Happy Father’s Day

I’m one of the lucky ones who’s partners is a truly wonderful dad.  As a child I remember wanting a particular type of dad for my children, a man who’d cuddle them, be very soft and loving and that’s exactly who Tim is.  I lay in bed yesterday with a thumping headache listening to Tim as he was trying to negotiate with Marley to go to the toilet, put his clothes on and eat his food.  The tantrums and tears that were going on from our over tired boy would be enough to push a saint over the edge to at least snap at him but no.  Tim remained calm, gentle and just kept going until the necessary jobs were done and Marley was in bed.  Tim wasn’t feeling particularly well either and I just have to shake my head at his beautifully gentle nature.  It’s all of this that I love in Marley too.  My husband is innately nurturing and loving and is a better father than I could have hoped for.  Marley will never truly appreciate how lucky he is because he’ll never know any different.  Watching Tim with Marley can bring tears to my eyes and makes me fall deeper and deeper in love with a man I thought I couldn’t possibly love any more.

Happy Father’s day Buddy
XXX

Motherhood 2 yrs & 11 mths on!

This post has been late coming because I’ve been hit with one of those nasty viruses and haven’t been able to get my eyes to focus on typing for any length of time. 

Marley’s imaginative play has really taken off.  He puts on voices for characters and has us talking to inanimate objects about how their days have been.  He has a song for every occasion and it usually follows the tune of twinkle twinkle little star, if not, it’s something he’s made up and completely commits to.  He’s affectionate giving the most beautiful cuddles and kisses and telling me everyday ‘it’s nice to see you Mumma, I love you’.  He’s able to relay stories to us now.  If I asked what happened at creche he’ll concoct a series of words that hint toward who he’s seen and some of the activites he’s been involved in.  He answers questions and can be understood on the telephone now too. 

Marley’s memory is brilliant and always astounds me.  He remembers people and places and has real opinions about things now, not just what he’d like to eat or drink but what he wants to wear and do.  This morning while lying in bed Tim and I were discussing what we’d do today, ‘Marley what would you like to do today?’, ‘Go to the park’.  Oh, well, you can’t argue with that!  He has developed some sympathy and understanding of emotional states, sad, happy, angry, plus tired, hungry and sick.  While I’ve been sick he’s been coming to me saying ‘Oh Mumma’s sick’ with a sad look on his little face.  His favourite toys right now include a Dr’s kit, Mr Potato head, Barrel of monkeys, his white board and textas, Woody, his guitar and a car carrier truck his aunty Kath and uncle Jon gave him. 

He likes to play trains with his Dadda, likes to involve either one of us in his play. ("Come on Dadda, Come on Mumma") As I write this he is currently working on a toy sculpture of musical instruments he’s brought out like a soldier ant from his room one at a time to lay on another favourite toy, his black shower curtain on the kitchen floor rather than play with them alone in his room.  I’ve had his musical instruments packed away for a month, their first break from him since he was a small baby.  Yesterday he requested them out and is really enjoying playing with them like old friends again.  He’s undeniably musical.  One of his favourite tv shows is ‘So you think you can dance’...and he does!  He has us in fits as he busts a move integrating skids, twirls and ‘da-dah’ like hand poses in his dance. 

He refers to baby ‘Farky’ (Sparky) everyday and is very affectionate with my bump.  He’s started to play more with his baby doll and pretends to be a baby at times too.  He’s even pretended he needs a dummy which is hilarious since he hasn’t used one since he was a tiny 6 mth old baby.  Marley has been receiving training in scratching my back but is happy to apply the “Skatch” to anywhere really, my face, arm, hand, tummy, what ever.  He uses this very funny creepy little old man voice saying “Skatch skatch skatch” as he ‘Scratches’ me.  Luckily the scratches don’t scratch at all otherwise I’d look like I’d been attacked by someone. 

