halojedha: (Default)
 I haven't done an "E's milestones" post lately because their development has happened too quickly to track. I don't think I can do a complete readout of all developments, and I'm daunted even by the idea of trying. So I'm gonna take bites out of it. This post is about language.

Language went from "learning lots of new words a day" to two word sentences, then three word sentences, then EIGHT word sentences, in a matter of weeks during the autumn. In September the only words they could say were "duck" and "there"; and just before Christmas I heard them say, "Roomba base dirty, needs wash, Zaza sort it".

First came nouns, then came verbs, then came multi word sentences made of nouns and verbs, and then adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions and articles.

They're now (aged nineteen months) producing complete sentences with words in the right order, and they're just working on growing their vocabulary and figuring out those final tricksy bits, like which way round "my" and "your" go (it's difficult because they have to do the opposite of what we do, rather than copying it.) They mirror everything they hear us say and have learned "Oh my god" from our housemate. It's definitely time to stop swearing.

Some things I heard them say today:

"Hello roomba, nice to meet you roomba, said E. Hello E, said roomba!" (The roomba is a favourite topic of conversation)
 
"Boo's got a purple mouth! E doesn't have a purple mouth." (I was wearing lipstick. I was particularly impressed by "doesn't have", which was new)
 
Narrating their independent play: "E riding in a box of clothes, with a hand! Out of the clothes box, so we can... take a clothes out of the box! Put away E's trousers, put away a cardigan, empty the clothes box. Put the brown trousers on the unicorn. One sleeve on the feet..." And so on in a a pretty much constant verbal stream of chatter.

This is an astonishing speed of language acquisition, and very exciting! It means that the communication between us is getting better and better by the day, which makes negotiating everything else so much easier.

There are also some recurring Eisms which are absolutely delightful. My favourites are "big hug" ("Big hug with Boo!" said as request, and then again on completion of request) and "carry carry up" with arms raised, always with two carries, never one.

They can count to three, and know all the numbers 1-10, but need a bit of help getting them in the right order from 4 onwards.

They love reciting nursery rhymes and song lyrics, but I haven't heard them sing a melody yet, although I sing to them constantly. They have an astounding memory and can "read" several of their books all the way through, having memorised the words. This has led to lots of E-generated memes, in-jokes and references which I enjoy hugely. Julia Donaldson's Monkey Puzzle, Open Very Carefully, and their Chuggington storybook (an animated kids show about trains) currently get gleefully recited on a daily basis.

So in the whirl of the last few months I totally failed to document all the interim language cuteness, such as the period where anything too hard/heavy/difficult was "too BIG!"

Given how quickly they're picking things up, I reckon we might as well give the alphabet a try soon because they might be ready for reading before too much longer. I've bought some letter magnets for the fridge and am starting to introduce phonemes through "what sound does that word start with?" type questions. I'm in no rush for my own sake - more like scrambling to keep up!
halojedha: (Crocodile bird rug)
- In half an hour yesterday Ember pronounced for the first time in my hearing: hot, hug, rice, shoe, tub, and lid
- HUGG immediately became favourite game (shouting HUUGG and then pouncehugging nearest person and/or thing)
- today they went the whole day without me with the help of C, including bottles of milk and a two hour snooze in the buggy, until asking for me at 5pm
- HUGG continues to be favourite game, including HUGG the Finger Worms (wiggly fingers through holes book) which had me and C crying with laughter
- E learned to Gently Stroke The Plant and then was very proud and insisted on demonstrating this skill many, many, many times
- reading the Inside Your Body book with educational flaps E learned about hips and knees, and then spent fifteen minutes practising high kicks while holding onto the sofa like a barre (Leo has video)
- interrupting breastfeed for HUGG
- studiously turning the pages of the Duck Book pointing out the facial features of all the animals
- multisyllabic words: nipple (thipul), thermometer (momomit) and banana (nonon)
- multiword sentences eg "the tea is hot" and "gently touch the plant" (in sign)
- still the wriggliest
halojedha: (Default)
E is one year old! Their development seems to be happening so fast. Here are the big ones lately:

Communication: LANGUAGE. IS HAPPENING. This is so exciting. There have been days recently where it feels like every single day we have a new language milestone, it's coming thick and fast. E now has six signs that they use regularly in context: Milk, Tree, Bird, Sun, Shower and Rain. (We spent AGES on the difference between sun and shower and now they're totally on top of it. We were walking in Lea Valley Park the other day and when we saw a waterfall they signed Shower. INCREDIBLE) They also understand a lot of other signs - such as Food and Wait - and they definitely understand English too!

