couple of months. She is eating solid food now (and quite a bit of it, as Anton’s post yesterday said), but this is unlikely to account for the big rise, or solely account for it anyway, as she will still be getting most of her calories from milk at the moment (milk being highly calorific). Plus the big increase started before she started solid food. A mega growth spurt perhaps? Who knows!

A week away

Over the last week we have had a nice week away in Lyme Regis, and were joined for a few days by my parents, NanAnne and Grandad. We stayed in a nice flat right on the sea front and enjoyed glorious weather for pretty much the whole week. This was Eve’s second trip to Lyme Regis, but was a first trip for Tess, but they both seemed to have a great time.

We arrived on Friday, and didn’t do a great amount except get settled in. On Saturday NanAnne and Grandad were due to join us so we had a quick walk down the sea front and towards the Cobb, but didn’t get that far as Eve decided that because the weather was so warm,  she wanted a run in the sea, which became a quick dip! She managed to get completely soaked and we returned to the flat quite quickly. Later on in the day she also had her first go at rock pooling. On the Sunday we had a walk along towards the Cobb again, and a nice lunch out, and a visit to the Aquarium.

On Monday we had a trip along to a big donkey sanctuary. On Tuesday NanAnne and Grandad had to head back to Bristol and we went up to Axminster and then to Lyme Bay winery and a picnic. Wednesday we had a quiet time around Lyme Regis and Eve had another (and more planned) swim in the sea, and Tess had her first paddle in the sea, and her first taste of sand. Thursday we had a quick trip to Charmouth looking for fossils. We didn’t find any.

And then we headed home. We had a great week – Eve and Tess seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves: Eve loved the beaches (“sea”and “splosh” [when she throws a pebble in the sea] have become some of her new words) and Tess seemed to have a great time eating, of which more after the photographs…

A few steps into the water

A very soggy eve

Collecting pebbles on the beach

The family on the Cobb

All the best people wear a bucket on their head

At the Town Mill bakery, breakfast was very popular

Going for another dip

This sand is nice

…and the sea is a bit wet

Getting ready to throw some more stones

Waiting for Eve to come back!

Enjoying a few blackberries

Eve’s vocabulary keeps on increasing and we hear several new words a day (today we have had: “tucked in” and”buzz off” [from a book!]). I think that the tip away has been good.

At the risk of sounding like a gushing parent, Tess’ eating has really come on, and she is showing great enthusiasm for pretty much anything that we put in front of her. Only today she has had 3 completely new meals: porridge for breakfast, quesdillas (cheese filled tortillas) for lunch, and roasted ribs for dinner (with potatoes and carrots). While we were away, she tried pies, breakfast at the Town Mill Bakery (which they both really enjoyed – “More toast!” as Eve would say), fish pie,  pizza and crab cakes.

Even MORE food, and a rainy journey

We can’t believe how quickly Tess has got the hang of eating. We’re sure Eve took a bit longer than this. Tess is now mostly eating what we have, or parts of it, and she doesn’t seem to be phased by anything.  She is getting much more adept at getting the food into her mouth, and is now chewing and making loud swallowing noises. Her nappies provide evidence that a lot is going down! So, since our last post Tess has had macaroni cheese, veggie shepherds pie, scrambled egg on toast and yoghurt, amongst other things. She is really keen to use spoons. She is still VERY messy though…

At the weekend we met Chris and Lara (and the dogs)  for a walk at Christmas Common, followed by a pint in a very nice pub. It was a pleasant autumn afternoon. Eve and Tess were fairly well behaved, although it would have been nice if Eve had taken a few tips from Lara on how to sit down and be sociable in the pub garden. Eve just wanted to look at the stones and the dogs and the flowers and the million and one other things that caught her eye! It didn’t help that she hadn’t had a sleep after her lunch (again!).

