Smiling boy

Edward is in a really cute phase at the moment, and it's one that I'd sort of forgotten about; he can be so smiley and is starting to coo and make happy sounds. I remember Leila being able to smile, but what I don't remember are the nice, happy sounds that Edward is making and the joy on his face when he suddenly cracks a smile.

When he smiles, we say that he is 'Cheeky' and this causes much glee in Leila. The sounds that he is making sometimes sound like a little laugh or giggle, but I'm sure this isn't quite the case yet.

It's not like this all the time though.  Two days ago Edward had a really fussy day as he was fussy eating at every feed. Today he had a reflux day and was quite sicky a number of times as well as doing his high-pitched cry. He missed a final nap, but we managed to get through to bathtime - just!

Edward at 2 months

I'm going to end up starting every one of these posts by saying; "I can't believe he's X month already", but I really can't.  I know I shouldn't compare, but Edward is now at the same age that Leila was at Christmas 2012 and it's reassuring in a way to think about some of the challenges we had with her, and to think that it's 'OK' to still be facing these challenges with Edward.

Edward is getting in to a few patterns with his feeding and sleeping. He tends to have a long morning sleep in the sling (pushing 3.5 hours at times), but then the afternoons are a lot more difficult and changeable still.  He will only take short sleeps in the sling and will feed a lot more frequently. Some afternoons we have struggled to get a final nap in for him and this makes dinner a real challenge. These last two weeks though we have fallen out of our routine a little and he'll do a few naps a day of 2-hours, rather than long and then short.

Edward is tending to keep more of his feeds down, but he still has his 'sicky' days. He also has times when he has reflux or wind and then is in a lot of discomfort crying.  We just try to keep him as upright as possible for as much of the day as possible. This involves a lot of the sling and the 'shoulder burp'. I am using the bouncer more as somewhere to pop him down for a few minutes, as at least this is slanted rather than flat.  All this does mean though that he gets very little time on his mat and hardly any tummy time.

I've been on my diary-free diet for over a month now, but we only recently realised that I haven't actually been completely dairy-free as the sunflower spread I've been eating has butter in it! Doh! We've not had the return of any blood in his poops, but apart from that there hasn't been any notable improvement in the mucous in his poop. We'll wait another month and then review with the doc. Maybe I will give up soy too, or maybe we'll try something else.

Edward is getting a lot stronger.  He can roll onto his side from his back (and I must remember this whenever I put him down) and his neck is getting really strong. He likes to put pressure on his legs when we hold him on our laps and he (and Leila) likes it when Scott sings the action song he made up; 'clap your hand and stamp your feet'. Edward is starting to reach out to objects now too and yesterday managed to grab the rings on Captain Calamari (total fluke I'm sure).

What is really lovely is that this month Edward has given us his first smiles. His first big smiles were for daddy, and I managed to capture them on camera the next day (by saying "Smile. Pretend I'm Daddy". He likes funny faces, Lamaze toys and bathtime in the big bath. When he smiles we say that he is being 'cheeky' and this makes him smile more; it also makes Leila start jabbering on about "Od-od, cheeky!" which is also pretty funny and cute.

Nights have not been great this month.  Our bedtime routine works well for Leila, but Edward tends to take an age to really settled into his sleep and as such I either find myself feeding him to sleep until 8pm maybe, or falling asleep myself only to surface once Scott has gone to bed. On the nights that he does go down pretty well, I then tend to find myself needing to go back up to him once or twice before bed to resettled.  Basically he just wants to suckle and whilst he's sleeping in our bed with me I'm struggling to change his sleep patterns. We're hoping that we're going to get a cot from a friend very soon, and my plan is to transition Edward into the cot and skip the moses basket as he didn't settle well in there and now I don't have the energy to try and settle him there at night and he's getting a bit big for it anyway. Hopefully we'll have something more positive to report next month regarding nighttime sleeping!

Birthday girl

Looking grown up with her hairband from Aunty Fabs and onezie from Granny.

Flying visit

We were all treated to a visit from Granny this weekend. Within an hour of her flight landing she was here reading with Leila - this must be some kind of record!!

Good day, bad day

So after having a spate of bad nights, things seem to have shifted to daytime.

