Toddler Bevan and baby brother Christopher

Growing up fast

2011-03-12T10:54:00.001+13:00

It has been a while since I last posted. Most of the little things that the boys learn now I end up putting straight into a facebook status update and never get around to writing about the bigger picture.

Bevan is 4 now. He had a party at playcentre and a lego theme for his invitations, cake and games.

He quite likes lego and I’ve been pleased with how he follows the instructions for new sets and can find the correct pieces and place them correctly. He does also build things from his imagination sometimes too.

He is now an “Eagle” at his preschool, which is the term for the four year olds. They do some work each day seperately from the younger children. He had a special Montessori celebration to mark turning four. I was so pleased to be able to come and watch. The child holds a globe and walks in a large circle around another child holding a candle – one orbit for every year alive.

He is at his preschool 3 days a week and then he comes with Christopher and I to playcentres on the other 2 days. He isn’t actually at our regular centre anymore as I’m off at quite a few centres now helping with the supervision. Both children seem well-adapted to the variety of centres.

We’ve still been having problems with Bevans toiletting although it gets a little better over time. We’re seeing a pediatrician at the hospital about it. I just hope he is reliable within the next 10 months before school starts. We’ve been given a bill of health for his speech and hearing which is a relief. I will still keep listening out for any developing issues though, as his grommets grew out and so the glue-ear problem could reoccur. He had a four year old check with the plunket b4 school team and he did well for them (and behaved!) and built the tower, named the colours, did the counting, balanced on one leg… His eye-sight test went fine too.

He’s signed up for nursery rugby next month. Michael is going to take him. He is also doing Suzuki violin, but I’m finding it challenging as he gets shy in the lessons and stops participating. He certainly thinks it is cool though but you can’t tell that in class when he isn’t even watching.

We think that “Our Lady of the Rosary” is the school we will enrol him in. It is a Catholic full primary school and it is around the corner from Shine so that will make it an easier location for pick-ups and drop-offs for Bevan and Christopher, not really walking distance though. It is a nice size – about 250 students and playing fields, access to a hall and a nice library. We went and had a tour with the principal and I was happy with it. We aren’t sure if any of Bevans friends will be attending though, so that would be a shame. The ERO report is here. Of course I’ll wonder if we are making the right decision – there are some other schools closer and other schools with good reputations that he could attend. Christopher will naturally be following along after 2 years so it has to suit both of them.

His physical skills are coming along. He can ride a bike with no training wheels now and he has gone up a bike size. He rode a 12 km fun-ride on a trailer bike behind Michael last week – in the rain – and they came first! Perhaps he could still use a bit of help with things like swimming, catching/kicking, and dangling. He hasn’t had formal swimming lessons and was a bit scared for a year or so. He enjoys the pool now but just mostly splashes around. His pen grip for writing is pretty good and he can write his name partially – the EVA bit looks good but the B and N aren’t really readable. He can read some small things, recognise a few words by sight such as the names of the people in his family), he recognises and can name most letters. He is pretty whizzy on the computer and loves to log on to my laptop and find the videos I’ve saved from my cell-phone – revisiting those experiences again and again is a favourite activity.

Whew – that is probably enough about Bevan for now! Christopher is a wonderful 2 year old now.

He had a racing car birthday. Michael drew a lightning mcqueen mural with chalk on the garage door and I decorated with chequered flag bunting and made a car cake and themed hand-sewn goodie bags. It was a lovely party – the kids belted up and down the racetrack aka the driveway on their bikes/trikes/cars/scooters.

His speech is coming along beautifully. He has lots of words and can put together some short sentances. The contrast is quite marked between how Bevan was at this age( with glue ear) and how Christopher is.

He is showing some interest in toilet training and with encouragement will sometimes sit on the toilet and do a wee. He seems to be reasonably in control and aware of his bodily motions. Hopefully that means he’ll be out of nappies in the not too distant future.

He enjoys playing with Bevan. His other interests are trains, Maisy mouse, riding his ride-on, swinging, duplo, play kitchen, play shops. He doesn’t peddle a trike yet – I’ve thought for months that he was on the cusp of learning it.

He is not very keen on being put down for a day nap now. I can usually only get one from him if he falls asleep in the car and then transfers to his cot. And at night time he is sometimes climbing out of his cot and turning the light on and then crying. He is going through quite an aggressive two-year old stage too, where he will push other children around – I’m trying to keep my eyes on it but it can be tricky if I am supervising all the children at playcentre for example. He’s also impossible these days to take to the supermarket as he will escape the trolley seat and try and run away.

I’m hoping to enroll him to Shine Montessori preschool next year on a full-time basis so that I may start working, but it will depend on job availability I suppose. He is a bit jealous of Bevan being at Shine and he often asks if he can play there with Bevan.

poo progress

2010-10-11T09:04:00.001+13:00

Bevan is making some progress with his toileting. He is now able to keep dry as long as he is taken regularly to the toilet. The wee accidents only really happen when he is playing and forgets all about his bladder.

He is able to do some poo in the toilet when he chooses to. He is pretty impatient on the toilet but he is sometimes able to get a small amount out. I’m really happy that he is getting better control and understanding of his muscles in his bottom.

It is slow progress but it certainly seems to be improving and I’m not stressing anymore that we’ll have a 5 year old I have to home-school !

Growing reading skills

2010-10-11T09:00:00.001+13:00

Bevan is improving his prereading skills. He spells his own name out loud and can type it and can put it together with alphabet fridge magnets. He can do the same with the word “lego”, I guess because he really enjoys playing with lego and has had lots of exposure to lego recently as we’ve been buying some and visiting the toy shop. He recognises a few other words too such as “toy” and “Chaucey” and “no”.

He recognises most letters. He hasn’t been hand writing them but he does have a new toy which might help him to gain confidence with it, it’s a leap pad scribble and write thingy and letter shapes light up on it for children to trace over with a stylus.

Recently I’ve noticed that Christopher seems to be preferring his left hand for drawing, so I think he may be left-handed and Bevan right-handed.

Kits spoken words

2010-10-11T08:50:00.001+13:00

kit, words spoken at 20 months

hello
Mum
stop
off
That one
cat
dog
car
ball
quack/duck
yuck
stuck
no
bottle
ee ee ee (monkey noise)
dog
frog
all gone
cook
hot
socks
shoes
roar (lion/bear sound)
wow
teddy
"mwah" (kiss)

(edited because I thought of a few extras)

Little boy

2010-08-20T00:16:00.001+12:00

Christopher is growing up fast. He isn’t getting much bigger, but he is maturing. He is 2 inches shorter and 3 kg lighter than his big brother was at the same age – quite a difference! On the plus side we are getting good wear out of the clothes and he is light to carry around. He seems in some ways like a baby and in other ways like a little boy.

He is getting his upper canine teeth coming through now and has 14 teeth. He is relying a lot on a dummy, but I’m not too concerned about it – at least he isn’t doing the finger sucking that Bevan does which will be (eventually) a much harder habit to break.

His speech is coming along. He has been trying very hard to say Cocoa pops – sounds a bit like cok-coc, but it is clear what his meaning is by the way he tries to get the Cocoa pops out of the cupboard at the same time. Otherwise, Bubble and Car seem to be favourite words.

He has some fantastic facial expressions for when he is grumpy. He screws his face up and grabs for something to throw on the floor to show his unhappiness.

He’s just been getting over a cold. He’s been slightly more wakeful at night and out of synch with his daytime routine because of it.

Bevans progress at Shine

2010-08-19T23:50:00.001+12:00

Bevan has been doing well at his preschool. On Wednesday I went in for a Parent Interview. They seem to understand his strengths, weaknesses and interests the same way I do, so that was reassuring.

I was surprised to see some recent examples of his artwork that seem to be of a much better quality than his usual output. It seems that when he is asked to draw something in particular he takes the time to do a good job of it. Whereas if he is given paper and pencils he just scribbles his drawings and they don’t resemble much.