For me, I’m so deeply in love with this child.  I dread the thought of anything bad happening to him and just delight in his funny ways.  He feeds my soul so completely that it feels selfish to get so much from parenting and makes me fearful of how sad I’ll be when he leaves home, fearful I’m too dependent on him.  He’s just such a perfect little ray of light full of energy and love and I adore him so deeply.  I’m 15 weeks pregnant now and loving that this pregnancy is something Marley has been so aware of.  He and I lay in the spare room yesterday discussing it as ‘Sparky’s’ room.  He played with the baby toys and understands they’re for baby Sparky.  To see my child play alone on the 2 seater swing is no longer sad but exciting.  I think of the years ahead and I just know Marley will delight in his baby brother or sister.  I’ve felt guilty that Marley won’t have our undivided attention when the baby comes but my more logical side knows that he will have had such a wonderful introduction to life in his years as an only child, nurtured so completely and abundant in confidence, he’ll be so ready for a sibling that Sparky’s arrival will only add to Marley’s world.  All of this makes me feel incredibly happy and lucky. 

Motherhood 2 yrs & 10 mths on!

There’s been quite a lot of change in our little man of late.  He’s talking a lot more and is more tricky than usual.  He’s tricky in subtle ways and constantly has Tim and I in fits of laughter.  His direct “Yes” and “No”’ answers to our questions are almost dismissive.  He asks us “How are you Mumma/Dadda?”, “Good thank you Marley, how are you?” and like a machine gun he replies “Yeah” as though we’re wasting his time.  He’s got opinions about what clothes he’d like to wear and where he’d like to go, what cup he’d like to drink out of.  He has the best memory for names and really enjoys play time with his friends.  Child care is fantastic for him and he’s doing brilliantly there.  I’m so happy with how secure he feels and how much he enjoys his centre.

Marley speaks to ‘Baby Farky” (Baby Sparky) while looking directly at my belly.  He has on a couple of occasions pretended to have a baby in his own tummy too.  He seems to think that anything either Tim or I eat or drink is rightfully his and will make a huge fuss if he can’t have it.  He fights holding my hand and prefers to walk rather than go in the pusher.  Today he went missing in the shopping centre and I heard the call over the PA system...little lost boy, would his mother please pick him up at the information counter! He has a happy disposition and is mostly easy to manage but he does have a few wobblies every now and then.  He wears size 3 clothes size 7 shoes and is 14.4kgs.  He had his first hair cut this week and sat very still during the cut.  He was very good.  He generally is very good.  An easy and gentle little boy.  The other night we were watching Elvis Costello in concert on TV and Marley played along with his small guitar only stopping to get the scooter which he set up to use the handle as a microphone on a scooter stand.  He loves dancing and loves helping us cook.  He is very much the typical boy in relation to his toys, with clear preferences for cars, trucks, fire engines and anything that goes.  Today I bought him a doll but honestly he held little to no interest in choosing one.  The only dolls he paid any attention to were the ones that did something like crawl, sing, talk or yawn.  I ended up getting him a plain boring old cute doll and now we’re home with it he’s a little more interested in it and is presently pushing it around in his shopping trolley. 

Marley loves cuddles on the couch and early morning cuddles in bed.  His love affair with Sandy our dog continues but he’s getting rougher with her.  He see’s her as a toy of sort and I have to fight for his attention when Sandy’s involved.  He refers to time spent with Sandy rather than me as, “No mumma, I want to pway”. 

Motherhood 2 yrs & 9 mths on!

Cheeky, cheeky, CHEEKY!!!!!! that’s all I can say about Marley at the moment. 

He’s not really ‘naughty’ cheeky but more charming, cute, push the limits cheeky although he can be a bit naughty at times.  He has these funny walks and dances that mesmerise us and knows just how to make us laugh.  He is incredibly loveable but doesn’t have that much time for cuddles these days, he’s all too often on the run.  He thinks it’s hilarious to announce ‘Mumma farted’ at any given moment having been well taught by his father who delights in these outbursts which leave me pleading my innocence.  Marley’s talking more and more and we’re able to understand much of what he says although I’m fairly sure most people couldn’t.  He’s friendly and outgoing.  He adores books, riding his trike and playing with Sandy.  His greatest love would be music and dancing, so much so that I’m considering putting him into dance lessons as soon as possible.  He’s great with catching and throwing and is an incredibly expressive child.  He loves creche and is well loved by his friends and carers at creche also.  We went back for a visit to Moruya where Marley delighted in seeing his cousin Bailey and his aunt and uncle who he remembered obviously very well.  It was really lovely to see him and Bailey together again, they’ve always been such great mates.  He also got to catch up with some other friends he hasn’t seen for a long time.  It was a lovely visit.