Edward has always taken a while to go down at night but it seems like the last fortnight have been particularly bad. Either he takes forever to settle and by the time he's properly asleep and I get downstairs Scott is ready for bed. Or he settles soon after our 7.30 target but then needs constant resettling throughout the evening.  Or I'm so tired at the end of the day that I fall asleep with him and wake up ehen Scott has gone or is about to go to bed. I'm sure part of this is my own doing what with co-sleeping and feeding Edward to sleep, but we both got a cold recently so he's been pretty snuffly on his front.

During this time though we've had generally good daytimes, with a long morning nap and then shorter naps/feefing in the afternoon (I've given up trying to get their naps to coincide!)

But then it was all change! Edward finally had a good evening (so good that we actually watched 30 minutes of telly!) And then the daytime started to fall apart. With no playgroup this week I've been winging it rather and today was another improv morning.

We're bout to head out to the mall to get Edwards passport photo printed and buy a birthday present for a party on Saturday when...Edward was sick all over me and sling (just as I'd managed to convince Leila to get her shoes on of course). Sling and clothes in the wash (Leila climbing inyo buggy already) then can't het him comfy in the Ergo sling so swap to the Baba sling. Out of the door but then to negotiate the steps off the terrace with Leila,  buggy, rubbish and recycling! At the mall we manage to get our jobs done but Edward is really unsettled and so does not sleep well. Thank goodness we manage to get a cab despite the rain when we leave.

Oh well you can't have everything I guess!

Leila turns two

We can't believe where the time has gone - our little girl is turning two!

She is so grown up and can do so many amazing things.

Leila is constantly trying to say new words and is picking up new words every day. She uses her language to tell us about what she has been doing and loves recounting tails ("Tyre - bang - ouch - waaa  mummy - cuddle - better") her memory is amazing.

She is using her language to sing songs and can sing parts of nursery rhymes as well as her favourite other songs (she is currently in her Agadoo phase). She does the little actions to her rhymes too which is so cute to see (although she rarely does these when we are singing them with other people at play group!)

She has learnt the numbers up to ten and can say them as well as recognizing the figures.  She can count objects with some help.  She knows her colours and in the last four days has learnt her shapes.

Leila loves to run ("fast!") and is good at climbing and jumping. She has a few tumbles every now and then, but on the whole will dust herself off and only whinge a little. We use the buggy every time we go out as the main road is a bit too busy, but most trips start off with Leila walking down our road.

Leila still enjoys her music and books, but she likes to paint, colour and draw as well as use stickers and glue. Leila enjoys dancing to her music and is slightly obsessed with Agadoo and Hokey Cokey at the moment. She knows all of the moves!

Leila has shown real love for Edward since he arrived in her life two months ago.  She was really mature when he was in the hospital and since coming home she shows that she cares for him. She always wants to 'see' what he is doing, or for him to see what she is doing!  She loves to help with his nappy and suit and to give him a cuddle.

Leila likes to wear dresses, but also likes to wear jeans.  She has recently realised that she can take her trousers and nappy off herself and is using the potty sometimes for her wee wees (and three poos!).

Leila generally eats well, but things can be hit and miss at times and she just gets down from the table once she is done eating there.  We then let her sit on our lap or eat at her table whilst playing later on. Favourite foods include cheese, peas, pasta and bread.

Leila at Two Years!

Two years ago today.... wow!
We ever thought we'd get to this point, but we have done and we have a beautiful, clever and funny little girl that make our lives complete.

Leila is really physical and can run, jump and climb. She enjoys walking to the end of the road (after which we tend to put her in the buggy as the road is busy and the next bit of the walk anywhere can take a while). She can help us getting dressed and undressed, but often gets frustrated at this.

Her language and communication continue to astound us. She is picking  up more and more each day and it's not just words, but understanding and application too. She now knows her numbers 1-10 easily, to 14 well and to 20 at a push. These higher numbers we haven't taught her, but she has picked up from her game on the jobby that we let her play. We got a new book recently about shapes and she now can identify common shapes (and some less common ones such as semi-circle). What is amazing is that she can identify them herself when we are out and about (for example she noticed that the window on the door at playgroup was 'diamond' shaped), not just when we are pointing at them in a book.

Leila is really using her imagination now. She likes to pretend play with her toys (this mainly involves them being babies and having their nappies changed, having boob, being burped, being sick) and for her birthday we bought her the Ikea kitchen set and she loves cooking, making us coffee and washing up! One interesting use of imagination was last week when she started that her slice of cheese looked like a giraffe! It kind of did, so she was right :-)

We're so happy that Leila still enjoys music, dancing, reading and singing. She can do the actions to most of the B&R rhymes and some of the words too ("sick, sick, sick" etc) and she recently learnt the dance to Agadoo!  We have a great laugh when all four of us do the Hocky Cokey together and she always has a book before bedtime :-)

Leila is really caring for Edward and we're glad that she is a cuddly little girl. She used to always run for mummy when something went wrong, but now she is happy to be comforted by daddy too. She doesn't seem to have too much jealousy for Edward, but rather wants to be involved in everything he does (she wants to 'see' every nappy change and poo!)