For instance: E has a pet dead spider. It is on the back of our polycarbonate secondary glazing, which has come down off the window and is leaning against the wall for the summer. The dead spider is on the far side of the polycarbonate. Its underbelly is revealed in anatomical glory. E is obsessed with it, and keeps stroking it through the polycarbonate, pointing at it and shouting with delight. I've been chatting to them about it and telling them about spiders, using the sign for spider and so on. And then I sang Incy Wincy Spider the other day and they pointed at the spider. Leo also tells me that they said "toys" to them and they pointed at their toybox. So yes! Language! AAAH!

Mobility: They're confidently climbing onto the sofa from the floor and down again. They zoom around on hands and knees, and are almost as fast walking with a hand on furniture. They frequently take two or three wobbly steps when crossing from one support to another, like from the sofa to me or vice versa. As I was typing this I just watched them walk a metre from the sofa to Leo, who was in the middle of the floor - four steps at least!

They can climb up stairs without help and sometimes do, if we leave the stairgate open.

They can get down from the bed feet first...

...like on Monday when this TOTALLY CRAZY thing happened! I was having a lying down feed with them in hopes of a nap, as I've been waking up early or lying awake in the middle of the night a bunch lately and have been a bit sleep deprived. I didn't nap - heart and head too full of Things - but E had a good long sleep. We were up there for two and a half hours. They fed for a bit, slept a bit, fed a bit, slept a bit, fed a bit, and I was expecting them to be done with lying down after that feed... but they slept and rolled away from me, sleeping totally independently on the bed like they do at night.

So I snuck out. I went downstairs, and Leo and I had lunch and a zoom call with friends. While we were on the call I heard a thunk from upstairs. The cat was down here, so I went upstairs to check on E...

...and saw them happily CRAWLING TOWARDS ME ALONG THE UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR.

They had woken up, seen that they were alone, seen their water cup on the bedside table, fetched it, had a drink (as I learned later when I found the water cup in the bed), heard voices downstairs, got safely down from the bed, and started coming to find us. All without a cry!

How's that for independence? This is literally the first time they have woken up on their own without crying and I am SO IMPRESSED WITH THEM I CAN'T EVEN.

Sleep: The rain noise is m a g i c. Pure magic. We use Tropical Rain from mynoise.net (we have a subscription to the app) or sometimes Rain on a Tent. It works every time. So now we've got into a really great sleep routine. At 10:30am E has a long breastfeed, I put rain noise on, and they sleep on me. They're either feedingsleepingfeeding without ever really letting go of my boob, but sometimes totally limp and relaxed and not suckling before they wake up a bit and latch on again, or they feed for a bit and then sleep for a bit in my lap. Then in the afternoon either I take them for a sling walk, or Dot does*, or we do an upstairs lying down feed and nap together, or they fall asleep on my lap during their afternoon breastfeed. I'm definitely not doing the sling walk thing every day or even every other day, which is an enormous relief for my body.

At night they're feeding less, finally. I think the rain noise and lavender oil are helping with the sleep conditioning, so they feel familiar and safe to go back to sleep sometimes when they wake. They've slept "through the night" once or twice recently - like 9.30pm through to 5.30am - and then fed and dozed on and off until finally waking up at 7ish. Most nights they sleep 9.30pm until 7am with feeds every 3 hours at the start of the night and every hour from dawn onwards. Now I just need my own insomnia to sod off and I'll be better rested.

* OMG we have childcare again 1.5 days a week and it is literally lifechanging. Char is still unavailable but Dot has stepped doing and is doing an amazing job, and the extra work time is taking an enormous amount of pressure off me. It is SO GREAT.