This week we’ve been working on Eve’s early wakings, or rather, her need for someone to be with her from when she wakes up until it is time to get up. A few weeks ago we put a light on a timer in her room. We had previously been using an alarm clock but that wasn’t ideal as it would wake her up if she wasn’t already awake. With the light, she can see if it is on or not, but hopefully it won’t wake her if she is in a deep slumber. We’ve been getting her used to the idea that when the light comes on, that is time to get up. This week, when she wakes (usually around 5.30-5.45) we’ve started going in and putting her back in bed, but then leaving. She wasn’t too happy about this to start with, but the last couple of days has been much better. We’re not bothered about her sleeping in late – we’re fairly early rising people so we can hardly expect her to be otherwise, but if she would consistently sleep till 6 or 6.30, or at least play quietly in her room, we’d be really happy.

This evening, Eve and Anton came home from nursery on the bus. Buses are Eve’s latest love, she points to them and says ’town bus’ or ‘blue bus’ or ‘pink bus’. Anton reports that she really enjoyed the journey, looking out of the windows and making friends with other people on the bus. They managed to sit at the front on the top deck so had a really good view. When they got home, Eve was still very excited. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain and it is a bit of a walk to the bus stop from the nursery, so they both got really rather wet. Eve was soaked through her raincoat, top and vest, so it was straight into a warm bath – it is the first time I’ve seen Eve pull out her changing mat, spread it out on the floor and lie down to have her nappy taken off so she could get in amongst the warm bubbles.

Eve and Anton on the bus, a bit soggy

Tess vs Macaroni

Tess likes yoghurt

Eve and Lara compare drinks

On we munch…

… through courgette, plum, potato, banana, green beans, broccoli and strawberries (yum!) and sweetcorn fritters. Not bad going considering this is only day 6. The plum and strawberries have gone down particularly well. We’re also seeing plenty of evidence that things are actually being eaten, rather than just played with. Some more pictures below (of Tess eating, not the evidence. That would be nasty).

Tess had her first go in a swing on Thursday, which she seemed to enjoy. Eve certainly enjoyed it (‘Tess swing tess swing tess swing’).

Yesterday we had a lovely lunch at Auntie Lou and Uncle Dom’s house. Eve was mostly good apart from a short but loud tantrum when we stopped her eating a whole loaf of bread. She is definitely trying to use the old toddler trick of screaming loudly whenever she wants something, but so far they are fairly short as we try to stick to our guns and don’t often give in, so she knows there isn’t much point.

Nappies and the effectiveness of them are occupying us when it comes to Eve at the moment. She is holding in her wee more and more now – often going 4 or 5 hours without one. She also tends not to wee in the night. However this means that when she does go, they are massive and the nappies just don’t hold them – both our re-usable tots bots and the disposable eco pull up pants that she wears at night. So we’re getting through a lot of trousers and pyjama bottoms at the moment. We’ve had some success at sitting her on the potty at crucial moments and catching the odd one, but she is still a way off being able to tell us far enough in advance to really start trying to potty train her. We are starting to suspect that her early waking (although to be fair recently this has been nearer 6 than 5, and one day last week she slept till 7am!!!) may be due to needing a wee waking her up.

Finally, twice recently Eve hasn’t had an afternoon nap, despite being put to bed – she has just played in her room and not wanted to stay in bed. We’re hoping this isn’t the start of her dropping her nap altogether – although if it means she sleeps longer at night that would be some compensation! Tess’ sleeps are usually pretty good although she too will often skip a sleep. Normally she goes to sleep well in the evening, but will have the occassional fairly major grump. We are hoping that this shows we have learnt a bit from having Eve, but is probably just luck…

Eve in a box

Tess in a swing

Tess and Broccoli

Tess and Strawberry

6 months!

Tess is 6 months old today! Doesn’t time fly?

We marked the occasion with her first meal of solid food – some roasted sweet potato wedges. Tess had a good munch on these, and we think some got swallowed – we’ll find out in her nappies over the next couple of days! She seemed to develop a technique of squashing the sweet potato in her hand and then sucking her thumb… messy. Some photos below.  The ‘baby led weaning’ (or self-feeding as we more often call it) seemed to work well with Eve, so we’re taking the same approach with Tess. It really made weaning a lovely (if messy) experience, no puree-ing, no ice cubes of gunk in the freezer, little or no need for special food or meals (after the first couple of weeks Tess will just have what we’re having), no worrying about how much has been eaten.  Eve is obviously a trendsetter as the idea is much more popular now than when we started with her – there is a book and everything!