Leila can get really upset when things don't go her way or she cannot get something that she wants e.g. playing a game on the jobby or having a snack. These crying spates are worse when she is tired of course. She tends to be pretty good about getting hurt and can be calmed down by a quick distraction, gentle rub and blow and the promise of some ouch cream (sudocrem) or a plaster.

Health-wise it's amazing to think back to her troubled start in El Nada. She is a generally healthy little girl, with just the usual scrapes, bruises and colds that every toddler has.

Not quite to plan...

It's Leila's birthday today and when we told her that it was her birthday she immediately recalled Sofia's birthday and said "party - cake" We'd not organised either for today but luckily I had some ripe bananas so after breakfast we made banana bread/cake together.

Then it was time to leave the house to go to playgroup at InSPE (another school in the neighbourhood). When we'd got there though we found out that it wasn't on because they were on half term (Scott's half term is next week)! Leila got quite upset as I'd obviously been talking about it all morning!! Our taxi had left already so we had to call another one to collect us and I had to think on my feet about what to do with a birthday girl (and no buggy!).

We got a cab to the new indoor play area we'd seen advertised as I thought this would be a nice treat, but then realised that we had a half-hour wait until opening! I took the two of them into a near-by garden centre to pass the time looking at flowers, but we ended up passing the time on their garden furniture as Edward needed feeding!!

Finally we got into the play area and Leila could enjoy herself.  And that she did!  There was a soft play area with a floor keyboard and a roundabout and there was a large trampoline that the staff let her on (even though she was technically about 15cm too short!). We had some fun playing dress-up, doing colouring in and playing in the ball pit too.  After a while Leila asked for a snack and so we went over to get a drink. I ordered a coffee for me and an orange juice for her. Hers was in a glass bottle though so I asked for a glass to decant it into.  

Here is where the morning went wrong for a third time, as they decanted the whole bottle into a (glass) glass which she promptly spilt all over herself! Luckily Leila wasn't that upset by it and kept drinking the last few dregs from the glass.  Edward however had chosen this moment to wake up (again!), cry hysterically and do an explosive poo in his nappy. Great. It took a little while, but I did manage to feed Edward, get him changed, get Leila into clean clothes (the change bag is near bursting these days with two sizes of nappy and changes of clothes!) and then get us all out and in the taxi home for lunch.

The afternoon went a little better as we managed a quick Skype with Fabs (in a car park!) and then a longer Skype with Nanny and Granddad during which Leila could open her presents. After dinner we gave Leila her present from us; the play kitchen from Ikea.  Our plan had been for her to help us make it (as she loves helping with the allen key on other projects), but one look at the instructions said that this was not going to happen! Scott ended up making it himself which I tried to keep Edward happy and Leila out of his way (this was easy as she had so many other new presents to play with).

Both in bed now. Kitchen made. Bubbly open. Did we ever imagine this would be the scene two years ago?

Grandpa!

Leila's latest antics

This isn't the greatest of photos, but it captures two of Leila's latest antics: not wearing a nappy and dancing to the hokey cokey.

Leila's hokey cokey obsession started by watching Black Lace on Scott's phone, but now that we have put the songs onto her 'music box' we can listen to them all day (great! not). She's getting really good at the dance and the words and has started singing and dancing to it herself at bedtime even.

Leila's 'no nappy' antics started a few days ago when she raelised she could take off her trousers by herself and then found that she could pull the tabs on her nappy and take it off too!  At first it seemed that she wanted to be cheeky, but now she does it because she wants to try and do a wee wee in the potty.  Yesterday we spent the morning at home and she took her nappy off soon after breakfast and didn't put it on again until lunch time (you must wear a nappy at the table is where we draw the line). And she then started to potty train herself.  The result?  Leila's wee wee 5 : Accidents 0

Today she went one further and did two separate poos in the potty as well as her wee wees.

What is actually happening in this photo is that Leila has just done a poo on the potty and so has been given a 'special wipe' to wipe herself with as a reward (!) and she is singing and dancing along to the hokey cokey but has changed the words to "put your wipe in" etc.

