Funny

One of Atti's favourite books is "The Gruffalo". He asked me to read it to him today. 

But he didn't let me read it. He started scrabbling round the pages further on that where I was up to, turned the book to the page where the mouse first meets the Gruffalo and so I started reading that. 

When I got to the "oh help, oh no, it's a Gruffalo!!!" bit, he started patting my face and saying 's'ok Mama, don't be scared' and then put the book away - so I wasn't scared!

He is also now always asking me 'you ok Mummy' and telling me 'be careful Mummy'.

So cute.

And today we stumbled into a bunch of friends at the local farmers market (held at a local school with a bunch of wonderful playgrounds) and we ended up with all 5 kids playing with the ukelele group. Wonderful photos (and if any of them end up famous musicians, valuable too!)

And I discovered almond butter today. So yummy, and so much nicer than peanut butter. Ours will need a bit more oil though, as it is a bit thick to spread.

Music

I am not musical. I never really played an instrument (well, recorder and glockenspiel at primary school and a brief moment of french horn in high school), don't sing, am not even that much into music - I mean I like it, but I have tended to listen to news radio rather than music, mostly because I hate the commentators.

But I went and had a baby, and other people sang to him and he liked it - which forced me to sing too. I would like to point out that I have done more singing in public in the last two years than in the previous nearly 4 decades. 

Recently I have noticed how interested in musical instruments Atti is. We went to visit my best friend and her family, who are very musical, recently and Atti had a wonderful time playing drums, piano, recorder and an accordion. I was glad he didn't realise the violins made sounds! He has also been a bit obsessed with the ukeleles at Rio's school and the ukelele group that plays at our local farmers market each weekend. After he grabbed the spare uke at the farmers market and joined in with the group last Saturday, I decided to have a look online and picked up a cheap uke for him.

He is so impressed with his 'guitar'. He even took it to daycare yesterday and shared it with his friends. They all had a great time with it. 

So it has lead me to you tube and uke lessons online. I figure someone actually needs to play it for him a bit, so he gets that just plucking or strumming it isn't the point. So far I have learnt that I have to practice strumming with my thumb (not my fingers that have decent nails…) and learning about the frets and how to get the strings to touch them, so it will still actually make a note, not a thunk noise.

Just what I need as uni goes back (full time for my final year) and J has her daughter…..a new hobby!

Kid's sleep

Atti was having a good nap the other day. Long enough that I had gotten everything done that I needed to, and was able to curl up with a book. And my eyes started to close, my head tip back and get heavy. And as this was happening I was thinking 'well this will definitely wake him up'.

And a few minutes later, just as I had gone far enough down to sleep that waking is like having your head slammed against something, it did.

I am wondering what is going on. How is my kid so attuned to my sleep? If I had gone to sleep at the start of his nap, no problem. On the nights I get to bed early, he will invariably sleep in, sometimes an hour past his normal wake up time. 

But on the nights I don't get to sleep…. guaranteed 5am wake up.

WHAT is going on?

He sleeps in a different room, there is nothing to indicate when I am sleeping. It is just that universe bastardry thing right? Not my particular kid torturing me. Right? That afternoon when I got like 3 minutes sleep was hard work, I was really dragging because of that almost nap. 

Surely I am not the only one who's kid's sleep seems to be directly related to mine.

Although, I could take this as gospel (rather than the arrant nonsense it actually is) and decided that I need to get more sleep … for Atti's sake. To help him sleep.

Lol.

Best Friends

Atti woke me up the other morning (he slept late enough that his Dad was up before him, and on those [rare] mornings, he gets Atti up) and told me I was his best friend.

Awwww. Sweet. I thought 'learnt a new phrase from Rio or daycare I guess, I wonder if he actually knows what it means'. We use 'friend' a lot in signing, but I didn't know how well he got the concept.

Nope, he has it down. And initially he changed his mind about who was his best friend every couple of minutes - at one point everyone I named was his 'best friend'.

In the day or two he has started going through some photos I recently printed (which I need to send to his great grandmother, so I should get them away from him) and he keeps picking out the same two and saying 'A is my best friend' when holding one up and 'best friends' when holding up the other (with a different little boy in it - but when I ask if J is his best friend he says no). 

