I have a two year old

Since the 5th of January I've been getting to grips with living with my two year old.

Two years old

The past year has been a complete metamorphosis of my little lad growing from a commando crawling not yet one year old, to a running, football-playing, talking, funny, clever little boy. It's amazing to think that the transformation has only happened over one year, from all-fours crawling on his 1st birthday, finally walking at 14 months, then the words started happening. He's really coming on with his talking- so much that he's developed his own language- a mixed up version of English, French and Spanish which is quite cute. He continues to surprise me and can even count to 10. I am amazed at his intelligence! He's at ease on an aeroplane and was lucky to have several holidays this year. He's usually a fab eater, loves playing with his cars, trains, buses and has discovered the telly and the iPad... He also underwent his first hospital operation- ridding him of his Tongue tie, and most importantly- is soon to be a big brother. (Little bro is due TODAY.)

However, his increased communication has empowered him tremendously and he expects to be right, to be answered to, to be heard in his own way- on his terms. It's tiring to hear his whining or see his throwing things and although I feel as though I'm firm, but fair - it's tough and I often give in to his demands. Or conversely, get angry, shout and distance myself from him! I think we need to get out earlier in the morning when all is still peachy and get him to run off that energy before it turns...

When at home he often plays nicely by himself, but it isn't always the case. I enjoy getting down to play with him of course, but I can't the whole time. I'm tired, don't have as much energy as usual and feel he should be able to play on his own and be independent. If I leave him mini challenges, be it a puzzle, his blocks, or tidying away- he can get on with it very well. I think I need to find more ideas for games and tasks to really fulfill him as he just seems, well bored. I love the Montessori ideology of independent learning to help him help himself but I'm not putting enough effort into it.

If he complains, I try to distract him with a game, or offer to read a book... Shamefully, the main bribery that works recently, are the magic words "Shall we watch Fireman Sam?". I know. But I don't do it often. Usually it's him that asks me - and he's so sweet when he does I can hardly say no... Yesterday we had a telly free day and it was brilliant. I feel we're turning over a new leaf and he accepts when I say no, or switch off the telly after one episode. I feel I'm back in charge once again. Slowly.

He's going to the childminder's once a week again (treat from OH) and loves it. I do too and can get on with stuff without interruptions -as bad as it sounds- but it's beneficial for us both. He plays all day and hangs out with different people. When I pick him up again we're both so happy and play together nicely.

At night, he's recently had trouble sleeping on his own, insisting we "sit down!" while he drops off. If he wakes at night he calls out to us and won't cry himself to sleep as he used to. He's stronger, more resilient and doesn't really cry, more yell "MamiTAAAAA!!". We get up and sit by him and sneak off when he's nodded off again. Then if it's past 6, we just bring him into bed with us.

Oh, I don't mean to ramble and reading back it sounds like he's tough but it's just the hard parts that stick in my mind! He's a great kid, and we have lots of fun. It's lovely to see him playing with his little friends and follow how their relationships grow (while I can kick back with the other mummies) and I love how we can have conversations with him, figure out what he's trying to communicate, yet we still underestimate him. He's very sensitive and I'm eager to see how he'll react to the new arrival.

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Prep for train cake

For his birthday, we enjoyed two mini celebrations: one at playgroup and one at the pub! Check out how easy it is to make a fun train cake:

I followed Stork margarine's Victoria sponge recipe they had at the back of the tub (8oz sugar, 8oz margarine, 8oz flour, 1tsp baking powder, 3eggs, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 180C for 25mins), let the cake cool slightly, cut into four and added jam in the middle. I arranged the carriages on a board and cut bits off to form the 'engine'.

Once it looked kind of train-like I covered it with icing, sweets, animals and painted tracks. Et voila a crazy train cake!

Crazy train cake

Wriggles, parties, eating, sleeping...

