Mummy is away

Clare went to England on Tuesday morning with Rosa, and Isaac and I are joining them tomorrow (friday). It's the first time he seemed to really pay attention to the fact that they are not here. He's been much less active in the morning when we get up - usually he would be off playing with his trains, whereas he is more happy to lie next to me in bed as though he is a bit sad because Clare is not here. It is a lot quieter without Rosa squawking the whole time.

Last night I put him to bed a bit later as he never goes to sleep on time, probably around 8.30. I heard a noise at some point, and after I'd spoken to Clare I went upstairs to check on him. He wasn't in bed, and there was no noise! It was a bit freaky as usually when he is not in bed in the evening it's obvious where he is because you can hear the noise of him pushing his train around. I checked in the bathroom, then went into our bedroom, where I found him sleeping. He was on top of the duvet on Clare's side of the bed sucking his thumb. :-)

A sentence

"I don't want to say 'Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye' really fast any more Daddy."

Said Isaac when he was supposed to be eating his dinner. It doesn't make much sense, but not a bad sentence for a kid of 2 yrs 3 months.

Books

Isaac loves them, always has. He sits there patiently sucking his thumb, playing with his ear while he is read to.

Rosa on the other hand has no time for it. If she can't eat the book, or destroy it, she is off to seek other prey.

Thursday

I have a headache, must be something to do with a hectic day - half preparing a MyPhone workshop, and half racing around Haarlem looking at houses with loud grumpy kids. Isaac and Rosa are now up stairs with Clare for their bath while I finish my work (better make this short). Isaac unfortunately commented on his way up stairs "I'm not going in the bath I'm afraid Mummy".

Maybe John Lennon rather than Jonny Rotten?

My 2 yr old Jonny Rotten

We had a great weekend with Leigh, Rich and Ella (Ikey's girlfriend, sort of).

On Saturday we went over to theirs for a BBQ. We had triple chocolate ice-cream for pudding - which Isaac and Ella also had. NOT a good idea. Too much sugar that close to bed time.

Although afterwards, Isaac and Ella got on little stools that kids use for going to the loo and starting basically free-styling an improvised medley of songs / nursery rhymes / general observations to a sort of spasmodic alternative crazy body popping dance. Isaac added some sort of general spitting, growling weirdness to it all just to top off the 'possessed by Satan' feel for the event. I was in stitches with Clare and Leigh, whilst Rich was looking a bit shocked when he commented 'I'm not sure if its cute'. I have some nutty photos to go with this - will upload later...

I think...

Isaac at breakfast: "I think Rosa is cute, and Daddy is big and Mummy is tiny."

ER

As a cunning follow-up to a headlong backwards dive onto a hard tile edge, yesterday at creche Isaac decided to run over his own finger whilst driving a plastic car around. It was the kind of car you sit in, so he had his whole weight + the car squashing his titchy little digit . The nail has gone black already!!!

I said to him this morning that he was hurting himself all over the place, to which he replied "I'm not hurting myself all over the place any more Daddy." Hmmm, we'll see.

Head glue

Isaac decided to jump in the shower yesterday, and slipped - causing him to fall back and smack his head on the edge of a very hard sharp tile on the bathroom floor. His head split into a mouth shaped cut so Clare took him to the doc - who literally glued it back together! He went to creche, but we had to bring him home at 11 because he was clearly concussed - very drowsy.

Last night we were told to wake him up every 2 hrs to check on him - which by a cruel twist of fate just happened to be the first night EVER that Rosa slept ALL THE WAY through the night. Not that we got a full night sleep of course - no, up every 2 hrs weren't we!

Poor Ikey, he keeps saying 'You hurt your head Daddy, I think i want some medicine'. His grammar is not quite perfected yet...

A rather delightful picture of my beautiful daughter.

Isaac quotes

"There's only one Daddy" - repeated multiple times over a period of weeks, football chant style.

"Banana pie...pfffffththhhhhhh" - ordering dinner over the plastic telephone.

"I think I don't like something" - having zinc cream put on his bum during nappy change.

"1,2,3,4.....fiiiiiiiiiive" - no matter how many there are, it always come's to five after the count.

How many

Isaac quote: "How many brokens you got Mummy?"

Potty training

Isaac is officially a genius. I think I'll send off for the MENSA forms now. Yesterday Clare and I briefly discussed the fact that we should really start potty training him, up till now we've done almost nothing and he's 2 and a bit. Suddenly this morning, he came running over to Clare shouting 'Mummy wee wee!!!'. He then went and started dragging out the potty from under his table and Clare helped him do a wee in the potty. 'Training' complete!