It is very sweet… even if I question his choice!

I had a friend over with a newborn the other day, and I spent the afternoon listening to Atti sing along with a cd of songs, direct me so he could show me the chickens at Rio's school and 'read' a story with me that night and I wondered… why does anyone like the newborn stage so much? They are so much more interesting and engaging and intriguing as they get older. And funny too. Atti accidentally told the Wook and I a dirty joke the other day and we both collapsed laughing… and he looked so utterly chuffed that he had made us laugh. He wasn't sure why we were laughing (and I really hope he doesn't repeat it to see if other people laugh) but he was clear that he had made us laugh, and so very happy about that fact. It was an amazing moment.

We had another great (if long) moment recently. I picked Rio up from school and we went to visit a friend and her two kids. Atti sees this kids regularly, but not frequently, but when he was a baby he spent a day a week with them. He was gorgeous on the ride down there, telling Rio about the boy and girl we were going to visit. I said something about the boy, and Atti said 'X loves me very much!' - which is totally true. They had this really wonderful afternoon, so much so that we were invited and stayed for dinner, and I basically ran the kids there until bedtime, drove them home and they went straight to bed. All of the kids got along like a dream, they were all beautifully mannered, they all ate like someone else's kids, they were cute and smart and funny and polite. It was fantastic. We should do it every week. Well except for the fact it wouldn't work if I did.

Now, if we can just stop Rio from telling her teachers that the reason I picked her up early from school was to go to a playdate…...

Yikes - multiple kids is HARD

Rio's mum is doing a training course for a fortnight, and I am doing the school run for Rio each day, and due to her school being a hippy private kind of school, she doesn't go on Wednesdays. So for some of each day, I have two kids. I am getting two kids ready and fed and off to their various places each day, and then collecting them and entertaining them for the afternoon and getting them home, fed and bathed before bedtime.

And, having to do errands and things in there.

Wowsers, it is harder than I thought it would be.

Also, HOW does anyone get any work done? It seems like there is no time between when I get home after drop off and when I have to start getting organised to do pick ups again. It is, actually, at most 5 hours, so I am not surprised it seems like nothing.

Again, hard.

And, not for nothing, Rio isn't the easiest kid either. I mean 5 year olds - know everything, contradict you on EVERYTHING, not consistent - I know. But wow, bits of today made me boggle. Mind you, spending a whole day with her (when she was allowed some tv - school days there is no screen time and that is crazy rough) is nothing compared with trying to get her out the door on time to get to school. She is soooooooooo sloooooooow. I am going to institute a countdown now, and at 0 you are out the door, I don't care if you haven't finished your breakfast, aren't dressed, hair isn't done, whatever. WE are GONE. Rio's mum must be a saint not to have screamed bloody murder every morning - a week in and I would (will?).

Yesterday and today I took Atti off early to his grandparents/daycare so that I didn't have to deal with them together. Monday morning it actually worked very well, taking Atti to daycare and Rio to school - we even got there early. Tomorrow has a built in schedule as we have to pick up my friend J on the way, but leaving is what will be hard tomorrow. Rio has been getting a bit clingy when I leave her there and Atticus looooooves that school. He loves the chickens and their playground and Rio's classroom, so getting out the door will be a bit … well long I guess.

But this first week has been rough. I'm told you get used to it, but honestly, with two it is pretty hard, I simply cannot imagine more.

Although one thing about having Rio this week has been brilliant - I managed to forget to put the key in the door today, and ended up with the kids inside, and me outside with no key. Ummm whoops! But Rio managed to find a stool and get up and open the door and let me in. Awesome. Well, until I watched Atti try the same thing this afternoon…..

The Giants

The city I live in has an annual arts festival, and today was the start of 'The Giants' walking the streets. 

It was wonderful.

Not NOT a hassle mind you, to take a 2 year old and a 5 year old and all the kit (food, nappy bags, pram, camera, toys etc) into town in morning peak, plus at least 100,000 extras to be there for the event we went for. Also, it's hot. And the two year old sure wasn't going to sit quietly on Daddy's shoulders for 45 minutes while it started. Or really get it.