I suppose the only ‘new’ thing to write about here is that Marley is going to be a big brother Happily after 2 years of trying for another child I’m pregnant and although I’m sure Marley has little to no concept of this, he points and waves to my belly and calls the baby by his/her nickname ( “Sparky” pronounced ‘Farky’ by Marley).

Marley’s going to be a beautiful big brother full of love and confidence.  There will be a 3yr and 5 mth gap and I’m confident he’ll be a big helper to me but will always be my baby boy.  I long to see him play with a sibling and am just ecstatic to know it’s going to happen.  While I was still trying to conceive I was so frightened by the age gap, fearful that the gap would be too big but now I’m sure that Marley will have had almost 3.5 yrs of one on one nurturing that will help him to be confident in himself and his position in the family.  I’m sure that he will adore having a brother or sister.

Motherhood 2 yrs & 8 mths on!

This month has seen an increase in supreme cheekiness.  He’s much stronger than he used to be and his physical strength combined with his strength of will is a pretty awesome combination when I’m trying to strap him into his pram or put him into the shopping trolley against his will!  He well and truly understands that if I say there’ll be a consequence for bad behaviour, then there will be.  I put forward a motion like ‘Marley if you drink the bath water then I’m going to take you out of the bath’ and he replies with ‘Okay’ and slyly takes little sips of water when he’s pretty sure I’m not watching...or even cheekier, slurps the water when he’s sure I am!!!  I forgot to mention last month that he’d been calling me all variety of ‘Mumma, Mummy, Moooma, Mum, Nikki and Mima’.  He seems to have settled with Mummy and Mumma for now...he also uses the occasional ‘Timmy’ on his dad!

Marley’s speaking more than ever before.  He lapses into bouts of complete jibberish from time to time but repeats simple words and phrases all of the time.  He’s still a little bugger when it comes to eating.  He will happily eat if I spoon feed him but will otherwise go hungry.  I’m using the TV to bribe him to eat.  If he sits with his food untouched the tv goes off until he eats something.  Actually, I have come to a point where I feel totally unprepared to deal with him if I don’t have some kind of bargaining tool.  I give him disposable gloves so that i have something to threaten to take away from him if I need to...he LOVES gloves!  He kicks the back of the car seat and if I was clever enough to give him a rubber glove before he got in the car, all I have to say is ‘Marley if you keep kicking the seat I’m going to take your glove away’...that’s enough to stop him in his tracks.

He has a little dance for every mood.  He’s much (for want of a better word...) NAUGHTIER for me than he is for his carers at creche.  He loves me to play by his side and is at just such a wonderful age when it comes to interacting.  He and Sandy have got into playing hard and fast with the 2 of them running around the yard together like crazy.  Sandy barks wildly and Marley laughs and generally they both end of lying down with Sandy’s tongue inevitably somewhere near Marley’s mouth..YUK!

Marley listens to stories as he goes off to sleep.  He makes requests (demands).  He likes ‘Nanas a jamas’ and lately he’s been calling the Wiggles ‘Woggies’.  He get’s a bee in his bonnet about pretty much anything that doesn’t go his way.  He’s constantly asking to watch ‘DDD’s’ which drives me insane as I’m constantly trying to discourage him from watching them.  He just doesn’t stop whinging and asking for what his heart desires OVER and OVER again!! Honestly, sometimes he drives me crazy.  I find myself getting cross with him.  Today he cried and cried because I refused to let him watch a DVD and in the end I yelled at him ‘Stop it Marley! just STOP IT’ to which I replied with the same cry ‘STOP IT!’. 

He calls Sandy in the mornings… ‘Sandy ..Come’ , ‘Sit’.  He adores that dog and she loves him too.  The terrible two. 