You should be able to see how detailed his Sun picture is though. He has drawn an oval with rays all around and two eyes, a nose and a mouth. The other works are a flower, a metal insert work, a straight lines practice piece, and a triangle cut out practice piece.

He recently bought home another rainbow picture. This one was a steeply arched rainbow with A DOOR HANDLE. He said it was a rainbow door. I was so curious what could be on the other side of the door. He’s also been saying to me that he is drawing dolphins. I guess the Dolphin interest must have come from Shine as haven’t shown him anything with Dolphins in it.

overdue updates

2010-08-02T00:14:00.001+12:00

It’s been a while since I last posted. Somehow I don’t get around to mentioning all those little things that the boys are doing because it just seems like they are consolidating their learning rather than doing something new.

Christopher has more words now. He does some parroting of words if you say something he thinks is interesting to say. His more frequent words are Hot, Car, Cat, Stuck, All gone. I think he probably says quite a few other things too, and makes himself known with his body language – so sometimes it is hard to tell if he actually said something or whether I’m attributing it to him because he said "*something* whilst acting appropriately. He quite clearly copied me saying Frog the other day, and that was nice to hear that beautiful G sounded out.

Bevans speech is giving his speech therapist no worries. He went through the 3 1/2 year old test booklet the other week and he did fine. His F’s are said like B’s quite often but not always eg bish for fish. She asked him to describe what was happening in some pictures and his use of pronouns wasn’t fantastic, and neither were his verbs, for example he said “its” instead of “his” and that sort of thing, although not every time. He also said “doing” a lot instead of being a bit more descriptive like “the cat is doing the mouse”, rather than “the cat is chasing the mouse”. I expect he knows the right things to say, but that on that day he wasn’t really minding about getting it right.

We’ve been sorting out Bevans poo problem lately. We’ve been so stressed over Bevans failure to poo toilet train. I went to a different doctor and he arranged to have an x-ray done, and it turns out that Bevan has a constipated, impacted poo. The symptoms he had of mushy poo are actually the new poos oozing out around the blockage. This could have been a long-term problem – maybe even some of the “toddler diarreah” could have been this same problem. I guess I’ll never know. I’m relieved to have a diagnosis, but a bit cross that it took to now to figure it out. Had we known earlier then we wouldn’t have nagged and cajoled Bevan to try and toilet – we had so many arguments where we were begging him to try to push out a tiny poo, and then disappointments when the poo came shortly later in his pants. The poo problem will mean that he has no control over when poo escapes and also gets no signals from his body about needing to go. Probably didn’t need to go through that 3 weeks no-dairy trial the doctor recommended either!

Anyway… so we are using medication to try and get the blockage cleared up. Hopefully that’ll work soon. Then we have a while of medication to keep the system moving quickly so that the muscles can re-tighten and control can come back.

The boys have been busy learning new skills. Bevan and I have been using Lego’s and he is so clever with following the building instructions methodically and matching the positioning of pieces correctly. He’s learning size, shape and colour discrimination, fine motor skills, counting to get the right positions, and then he is using his imagination to play with the finished toys. He is also pretty good at creating his own models and telling me that it is a plane or a boat or whatever.

Christopher can go up and down steps upright when I hold his hand, so no more wet knees from crawling on stairs. He still likes trains, duplo, teddies, dolls prams. (Both boys like teddies now actually – pretending to feed them, giving them shoulder rides etc..) He is quite keen on small babies too – he is a bit rough though, so I have to watch him to prevent poked eyes. His fine motor skills are coming along really well. We have a toy with a set of toy keys and he can do the unlocking and locking. Both boys like to do play cooking and also be involved in real cooking.

I often find now that Bevan goes and raids the pantry and then shares the spoils with Christopher. At least when he is naughty he is being considerate!

There is plenty more I could say, but I’ll leave that for next time.

1 August 2010.

Artwork

2010-06-10T23:05:00.001+12:00

Bevan did this picture at Shine a couple of weeks ago. I was amazed at the level of detail he put into the people and how he had actually drawn a scene. The teacher talked it through for me and explained how they get these great results from their bible programme art stuff because they talk about a topic for the drawing and the 4 year old sit in with the 3 year olds.

My handsome Bevan

2010-06-10T23:02:00.001+12:00

View Full Album

Isn’t Bevan a cutie? These photos were taken by a very talented photographer who did school pictures at Bevan’s preschool.

Reading

2010-06-09T20:45:00.001+12:00

Bevan has been working on some reading skills. He is using a website called www.readingeggs.com , which is Australian based and does Phonics and some sight words with lots of guided activities. He enjoys it, I think he thinks it is a game and so he often asks to play. He does sound proud of himself when he reads something like “I am a cat”.

Often he’ll be sloppy and answer wrongly , but some skill and recognition will be sinking in anyway.

He is wanting to use the computer so often now that I am getting an old one fixed up for him to use so that we don’t have to share one with him. He is quite savvy with the pc, and knows how to mouse. He can even type out his name in lower case, spelt correctly, with no help from me. He hasn’t tried to hand write his name yet.

Detailed work

2010-05-19T17:06:00.001+12:00

Bevan is very excited whenever he sees his B Bevan letter now. I guess this is a good pre reading skill. He recognises some other letters too. He can read numbers too, and is better at numbers than letters.

He has also been working on some detailed stuff. He used a stencil at preschool yesterday to trace a shark. He’s been using his foam coloured shapes at home to make pictures, laying out the squares and circles and other shapes to put together the pictures he has from a book, such as houses, fish, teddy bears etc.

He seems to have figured out matching now. He plays a matching game on the computer and he can do matching with the end to ends of his “Charlie and Lola” dominoes.

He can thread big beads onto a shoelace really quickly and with dexterity now. He has obviously been learning a lot at his preschool and I’m happy for him.

Bevan has been singing

2010-05-19T16:58:00.001+12:00

Bevan has been singing and he knows the actions to a few songs.. I was suprised today when he started singing along to a song I learnt yesterday. Apparently he learnt it at preschool and he was able to remind me how it goes (rollypolly rollypolly up, up, up). He is quite keen on Ba ba black sheep.

He knows the actions to a few of them now too.

Christopher’s expanding language

2010-05-19T16:55:00.001+12:00

Christopher has been saying a few words lately, although he’ll say one and then clam up and not say it again.

He has said:

Ball
Cracker
Bottle
Shoe
and he may have said Circle

He still says “diggle diggle” a lot. It’s a noise made with the tongue thrust out. Not sure about what the purpose of that is. Perhaps he just enjoys the making of the noise. At first I thought he was saying tickle, but it isn’t in the right context.

Montessori playgroup

2010-04-28T17:52:00.001+12:00

Christopher and I go once a week to a playgroup at our nearby Montessori School. Christopher is sometimes interested in the activities. He spent some time last week concentrating on a matching activity that had pictures of pets to match with plastic models.

But mostly he likes to wander about and hop in and out of the sandpit, cart around the small brooms, and attempt to get more servings of morning tea. He likes washing his hands in the sink and putting his dishes in the sink. He isn’t very gentle with those dishes though, I hope they don’t break anytime.

April 2010. More growing

2010-04-28T17:19:00.001+12:00

I had a Plunket appointment for Christopher today. He is 15 months old and he weighs 9.73 kg and is 77 cm tall. He is quite a bit littler than Bevan at the same age, but he is happy, healthy, and in proportion. He still fits size 2 shoes which I had to get for him because Bevan had none that little to hand down (went straight into size 4’s).

In comparison, Bevan was that weight at 11 months old, and that height at approx 13 months.

While we were there I also got the nurse to measure Bevans height. He is 101.5 cm tall, so he has reached the 1 metre milestone.

Christopher is not really much of a baby anymore, he is active and has just one nap a day. He loves exploring and tumbling around with Bevan. His favourite thing is pushing little trolleys or prams around. He likes walking as much as possible and he’ll fidget at the grocery shop to be let out of the trolley seat.