Also, they close the streets because they (today only she) walk the streets, literally. So the public transport we were trying to use to get home wasn't happening, because all the buses were blockaded on the other side of the street closures. So I got to push 35 kilos of kid home.

And Atti slept in the pram, but not in the cot. No sleep today. Arghhhh!

But. It was so wonderful. Incredible. It actually lives up to the hype. I got utterly soaked from the passing float, and I didn't care less. It was that great.

Rio was hilarious about the whole thing. Basically adults keep telling her that all her fairy/elf/nymph/witch etc books aren't true. But today she saw a giant, right there in front of her. So if that is real…. Now she is never going to believe anything we ever say again I guess.

Atti - well Atti can't stop telling people about "the little girl giant who's truck squirted Mummy". So I guess he is a fan too!

Also, amusingly for me, the little girl giant shut down justice in this town, briefly at least. As in, I noticed the balcony's were full of people watching the parade at the courts. I texted a friend who is an associate and he confirmed that they were all pretty much outside watching or on the balconies. Justice waits for no man…. except a fabulous puppet show!

Friends

We had a bit of a big day yesterday.

Atti was invited to the zoo with by his mate C from daycare. He looooves C and his little sister I who also attends their daycare. I love both the kids, and really like their Mum. So I think we were all excited about today.

We had a wonderful time at the zoo, although there were a few little bumps. But at the end, when we were leaving, Atti was begging to go to his friend's house, and sobbing his name as we walked off. Very cute. He calmed down once we had him in the car, and fell asleep on the short drive home.

He had his first ever dentist visit yesterday too - and it was a success. I have been talking about the dentist a bit lately, and we have been practicing him opening his mouth to let her have a look at his teeth. He has 19 (bit slow with the molars coming) but she says they look good and all is well. He did his very adorable act all over the (seemingly) entirely female office too.

One funny thing - he had had some lunch before we headed off - we were in a rush to get there on time, so I didn't even think about brushing his teeth before we left. She got a bit of a shock at first, because there were little bits of blueberry in his mouth and it looked like gaping holes in a couple of his teeth!

After the dentist we went to the park with two of his little mates from parents group. He has been dying to see A - and we had a repeat of the begging to go to his house and crying his name as he left. All a bit dramatic.

I actually think he is a little bit sick at the moment. He has a slightly hoarse voice and while he has no temp, he has not let me look in his ears, and he has been a bit sooky and clingy the last day or so. 

But overall a pretty good day. Oh and wait for it - he finally fell into the lake at the duck park today. It has been coming forever, he just won't leave water alone and he finally did it. No really drama, I heard it (was facing away at that second) and it isn't deep - he has been in water for pretty much his whole life and I wasn't terribly worried. But he did get a scratch and a scare. Hopefully he will remember it - but judging on how he was back at the water's edge 20 minutes later, I don't think so.

My water baby.

Rough Day

The Grandparents couldn't take Atti today, a fact I had totally forgotten, and not put in my diary (*facepalm). Grandmother sent me a text late last night lamenting the fact that she wasn't going to have her sweetums with her today.

I just about fell off my chair. My neighbours' chair - we were watching a cooking competition and having a glass of wine after putting the smalls to bed. I had not gone into the office yesterday, because I was going to go in today (which is not my normal practice) and I had a blood donation today. 

Bugger bugger bugger. And for once all my backups were just not available, or not available enough.

I decided to ring daycare and see if they could squeeze him in in the morning.

And then he was just totally adorable in the morning and I (stupid stupid stupid) thought 'oh, lets just have a lazy day, he can watch some tv and use the iPad, and I will be able to work at home'.

Haaaaa ha ha ha *ad nauseum*

Nooooooo. That is not how my day went.

My day basically went like this. Atti demands something he can't have. I say no. Atti throws a tanty. I either jolly him along or let him go for a bit, then turn it around. Atti is happy and adorable, but attention-demanding. Atti loves on my by jumping on me in some way. Repeat.

Quite a few of his toys were locked into the cupboard during the course of today. 

