It’s been a very busy month this month so that’s my excuse for being a week late with this. We had a fantastic holiday in Cornwall, though the first two nights didn’t quite go to plan. I took the kids out for tea on the Friday evening with Aunty W and then got them into their PJs before collecting Mr.J from East Midlands Parkway following his day at the cricket. Then we drove to a Premier Inn in Bristol and we had hoped the kids would sleep on the way down and then we could try and transfer them or quickly resettle them once we arrived. Yeah that totally didn’t happen! In the end it was about 10pm before they were both asleep!
We had a fairly early start as A2 woke everyone up because she had done a huge poo we headed off to get breakfast from a nearby shopping centre before we drove the next couple of hours to Cornwall. Thankfully, they did both sleep most of that leg! The biggest issue came when it was bedtime on the first proper night of the holiday when A1 asked for Ducky, his bedtime teddy, and we didn’t have him. We had packed him and he was used in the Premier Inn…. and then we realised we had left him….eeeeek!! A1 was sharing a room with his buddy GPM and it’s safe to say bedtime wasn’t going well anyway so A1 came into our bed and cuddled to sleep with me after I told him that Ducky had gone on an adventure…… In the meantime I ordered a new Ducky (thank goodness they’re still made!) and Mr.J tweeted the Premier Inn to see if we could get original Ducky back. The short version of the story is that it all worked out well! New Ducky was collected and his tags were removed and the story A1 came up with was that he’d been to Peru to visit Paddington Bears family. He certainly cuddled him very tightly that night. I suggested he might have got very dirty so when he came back he must have had a wash and would be all clean and tidy. And thanks to a very lovely lady at the Premier Inn, original Ducky is back in our possession so we now have a spare – phew!
We had a relaxed first week; visiting Fowey and Looe, a trip on a steam train, Polkerris beach (it was a bit windy but we had a yummy lunch!) and my particular highlight was the day me and VPM went to the spa (it was bliss!!) for the afternoon whilst the kids and Dads went fishing and had ice creams in Mevagissey. We also have Mr.GPM to thank for some lovely meals that week.
On our second week we went to a very DIY farm park, Tintagel (where A2 wanted to walk along the very narrow paths by the sheer drops!), Trebarwith Sands and Crackington Haven beaches (where the most epic sandcastle was built!), a lovely walk along Lydford gorge on Mr.J’s birthday and a day out at Hidden Valley which had treasure hunts and escape rooms. Mr.J also took A1 to the T20 cricket at Taunton.
A1 and A2 both had loads of fun playing with their friends. We had a lot of impromptu discos and listened to a lot of Baby Shark, Shake your Sillies out and tv themes and A1 was particularly into playing Octonauts and Go Jetters. A2 joined in too just by running around and laughing with them and she had loads of fun pushing cars along the top of a radiator and making loads of noise! They both loved the huge trampoline at the second cottage, A1 rode his bike about lots and A2 loved the chickens which were roaming about! Week 2 was also board game week with Ticket to Ride, Kingdom Builder, 7 Wonders, Agricola, Dominion and Isle of Skye played!!
There’s loads of stuff I want to say about A1 as he hasn’t had much of an update for a while but I always forget things I’ve thought of! Some days he is absolutely lovely to be around and on other days I want to pull my hair out. Me and Mr.J went to a day of the England v South Africa test at LCCC on Sunday and Aunty C babysat for us. She said A1 was brilliant – really helpful, kind and looking after A2, sorting himself out for everything, etc. He has definitely got a lot more independent. He has been able to get himself dressed for a while now, he can put his coat on by himself and zip it up and he manages his shoes most of the time now too. Often all of this is accompanied by ‘No, I can do it myself!” if you ask if he wants a hand. He’s often really helpful at tea time – getting plates and cutlery out and he likes to help with cooking more. Tonight he grated his own cheese and he likes to help pour his cereal and milk. Lots of growing up.
On holiday, Mr.J had some very long bedtimes so thanks to Mrs.P’s suggestion we have started a reward chart for going to sleep on his own after his stories. We are currently n the 12th consecutive night where this has worked as he is clearly very desperate to get his chosen reward of a robot when he gets to 21 stickers! I still think he’s taking the same amount of time to go to sleep pretty much but he’s content to lie on his own with an audiobook on. Last night was quite funny as I was trying to get A2 to sleep and I heard Mr.J say “Why haven’t you got your pyjamas on?!”. He had taken them off because he was hot.
He’s starting to draw some good pictures too and he’s tracing letters really well. We play eye spy a lot and when he gives the clues he does really well but when he guesses he never guesses things with the right letter but I think he’s being silly. He’s got really good on his balance bike (note to self: we still need to raise the seat), he’s enjoying his gymnastics lots still (did I say he got the first two pre school certificates at some point; if not, he did) and we have been having lots of fun with Annabel’s Grimm’s rainbow. And he still loves a babycino!
As for A1, here are her usual categories….
Movement: No idea why but she’s been tip toeing lots this week! She’s working on bouncing too and loving trampolines whenever she gets the chance to go on one. She had a short burst of trying to come down stairs forward, holding hands, and also bumping down on her bum but she has realised it’s quicker to slide down on her tummy at the moment.
Teeth: I think the moment I pressed ‘Publish’ last month (or probably before but I just couldn’t get a good look) her top two first molars poked through as well as her other bottom 2nd tooth. The bottom first molars are really bulging now and they have looked like something was going to poke through any day for the last couple of weeks too. In fact, they may well have done but she won’t let me feel or look to confirm!
Play: She is obsessed with Baby Shark (see earlier!). She does the baby shark pincer action with her hand and she does the Daddy shark action with both hands saying “Daddeee” and gives you your phone to put it on lots and lots and lots! She has also started pushing the trains and coaches along the train track a lot and she put her dolls to sleep the other day, lying them on their tummies and patting their backs. She still loves to put on hats, shoes and glasses and she always wants to play outside and water the plants (and eat soil and pebbles). She has also really got into scribbling and doodling in the last few weeks too.
Sleep: Feeding to sleep is not working consistently any more 😮 . But, Mr.J has been able to get her to sleep two nights this week. She did vehemently express her dissatisfaction initially but did calm down fairly quickly. She’s thrown in a few longer stretches of around 4 hours between wake ups and I do find I go to bed on my own more frequently.
Eating: Cheese, crisps, biscuits, raisins, soil, sand, rocks (lots of fun for me trying to stop this whilst we were at the beach!), crumbs from the floor, the end of felt tip pens and my food = yes. Other food not so much a fan at the moment! She makes it abundantly clear when she’s done too by firstly pushing her plate away and then picking it up to pass to you. And if you don’t respond quickly enough the next thing is tipping it upside down! She is doing fantastically with her cutlery though and blowing her food and drinking lots of water from cups (though she has found out she can put lots in her mouth and then spit it out).
Communication: She’s still not saying too much really. Lots and lots and lots of “Dadddeeeee!!”, a week or so of every animal on holiday being “goggy”, lots of “ggu” for ‘gone’ accompanied by both hands out palm up and possibly some hard to write out sounds for drink and very randomly, maybe fish?! Oh, and roaring and always shouting “Aaaaa!!!” for cat. So, it does mean there’s a fair bit of shrieking and crying at times when I can’t understand what she wants but she’s trying really hard and there are snippets of more conversational babbling.
All things JenkinSunts! 