Activities:
They're still obsessed with books and love being read to. They're very specific about which book they want. Today they climbed up on the sofa and pointed to the shelf of spillover books and kept pointing and vocalising until I picked out the one they wanted (Where's Spot). They love flip the flap books although several of them need repair after over enthusiastic tugging.

Char introduced me to the idea of schemas. E is currently fascinated by Enveloping and Positioning. Lots of moving items around, sorting them into piles, pulling stuff out of bags, putting things into containers and pulling them out again. They love playing peekaboo and will play it by themself, throwing a muslin over their head and pulling it off again and giggling. They love being given boxes and bags to open and toys to unwrap.

Their manual dexterity is greatly improving. They were playing with a little plectrum type object today, putting it in and out of a plastic cup. We like building towers out of wooden blocks - they don't do the building yet but they hand us blocks, we build with them, and then they try and remove blocks from near the top of the tower without knocking the whole thing down. They're getting pretty good at it.

They're getting more consistent with their shape sorter. They enjoy stacking toys. They've learned to pull the rings off the peg with their fingers (rather than just tipping them off) and have even put them back on once or twice, with a little guidance from me. They love playing fetch with a little plastic ball, and are learning how to roll it themselves.

They LOVE helping and being involved in whatever we're doing. They once took an entire airer of dry washing down for me, all the bits they could reach, and passed them to me one by one for folding. They like passing us nappies and laundry to hang and put away. They do sometimes try to take things down as we're hanging them, which is a bit awkward.

They love pulling books off shelves, will pull things off the dining table if we leave them too close to the edge. They're obsessed with getting their hands on whatever we're drinking, so we can't leave open containers of liquid around. We've baby proofed pretty well and are starting to be vigilant about pan handles sticking out, knives on the kitchen counter and so on

Food: still confidently eating with their hands. Broadening their range of tastes. Current favourite meals include cheesy omelette, bits of veg or fish picked out of our stirfries and curries (we've made our cooking totally salt free in order to be able to share it with E, and just add tamari or whatever to our bowls), fried mushrooms, courgette, fruit, bread and cream cheese. They are obsessed with smoked salmon, but it's salty so we almost never give it to them, and mete it out very carefully when we do. Most mornings they have the same breakfast as us: porridge with almond butter, defrosted frozen fruit, stewed prunes, Greek-style vegan yoghurt. They eat a mixture of vegan stuff, a bit of fish, and a bit of freerange organic egg and dairy.

They've been teething a lot lately - they're up to eight teeth now - and that makes them grizzly. They also have constant little flurries of frustration and temper when they can't do something or want something they can't have, but they're usually quite easily soothed. They know what they want and they're determined, persistent and wilful - definitely my child! Boundary-setting around biting is a work in progress and is creating some upset, but it's early days and since we changed our responses I have found it easier. Occasionally they get overwrought, but a snuggly breastfeed usually sorts it out.

They are a delight. Their mood is great most of the time: alert, engaged, curious, expressive, communicative. They're excited and delighted by the tiniest things and help make the simplest activities utterly joyful. Watching language centers come online is the best fun I have had in years.
halojedha: (Default)
We've been in lockdown for 7 weeks. We started shielding early, before it was compulsory. The days are all the same routine, pouring through my fingers like sand.

We've both been tired. Childcare, work, housework. We take it in turns to prop the other up. We rarely have the energy to cook. We'll batch cook and then eat the same meal six meals in a row. We've been raiding the freezer which we stocked up in case we got sick. Our veg box is still being delivered, and it's an effort to use the fresh veg before it goes off. I steam a lot of it and give it to E.

E is fine. Thriving. They have five teeth now and are working on a sixth. They are a bonny, curious, wilful darling. We got them some new stacking and building toys - wooden blocks, rings on a peg, stacking cuboids. And we have a whole pile of new second hand baby board books after I bought a few job lots on eBay.

They like holding a toy in each hand and  rummaging in a toybox, swapping what they're holding for other toys. They can crawl quite quickly around the house now. We keep having to move the cat litter and bowls out of reach. The stairgates we ordered arrived but we haven't had the time or energy to fit them yet. We've got one for the kitchen, since it doesn't have a door.