Marley helps himself to the fridge, another one of my bug bears.  I seem to be constantly telling him no to dvd’s and to get out of the fridge.  To be honest I’m a little sick of being so mean all of the time.  It feels like I’m constantly reinforcing the rules and trying to distract him out of his mood over my last ‘No’.  He’s all cry first, listen later.  I point to my ear and my eyes and I have to say ‘Marley listen to Mumma, Look in my eyes’, that helps to get his focus when he’s throwing a fit.  The funny thing is that he doesn’t do this at creche as far as I can tell.  He spends a lot more time crying in an effort to get his way when he’s at home with me, it’s very tiring but thankfully he’s incredibly gorgeous and his little personality just makes me love him all the more.  He’s made me giggle too many times recently when my defences were down. He’s just too cheeky.  He likes to get under the blanket with me and make a ‘house’.  He gives the most gorgeous cuddles and kisses and he simply adores his Dadda.  Tim and Marley are closer than ever before.  Marley idolises his Dad and stampedes to the door each night when Tim arrives home.  Tim and Marley spend more time alone together than they used to.  Now that I’m working, Tim brings Marley in on public transport to creche and at the end of the day he puts him to bed at night.  Marley knows his way around the hospital where we work and is so confident now at creche.  He’s doing really well over all and I’m loving seeing more and more of his personality.  He’s really going to need a hair cut soon, he still hasn’t had his first hair cut yet and has long and strangely tufts of hair combined with shorter newer hair. I’ve been afraid of that instant little boy look that comes with the first hair cut.

Motherhood 2 yrs & 7 mths on!

Marley is hilarious.  He’s SO cheeky and his world has changed dramatically over the past month.  He’s gone from being most upset about crèche to being very confident and even ignoring me when he see’s me in the day at crèche.  The other day he was playing in the playground and I was working in the room next door with a group who share the same playground.  When Marley saw me in the yard he just smiled, said “Mumma!!” and ran off!!!! I ended up having to beg him for a kiss because he hadn’t even bothered coming to see me.  Funny boy!  He loves crèche and is becoming more and more confident.  I’ve even witnessed him running in to snatch toys before other kids get them, a sight I would never have thought I’d see.  This pleases me because I was worried he might be too passive for crèche.  He’s also very affectionate and social.  He’s enjoying his interactions with the other children and with his carers.  He has a few quirks.  He loves to wear his hat and pretty much refuses to take it off all day are child care.  He’s always liked to adorn himself with things, hats, beads, gloves, sunglasses...that kind of thing, but his current real interest is in disposable gloves.  He’ll wear them all day if he can get away with it. 

Thanks to all of the social contact we’ve had since our move back home to Melbourne, Marley’s learnt to show off.  He has lots of funny tricks to make people laugh and is willing to use them at any time.  He has the ‘I’m not looking at you but I know you’re looking at me’ thing down pat.  He tends to do things in a ritualistic manner following patterns, for example, he had a wonderful game going on with our friends Jon and Kath where they would fish a little piece of ice out of the jug while he was looking away with his eyes diverted comically to the right, they’d give it to him and he would put on a big show of surprise and then gobble the ice, tap the glass jug with a fork and quickly divert his eyes again to give them the opportunity to get the next piece out for him.  He loves to look at himself in any reflective surface.  The oven, the glass doors at night, the mirror, the toilet roll holder that has a tiny chrome ball on it.  I’ve had to start pulling the back blinds down at night because when he’s able to see his own reflection he becomes super silly.  Today he was patting Sandy… pat pat pat and then jumping in the air with his arm doing a bowling action.  This little game went on for quite some time until I eventually split the two of them up. 

Sandy (our Jack Russell) and Marley are great pals but I do have to split them up quite often.  If it’s not Marley giving her kisses, it’s Sandy giving him kisses! I find I’m constantly calling out Sandy or Marley or ‘You two!!!’.  Sandy spent the day at the vet’s the other day and I had such a restful day in comparison to usual.  I love that they love each-other but I’m ever fearful that Marley might hurt Sandy and end up being bitten.  Sandy’s never shown any sign of biting and is such a sweet girl but I just know she’s a dog and that there’s always that chance of her having to defend herself.  Marley also loves outside time which is mostly proceeded by my running out and picking up the dog shit.  Marley knows that’s what I do and so the other day when I hadn’t yet done the job he came to me with a piece of paper towel holding a dog shit! Urgh!!!
His interest in cleaning up after the dog continues and I am very much on guard.  It’s one thing to have a toddler who MIGHT step in some as opposed to a toddler who goes looking for it!  Oh well.  Just means I’m on the job.

A major thing for me this month has been Marley saying ‘I love my Mumma’.  I did believe a very long time ago that Marley said ‘I love you’ but since then I’d heard not a whisper.  I was starting to think how odd is was because I constantly tell him I love him and so I did what any musical mother would and I brain washed him in the form of a song.  I made up a song in the tune of the farmer in the dell and it goes like this…
“I love my Mummama, I love my Mummama, Marley Moochy Coochy Moochy loves his Mummumma” and then low and behold he said what I had believed for the past 6 months to be ‘hello Mumma’ !!!!!!! I couldn’t believe that he’s been trying to tell Tim and I that he loves us for ages and every time he’s said it we’ve responded with ‘Hello Marley’!!!

