A wee bit late, but here’s A2’s half birthday post! Not too much has happened since my last post really. A2 isn’t quite crawling yet but she slowly gets herself forwards, and frustratingly for her, backwards. She has a slightly unusual technique; pulling her legs up underneath her and getting her bum right up in the air but she hasn’t worked out to move her hands forwards so she does kind of belly flops towards what she’s after. It’s pretty effective but even as I type I’ve just spotted her balancing on one arm as she reached for something so she is working on the next stage.
She’s also done a tiny bit of bum shuffling in the bath and on the laminate but she goes backwards more frequently than she goes forwards at the moment. She’s very happy sitting up, until the toys she wants are too far out of reach, but she soon lets us know when that happens. What she enjoys most of all is standing up though; usually bouncing her little feet off in the Jumperoo but more recently she’s been able to stay upright against the sofa for a few seconds. She has really noticed Lyra in the last few days and is very entertained just watching her but if she gets within reach she tries to reach out for her. Lyra is keeping a safe distance! I haven’t had her weighed for ages but I’m going to try and take her next week. Her hair might have grown a nanometre or two but she’s definitely gonna need that wooly hat I’ve knitted to keep her head warm soon. Just needs a pom pom.
No teeth as yet but still lots of drool and ever hardening gums. Sound wise, most of the noises at the moment are cries of frustration and laughs with a few occasional ‘talking’ sounds. No real change in sleep patterns; some nights are worse than others and that’s when we see every hour on the clock and have a longer wake up but some are better. She prefers to sleep on her tummy now and more often than not ends up actually in our bed so the 4 of us are pretty squished at times but somehow that still maximises sleep for everyone! I try not to compare them too much but it does surprise me when she falls asleep (not in the sling) without feeding as A1 never did this. Often she’ll wake after 20 minutes when that happens but sometimes she’ll have a longer nap.
She’s making a big mess with food now. It’s only been a few days but she’s already much more interested in getting what’s on her tray into her mouth. Especially when it was Yorkshire pudding! I don’t think she’s actually eaten very much at all yet but it’s early days. I’m certainly not enjoying all the extra cleaning now though.
The bond between A1 and A2 continues to grow (and make my heart melt and make all the stressful moments worthwhile!). A1 makes A2 smile and laugh lots and he clearly loves her very much too. We all had a very early night this week and A1 ended up coming into bed whilst A2 was feeding, so he held her hand as he fell asleep in our bed. He also made her into a knight with a headband (!) and although he sometimes isn’t always as gentle as I’d like, on the whole A2 never seems to mind. Sometimes (in the car or for about 2 min at 9pm, they even sleep at the same time).
After a few weeks of talking and planning, we’ve made A1 a cool den under his mid-sleeper bed. He’s got some new robot wall stickers and another set with a planet with his name on and spaceships and stars, fairy lights, blankets and I made him some giant, fleecy cushions. He seems to like it! Here are the cushions before and after being filled. Not bad for about 1.5 hours worth of effort juggling two children even if I do say so myself!
A1 helped to make sensory bottles last week and it was great fun. We used food colouring liquid and gel, water and baby oil and washing up liquid, glitter, metallic sequin shapes, Hama beads and loom bands to make a few different ones. He was really good at scooping the Hama beads in and he liked squirting the food colouring in.
A2 has been singing an incredibly catchy song at bath time. It goes ‘Hammerhead shark and wh-ale’ on repeat and it gets completely stuck in my head. Bedtimes have been a bit easier now we’ve got back into a routine but he’s still a bit (!) upset about going to nursery after he had 2 weeks without going and he’s just changed rooms. It’s slowly settling down again now and although Mr.J is having to suffer the tears at drop off he is slowly improving. He’s lots and lots of fun at times. I love that he likes having his hair done and he is starting to do more silly things too. His imaginative play is really taking off now. The photo of me here is when I am Mack. Mack lives in Lancaster and paints dinosaurs apparently and wears a head torch and needs a cushion. He has been building us all lots of houses with the cushions too.
Mr.J and I went out for a meal last Friday thanks to Aunty W babysitting. I was dreading it as A2 doesn’t settle much in the evening and she has a cold and all the snot (see pic below) but she was fine and we had a yummy curry. We had a lovely walk around Yorkshire Sculpture Park too and A1 was very interested in the KAWS stuff. Despite seeming to run as fast as Usain Bolt at times, sometimes he’s reluctant to go for a walk but picking blackberries and jumping in puddles are usually good enough reasons! We’ve got a few things happening in the next few weeks so look our for next months post to see what we’ve been up to and what these two crazy kids have been doing 😀
All things JenkinSunts! 