They can stand freely now, and walk holding onto furniture, climb on the sofa, but they aren't walking yet. They like pulling leaves off houseplants, pulling soil out of plant pots, pulling books off bookshelves, opening kitchen drawers and throwing things on the floor. We need to reorganize the downstairs, but it's hard to find time for extra jobs when we're not even keeping up with the laundry and dishwasher.

E is also doing this inconvenient thing right now where they're basically self-weaning during the day - preferring water and solid food to breastmilk - and then keeping me up ALL NIGHT breastfeeding twice an hour. I'm exhausted.

I've barely done any work lately. About ten hours a week. The rest is housework and childcare.

But I'm okay! Tired but okay. Taking the pressure off myself with work has freed up energy for everything else. And there are lots of things bringing me joy:

Growing things! A tonne of earth arrived and I moved half of it through to the back yard by hand. I felt strong and happy. I now have six full grow bags of earth ready for plants. I've potted up my courgette, bean and squash seedlings, and they're in the conservatory staying warm in their bigger pots. I planted some more beans, herbs and salad. Next is potting up the brassicas. 

Online readthroughs organised by [personal profile] wildeabandon are very fun - a good way to socialise, and it tickles my thespian/literary fancy. I played Crichton in JM Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, which is a silly satirical play about class inequality. The lead role is a class-loving snobby butler who loves serving, but who ends up becoming the boss of the group when they're shipwrecked and he's the only competent one. I do believe Kryten was somewhat based on him.

We also just started doing Good Omens, two episodes at a time. Episodes one and two were great fun, and I'm doing Crowley in Episode three (history sequence hurray!) against [personal profile] leonato's Aziraphale. I'm looking forward to all of it!

Good Omens fandom is bringing me joy! I've been writing, and obsessively reading fics and meta. It's wonderful to have something creative and social which is absolutely 100% unequivocally Not Work. I'm loving the no-pressure writing inspiration, the nerdiness, the queerness, everything about it. I've never really got stuck into a fandom like this before and I really like it.

Our hot tub brings me joy, when I get a chance to take E out and have a float. The opportunity doesn't open up as much as I'd like, but when I do it's marvellous. It's empty right now waiting for a scrub and refill.

It's satisfying building my capacity to integrate E care into my life in a harmonious way. The best way to get E to nap has been to sling them and go for a walk, but recently those walks have been 90-120mins long (it takes E 20-50 mins to fall asleep, and then they sleep for 60-90 mins, and then it takes a little time to get home). I don't know how much they weigh, but they're ten months old and h e a v y. Afterwards I'm knackered.

So this week I've had great success with slinging them at home and getting them to sleep here. I put them in a back carry and work outside. The movement and the warmth of the sun lulls them, and it gives me a chance to do garden stuff. I even did some of the digging and earth-moving with them on my back, which felt powerful. Babywearing is getting me fit. Every night I go to bed achy, and every day I'm stronger than I expect. 

And this morning E was fussy and sleepy during a Zoom call, and I thought I'd have to make my apologies and get them to sleep, but first I tried slinging them and bouncing on the yoga ball while we talked, and they slept on me so sweetly for an hour. It feels amazing to meet their needs while getting the stuff I want to do done, without having to take a massive chunk out of my day. My dream is to get them to sleep in the sling and then do some painting, but I haven't made it happen yet...
 
halojedha: (Default)
E turned nine months old at the start of April. It's been a year and a half since I got pregnant! That is A LONG TIME.

Their development is racing ahead and it's been a while since I did a milestone post. This Dreamwidth is basically their baby book.