My beautiful 3 year old

2010-03-17T16:22:00.001+13:00

He says “cheese” when he’s taking your photo now. And he poses when he’s in a good mood too.

Christopher is a chatty boy

2010-03-17T12:24:00.001+13:00

Christopher is developing a bit of speech.

I’ve noticed him now saying “Yeah” when I ask if he wants something like “Do you want a drink of water?”. He also shakes his head when he *doesn’t* want something. So cute seeing a little 13 month old being so decisive. His mimicry is happening, trying to copy when I said dummy by saying duh, duh.

He’s started some tantrums too. Had a dozy the other night and it took him ages to chill out. A biscuit helped and then back to bed for some much needed sleep. He has even more teeth coming in (getting 5th and 6th top teeth now, and has 4 on bottom gum) so perhaps they’ve been paining him.

Big brother Bevan has been doing great with his talking too. His speech therapist is very happy with him and I hear good things from his Preschool too. He’s been enthusiastically playing a game with me called “shopping list” that I got from the toy library and that involves a lot of speech for shopping items and turn-taking pleasantry.

March 2 – Christopher is walking

2010-03-02T12:10:00.001+13:00

Christopher is now a walker. He toddles around on unsteady legs and looks so proud of himself. He holds a toy and can move at the same time – such an improvement on crawling where the object you are enjoying gets smushed into the floor with every motion.

He was putting his walking skills to good use today at his Montessori playgroup. He is enjoying going. There aren’t many families there on a Tuesday and it is nice and quiet and easy to do what you want. Christopher played with some farm animals, some feathers (for a matching activity), some tree branch slices (another matching activity). He liked the swing and hand washing and especially liked climbing up and down the stairs.

It is very cute to see him sitting in the tiny chairs eating his morning tea and drinking water from a cup. He looks so small to be so capable.

Breastfeeding no more?

2010-02-17T07:26:00.001+13:00

I’ve been having a good cry this morning because it seems apparent that now I’ve started refusing to nurse Christopher at night he has started refusing to breastfeed at all.

He just bites me.

I’m sad about this – I wasn’t ready to stop breastfeeding him.

Walked some steps

2010-02-13T20:49:00.001+13:00

Christopher has managed to walk a couple of steps on several occasions today. Yay Christopher!! You are 12 months and 15 days old and WALKING. :-)

Here is a photo of the star shaped icecream cake I made Christopher on his birthday. This was perfect for the hot day.

This is Christopher “trapped” in a laundry basket under the train table. He managed to get in there all by himself and then get stuck.

some audio to listen to

2010-02-13T20:38:00.001+13:00

Bevan Counting out loud. Got a bit distracted by Christopher though.

And then reading “Maisy Goes Shopping” – his favourite book. He is going by memory and the pictures to remind himself what to say. You can hear what his speech is like – sometimes a bit hard to distinguish when he talks in sentences.

what they are up to

2010-02-11T10:45:00.001+13:00

11th Feb 2010

Bevan’s toilet training is continuing - up to 2 and a bit months now. He is gaining toiletting skills but still often acts completely untrained and wets himself. So I'd say he has a wider range of abilities now with it. He has voluntarily taken himself for wees a couple of times lately. He is also getting way better at undressing.

Christopher is on the cusp of walking. He is now standing up from sitting without support, and can bop around in that position. He can walk pushing his Triang nursery walker trolley thing now.

Right now Christopher is playing the recorder - it is so cute seeing him sitting there blowing into it to make the noises.

I'm thinking of reading and following some sleep books because Christopher is now having tantrums about being put back in his cot after night time feeds - I can't cope with that in the wee early hours.

Speech and language update

2010-02-06T17:23:00.001+13:00

Bevan finally had his appointment with the Special Education Speech Language therapist. It went really well and she said that he is actually progressing pretty well and that he doesn't need much in the way of intervention and that he'll catch up. Because he's been waiting so long to be seen (almost a year) though she will help us out with some specific assessments on speech errors and exercises to help fix them. I was glad to hear that he'll be getting better anyway, and it was affirming to hear that I've been doing all the right things because at the time his delay became apparent I felt quite guilty like as if I hadn't supported his development enough.
She praised me on the way he enjoys reading – he kept on bringing her more Maisy books to read. Maisy is one of his very best favourites and he has about 7 or so of them.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned before, but the children have well over 200 books at the last count. They take up 3 shelves of books. Every night Bevan gets a minimum of 3 stories read to him. Lately he has been “reading” a bit himself, telling me the story on each page. He actually remembers some of the keys words.

In addition, Bevan can now recognise the numerals and letters 0-10, B, M, G. He has a fantastic pen grip for “writing”.

Christophers birthday

2010-01-28T08:11:00.001+13:00

So far we have had a great time today celebrating Christophers birthday.

The presents have been very popular. Christopher isn’t quite walking enough for the nursery walker just yet, but he has been sitting in it while Bevan pushes him around, to the delight of both of them.

Christopher likes the look of the little people Aeroplane that Gerard bought for him, but he hasn’t had much of a play yet because of a certain 3 year old who also likes it very much. Bevan will be leaving for preschool shortly and then Christopher can play with his toys.

There is also a wooden barn with animals, which I know will be fun as it was greatly admired in the shop. The last present is a book that has peepholes and pictures of animals so you hold each page up to your face like a mask.

Later tonight we will have an ice cream cake that I have been making.

recognising the good stuff, part 1

2010-01-25T00:08:00.001+13:00

24-01-10

Bevan age 3.

Good at:

playground - climbing ladders, crossing chain link bridges
peddling trikes
jumping, running. A small amount of dangling (needs improvement). bouncing on tramp
says sentences, although not always clear
can count out loud to ten, and recognise and “read” the digits 0-9.
can operate a mouse and keyboard and do simple things on the computer like open/close windows and click on links
enjoys baking. likes to break the eggs and do stirring
can pour his own drinks
can remove some of his own clothing if it is reasonably loose
can hold pen quite well and can trace over shapes.
understands the finished noise on the washing machine, can open the door, put washing in basket and drag basket to line. Can peg clothes on the line
recognises and names some colours such as orange
tells me to stop at orange lights
uses a fork or spoon, but doesn’t really know how to cut with a knife yet.
can use scissors to cut a piece of paper
beginning to get concepts of time and past and future. Talks about past events.
Good memory for places we have visited. Will remember a place even if only been once before (eg knows who lives there and where the toilet is)
can get the lid off tupperware containers by himself (that’s where all the baking marshmallows went…)
drinks from a straw or regular cup.
will push the correct buttons in a lift (eg G, M, 1, 2)
can take photos using a camera.

Bevan “writing”

2010-01-24T11:36:00.001+13:00

24/01/10 Last night Bevan was sitting at the table and we offered him his exercise book to write in.

He wrote several lines of scribble letters, concentrating intently on them as he formed circles, dots and dashes.

Then we wrote some numbers into the book and he it must have clicked this time because he understood that we wanted him to copy the numbers by drawing over them. He did a great job writing the numbers and then went on to copy over a few words like Bevan, Mum, and Dad.

He has a selection of some workbooks that he’ll now understand how to use. Great work with the writing Bevan!

Walking almost

2010-01-23T09:21:00.001+13:00

23/01/10 Christopher is pretty close to walking now. He can step along when his hands are being held gently for a bit of balance. I think it’ll only be a short while now.

How did that happen?

2010-01-23T09:03:00.001+13:00

Wonder of wonders Christopher slept through the night last night. I’m trying to pinpoint if there was anything in particular that happened differently to other nights. I’d really like for this to happen more often!