Cake!

We've been making cakes recently but as the first cake Leila made was for Fabia's birthday,  she always associates Fabs with cake.

Five Nil

It's 'Five Nil' to Leila in potty training today.

We decided to take things easy and stay at home this morning and so Leila decided to potty train herself!

She just took off her trousers, took off her nappy and spent the morning with her bare bottom out!!

She must have a very small bladder to get so many wees in such a short period of time, but she has enjoyed saying "wee wee" and running to the potty I think.

We had no poo this morning, but when Scott got home from work she asked to have her nappy on so that she could do a poo (EDIT a few days later she did a poo on the potty!)

Reasons we are proud parents of Leila this week

This was going to be a list of five, as that's a nice round number, but I started the list and got to seven so easily that i thought I couldn't cut two out! They are in no particular order :-)

Counting skills
Leila has been pacticing her numbers for a while now, in fact ever since we got a few second-hand books from Phil and Liz (Grasslands and Spot's big picture book). Now though she not only recognises the nine digits (and number 10), but she can count up to ten and we have even found her counting up to fifteen on the stairs (as there are more than ten stairs, so she keeps going!).
A lot of the time she counts "one, two, three, ten!" for fun, and I'm sure she has no real concept of what the numbers mean at the moment, but we are getting there.  For example she can count the number of buses at the bus stop.

Wee wee in the potty
Leila has done three wee wees in the potty this week (and only one wee wee on the floor).  She has figured out how to take her own trousers and nappy off and always does this with a cheeky grin on her face, but we let her as we're happy to go with what she wants to do regarding potty training - we're not going to force it.  She likes to take her nappy off to tell us she has done a wee wee, but in the afternoon she likes to keep it off and then will go to the potty every now and then.  Often she goes just to 'trump' on the potty, but we have found that she has done three wee wees all by herself.  The only thing is that she is so proud of her wee wee that we need to rush over quickly before she picks the potty up and whirls it round with her enthusiasm!

Language
Leila's language is just coming on in leaps and bounds at the moment. She makes a real effort to try new words after we say them.  Today I said that she could have extra snack for the "journey" and she then started saying "turn-ney". She is stringing words together and we can really understand what she is saying "Josh - house - cake" or "Odod - poo - see"
The other aspect of her communication that is also amazing to see is how she loves to repeat little stories about what she has been doing. These stories are repeated more often if they involve crying it seems (Leila - waa - no - ouch....yes, Leila was crying because we told her not to sit like that on the chair or she'll get an ouch... is the translation)

Make believe play
When the mood strikes her Leila can really do a lot of make believe play.  Most of it though involves her toys doing poos! She especially likes to 'wipe' her toys, then put their nappies on, put them to bed, wake them up etc.  She also will take them on the bus in the buggy, or will cook things with her food and pans from Ikea.  It's fun and very sweet to watch.
One aspect of this is the copying of what she has seen us do and shows us what she picks up on.  As well as doing poos and needing wipes and nappies, her toys often need 'boob' and she will lift her t-shirt up! When she wants a bit of attention she will come to us and ask to be burped and then she will pretend to be sick on us - nice!

Her love of Black Lace
At one of the playgroups we go to ("tick tock" after the song we sang the first week we went there), we did the Hokey Cokey and Leila has been asking us to do this with her ever since.  Then last week Scott got the mp3 fo Black Lace's cover version playing and she has become addicted!  She loves it!  She would listen to it (and watch youtube videos of it) all day if we let her.  I'm sure it's in part to do with the gadget she listens on it to, but part is her love of the song as we find her doing the actions in the buggy and singing it to herself at home.  She knows how to Hokey Cokey, that she needs to turn around, that she 'wooaaah' at the right bit etc.
Youtube has a playlist function though, and this has led Leila to discover "Agadoo" too. We have taught her the dance.  She loves it and it's hilarious!

Helping mum with Edward
Leila is getting more and more interested in helping with Edward.  She has always loved saying "hi" to him (in a loud voice, inches from his face of course), but now she enjoys helping me change his nappy (mainly because she is fascinated by poppers and by poo at the moment) and gets me things that he needs, like muslins or a new suit. This evening she gave him a really nice kiss and a cuddle just before bed.  She's a great big sister and we're so proud of her.

Just when you though it was safe....

We were sort of getting in to a routine with things these last two weeks, but then again, maybe not.