- crawling is happening on the regular. They're semi adventurous, but not totally zoomy. If I put them down on the floor I can expect them to move a few feet, but not end up in a different room.
- they are no longer safe to put down on beds.
- rolling. Lots of rolling. Particularly in bed. Particularly while trying to feed. Their latest trick is to roll over from their back to their front in the middle of the night and get on all fours before waking up and being upset and confused that they're awake. This is also how they wake up in the mornings. HELLO!
- also rolling on changing mat. Changing is an ongoing negotiation involving distraction and toys.
- we did painting this week and they didn't try to eat the paint ONCE. Although they did try to crawl on the canvas which pretty effectively wiped it clean
- no more sitting. Sitting is boring. Standing is the thing. They hang on to sofas, boxes, knees, tables, anything they can reach. Lots of traversing furniture and pulling things off. I'm continually moving water glasses and tea mugs and laptops out of reach and strewing safe distracting objects in their path for them to pull off instead.
- destroying houseplants. They keep tearing off leaves and trying to pull the plants off the table. I'm not sure where to put them.
- working SO HARD at independent standing! They stood unsupported in the middle of the room for like 30secs yesterday, it was amazing!
- very opinionated, very sure what they want, very big feelings. Strong immediate reactions if we try to thwart them. Usually wants to be holding an object in each hand. Gets upset when this then impedes their ability to climb on things. Very stubborn and determined
- they love playing the piano and reading books, and have started asking for things they want - reaching for books, reaching for the piano, etc. They happily turn the pages of board books (sometimes far too fast to actually read the book) and often request two or three readings of the same book in a row.
- we've had some lovely family times out in the sun, hanging laundry or watering plants or sitting and reading while E crawls around on a picnic blanket exploring the yard
- the weather got warm enough to clean and refill the hot tub, and we've been out in it with E three times. They love it! I wanna get them some little inflatables so they can float around in it
- their babbling is becoming more language like in tone and intonation, and I can often have conversations with them and feel like I understand what they're saying
- they've started getting into offering me things, mostly toys but sometimes food. Favourite game right now is to try to put toys in my mouth
- twiddly fingers while feeding - they like to pull my hoop earrings out of my ears (I need to replace my missing studs) and to pinch and grab my boobs (v painful when they won't let me file their tiny sharp claws). Wearing a fiddle necklace helps, as does giving them a piece of cloth or a small toy to clutch while feeding
- they are obsessed with tea and when we have tea they insist on taking the mug and drinking some. We drink redbush tea with plant milk which is caffeine free, so I'm happy sharing it as long as it's cooled. A few times we've given them their own tea in their sippy cup and they've drunk it with great enthusiasm.
- favourite foods: porridge with prunes softened in it for sweetness, houmous (always), steamed fennel, stirfried mushrooms, stirfried carrot and greens, cooked fish, pasta and sauce, toasted bagel slices with almond butter, banana broken into sticks, satsuma pieces (pierced for safety), melon
- generally very cheery, relaxed, secure kid, super engaged and curious about the world, adorably excited and enthusiastic about everything, cuddly when tired, thinks things we do are very funny, loves to make us laugh. They are so wonderful! ♥️
halojedha: (Default)
E continues to be delightful. Seven and a half months is my favourite age so far. Every age has been my favourite age so far.

Recent milestones:
- learning to drink out of cups
- successfully drinking out of their 360 cup (no spill cup with lid and silicon seal all around so you can suck drink out of it anywhere on the rim)
- great strides in fine motor control
- pushing themself up from their tummy onto their hands and knees
- pushing with their hands and shoving themself backwards in an almost-crawl position
- new foods: cucumber, crackers with houmous, watermelon, steamed broccoli
- stealing sips of our tea
- recognising songs I sing to them at home at baby sign class and windmilling their arms in excitement
- getting through the night without a nappy change (we put an extra insert in, and don't put a liner in cos they stay wet and feel icky, and E doesn't poop in their sleep)

Bedtime has been a bit easier since I last posted. I've stopped trying to stick to a routine and do bedtime at a specific time. We just have supper, look out for tiredness cues, and either do bedtime straight after supper and a change into nighttime nappy, or play after supper until they seem tired.

I'm listening to the Gentle Sleep Book and feeling reassured that the "recommended" amount babies should sleep isn't evidence based and most babies sleep less than that. Which is a relief, cos E always has.

Taking advantage of naps when they happen. Today E was asleep in the car when we got home from baby sign, so I just chilled out in the parked car for twenty minutes listening to the tiny snores and waiting for them to finish their nap.