At the moment I end up spending the 2nd half of the night co-sleeping with Christopher in our guest bedroom, and I think he’s become rather accustomed to the snuggles. Although I did CIO with Bevan, I’m not thinking of doing that with Christopher.

wee wees

2010-01-22T13:37:00.001+13:00

Apparently Bevan has learnt a bit from the other boys at preschool as today when I took him to the toilet he wanted to do his wee wee standing up.

I haven’t ever shown him that way, so I guess it is role modeling from the older boys. Interesting…

test post

2010-01-22T01:32:00.001+13:00

test post

The boys birthday fun

2010-01-22T00:34:00.000+13:00

The boys had a good birthday party on Sunday. Because their birthdays are so close together I decided to throw a joint party for them.

The theme was “Buzz Lightyear”, because Bevan is pretty keen on Buzz and Toy Story. Christopher didn’t really mind whether there was a theme or not because he is only just turning one.

They had their friends over and I set up the bubble machine for them. They also enjoyed playing on the trampoline.

Colours and numbers

2010-01-21T11:57:00.001+13:00

Bevan hasn't sussed out colour name matching yet. He gets them muddled up.
He is doing very well and consistantly with orange and purple - they must be
his favourites and quite distinctive.
I got him to tell me the numbers on an online colour blindness test this
morning and he aced it, so that isn't the problem <grin>
Lucky he recognises all his numbers from 0-9 now so he could tell me the
answers.

I wonder how I can explain the concept of ten being the digits 1 and 0. I'm
still working on numbers being read from left to right, so might need to get
that sussed first.
He can even count out objects. He was picking up pegs yesterday and got to
7 before they all fell out of his litle hand. And watching ducks the other
days he said " 2 ducks!" and then another group waddled over and he said "3
ducks!". I got hm to count them all together "1,2,3,4,5". When one waddled
off I got him to count to 4. Some basic addition and subtraction in real
life.

3 year old update

2010-01-05T23:48:00.001+13:00

I weighed Bevan on my mothers electronic scales on Sunday and he was 17.1kg
clothed. That is a tiny drop of 300g from a few months back. I imagine he
doesn't need to put on any weight right now as he is already big for his
age.
My tape measure on Monday recorded Bevan as being 98cm tall, although it was
a little inexact,

His 3 year old check up at Plunket will be coming up soon.

He has also reached the top of the public speech therapy queue, and so will
get seen in term 1.

What do we get up to?

2010-01-05T23:44:00.001+13:00

Sometimes I suppose the day goes past and I think at the end of it that I
haven't made the most of it to fit in enriching learning opportunities for
the children, or that they've done nothing fun.

Today we did do stuff, so I thought I'd record it and use the list to
motivate me to try even harder tomorrow.

*Bevan went to Shine preschool for 4 hours. He is settling in there during
their quiet new year period, being comfortable in the setting and getting to
know some staff and children.
*Christopher came shopping with me.
*The boys splashed in the paddling pool. Bevan also used the swing and his
bike.
*Bevan and I played with a set of homemade colour flashcards and also his
new numbers up to 20 matching cards that Janeen got him. Bevan is a bit
inconsistant with knowing the names of colours.
*I baked banana muffins with Bevan. He did lots of mashing and stirring and
we watched the muffins rise in the oven.
*Bevan and I looked at a first 1000 words picture book and talked about some
of the items shown.
*I took the boys for a walk round the block and to the school playground. A
policeman said hello to Bevan. Bevan was very confident at the playground,
climbing up, along, through everything. He is using a pole with help.
Christopher went down the slide a couple of times and enjoyed it, and also
crawled around.
*Bevan watched a thomas dvd and also watched some sesame street songs on You
tube (he uses the computer unaided).
*Bevan coloured some orange pictures.
*I played eyespy a colour with Bevan.
*Lots of toilet training trips to the toilet too.

Hmm.. This is actually showing me that I do quite a bit, but also that I
need to think of specific things to do with Christopher. Often Christopher
is busy feeding, eating, napping, or just investigating stuff when Bevan and
I are doing things. Christopher will have more of my time now that Bevan
will be at Shine though. Tomorrow Christopher is coming to a playday at
Playcentre with me while Bevan is at Shine.

Will see how I go tomorrow and if I can beat todays business.

4/01/10 first full morning

2010-01-04T22:09:00.000+13:00

Bevan is off for his first full morning at Shine tomorrow. I hope that he
settles in okay and manages not to do a big poo for the teachers to clean
up.

It'll be strange to not have him around in the mornings.

Jan 3rd 2010

2010-01-04T00:57:00.001+13:00

I've got to write a proper update soon, but in the meantime here is a copy
of what I wrote to a friend.

Things are going well for us. Christopher is cruising the furniture now so
will be only a few weeks off walking if he is similar to Bevan. Christopher
also has gotten 4 top teeth in over the last fortnight. It's made him a bit
grumpy during the nights, which he still isn't sleeping through even at 11
months old. I expect it'll be just a couple months more and I'll wean him,
he is starting to get distracted during day feeds.

Bevan enjoyed his birthday and talks about it often. We'll be having a party
for both boys on the same day in a fortnight to save extra work. He is
finally at the top of the list for public funded speech therapy, so that'll
start up in term 1.
His toilet training is continuing - he wees on the toilet when taken there,
but isn't yet taking himself or seeming to control his bowels. I'm feeling
like we've made some progress though.

Christopher 13/12/09

2009-12-13T09:28:00.001+13:00

Christopher has been very busy this last term. He has learned how to sit
and crawl and pull up to standing.
He has had a few times sleeping through the night lately, although this is
far from consistant.
He has 2 bottom teeth, but the top teeth keep teasing us by coming through a
tiny bit and then settling back in the gums.

I'm starting to figure out some of his interests. He really enjoys water
like swimming, paddling, baths. He also likes emptying things out like
boxes of toys. He loves initiating peekaboo, often at night he will pull
his favourite blanket over his head and then pull it off again while
laughing.

He vocalises a lot. He says mum, dad, and I think he *might* also be saying
hello and bye.

He isn't walking yet, but perhaps he will be at about his birthday.

Bevans speech 13/12/09

2009-12-13T09:22:00.000+13:00

Bevan is improving with his talking. He is sayng short sentences now.
Yesterday he said "Where daddy gone?" and "oh well....accident". (the
accident was a pee pee on the kitchen floor while he was wearing knickers).
He says a lot but it can be hard to understand because it isn't clear.

Toilet training

2009-12-11T15:46:00.000+13:00

I've been trying to toilet train Bevan seeing as Preschool is getting closer
and closer to starting.

So far he will now sometimes do a wee on the toilet when taken there. He is
improving with being able to take his undies and pants down and up.
We've had no progress with poo yet, so I guess that'll be a while away
still.

He's been wearing undies or training pants during the day since the 1st of
December. So when he has an accident I am cleaning up pants and undies, but
it still feels like progress I guess.

December update

2009-12-04T13:52:00.000+13:00

Thinking of doing a Buzz Lightyear theme for my boys birthday party. Bevan
is right into Toy Story and there'll be a new movie next year too. I better
get it arranged because it is only 6 weeks till the date I'm thinking of for
the party.

Bevan is sick today, he's been vomitting and is currently having a nap on
the lounge room floor.

Christopher is getting to be such a busy boy. He is pulling up to standing
on the furniture now. Perhaps he'll be walking at 11 months like Bevan was.
He sometimes says a word that sounds a lot like "Hello". He also has a Mum
and a Dad word.

The two boys play together quite a bit. And we have new neighbours moving
in next door who have a 2.5 year old girl and a 7 month old boy, so that
could be great. Bevan probably won't be interested in the girl, his
interests are very boylike right now, cars, physical play, trains, riding
bikes.

We have our Christmas stuff up. I still have a lot of Christmas stuff to
do, but hopefully plenty of time still to do it.

Standing up

2009-11-20T15:18:00.001+13:00

This week Christopherhas just figured out how to pull himself up on low
furniture and stand for a short while.
This is after crawling for 8 weeks.
I hoep he waits a bit longer before he figures out walking - Bevan was about
11 something months for walking and Christopher is 9 months 3 weeks old now.