Also, he absolutely refused to leave the house. At all. Wouldn't even walk outside with me to put things in the bin or water the plants. He finally went outside when Rio came home, and painted a little, but mostly climbed in and out of the toddler pool.

He was finding and using and refusing to hand over dummies a lot today. And he is getting a couple of little sores around his mouth from it trapping saliva there. I think it will be ok, paw paw cream has solved this quickly the once or so it was an issue before, but still. 

However one rather lovely thing happened. There is a brother (3 and a bit) and sister (1) team at his daycare that he really likes. Their Mum and I get along pretty well too. So we have had a couple of playdates. But today she rang me, and asked if Atti was there. Because her son wanted to talk to him. He had rung to invite Atti to the zoo with him later this week. 

I mean, awwwwwww. How adorable is that?

Atti is beyond excited. It is great. I am really pleased about it too - I really like both of the kid and the mum. And for that matter, her sister and brother in law and niece and nephew too - since I met them on a playdate and have run into them since a couple of times.

But today really did test my patience. But actually, it was ok. I mean I was a bit frustrated about not letting me go out to the shop. And when he was refusing to come out of the office and shouting at me I shut the door, twice (I stood there and opened it as soon as he knocked, but the first time he didn't come out by the count of three, so I shut it again. He came out pretty quick the next time). But I think the focusing on sorting out my lack of sleep is helping. I need the tolerance to deal with a two year old (let alone when uni starts soon and I have to do Corps).

So that was good. 

And Atti and I made a pretty nice painting together today!

And the best thing today? He asked if he could have his nap in Mama's bed, and I said ok, you can try. I have a half hour window with naps, he can go down anytime btw 11.30-12, and it was 11.30. So we both lay down and I didn't think it would work. He never sleeps in my bed. But he went off pretty quick, hand reaching out towards me and had a two hour nap. And so did I. It was glorious!

Lovely weirdness

So the baby thing? Still going on over here

 My kid is so delightfully weird! At least he isn't calling the Munch doll 'his brother' anymore. Now he is 'baby'.

It's all about babies over here

We have been talking a lot about babies with Atti lately. One of my best friends, J is about to have her daughter, and she has been taking Atti one afternoon a week for his whole life, and the plan is we will continue (once she can) and I will have her daughter one or two afternoons a week too.

Another friend had a baby a while ago (not that we have seen her much until recently) and we have started spending more time with the Wookie's god-daughter, who is still quite a baby although 18 months old.

I was beginning to wonder what was going to happen when the new baby comes, because Atti got to meet the friend's baby the other day, and he was really excited about it, until he was in the same room as the baby, then he wouldn't even come into the same half a room as her. Hmmmm said I.

Maybe it is just that baby.

And he is fine with the god-daughter, but not actually interested in her. He likes their 4 year old. But we have been swimming with them every sunday for a few weeks, and then we head to the park. And today I got this beautiful video of him giving the G-D drinks, and giving her his train and explaining that it was 'Dash' and that he has 'special coal'. And asking her if she was ok. Very cute.

And tonight the friend who's baby had freaked him out surprised us with a visit, and he and Rio were all over her like a rash.

He has been taking to J about her baby in the last few days, and 'helping' me put things aside for the baby. He was very excited about the 'party' we had this weekend, because J was having a baby. Of course he pulled up her dress to get to her belly to say hi to the baby (possibly best not to show 2 year olds your pregnant belly when you area in a skirt and top and encourage them to talk to the baby… because when they see you the next day in a dress..).

It is baby central around here right now!

A note for myself

Just for me later  - every  morning when we put on sunscreen and get dressed, Atticus calls it 'sun scream'. Which I find amusing.

Also, currently he likes to take his tshirts and make shapes around his head. He pulls them round his head like a cowl and says "I am a circle" (like on Mister Maker). Or "I am a triangle, I am a square".

So far, so nice

We went out on a playdate with the littlest boy in our parents group this morning. We went to this slightly odd shopping centre that used to have the most amazing play area in the middle. Too amazing actually - while it was brilliant, the parents weren't. They tended to ignore the age signs, so there would be lots of kids that were far too big to be in there, and they would knock over the little ones. And the area around it has seats and so there was a fair amount of non-supervision going on. While I am a bit of a fan of this, if your kid is a biter or problematic in some way, and you are sitting outside having a coffee and not supervising - I'm not ok with that.

