2010 - March - ing on!

March 14^th 2010

I never managed to post the blog below! Now it needs updating!

The top bit of news in the last 2 weeks is that Bethany can now swim the length of our local pool (17m) all by herself, both on her front and on her back. She loves to dive to the bottom of the pool and pick up her toys. She still has her little swimming lessons on Wednesday mornings – the teacher is trying to encourage us to enrol her in the local swim club from the age of 4 ‘to nurture her natural breaststroke’! Either that or synchro which she could apparently start age 5! I think we’ll wait and see. Bethany keeps asking to start playing tennis and would love to go to ballet as well. She has mow perfected the days of the week and now understands the concept of yesterday and tomorrow.

Callum continues to develop as below and his vocab grows – I picked him up from nursery on Friday and he said Mummy, I outside on slide – obviously, in 2 years old chat not perfected English, but enough for me to understand.

I am finding the balancing act of career and children difficult at the moment, but 3 days a week still enables me to have more time with the kiddies than without. Our build has also provided some stresses as the architect had made some basic mistakes which meant the structural calcs needed to be redone.

Mark is enjoying the weather warming up slightly and having a couple of dry commutes on his bike!

February 18^th 2010

It’s been a manic start to 2010. It was a magical Christmas up in Scotland, with sledging on Christmas day and snowman building on Christmas Eve. Bethany understood the celebrations this year and was very keen to help Callum with his presents once she had unwrapped all of hers. Despite being only 16 months Callum displayed genuine excitement and gratitude when opening his pair of Thomas the Tank Engine slippers.

January was manic, with both Mark and I working against tight deadlines we also started our building work on the house. The snow added complications, with nursery being shut and Jen managing to get stuck on a hill in the car with both the kids and no warm clothes or practical shoes!!! Luckily some lovely people took us in to their house and looked after us all until Mark got home then we had a wonderful walk through 6 inches of fresh snow walking home with both the kids at 11pm. Experiences like that renew your faith in the kindness of strangers…

February’s top piece of news is the exciting engagement between Anne and Chris… yippee we can’t wait to celebrate with you guys in March.

Bethany is a little chatterbox now and her vocabulary is extensive. She uses hand gestures a lot to animate her chit chat. Her doll Rosie has a very exciting life. Most experiences Bethany has or hears about are shared by Rosie….she can talk for 15mins about Rosie’s busy day going to a farm park, feeding sheep, getting stuck in the snow etc etc.

Bethany is very confident, but needs her cuddles and reassurance; she is generally a very affectionate little girl. She is very protective of Callum, although like every 3yr old and 18month sibling they do have a tendency to bicker if they are tired. We gave Callum a toy garage for his birthday in July… for months it sat untouched, but it is definitely the toy of choice at the moment – on a good day the two of them will play for 20mins totally enthralled by the cars driving and parking.

Bethany likes to choose her own outfits in the morning, luckily she usually checks with me to see whether things go nicely. She has also learnt her left and right, a skill I am still trying to perfect! Her number and letter recognition has developed rapidly and she is really enjoying learning to write (especially using her special cards from Aunty Clare). She can now count to 17 and recognises most numbers (she struggles with 6 and 9 and often thinks 3 is 8). The days of the week are not quite in the right order and she sometimes adds an extra Friday, which is no bad thing. Anything that occurred in the past was yesterday and anything in the future is later.

The change in Callum over the past 3 months is unbelievable. From a little, introverted and clingy toddler, he is now a headstrong and confident little boy. Callum used to be very unreceptive to new faces and places and would need constant cuddles and reassurance from Mark or me, but in 2010 he has found a new confidence. He giggles and smiles so much and seems to thrive in new situations. He is trying to run and jump now and enjoys throwing himself onto the floor or his sister! He is also learning to push the boundaries, perfecting tantrums a little bit earlier than I would have liked!

We need to be careful we don’t give in too much, but his cheeky ‘forgive me’ smile is priceless. Even when suffering from a horrible ear infection that lingered for about 6 weeks he maintained his happy demeanour.

His speech has developed rapidly, he now clearly says Mummy, Daddy, Meme (Bethany), again, no more, all gone, down please, ta, I need pee pee!!! (with no concept of what this means), duice (meaning juice), bath, Baa Baa (this means brush teeth! We always sing baa baa black sheep whilst we brush the kiddies teeth.), quack quack, moo, milk, I want choo choo (whilst handing me the remote control! This is Callum asking to watch Chuggington on Cbeebies!), banana, apple and read this (as he hands you a book!)

I still find speech development one of the most amazing things to witness as a parent.

Cute alert goes to Callum who has developed the mwah sound that goes with kissing… it is so cute to see him kissing Igglepiggle goodnight or making Igglepiggle kiss good night to the other toys!

We have lots of photos to post… I’ll try and post a few.