16/11/09 Future career as an actor?

2009-11-16T13:14:00.000+13:00

On Saturday we were all out having a meal with friends.
After the meal we started up a round of Charades.
Bevan was watching the adults and the older children perform movie, tv and
book titles for us to guess.

When everyone had had some turns Bevan rushed up to the performance area and
starting acting out charades for us!

He didn't seem to mind everyone watching him. And he was so clever with the
actions he did. He knew that holding up different numbers of fingers was
the thing to do. And he knew to tug his ear for "sounds like". He did lots
of the same things he'd seen us do like running on the spot and pointing.
And he was quiet!

What a clever boy!

1 Nov 09 - New favourite saying

2009-11-01T22:11:00.000+13:00

Bevan has a new thing to say now, "I do it!"
He normally says this when he wants to interupt me on the computer to load
up one of his games like fish-world or Kwala and Booya.

Or else when he wants to pour a juice or dish up food to the cats.

28th Oct 09 --Another tooth

2009-10-28T16:47:00.001+13:00

Christopher has another tooth coming through. It is at the bottom next to
his first one.

He has been managing well with eating finger foods. Sometimes I give him a
portion of what the rest of the family are having and he wil take his time
getting all the little bts in his mouth.

22nd Oct 09 scissors

2009-10-22T00:13:00.004+13:00

Bevan has figured out (but still to perfect) the skill of using scissors.
I cut up some strips of paper for him and got him some small scissors with a
round thumb hole and oval finger hole. They can be set to spring back, or
used normally. I was pleased that this took just a couple of sessions since
I put out the scissors and paper in a basket on his new shelf. I'd been
wanting to teach him scissors for a few months now.

If he picks them up the right way he can cut the paper up. He needs more
practice to learn how to hold the paper flat and to get a better cutting
angle with his scissor hand.

Christopher today caught on to the idea of high-fives. He giggled heaps
when I encouraged him to put his hand out for a high five. He remembered
the game when Michael came home and gave it a try with him.

Montessori

2009-10-18T22:03:00.001+13:00

Next year Bevan is enrolled for Shine Montessori preschool for 3 days a
week. (He'll still be going to 1 session of playcentre too, and Christopher
should manage 2 playcentre sessions).

When I visited their open day and a session earlier this year I really liked
what I saw with a beautiful environment and well cared for equipment. The
teacher and assistants showed genuine care for the children. The children
were quietly busy and well settled.

With 2010 coming around VERY FAST I thought I should do some research about
the Montessori methods. I've realised that a lot of the activities are
things that can be done at home so over the last week I have been
introducing Bevan to some of the activities. Self-care and practical life
stuff is really useful and I don't have to buy special equipment to do it.
It complements what I as a mother and as a playcentre mum should be
encouraging anyway. Bevan may need to work on his attention span!

There are some good books and blogs that I am reading to get more
information.

A friend takes her son to the Montessori play group at Wa Ora School in
Naenae. I hadn't bothered to enrol Bevan there as I didn't want to settle
him in somewhere that he'd only be going to for a couple of terms up to age
3. But it occurred to me last week that while Bevan is at Shine I can take
Christopher along to the playgroup. Christopher will have a good foundation
of experience with the Montessori environment by the time he gets to three
years old.

Big boys

2009-10-14T23:53:00.001+13:00

The boys are getting bigger.

Clothed, Christopher is now 8.3kg, which takes him up to the 40th
percentile. I credit solids for bumping him up from the 3rd percentile.
When I introduced those he really found his way with his growing.

Bevan is 17.4kg clothed. Another .6kg and I have to rearrange his car seat
configuration.

Bevans name

2009-10-14T23:50:00.000+13:00

Bevan can now say his own name. I imagine most children his age have said
there name a lot earlier, maybe at half his age even, but for some reason
Bevan has never succesfully tried until now.
It comes out as "Beden", but it was a proud moment for me.

He also alternates between calling Christopher "Baby", and "Kitafer". He
says the names of some of his friends.

His receptive and spoken language is really improving and I can now explain
things to him and convince him to do things my way quite often. He is able
to tell me his opinions on things like whether he has had fun.

Christopher is also Clapping

2009-10-14T23:45:00.001+13:00

Christopher started clapping in the school holidays too. He is very sweet
when he does it and it doesn't take much encouragement to get him going.

He is interested in feeding himself lots of finger foods now. He loves
eating the crusts that Bevan rejects, so between them they polish off toast.
He likes cruskits, biscuits, crackers, cheese. He is still a it funny about
bottles or cups of milk. He'll have some sips but also spit half of it out
and fool around.

He'll be distracted during the day and not want breast feeds, and then he
trys to make up for it in the night by waking twice. I'm trying to correct
that so that he isn't hungry for milk in the night.

His crawling is full-on commando style now. I wonder if he will adopt the
hands and knees method now or not.

He is loving bath time and he likes to kick and splash at Bevan. They both
get all squealy.

1st October 09 - A tooth, and crawling, busy baby!!

2009-10-01T10:21:00.002+13:00

Christopher has been very busy this week. He has suddenly sprouted a little
tooth on his bottom gum. It is only just cutting through. He hasn't been
grumpy about it which is great.

He has also figured about forward propulsion. He can commando crawl short
distances and he can also get up on his hands and knees, but hasn't figured
out how to coordinate movement from that position.

I am starting 3 meals a day for him, although they seem to be 2 proper meals
and 1 finger foods meal. This is helping him sleep a bit better at night,
so I think pretty soon I'll be able to cut it down to just one wakeup in the
night.

What a busy boy he has been.

19 Sept 09 - Sometimes you get a surprise by how much they've noticed

2009-09-19T20:58:00.002+12:00

Bevan surprised me twice this evening by his displays of knowledge that I
didn't know he knew.

First - I sat down to join him at the dinner table for dinner and I realised
he was half way through doing the sign of the cross and saying grace! He
doesn't have very clear words but there was a crossed "mumble mumble mumble
amen" then he squeezed his eyes shut and said stuff and then another "Amen".
I joined him for the last crossing.

Then - book reading at bed time. I was reading "tell the time with Thomas".
He correctly pointed out James, Gordon, Percy and Henry and gave me their
names. WOW! I know he loves his Thomas DVD's, but seeing as he always
calls Thomas "Train" I didn't think he differentiated between them all.

Almost crawling

2009-09-18T20:28:00.000+12:00

Christopher is almost crawling.
He has figured out how to get his hips off the ground when he is on his
tummy. He can shuffle about a little bit, roll and pivot and he can travel
a bit of distance this way.
It will be a pretty short time before he figures out the cross-pattern
arm/leg movement that he needs for forwards crawling.

Bevan has been a bit under the weather lately. He had an ear infection a
couple weeks back and then this week he had a mild tonsilitus. The dr said
to hold off giving him medicine and see if it improved by itself overnight,
which it did. So he has been a bit more tired than usual, and a bit
fractious.
His language is coming along great though. He now seems to have the concept
of friends figured out and he knows how to say the names of some of his good
friends.

Colours, numbers, that sort of thing

2009-09-09T21:18:00.001+12:00

Bevan is doing great now with learning new stuff. I don't really need to
keep a word diary anymore because he'll come out with allsorts of things.
Today we talked about the 6 colouring pencils he was drawing with and he
talked about all those colours. Blue, green, red, orange, yellow, brown.
And I know he knows all the colours from Neopolitan icecream too.

He can name a few of his friends now and plays with them with make believe
games and lots of physical running around. He counts pretty well to 10.

He is getting pretty tall and is still solid as. Size 3's suit him now, and
I'm buying 4's on special to put away. His feet are wide so I get him quite
big shoes so that he can get his feet in. I got him some summer sandals
today in size 9.
I also got him a bike helmet so that we lok responsible when we take him to
the cycle park. At home he doesn't wear it.
I remember my mum saying she would get him a scooter for Christmas, so I
guess he'll need a helmet for that anyway.