And the last time we went there, my kid was pretty severely bitten. On both arms. While I was in there with him, but down below the kids only climbing frame. So I doubt it was that kid's first time biting. 

However, we didn't have that problem this morning, I doubt there were any kids older than 3 there. But they have built some new shops and chopped up the play area, and it is not a viable playdate space for us anymore.

Anyway, my point was that my friend's son is the youngest in our group, but also very little for his age. And he has gotten to that point of being quite aggressive. She was kind of horrified at his behaviour in the play area this morning. I was of the opinion that littler kids can often get like that - he has probably been knocked about a little bit at daycare and decided that he is going to have to be assertive to get what he wants, and he doesn't know how to do that well. So he was knocking kids over, pushing them out of his way and so on. 

I found it interesting because Atti was the focus of some of it (in S's defence, it looked like he was trying to play chasey with Atti and Atti wasn't playing. So he would run up to him and give him a push,  I think in the hopes of getting him to run so he could chase him) and I was curious what he would do. Lately there has been an issue at daycare with Atti and another little boy, and Atti has come home with a scratch or two. I think he probably snatched a toy of this boy who belted him. But I was wondering if he pushes or anything back - I've not seen (or been told by anyone) him start anything physical himself.

He didn't do anything. Well he sat down and cried and came over to me wailing that S had hurt him. I suggested he put out his hand and say 'stop S. It is not ok to hit/push'. And he did kind of take that up, mostly he just yelled 'stop' at him (with a hand up like a traffic cop). So I was pretty pleased.

Less pleased about the in-and-out of the playground, about the running off, I could live without those.

But I had promised ice cream if he was good (specifically defined as no shouting, no taking things off shelves and no running off) while I shopped in the discount chemist they have out there. And there is an ice-cream lady out there who thinks my son is utterly adorable now. We walked up and I was asking what kind of ice cream he wanted and there was a huge mound of blue ice cream (called smurf ice cream if you don't mind - smurfs apparently taste like caramel) so he asked for blue ice cream. I was asking the lady what flavour it was, so she got a little spoon and gave him a taster and he said 'thank you. thank you, oh thank you'. And she and I looked at each other and I said 'oh he thinks that is the ice cream!' She said 'take that and run' - so I did! He was licking it and announcing that he likes ice cream to everyone we passed on the way out!

We seem to be doing well on the manners these days, he is very good at please and thank you and excuse me, which is nice. And comes in handy when at shops, because he seems to charm them when he thanks people unprompted!

I love you

Atti has started to tell people he loves them. Me, his Dad, his Grandma and Grandpa. I thought Grandma was going to fall on the floor this morning when she heard it!

He has also started telling me who loves him. The whole drive to the Grandparents today he was telling me that Grandma and Grandpa love him. I told him that was definitely right!

I am pretty sure he has picked that one up from Rio - but I am pretty fine with it.

Also, he is working out about different homes (and I think different rules). Yesterday, when Rio's mum was in the kitchen chatting to me, he came in and said "K this not your house. This Mummy's house". And today I was told that "This Grandma and Grandpa's house Mama, not your house". And he noted that he sleeps there (sometimes I said).

I like that one too.

Less thrilled with the outgrowing a bunch of shoes. It has been hot here lately, and he has pretty much refused to wear anything but his sandals with the trains on them. I couldn't find them anywhere this morning so after some argy-bargy, we started trying on shoes. All the ones that fit a couple of months ago don't now. So I am going to have to go through the pile, trying on the next size up to see what fits. But he did fit into a gorgeous bright green pair of Vans he was given for his birthday - I was very pleased about that!

The best thing today? Sadly was that he wore he new hat, the one he loathed a couple of weeks ago. With no complaints. Because I was wearing a hat too.

One other adorable thing today? He took my keys when we got out of the car at the Grandparents and was carrying them around. Quite pleased that Grandpa noticed that he put them in a draw at their place - where Grandpa keeps his keys.