What else has been happening with the terrible twosome?

Tess continues to be very wriggly, including in her cot. I don’t remember Eve ever being this wriggly – we used to put her to bed and she’d stay in more or less the same place. With Tess, in the morning she might be on her tummy, up at one end of the cot or another, or on her side pulling at her musical star! She isn’t really crawling yet, but is sitting unsupported (just with cushion crash mats as she still does the occasional nose dive), and can move around to get toys she wants.

We spent some time at the weekend in Bristol, which Eve thoroughly enjoyed (Tess had a good time too but we messed her daytime sleep patterns up a bit so she was a little grumpy both there and after we got back). She settled right in very quickly, and spent most of her time arranging and rearranging teddy bears, dolls and happy people on chairs, which is one of her favourite games at the moment. She had a fun morning on her own with NanAnne and Grandad while Anton and Tess and I went to Ikea.

The other big news this week has been the opening of the new nursery building at the university. We went along to have a little look around on Sunday, before it officially opened on Monday. It is a really fantastic building – prefabricated, but purpose built and designed for the task, and there is new furniture and play equipment inside and out, including some little teepee like huts in the garden. Eve is now in the 2-3 year old group – she had been spending her Wednesdays there informally over the summer anyway, so it was really just a formality to be officially moved. She now has a term to settle in there before Tess arrives in the baby room after Christmas.

Finally, Eve is still adding a handful of words to her vocabulary every day (today’s included tractor and ’night night’), her counting to ten is now just missing seven (and one, for some reason – she will start from two if we start her off with one, or start counting herself starting from three), and she is starting to put words together more and more. So for example today I was putting her into the buggy to go into town (‘town bus’ has been a popular request recently), and she pointed at me and said ‘tess mummy back’ – saying that Tess was going to go on my back in the sling.

Hmmmmm tasty

Yuuuummmmm

Slluurrrrrpppp

Eve learns how to put together furniture

Testing out the stool

One stone wonder

Just a quick one, as we had Tess weighed yesterday and she was exactly 14 pounds. We had taken Eve too but as the clinic is in a temporary building because the swine flu tamiflu pick up point is in their usual one, they didn’t have the right scales to weigh her.

We’ve hardly taken Tess to the clinic, which is partly second child syndrome, but also because it is only open at lunchtimes, which is rubbish timing for babies and toddlers!  Her weight has been ‘drifting’ (as the HV carefully put it) a bit over the past few months – she is now just on the 9th percentile, whereas she was heading for the 50th when she was around a month or so old. But she is still gaining weight, and looking bright and healthy, so we’re not concerned and the Health Visitor wasn’t either. She also seems to be fairly active – she is already sitting up, and rolling and wriggling all over the place, so she is clearly burning up a lot of energy. Once she is 6 months next week she’ll be starting on solid food (and not a minute too soon she would say I think, she is VERY interested and keen to start), plus we’ll be introducing a bit of formula alongside the breastmilk.

On Friday Waterbabies started up again for the new term (probably Tess’ last term as she won’t be able to keep going once I go back to work). Now she is bigger Tess no longer has to go to the hydrotherapy pool, so she has moved to the Madejski, where Eve used to go. Anton reports that Tess enjoyed herself and seems to be getting used to swimming underwater.

Eve got some new shoes on Friday – she is now a size 6, but unfortunately still in boys shoes as we still can’t find any girls styles we like (read: not pink and flowery and frilly) and that would actually go with most of her clothes. But she doesn’t seem to mind and has been happily stomping around in them. She is also counting, or trying to. She does a good ‘three, four, five, six, NINE!’.

Finally, at the weekend Anton cooked some lamb and we discovered that Eve is a true carnivore – she really enjoyed chewing the meat off the bones!