Christopher is chubbing up and looking cute He is demanding two lots of
solids a day and is brave enough to try and tackle all sorts of finger
foods. He burbles a lot and is very communicative. He is going through a
phase of crying if I leave the room, he always wants me to carry him about.
He stands up in my lap and takes some weight. He isn't quite sitting yet.
Sometimes he'll manage it for a short bit and then he'll topple sideways.
He is still waking twice a night for a feed. Once he hits 9 months I'll try
and sort that out.

numbers

2009-08-20T14:48:00.004+12:00

Bevan can read some numbers. They seem to be a bit easier than letters I guess, or maybe more meaningful. He loves "writing" little squiggly lines and ticking lists too. I'm off on a numeracy course soon, so looking forward to that.

His listening is also doing great. We've been playing a game called "Ottos world of sound" on the pc, and it has really encouraged him.

5th August 09 - swimming

2009-08-05T09:26:00.002+12:00

I took my boys swimming again yesterday. Bevan hangs about on the edge and
splashes and dangles his feet. Christopher is brave enough to let me dunk
his face in the water. Quite different from each other!
Kits first swim was on Saturday, so he is doing great.
I won't book them in for classes anytime soon though as I think I'd prefer
it just to fit our schedule, and is way cheaper casually too.

Dental Check A OK

2009-07-31T22:21:00.002+12:00

Bevan had his first visit to the "murder house" today. He was shy about it but he really needn't have been as the Dental Nurse was such a wonderful and friendly lady.

She made a real game of trying to find his teeth up his sleeves with her little mirror, finally finding them in his mouth, where of course they had always been.

He got the all clear from her and she said his teeth looked good. I was happy to hear that because I know that he eats too much sugar and that his teeth brushing isn't very good, he sucks the toothpaste off the brush and chews the bristles.

She gave him some stickers and a dental cotton "elephant" on a floss necklace. She had lots of different types of animals to chose from.

choo choo at the park

2009-07-31T21:59:00.003+12:00

We went to Avalon Park last Saturday and Bevan enjoyed riding his bike around the cycle skills course.

He couldn't stop talking about the train though. So even though the last time we attempted to take him on the park train ended in tears we decided to give him another chance and it turned out that he really enjoyed it.

The train is a little ride on thing with canopy and doors that runs on tracks around the park. There is even a tunnel. We all had fun.

Christopher is growing

2009-07-31T21:52:00.004+12:00

Finally a decent weight gain for Christopher.

He has grown to 6.87 kg at age 6 months (15 lbs).

This means he is no longer on the bottom 3% line, but has improved to almost the 25th % weight for boys his age. His height is slightly over the 25th%.

I put it down to the way he has taken like a duck to water to eating solids. He loves purees and he enjoys holding small pieces of finger food and trying to gum bits off.

This photo is of him *before* he started any solids, he was trying to scoff my pizza bread even though he was only 4.5months old!

train art

2009-07-31T21:47:00.003+12:00

Bevan created this picture of a train by placing his plastic clippos. I was so suprised that he had made something so clearly recognisable. And also amazed that he is trying to be representative in his art.

I honestly did not help him at all - I was makng a plane at the time and looked over when he kept saying "a train, a train.."

Halves, 2.5 and .5

2009-07-26T20:41:00.001+12:00

Christopher will be 6months old this week. He is rolling now and can get his
arms out to pop his head up when on his tummy. He is starting to look
chubbier now, must be the solids helping I think. I'll arrange for a
weigh-in with the karitane nurses.
He isn't sitting or crawling yet, but is starting to be able to hold his
weight on his legs when "standing" while held.

Bevan has his first dental nurse appt this week too. I hope he opens his
mouth for her and that he doesn't have teeth problems. He has strong, white,
well spaced teeth, but his dental hygiene isn't the best as his teeth
brushing is a bit sloppy.
His words are flourishing. I'm really proud of him. As well as improving
his vocab for nouns, he has figured out some trickier stuff like:
*Over there
*It's down there
*Another.

His toilet training is slow but progressing. He doesn't seem to have the
sensation that he needs to go, and I think that training for poo will be
especially hard as he has toddler diarreah. Anyway, he'll sit on the potty
and sometimes a poo or pee will come. He has sat a few times on the toilet
but isn't as confident there. Tonight he put his teddy on the toilet, so I
think his normalising of toileting is starting to happen.

Bevan has decided that Kit is now old enough to wrestle with. So I have to
keep an eye on them so that Kit doesn't get hurt. He mostly laughs and
giggles and enjoys the attention, but it could have bad results very
quickly.

Love,

Chaucey

Halves, 2.5 and .5

2009-07-26T20:41:00.000+12:00

Love,

Chaucey

23 July 09 - A bit of rolling

2009-07-23T08:44:00.001+12:00

Christopher rolled himself and pushed his head and arms up several times in
a short time last night.
He is babbling away too, loves saying baa baa baa baa. Occasionally a
babble will sound just like hello or like mum and I get a surprise.

Enjoying Solids

2009-07-21T09:18:00.002+12:00

Christopher loves eating solids.
He is keen to try different sorts and textures and is very adventurous. I've got some batches of frozen pumpkin, pears, and carrots in the freezer for him. He is also pretty keen on things with baby rice.
He has tried mashed banana twice now too.
Most days he is having one solids meal, but sometimes I offer him two. He easily finishes off the equivalent of a can of babyfood (110g) at one sitting.
A lot of his little friends from playcentre are not so keen on the solids, although perhaps Christopher is just hungrier because he is little.

Christopher photos by my friend Christine

2009-07-21T09:16:00.003+12:00

My friend Christine and I met up in McDonalds. She took some lovely photos, she is a great amateur photographer.

Current art style

2009-07-21T09:13:00.005+12:00

He tells me now sometimes about what is in his picture, so it isn't just practicing skills, there is a purpose in the final product.

two little boys

2009-07-21T09:10:00.003+12:00

Here are my boys playing together with the train set at Playcentre.

Trains are the biggest interest of Bevans. He likes real trains and Thomas the tank engine, and putting together train sets.

Common words in Bevans vocab

2009-07-09T20:16:00.001+12:00

I went to a seminar today about speech development.
So this afternoon I spent some time talking properly to Bevan and trying to
be really in the moment with him and listen to what he is saying. I was
pleased to hear him say lots of words.

Here is the sample:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
all done
anymore?
asleep
Bah (Buzz Lightyear)
ball
banana
bath
Bo (Bob the builder)
book
bottle
box
bubble
bus
button
byebye
car
cat
daddy
dog
door
duck
go
hello
here we are
here you go
I do
icecream
juice
mummy
no
oh no
outside
poo
rain
remote
shhhh
slide
sock
stop
swing
tele
thankyou
train
tree
truck
um
water
weeee
Yay

You might notice that he doesn't say his own name, or "me" or "mine" or
anything like that. He also doesn't say Yes, but uses the phrase "I do" in
most cases. He will often leaves off the consonents at the end of words.
Some of these words are clear and some are very garbled, like icecream is
consistently pronounced brabeen.

It is interesting seeing which words a 2 1/2 year has developed as his
essentials.

Christopher at 5 months

2009-07-02T09:43:00.000+12:00

Christopher is doing really well.
He is babbling away and has started on solids. He is really good at solids
- he eats a variety of foods and doesn't even mind if they are chunkier
textured than just a puree.

At his plunket check he weighed 6.28kg, so his rate of growth improved a
small amount. He is 64.5cm long. Average for his age would be 7.5kg and
66cm.

He plays with his hands and likes holding toys like rattles. I found a style
of dummy that he likes and that is helping him chill out. At the moment he
and I both have coughs, which I hope we get over soon.