I've booked us a holiday! We're going to Amsterdam for four nights in the first week of April, just the two of us. Sharing a seat on the Eurostar - I paid extra for a journey at civilised times. Staying in an adorable studio apartment by a lake which is affordable, 45 mins from the centre of town without too much walking, and has a cot and high chair, although I imagine we'll be sharing the bed. I'm excited! Recommendations for baby friendly activities in Amsterdam welcome!

There are two things making me nervous: firstly I hope we're not sick when the time comes, and secondly I'm gonna have to be on it with planning our travel. Without a car seat there isn't the option of just grabbing a cab if I'm running late or miss the last bus.

My friend En and I were out for the day in a little British market town when we went away together before Christmas, both with babies in slings. We had a lovely day, but missed the last bus back to the park and ride. We were totally stranded. Had a choice between either walking for 45 mins along roads with no pavements or streetlights in the dark (nope) or calling our partners and begging one of them to come and collect us, take one of us back to the car while the other watched the babes, and then convoy back to put them both in their carseats. It took hours, was embarrassing, and made me realise how important it is to plan properly when you're travelling with a baby.
halojedha: (hoop girl)
  • Our colds are on the way out. E's symptoms are the last to go, as they were poorliest of the three of us. Poor inexperienced immune system. Oof, that was miserable! It's been an exercise in hanging in there. Technically there were two days of Leo's work time and my childcare time, but they didn't get much work done. We pulled together and got through it.
  • Just before we got ill I had the best Tai Chi session. We were working on the Shaolin Rou Quan "soft fist" form which involves a lot of ma bu (horse stance). I sweated and worked hard. It felt great and it loosened the hell out of my hamstrings. At the end of the session in our cool down stretches I was more flexible than I've ever been before. For the first time I could touch my toes in seated forward fold. And seated with legs apart, I could touch each toe with the fingers on the opposite hand, also for the first time. Woo! Of course, then we got sick and I missed a class, so I wasn't that flexible when I went tonight. But it's good to know it's possible!
  • Speaking of Tai Chi, I've discovered the most delightful thing. When I'm practising fan form E loves watching. The sudden loud snap and flash of colour as the fan opens makes them jump, and then they giggle. This gorgeous musical chuckle. Every time I do it! So the form is just wall to wall baby giggling. It's the most adorable, hilarious, joyful thing ever, and if I didn't already love the fan form, I would practice it just for that. :hearteyes:
  • E's independent sitting is coming along really well! I've been spending a lot of time sitting with them on the play mats with my legs casually on either side, to break their fall if they topple over, and a cushion at the feet end. But a few times I've got up to fetch something or whatever and they've stayed sitting up quite happily, busy with whatever toy they're holding.
  • They're spending a lot of voluntary time on their front too. They love throwing themself forward (works better on bed than on floor) and patting toys that are in front of them. The jingly ball is good for this as when it rolls away they do lots of thrashing of limbs trying to Do A Locomote. Crawling is not happening yet but they're giving it a damn good try.
  • We've had a couple of rolls too, mostly assisted by gravity, eg from lying on a pillow on back to on the bed on front. But they've done the back to front roll on the changing mat a couple of times too. They are, in general, Very Wriggly.
  • Oh yes, that was the other thing I was going to mention: I did a successful forward facing front carry today! This is very satisfying. I've been using the rear facing front carry and a hip carry with the ring sling, but I haven't had a good "looking all around" carry with the woven wrap before. The woven wrap is way more comfy than the ring sling, and much more suitable for extended carries, so this is a level up. I used our long woven wrap and tried a couple of times before I found one that worked for us. E was remarkably patient with the process while I faffed about with the sling. In fact I did the second one (the one that worked) in front of a mirror, and they kept grinning at their reflection and giggling when I jiggled or hupped them, and it just took all the stress out of the process. Once they were slung they were like a happy little starfish hanging out in front of me, smiling whenever I saw their reflection, waving their limbs, reaching grabby hands for whatever I was doing, nomming things if they got too close, and occasionally grabbing my thumbs and trying to steer. It was great. We folded and hung up laundry, and they were super happy until I had to unsling them to go to Tai Chi. I'll try it again on my next childcare day. Next challenge: can I cook with E in a forward facing front tie without hurting them? And after that: Back carries!

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