My little 7 month old is now wriggling around the living room - not crawling yet - no bum-shuffles, but wriggling on his tummy and he manages to get quite far! It's changed my life to see him playing happily on his own- although I've stopped working for a bit, at least I can get on calmly with other things around the house and don't need to entertain him nonstop!

Since coming back from holiday he's still been wonderful and we've managed to have a few evenings out with him sleeping peacefully in the pram or in an upstairs bedroom. Having a baby also means getting the master bedroom at friends house parties ;) At a party in York my friends fed him, got us drinks and we danced like there was no tomorrow - I think it was easy to 'spot the parent'... Though we had to put a sign on the door telling guests to come and find us if he woke up as the hostess picked him when she heard him crying. He was a very happy chappy.

The one thing that has struck me is how much he's eating! I'm following a book I picked up at the library full of meal plans and ideas from Annabel Karmel and it's been useful - though I'm doing pretty much what I've been doing from the beginning and whizzing together loads of steamed veg, lentils, cheese etc. Leon LOVES food. There's no trouble getting the spoon in his mouth and sometimes I can't keep up. I'm looking forward to him saying "more please mummy" or "MAS!" rather than grunting at me like I'm an idiot.

I was struggling to leave him to drift off to sleep on his own... I'm determined to kick the habit this week and it's going well so far. Last night I didn't pat him to sleep - yay! I just sat in the chair next to his cot and he went off to sleep! Miracle. We even let him cry when he woke up again- and he managed to go back to sleep himself. Amazing...

Formula Won

It's been a week since we've introduced Formula milk to baby Leon.

I bought a big tub of SMA and a few bottles and it's going well so far. I bought the SMA Blue extra hungry tub and a couple of mini 250ml cartons again (great for when you're out for more than 2 hours and he needs a feed - or for my mum to feed him- as it's so easy, just snip and pout into a sterilsed bottle)  - but I have noticed that Leon is not eating the puréed carrots and very much else that I'm trying to give him and he loved it two weeks ago!

He's having 8flz oz + 8spoons of powder in a bottle 4 times a day and still some breastmilk in the morning and afternoon. He's sleeping well - sometimes through the night (8.30pm - 6amish) though when he wakes I'll sometimes feed him myself. 2 day-time naps and lots of play and stimulation - he seems happy, so I'm happy :D

Amazing how quickly we're going through nappies - especially with the new formula milk and carrot purée his poos are a lot more interesting! Will buy another tub of SMA but think that I'll try the yellow one this time which is more similar to breast-milk. Though perhaps I'll stick with the blue heavier milk for evening feeds....?

Sleeping through the night

I an proud to say that last night Léoncito slept from 9pm - 5.30am! Didn't dabble in formula since the first and only time - still exclusively Breastfeeding. The only thing we did differently was that when he woke up at several points through the night, I put in his dummy and patted his tummy and he went back to sleep again. I now realise that when he wakes up at night - it doesn't necessarily mean that he's hungry. Duh!

I slept so well, that this morning I even managed to make hubby scrambled eggs on toast before he went to work! That's been a while.

The trouble with sleeping...

Initially our baby wouldn't sleep in his Moses basket at night so we co-slept for a few weeks which was convenient for feeding, but not great for husband and me. I wouldn't sleep as deeply knowing that he could be squashed by snoring and wriggling hubby and of course we couldn't be very intimate - but in the first month it was a nice feeling to know that we were all there together keeping each other warm. It felt very primal but right. Which is the opposite of what I think we're meant to feel. This article explains the role of evolution in this and how it's actually a preventative measure of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) as it's all to do with babies 'forgetting' how to breathe as they switch between controlled and automated breathing between 2-4 month of age. Having their parents breathe near them reminds them that they need to breathe! Interesting article in any case.

We were pleased to finally get him to sleep in his own basket however, and this was thanks to swaddling! Worked a dream and I got the technique down thanks to a few YouTube videos such as this one. The next challenge is to see if he will sleep well in his cot when we transfer him...