Counting

2009-07-02T08:53:00.000+12:00

Bevan can now say his numbers from 1-10 outloud in order. Considering his
scarcity of other words I am quite amazed.
His language is still improving, but I feel he will need some kind of speech
therapy. I'm trying to get an appointment for him. The nearest private SLT
for children is out Levin way though, but she may be able to arrange to see
a few of Wellington region people all in one day.

Bevan also impressed me yesterday when we were at a café and he pointed at
our table number and read outloud "1". He actually read the number himself.
Not sure HOW he knew about that!

He is showing a bit of interest in numbers. He's played with my math
equipment kitsets that I got when doing Total Learning. The kits have
coloured foam shapes, dominoes, coloured shaped beads, coloured jointed
blocks, flashcards etc.. He grouped the coloured shapes into colour groups
on his own initiative the other day.

I also recently ordered from the flybuys the "fridge phonics" toy by
Leapfrog. I really like the leapfrog toys; "alphabet pal" was a hit here
too, and now Christopher AND Bevan play with it. Anyway, the fridge phonics
will hopefully help get his awareness of letters, letter sounds and the
alphabet improving.
I got the "tag reading sytem" out of the cupboard, it is an awesome toy that
I won in a competition, but is for ages 4-8. I let Bevan have a go and he
did manage to enjoy it and figure out some of the simple stuff for it. For
parents (like me) who like statistics it has a fun feature where you can
find out how long your child played with it and whether they were getting
questions right in the comprehension parts of the book. We have one book
"Ozzie and Mack", and I might look out for more on Trademe.

Bevans speech

2009-06-18T20:42:00.000+12:00

It has been six weeks since Bevan got his grommets put in. We had a checkup
and the doctor says that his ears are looking very healthy and the grommets
are sitting in there well.

Bevan is attempting to say long sentences, although they are very mumbled
and I cannot understand them.

He is growing his vocabulary a lot. He can now count to ten, it sounds a
bit like:
"one..tooo..fee..for, fii, seis, beben, eight, niine, ten". Very cute. I
was stunned the first time he did it as I thought he could count to 3 and I
was overhearing him and he just kept on counting.

He is getting more interested in songs. He indicates to me with gestures
which song he would like. Current favourites are the babys verse of wheels
on the bus, twinkle twinkle, happy and you know it, head shoulders knees and
toes, and the tiny tim turtle song. They are all action songs and he joins
in with some of the actions.

His favourite word is No. Pretty standard for a toddler. Strangley enough
he never says Yes, but instead says "I do". When he accidentally on purpose
hurts me or someone else he will now pat us and say "okay", to make us feel
better. Actually sometimes he has been hurt and when I'm hugging him better
he pats ME on the back, haha.

He has also been busy doing a lot of art. He draws circles and spirals and
waves. He asks me to draw him cars and buses a lot. Sometimes he will point
to his picture and say mummy, I don't know if that means he is drawing me or
not.

How the boys have been

2009-05-22T08:00:00.000+12:00

The boys have been well.

Michael is keen for Bevan to start toilet training. Yesterday Bevan had
bare-bottom time from 2pm-bedtime and he went to the potty all by himself
for poo and for pee. Wahoo. I was a bit amazed as I wasn't expecting Bevan
to be noticing his body signals as well as that yet. I hope it wasn't just
a coincidence.

Bevan has also figured out how to properly peddle trikes. I think he still
prefers to scoot along, but he can do it correctly. We took him down to the
bike park
(http://www.huttcity.govt.nz/News-and-Notices/news/Previous-News-Items/Fun-a
nd-educational-cycle-track-for-Avalon-Park/) and took his new bob the
builder 12 inch bike with training wheels. He did really well and did a
couple of slow laps. We also did some kite flying which he thought was
fantastic.

Christopher will be seeing the karitane nurse soon, so will be interesting
to see how he is going with his weight.

Grommets for Bevan

2009-05-01T20:36:00.000+12:00

Bevan got his grommets put in his ears today.
He was a really brave boy at the hospital and he was even given a
certificate by the nurse for being a brave boy.
Michael went into the theatre with him while they used gas to anaesthetise
Bevan.
In recovery afterwards Bevan was all snuggled up in the hospital bed and he
wanted Christopher to snuggle with him too, they looked so sweet together.

Michael took a photo of Bevan in his hospital gown. We have to figure out
how to get it off the phone though before I can share it.

Christopher's plunket visit

2009-04-29T23:25:00.000+12:00

Christopher is now three months old.
He went for his check up at Plunket and he now weighs exactly 5 kilos (11
pounds). He is still tracking along the 3rd percentile for his weight
gains.

He's 60 cms now, not much different to the height Bevan was (61.5). So he is
a lot leaner than Bevan.

He is doing lots of clever things like holding small rattles and bits of
fabric. He enjoys sucking on his hands. He is a real delight with his
smiles and baby gurgles and squeaks.

Grommets!

2009-04-29T23:15:00.001+12:00

Bevan is all set to get Grommets in his ears on Friday.
We are going through a private specialist, because the waiting list for
public treatment is quite long.
When the specialist checked his ears she found he had glue ear in both ears.

I'm hoping that the grommets will help him with his hearing and so then help
his speech.

Bevan at the park

2009-04-24T17:44:00.003+12:00

We went on a lovely play date today that the boys really enjoyed.

I took this photo at the park. Bevan is looking quite grown up now.

Christophers baptism outfit

2009-04-24T17:41:00.004+12:00

Here is a photo I took of Christopher wearing his gown and bonnet.

Unfortunately we didn't really get any good photos on the day.

The boys

2009-04-23T23:32:00.001+12:00

Our boys are continuing to grow and delight us.
Just yesterday Michael watched as Bevan told Christopher that he loved him.
Awww... :-)

Bevan has typical toddler tantrums but he also has moments where he'll do
something clever or loving. He pretended to brush my hair today. He will
pat Christopher on the head if Christopher is crying. He uses body language
to tell me things like that he needs a nappy change or that he wants me to
put Christopher down and do something else.

He's been learning new words like carrot. He distinguishes between trains,
cars, busses and trucks now.

Yesterday he had a huge breakthrough and peddled a trike at playcentre with
his feet fully on the peddles, pumping his legs around. After a minute he
decided he still preferred his method of scooting along though.

Christopher is doing great. His baptism went really well and he didn't even
cry. He looked absolutely darling in his gown and bonnet. He is showing an
interest in holding things, and he can manage to wiggle a rattle or piece of
fabric if it is put in his grasp. He delights in being tickled and talked
to and will squeal and gurgle and smile.

On Monday Bevan will have his ear specialist appointment. And on Thursday
Christopher has his 3 month plunket checks, followed by his immunisations on
Friday.

Bevans ears

2009-04-02T15:13:00.001+13:00

Last week I took Bevan to the mobile Ear Van. My mum had been wondering
about his hearing for a while and I thought his speech was behind that of
his peers. They were fantastic and helpful at the clinic and diagnosed glue
ear in his right ear.

I've just booked Bevan in with a private specialist, one month wait for an
appt vs three in the public hospital.

His speech is improving though, he has some new words, "stuck" "truck" etc..
I'm able to hear him attempting more words and mimicing.

the park today

2009-03-29T20:21:00.001+13:00

Bevans speech

2009-03-22T23:51:00.003+13:00

I've been woried from time to time that Bevan doesn't have very clear speech. He does talk a lot now, but most of it I have no idea what he is saying.
I have actually now got him on a waiting list to be assessed by a speech therapist, but the list is around 6 months long, so perhaps he'll have come right by then anyway.

Today I noticed him pronounce the "k" in a word that sounded like "park". That is quite a step up from what he has been saying.

Car is still his favourite word, and "cat" and "juice" follow closely behind. Some other words I've recognised lately are ball, tree, Christopher (a long one that!). Usually the context and his gestures help me to figure out what he is trying to tell me.

