Snapshot

For my own interest, here is a list of the words a certain 22 month old can say, sign or otherwise communicate.

coat
hat
shoes
socks
trousers

bath
bed
door
keys

bagpuss
bee
bee (meaning any insect)
bear
bird
bunny
cat
chicken
cow
dog
donkey
duck
elephant
frog
horse
lion
mole
monkey
owl
penguin
(polar) bear
rabbit
sheep
spider
sooty

belly button
ears
eyes
fingers
head
heart
knees
nose
toes
tummy

bubble
cuddle
done
go
gone
kiss
listen
more
one more (book)
ready
steady
stop

baby
Cordelia
daddy
Emily
George
grandma
grandpa
lady
Magda
man
Mia
mommy
nanny
people

apple
banana
cake
cheese
custard
fruit
juice
milk
potato
pudding
rice krispies
strawberry
toast
yogurt
weetabix

hallo ("arrow")
phone
goodbye

aeroplane
bus
bicycle
car
lorry
tractor
train

down
down here
down there
here
out
there
up

light
dark

wee wee
poo poo

boogie
book
dance
music
lullaby

drum
shake

excuse me
please

park
slide


Given that that is almost certainly not a full list, its a shame he spends most of his time going 'ugh, ugh, ugh, wa-wa-wa-wa'. But not sure he is dealing well with Daddy being out all the time fixing up the new house.

We learn what is important to us (2)

'Keys' and 'door' weren't our actual first words, however. The first was 'dog' (with major emphasis on the second syllable). This was accompanied by the sign for dog, which helped me understand the word, although, to my shame, it took me ages to work out that he was doing the sign (dog panting). I thought he was hyperventilating with excitement at the thought. This marked the beginning of the 'Woody and Gemma' stalking phase - when we spent as much time as politely possible staring through a neighbour's window at their dogs. ('Dog', minus the sign, was a major word this past weekend when we visited Nanny and her new puppy).

The boy's second most popular sign is 'done', as in, 'I'm done' or 'I've had enough' (to be used at mealtimes). The little monkey, however, uses it at the start of a meal when he doesn't want whatever is on offer/just wants to play. Not that stops him hammering the message home by flinging food to the four quarters. Hopefully this behaviour is going to improve....

Other signs we have seen: 'bath, bird, duck, horse' (quite popular), 'cat', 'mouse', 'flower', 'rain', 'eat'.

The weekend at Nanny's heralded a few new words: 'hello', 'yellow' and 'stuck' (as in, 'hmm, this stair gate keeping me away from the dog is stuck'; 'the door to the dog's cage is stuck', 'this cupboard Daddy is leaning against so I can't get in it is stuck'). I think you get the idea.

We learn what is important to us

The boy's most recent words are 'door' and 'keys' which rather neatly sum up what he generally wants: to go outside. Door is not said once, but in an unending chant, as this morning. Although the allure of the front door was much diminished once it was clear that stepping through that portal was but a step closer to nursery.

Nothing fancy about it

When did it become the thing to buy, rather than make, your child's fancy dress costume? The boy and I went to a 'do' today to raise funds for the local maternity hospital, and the fancy dress parade sported only one homemade costume (and thus to my mind only one contender for a prize) - a rather fetching Dalmation puppy, otherwise known as Leo. The judges were not of like minds. What would they have made of the line up of rag-tag costumes sported by myself and my class mates at an infant school fancy dress in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977? Presumably not much. Bah, bah, humbug.

Presumably yummy mummies...

(silly phrase)...cook yummy things.

I have been attempting to tempt my young Master into eating different foods over the past few days. So far, however, we have refused vegetable lasagne, parsnip and sweet potato crisps and cheese and tomato tortilla pizza. We have accepted apple and pears in custard (but not the raisins) and orange jelly. The refusals are enough to make a tired mommy weep and turn to chocolate, but surely she will rise like on wings like an eagle and find the inner fortitude to plough on and keep trying. Well, tomorrow maybe.

Long time no blog, long time no sleep

It's been a while. Apparently it is Christmas in a little over a week's time. It is also the boy's first birthday in a little while longer than that. Somehow, somewhere (this is sounding rapidly like an excerpt from West Side Story), I have lost three months. The boy has started nursery and suffered endless days off nursery with various lurgies. Less than three months ago he couldn't sit up without falling over, now he is speed crawling (the last two days). But, I digress. I really post to share with you a link to Magna Carta, and the Henry III Fine Rolls blog. Lovely.

A (bank holiday) day in the life of...

1. Get up again (obviously you have already been up to feed the small child)
2. Get self and 2 boys organised for swimming pool and out the door
3. Have stressed parent type conversations on way to bus stop
4. Get to pool and hunt for/fight for your right to use a family changing room
5. With the baby look longing at the real swimming pool, whilst splashing ineffectively in the more babyish pool
6. Do the return fight back home
7. Start to make the lunch you planned to take as a gift to a very new mother tomorrow, but realise you have neither appropriate cookware nor recipe
8. Buy cookware but plough on without recipe
9. Admit there may be a place for recipes, and hope that your friend does not primarily eat with her eyes, nor, come to that, her tastebuds
10. Get nearer to washing off the horrid chlorine that is still all over your skin (don't worry, the baby got a bath as soon as we got home, I'm not that cruel).

To sum up May so far....

C is desperate to crawl but can't.
I'm pretty desperate not to go back to work, but its looming, and I have to spend the next week in the library.
We pretty desperately need to move house, but haven't yet (this is one reason its good that C doesn't yet know how to crawl).

Competitive parenting and crisps

OK. These two don't necessarily go together, although in the competitive drive to lose weight in the postpartum world, many new mothers would refrain from crisps, I'm sure. I merely mention them because I was wondering yesterday if I could consider them health food as the packet mentioned, presumably as a warning, 'May contain celery'.

So, onto the parenting. I can't help noticing how, as a mother, many comments about your baby are judgment-laden. The ladies from my NCT (National Childbirth Trust) ante-natal group are generally good about this, with the exception of one who, for weeks and weeks, has been commenting on the boy still being in his pyjamas (babygrows). So I'd like to state, for the record, that it is not because I think my son ought to be dressed up like a little man that he has "proper clothes" on today. It's certainly not to aid the nappy changes. Rather its because I've just realised that the clothes he got for Christmas from his aunt, which I was blithely thinking still way too large, are just about right today (and hopefully for a few days more). To serve me right for dressing him up in order to send a photo to said aunt, he decorated said clothes with the ultimate baby accessory. Good for him.

First day of spring?

Today the weather was glorious: sunny, with a blue, blue sky. You could believe spring might be on its way, and indeed, the snowdrops have been out for weeks. Its the kind of weather that makes me long even more for a garden.

In other news, February seems to have gone the way of January. The boy is growing exponentially and changing constantly. Eating, sleeping, some playing: such is Carl's universe. His mother's is not much different, although there seems to be some baby admin involved. Housework, however, hasn't a chance.

Home alone

January seems to have come and gone. I guess that is what happens when there is a baby in the house (or, rather, flat). This is my first day home alone with said baby who is 5 weeks old today, his Dad having gone out to do some temping. What exciting things could we possibly have got up to? Mainly sleeping (the baby anyway).