HAPPY BIRTHDAY A2!!!*
*Just a day late as me and Mr.J spent most of your birthday throwing up and asleep. HUMONGOUS thanks to Grandma and Grandad J for looking after you and A1 and making it a fun day nevertheless!
We had already had close family and friends over for a BBQ on Easter Sunday to celebrate A2s birthday and despite it hailing, I think everyone had a good time. There were lots of tears when A1s friends left because they didn’t want to leave.
The astute amongst you may have noticed that this is my first blog in about 3 months – things have been busy but I also needed to sort my WordPress storage out and have finally upgraded! I felt guilty that I hadn’t kept up with A2s updates and as it’s a birthday month I felt even worse.
It’s snowed loads in the last couple of months and it’s been a right pain in the bum. Mr.J went to India for a week and a half; the fridge freezer broke just before he left and I ended up fixing it myself, A2 was poorly whilst he was away and I am not sure how I actually stayed awake some days as I had about 4 days where both kids tag teamed me and I didn’t get more than 2 hours sleep in one go…. and it was snowy when he was flying back and the Woodhead, Snake and M67 were all closed so I was worried Mr.J wouldn’t make it back but thankfully he did! And later that day we went for a fantastic meal and lovely evening with the P-Ms. But more about the birthday girl and picture time!
Movement: Loads has probably changed in 3 months as that’s an 8th of her life so far! She is now very confident at jumping off the sofa arm and into the sofa all by herself, and when she isn’t being lazy and saying “pick me up” or “carry me” she can now come down the stairs standing and holding onto the wall/bannister. When A1 runs down the hill from nursery she runs along holding my hand shouting “me running!” too and she is already loving the cow bouncing hopper she got for her birthday and bouncing about on that lots. She often demonstrates how tall she is now and how she strong she is by reaching up to the door handles and pulling herself up and dangling off them!
Eating: Her appetite and tastes have been really up and down in the last few months. She’s having a phase of eating loads at breakfast in the last few weeks but then not so much at other meals. She loves, loves, loves cheese and if I’m not watching her carefully enough she will nick blocks of cheese from the worktop and just eat it in chunks! She’s started to enjoy a babycino and marshmallows (A1 loves them still) and she’ll often have a lot of fun eating with her hands still, even though she is perfectly capable of using cutlery. She still eats crayons, playdoh and puts tiny Lego pieces in her mouth too and it’s often very difficult (impossible!) to get her to sit down and eat 
Sleeping: So I mentioned earlier that I was really struggling sleep-wise whilst Mr.J was away. A2, bless her, had a horrid horrid cough that kept waking her up and in the few longer stints she did A1 managed to wake up so there were a couple of days when I didn’t get 2 hours solid sleep and I honestly don’t think I’ve felt that exhausted for a long, long time. Things did settle down again once Mr.J was back and could sort A1 out and once A2 finally got rid of the cough but after we went for a meal out and Aunty W did bedtime that night I started doing bedtime without feeding A2. It was really hard as she was asking for milk a lot but I just kept explaining and she eventually fell asleep. This made no different to the usually short first stint of sleeping and a few nights later I felt as though she had been feeding all night and I just decided I had really had enough and I told her that there was no more milk. There was a lot of screaming and tears and not a lot of sleep that night. But I explained the next day that milk was broken and she seemed to understand, though obviously at her wake ups that went out of the window. On the 3rd night she was much calmer when she woke up and also sought comfort from Mr.J (!) and the next night it was even better. And that’s how I ended up night weaning rather without much planning or discussion with Mr.J. I felt so, so, so guilty as she kept saying “me (re)member; milk broken” at bedtime but I think it has been for the best for everyone. Her (and our) sleep has improved as we now have one or two wake ups and Mr.J is able to help and that means more fun in the day as I’m not absolutely shattered and grumpy. She starts off in her own bed but does come into our bed at the first wake up still.
Oh, and she became very attached to a spade for a few days and refused to let go of it so she went to sleep with a spade! And when Mr.J was away and A1 didn’t want to settle, he came into her bed and they fell asleep together ❤
Teeth: She’s got all 4 canines now, and has for a while and she’s also got the top two back molars coming through. She keeps chewing her hands and saying “teeth hurting”.
Playing: She is A1’s sidekick, Robin, a lot – “me Bobin!!’ but I don’t think she really does much in that role. We have been playing with the toy kitchen and toy food a lot recently and the till so her new presents of a trolley and a basket of food can add to our retail role play experience. She likes to wear her baby in the sling, put babies and herself in her toy pram. She really, really loves colouring and painting too and sticking (we made some housewarming art for Aunty C) and hoovering and for some weird reason (it must be a schema), getting all the plastic tubs out of the cupboard and lining them up. She enjoys dressing up and I’m not sure if it’s a ‘play’ thing but she loves wearing shoes and wellies and often won’t let you take them off or will go and put them on at inappropriate times. Nursery said they had tried to take her wellies off for nap time one day but she screamed so much she woke several children so they left them on and she slept with them on! We’ve also been watching a few films together recently and she loved Finding Dory – our big but cosy chair in the study is a great place for me and the kids to snuggle up.
Communication: At one point I was quite worried about her lack of communication but I really didn’t need to be!! Tonight at bedtime she said “Me lie down Mummy’s (belly) button. Lie down my back” as she tried to put her head on my tummy. She repeated the same phrase over and over and over again a couple of weeks ago as someone had hit her at nursery (I think they’d touched her ear!) “E hit me. E sorry me” and when A1 tried to have a go on her new cop hopper yesterday she shouted “THAT MINE A1!!” very forcefully. When she jumps onto the sofa, if you’re sat in her way she says “watch out Mummy”.
She sings some of the words to lots of nursery rhymes and got a lot of ‘Ah’s’ at playgroup the other week when I was leading the singing and she requested “Wind bobbin”. I know I’m biased but she has a really cute, sing song voice at times, especially when she sings “Hello X/Y/Z. How are you?” as she manages to get more of the tune in that one.
After painting on the table a lot, I said “Don’t worry” which she repeated and it made me think of the song “Don’t worry, be happy” so I played that and she has started saying that now. And when we listen to ‘Everything is Awesome!’ she shouts “TEAM!!” in anticipation of the 2nd line.
As for A1, he’s become obsessed with Lego, Batman and Lego Batman! He often goes out in his batman fancy dress clothes, which can lead to a few (odd) glances but I’m so used to it that it doesn’t phase me at all to take Batman on a walk or out shopping. He probably enjoyed the snow the most out of all of us, he loved digging it up! He does enjoy a good walk though – I was super impressed when he walked all the way up the hill to the windmills last week. If he’s in the right mood he loves to write and learn to read and he made a fantastic picture for Aunty C – I did help him but he was the artistic director. He also thinks the name Donald Trump is hilarious and laughs every time he hears it, and he also finds it really funny when Mr.J pretends to be like Saucepan Man from The Faraway Tree and mishear things.
All things JenkinSunts! 