Isaac comedy

We took Isaac and Rosa swimming today, after looking at Zacharias Jansestraat - I wonder if we'll have bought that house the next time I read this. I think probably not.

Isaac was really funny at the pool, he was looking at another kid (probably about 5yrs) and walked along looking in the other direction. He then walked straight into a large bin. Clare laughed, and Isaac walked over towards us grinning going UH-OOOOH. It was funny as hell.

Then at lunch, Isaac was naughty and kept standing up in his high chair. So I sprung out of my chair to run round the table and strap him in, only to trip up quite slap-stick style over the swimming bag. Clare managed to spit some pizza over the table she was laughing so much.

zonked out!

Ikey has missed his daytime sleep 3 days in a row. Yesterday he seemed to be coping ok after 2 visits to the park is beautiful hot springtime weather. He sat down to watch a bit of Thomas while I was cooking his dinner and when I looked in to the sitting room to check on him, he was snoozing in a crumpled heap on a cushion - aaah bless!!

Rosa is developing at a scary rate at the moment - she immediately rolls on to her tummy when we put her on the mat now, and she gradually migrates across it by pulling up her legs under her. She can push up really well on her arms now too, and sits quite straight, though with no balance at all! she loves watching and laughing at Ike, who gives her toys and says 'there you go Rosa'! She is finally taking a bottlw quite well now too so I have dropped the dinnertime feed. She ate carrots for lunch, without much enthusiasm!

New lens

I told Isaac to tell Clare that I was going to buy a new lens for my camera. He refused and then retorted "Nee nee nee nee nee nee nee niet doen". Huh, charming.

what a sensible chap. he is changing as fast as ever. he said the other day 'lkey get out of the highchair and go and play with digger'. seems quite a long sentence for a 21 month old! his memory is getting better too (or he is able to show us that it is anyway). we were at the kinderkookcafe the other day with Julia (30 wks pregnant) and Joop, and ike took his lego motorbike. we couldn't find it when we went to leave, so we looked around everywhere and ask ikey repeatedly where it was. eventually he ran out into the garden and across to a bike that he had been trying to get on to - and produced the lego motorbike from behind it!

oh yes, and he keeps saying 'uncle james is a bit lazy' - wonder who taught him that! he also said for ages 'uncle dave did a smelly fart'. we have been trying to scramble this one with other things that 'uncle dave did' as he is a pageboy at Uncle Dave's wedding in a couple of months and we dont want him to be proclaiming about farts as he walks down the aisle....

poor little rosa - doesn't get much of a mention does she. well she is talking too - and squawking! and she is very busy teething poor thing :(

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Breakfast

Was delicious this morning - Clare made fritters (like american pancakes) with banana, fruit and greek yoghurt. OMG lekker.

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That monkey na eatin sosig

That's Isaac's version of a moneky eating sausage when we read the 8 silly monkey book. "No Bob de bouwer, no noddy" is what we say a lot, and he repeats it back. He's really into his telly now, which we have to limit. At weekends I get up and let Clare have a lie-in, I tend to do stuff on my laptop and gradually wake up with a cuppa t, while Isaac ingests, Tweenies, Balamory, Teletubbies and this morning even Batman!

Rosa is getting really interactive and giggly. She grabs things quite well now, and holds her hands together. She can also see quite a long way - smiling at Clare from at least 10 feet away. We went to Leigh and Richard's for dinner yesterday which was really nice. Rosa was sitting on Richard's lap doing some kind of chest flex exercise, she is SO strong!

Today were going swimming, we havent used the car for about a month so hope it starts...

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Ike and Daddy

Clare and Rosa are in UK for the weekend, so it's me and Isaac for the weekend (Thursday till Sunday night). Yesterday we went exploring in the park in the morning, and then Dave and Marvin came over in the afternoon. They even brought pressies for the kids! Ike got an Elmo (from Sesame street) which he seems pretty pleased with.

Now he is annoyed, I think the train set broke or something, better go...

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Rosa at 8 weeks

Rosa's first blog post, and it's not going to be a long one. Poor Rosa. MWUAH Rosa, or even MWURosa!

She is really starting to look lovely now, more and more awake and alert - and demanding attention. She makes funny noises like she is breathing in while squawking when something surprises her.

She also tracks things quite well now with her eyes, and grabs hold of rings / toys attached to her baby gym. She giggled once the other day, and smiles and coos a lot when we talk to her. Happy days innit. She can almost hold something approaching a crawl position as well - very strong head and neck!

In terms of general behaviour, she is very good at sleeping in the evening now. She goes down at around 7pm and doesn't usually wake up till around 2 or 3 for food - but sometimes has bad nights, not often recently though.

She's lovely and chubby, and today she blew her first bubble. Well done Dosa!

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