There were quite a few nights this month when Edward has had a good sleep for the first part of the night and has slept until gone midnight.  It then follows that he wakes one more time before getting up for the morning. But more recently we have been back to newborn three- hour bursts of sleep (or rather, three-hour bursts between feeds as each feed/burp/resettle takes about an hour).

Our morning routine has been to get up for breakfast at 7am when Leila wakes, but then Edward will wake either just before or just after Scott leaves for work at 7.30am He'll then have a bit of a wash and change of clothes and a feed before resettling into the sling for a long morning nap.  If things go our way, then this nap in the sling can go all morning until lunch time! He's very content in there and it's great for getting out and about with Leila.  This week though things have been variable and he's sometimes up when Leila is so needs another small nap and feed before his longer nap.  And then this longer nap hasn't been so long!

Bedtimes have been a bit variable too. I feed him to sleep on the bed but last week I ended up falling asleep before he did and then waking up hours later! Ooops! Some nights he settles well. Other nights it takes ages. Other nights still he needs resettling a number of times until I give up trying to spend time with Scott and just go to bed with Edward.

Scott is still sleeping in the spare room as Leila needs tucking in a number of times in the night (she kicks off her duvet and can't figure out how to get it back on her yet). At least Leila seems to be over her cold (which had been causing her to wake numerous times in the night), but she still wakes in the early hours and needs 'Shhh-ing' to resettle until it is a reasonable hour to get up (reasonable is 6am, but she can often get to 6.30am if we're lucky).

We know it's too early to try for a routine or pattern in life, but it'd be nice to just have some idea of what the next hour is going to bring!

Wakey wakey, little man!

This week for the first time I have felt Edward is moving on from being just a 'newborn' to a 'baby'.

I think this in part has been because at our Doc appointment we found out that he has been gaining weight well and is now nearly 5.5kg!  When you look at him he is really filling out and looking bigger than when he was born.  It means he has put on 1.5kg since coming home (although the amount he continues to spit up still amazes me) and means that he is not far off size 3 nappies or of no longer needing the newborn insert for the Ergo sling (not that we have used the Ergo much with him).

He is getting stronger and stronger in his legs and his head and neck muscles are really developing too. He's got a good grip on him and can take the strain when you pull him up.

What I really noticed this week though was that he has definite periods of 'awake' time.  It is no longer sleep/feed/burp/change/sleep but he has added 'awake' to his repertoire. He still is not a fan of being left alone and pretty much has contact physical contact (lovely, but very tiring!), but he has started to be awake and content with just sitting and taking the world in.

Sleep monsters!

Sleep monsters!

A social and sicky weekend

We've had a busy social weekend which has been a real treat, but also meant we've not had so much time to catch up on things ourselves.

On Friday one of Scott's new colleagues came round with her husband for a drink once Leila and Edward were in bed.  It was nice to have some adult conversation (and wine!) again and we shared our favourite music tracks whilst we chatted.

Saturday was a big day for Scott and Leila as it was their first marathon!  They took part in the Bucharest Marathon 'stroller race' which was the last 800m of the official course.  We met some friends there who were also taking part and it was good to do something very different for a change.  It was also good to get out in Bucharest and really feel like we can do things in this new city.  The marathon area was right outside the Presidential Palace and it was cool to see the building up close for the first time. The race was a little later than we thought and so we ended up with Leila falling asleep on me in the taxi on the way home.  It was nice to have my two babies asleep on me (although it was a little hot!) and a really lovely day out.

Boosted by that experience we realised that we should really take advantage of being able to get out and about in the city in the mornings when Edward tends to sleep well in the sling. On Sunday we headed into town again, this time to watch the marathon as it went through the town.  We got there using the bus and then the Metro (our first time) and it was quite straightforward really.  What was nice about our walk today was that we started to recognise parts of the city and piece them together.  We bumped into some colleagues there again and Leila had a play in the park with them.  In the afternoon we saw them again as we went around for a play date.  It's nice to be forming some friendships with people that we get on with and who have kids Leila's age to play with too.

The sicky part of the weekend was Edward.  He seemed to be getting better with keeping his feeds down, but this weekend was quite sicky again. It's hard to tell if there's a pattern, but on Friday I didn't think properly about lunch and so ended up eating a bowl of (cream of) tomato soup and so we wonder if there is a connection between him being sicky and me having milk in my diet. It's hard to be sure, but we see the Doc on Tuesday and so hopefully will find out more then.