I'll also ask for a referral to have is hearing tested. I know he can hear stuff, such as the trains 2 blocks away, but perhaps his ears are muffled, like glue ear or wax buildup or something.

photos at Daniels birthday

2009-03-22T22:44:00.003+13:00

We went to a birthday party yesterday and Bevans Godfather Mark was there and took some photos.

Bevan te too much chocolate Brownie and was sick in the night. He was sick with chocolat ebrownie another time too, so I hink we will have to limit brownies - must have too much cocoa for him or something.

Bevans artistic talent

2009-03-22T22:35:00.002+13:00

Bevan has recently made changes to his artistic style. He was focussing previously on drawing lots of quick stripey lines.

He is now doing big sweeping circles and tiny little squiggly circles inside them. His use of a variety of colours is increasing too, like as if his colour choice is becoming more important to him. The time he takes over a picture has increased too.

He seems to have the idea now that drawing can depict objects. The top picture I think is supposed to be a tractor or another transport thing like a train or a car.

photos from Brisas birthday

2009-03-15T12:12:00.002+13:00

Here is a photo taken at the birthday party of Bevans second cousin, Brisa.

It's his turn at the Pinata.

2009-03-08T14:05:00.000+13:00

Christopher's progress

2009-03-06T21:42:00.001+13:00

Christopher is now a clever 5 week old baby and has figured out how to
smile. His smiles are beautiful.

Our midwife visited today and took Christophers measurements. He has
been slow with his weight gain and so I am going to see a lactation
consultant. We think it is probably being caused by a poor latch, and
also he doesn't really wake in the night so is missing a night feed.

Weight now: 3880g (almost 8lbs 9oz)
Length: 54cm
Head circ: 37.5cm

I'm guessing he'll be a 6 week old before he catches up with Bevans
birth weight.

I've also arranged his 6 week doctor check, his immunisations, and am
sorting out the plunket nurse appointment.

Photos taken today

2009-02-17T22:57:00.000+13:00

Good baby

2009-02-17T22:49:00.002+13:00

Christopher is proving to be a very good baby.
He prefers being held, hugged or carried in the sling to being in his bassinet or bouncer, but otherwise hardly ever complains.
He sleeps well and doesn't cry except to tell me that he wants MORE food or burping.

Yesterday he got to meet his Grandfather Gerard briefly. Bevan is still being a good big brother and doesn't seem upset much by the way I have had to divide my attention.

Christopher has been spoiled with lots of lovely gifts. I've got some photos ordered so I can send photos out with thank you notes.

We are planning his baptism. We have the outfit. Invitations are organised and will be sent soon. Our friends Daniel and Alana will be the God-parents. We'll be having it take place at the 9:30 mass on Easter Sunday. I'm thinking of what food to serve at the morning tea following the service.

Christopher is all "official" now. He has a birth certificate, a national health number, an IRD number, enrolled at Playcentre, and I'm in the process of opening him a bank account.

weight gain

2009-02-17T22:47:00.002+13:00

Christopher had put on 80 grams by his 5 day old, but then he stalled for a bit and stayed exactly the same. Over the past 4 days I've really tried to focus on feeding him more and so this weigh-in we had another 80gram rise.
He is now 3580 grams, or 7lb 14oz.
Next weigh in is on the 25th, when he'll be 4 weeks old.

last night

2009-02-01T20:13:00.000+13:00

The whole family

2009-02-01T20:04:00.004+13:00

We had some visitors today and so I asked if they'd take a photo of us all together. It is tricky getting the camera out because Bevan REALLY likes the camera and will have a tantrum if we don't hand it over.

updates

2009-01-31T16:08:00.001+13:00

We're all doing well. Christopher had a good day yesterday, although
overnight he was a bit clingy and didn't want to settle down in his
bassinet to sleep. I had to have him close to me for him to be quiet
and drop off.
Hopefully tonight he'll be okay again with the sleeping.

He's been feeding well and seems to have figured it out.

Daddy and Christopher

2009-01-30T20:00:00.003+13:00

Mummy and Christopher

2009-01-30T19:58:00.001+13:00

Christopher Luke Ellis born

2009-01-30T19:48:00.002+13:00

Our darling new baby Christopher Luke Ellis was born at 3:46m on Wednesday 28th Jan. He weighed 7lbs 8oz. His apgar scores were 9 and 10.

He was 1 week overdue and so we got labour started at the hospital with an induction. Once the contractions finally got started it was a 3 and a half hour labour, just 16 minutes of the 2nd stage pushing. It sure hurt, but I was too distracted to consider pain-relief and so did the whole thing with none (unless you count a heated wheat pack on my tummy?)

The recovery from the labour and birthing has been so much easier than for Bevans birth, which was by caesarian section after a long painful posterior labour. I'm up and about and doing stuff and able to be with Michael, Bevan and Christopher. We came home from the hospital the same evening - Bevan was fascinated meeting his new baby brother.

Christopher is eating and sleeping well. He seems very settled and placid. He has the same face as Bevan, but he seems to have darker hair, more like his Daddy's.

No news yet

2009-01-18T14:52:00.001+13:00

The new baby hasn't made an appearance yet. Everything is ready for him
though. I have my bags packed and all my errands completed.
We went for a nice walk yesterday, and while I had some tummy
tightenings I didn't end up getting any proper contractions.
It is 3 more sleeps to go until the official due date.

No baby news yet

2009-01-12T08:08:00.001+13:00

No signs of labour yet for me. Just 9 days till the due date anyway,
and because of my previous c-section I won't be allowed to go more than
10 days over my due date. So baby will definitely be here by the end of
the month!

I think we have things pretty ready for him. It is just a case now of
keeping on top of the chores and errands so that nothing gets forgotten
while I'm off having him.

Bevan knows he is getting a baby as I've talked about it to him. He
knows it is in my tummy, but I don't know that he really understands
that it will live with us permanently.

Will post news as soon as I have it :-)

Chaucey

Our double birthday!

2009-01-01T20:21:00.003+13:00

Today is a special day in the Ellis household because it marks my 30th birthday and Bevans 2nd birthday. Both are really special milestones.

We held a party at our playcentre. Right now we are all tired out from a busy day preparing food and, in Bevans case, playing and eating!

It was lovely to see so many friends. Bevan and I have been completely spoiled with gifts. Bevan spent over an hour this morning playing with a toy parking garage which his Godparents Mark and Cassy bought him.

I think he'll open his other presents tomorrow because he is so tired now.

Michael worked really hard making salads and running the bbq. I made a pirate ship birthday cake for Bevan, and also some jelly boats. We didn't go overboard doing a theme though, just a few wee touches.

Photos attached!

Thank you very much to all our friends who helped us with the preparations, clean up, party participation, and gifts. We are blessed with many, many lovely friendships.

HUGS TO YOU ALL and have a great 2009!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T13:40:00.002+13:00

Have a lovely Christmas.

From Bevan.

six+a bit weeks till new brother

2008-12-08T21:50:00.002+13:00

It isn't long until this belly bump is an actual baby existing independantly of my body. I am hoping that Bevan will find the adjustment not too stressful, although realistically it will be the biggest change he'll have faced since trying solid food.
Luckily Bevan has been showing an interest in babies - today he tried to "share" a bit of lamington with a 4 month old!

Plunket 2 year check

2008-12-08T21:46:00.002+13:00

On Friday the 5th I scheduled in Bevans two-year Plunket check.

He now weighs 14.85kg, so is a solid lad. He isn't fat or chubby, so a good portion of that weight must be muscle.
He is 87.5cm tall.
Both measurements are above the average for boys his age.
He is a good eater, has good health, and exercises a lot, so I suppose that all makes sense.

Now I have to organise enrolling him with the school dental system. He won't be scheduled for another Plunket check till he is 3, and he doesn't get any immunisations until he is 4. We will be seeing Plunket heaps for the new baby though, and so can raise any issues with them then, like if his talking doesn't catch up.