Apples and pears, teeth and toilets

Things are a bit hectic here at the moment as we’ve been having our bathroom refitted. As this includes our only loo, Eve, Tess and I have spent most of the week at Grandma and Grandads, and have been looked after very well. The weather wasn’t all that good, unfortunately, but we managed to get to the park in the village a couple of times. Eve now knows the slides and climbing frame pretty well. We also did some shopping and Eve made some cakes (with a bit of help) which she got to eat a tiny amount of us – but the rest of us enjoyed them! 

 When Anton joined us on Friday we all went for a sunny but windy walk on Old Winchester Hill, followed by a tasty pub lunch. Eve and Tess were both very well behaved so it was a lovely day. At the pub Eve shocked the table behind us by prolonged sucking on a large piece of lemon.

Before the bathroom chaos descended, we had a BBQ for all the familes from our antenatal classes when we had Eve. It was lovely to see everyone and to see how all the ‘babies’ have changed. Of course, they aren’t the babies now, there is a new generation, led by Tess and with another four on their way – two of them imminently! It is very hard to believe that Eve and her friends are all getting on for two.

Both Eve and Tess are doing some serious teething at the moment – Eve is getting her final (HOORAY) four baby teeth (molars at the back), and Tess seems to have lumps in her gums all over the place, but it looks like the bottom front two will be the first to arrive, as is usual.  They have both been a bit grumpy at times and we’ve had a few disturbed nights. We really should have bought shares in teething gel.

Eve’s food of the moment is apples. This is partly because she can say it (and she says it a lot), I think, and we’ve had to limit her to one a day. She really enjoyed munching her way through a whole one from Grandma and Grandad’s garden yesterday, and tucking into one at the farmers’ market today. She usually eats the core and pips before we have a chance to stop her. She can also say ‘pear’ and ‘toast’ very clearly, so these are also featuring strongly in her diet at the moment. If she is hungry in the late afternoon she will go into the kitchen, pat her chair and say ‘tea’ very firmly. Two-word combinations are becoming pretty common now – e.g. ‘Daddy door’ after Anton left the room yesterday.

Tess is very nearly sitting up unsupported - a week ago she’d barely sit up when propped, so we’re a bit surprised that she’s suddenly worked it out. She is also rolling around all over the place and it can only be a matter of time before she starts pulling herself around commando-style. Her hair is growing quite quickly, including over her bald spot, but no sign of the spikey fluffy hairdo that Eve had for the second half of her first year. She is playing with toys more and taking an interest in books, both of which have perplexed Eve a little, who can be a little put out if Tess starts playing with something Eve considers ‘hers’ (which means most of the toys we have).  Tess will be 6 months in a couple of weeks time, so the finger food fun (and mess) will start all over again!

Once Tess starts solid food, hopefully her and Eve’s ‘routines’ will start to co-incide a bit more, so for posterity here is our current ’usual’ day:

Between 5 and 6am – Eve wakes, sometimes goes back to sleep, sometimes doesn’t.

Between 6 and 7 – Tess wakes. Milk for Eve, feed for Tess.

7.30-8ish – Breakfast for Eve

8ish – Tess has a sleep – anything from 45 mins to 2 hours plus.

10ish – Feed for Tess, Snack for Eve.

11.30/12ish – Sleep for Tess – again varies in length.

12ish – Lunch for Eve.

12.30ish – Nap for Eve – usually around an hour and 15 minutes, sometimes longer.

1ish (or when she wakes up from her nap) – Feed for Tess.

pm sometime – another nap for Tess, or at least some quiet time.

Snack for Eve

4ish – Feed for Tess

6.00 – Tea for Eve (and us)

6.30 – Half feed for Tess, wind-down DVD such as button moon or the flumps, or quiet play for Eve.

7.00 – Bath and bedtime (including milk for Eve and feed for Tess).

8.00 – Both usually in bed, Tess usually asleep.

8.30 – Eve usually asleep.

Phew, I’m exhausted just typing it out!

Chillin’ out in the garden

Daddy, you’re upside-down!

This article is really interesting Mum

So there

At the park at Grandma and Grandad’s

Eve decorating the cakes

Burning off some energy