Just have to mention his walks.  He does this crazy little scamper when he gets out of bed when he shouldn’t.  He kind of tip toe jogs with his hands held like paws. He comes out fast and laughing.  He really is quite a monkey!  He’s learned the traps of our house too, he knows that if he circles around the kitchen island it’s not easy for us to get him.  He’s also worked out the shower wall and the two back exits work in the same way.  He’s quick and clever and can only be handled with reverse psychology in such situations.  ‘Do’ is pretty much always a ‘Don’t’ and ‘Don’t’ is ALWAYS a ‘do’ in Marley world. 

He has a very good understanding of consequences.  If I say “marley, stay in bed or I’ll put your gloves on the fridge” he knows that’s a fact and depending on how much he’s prepared to risk his gloves or whatever toy I’m threatening to put on the fridge, he’ll respond accordingly.  He’s a pretty easy little man but does keep me very busy. He loves listening to short stories when he goes to bed now.  Banana’s in Pyjama’s and Wiggles stories are his favourites right now.  His favourite foods are olives, cake, cheese, apples and sauce then sausage.  He always eats the crusts of his bread first and barely eats anything for breakfast.  He’s able to count to 10, knows his colours, recognises lower and upper case letters of the entire alphabet but doesn’t say the alphabet.  He attempts most words and especially people’s name but still speaks in his own language.  He is physically very strong and his hair is very loopy now. I think he’s starting to look more and more like my side of the family despite being so much like his dad.  He loves making ‘tea’ in his little ceramic tea set and likes to ‘help’ me carry things.  He’s able to follow simple instructions and is becoming a lot more independent.  He still has days of wetting his pants and has shown little to no improvement on taking himself to the toilet but is able to pull his pants up and down and is now happy to pee standing up.  His sleep is pretty good and he’s used to waking up early now for crèche.

Seeing him playing alongside other kids and interacting so well in care is a great feeling.  I’m very lucky to be able to work there with him, it gives me an insight that many parent’s aren’t so lucky to have and offers Marley that bit extra feeling of security having his mum so involved in his crèche.

Motherhood 2 yrs & 6 mths on!!!

Our gorgeous little man is everything I would’ve ever hoped for in a child. He gives me the most beautiful kisses and cuddles, he fills my heart every day in the most simple of ways.  I just adore him and am ever grateful to have this beautiful little soul in our lives.  He’s everything good from his dad, from me and completely aside from us.  This past month has seen an increase in tantrums and improvement in his sleep routines.  His language has improved so much that I’m able to decipher most things he tells me and he’s started using people’s names.  This started with our friend Jon.  In one afternoon Marley went from nagging ‘Mumma, mumma MUMMAAAA’ to nagging ‘Jon? Jon?? JON????’ (much to Jon’s delight).  He is much more aware of other people and children now and this comes really as his social world has expanded in our move back to Melbourne. 

Marley loves his room and says “Marley’s room” nearly every day.  He disappears into his bedroom and reads, plays with his trains, it’s like a little haven for him.  He’s started creche now, we both have.  I’m working at Marley’s creche but in a different room.  He’s finding it quite hard at this stage but I’m hoping he’ll feel more confident shortly.  I think that my presence makes it a little harder for him but that in time it will be a great set up for both of us.  For me, going back to work is a good feeling. I’m enjoying the stimulation but I am guilt ridden when it’s clear that Marleys struggling with the change.  That’s the thing, we’ve had a huge amount of change in the past couple of months and Marley’s life is very full of people and stimulation. 

Marley’s started saying ‘oh man!’ just recently.  He’s been physically difficult to deal with at times.  If he’s upset and trying to go in another direction and either Tim or I try to pick him up, he slides out of our arms, arches his back, kicks.  Tim used to just put him on his shoulders in this kind of situation but now Marley arches backward and closes his legs shut so that Tim can’t get Marley’s legs over his head.  Gosh it’s a funny sight!

Marley’s favourite toys right now are his black fabric shower curtain that he likes to run around with, Tim’s model VW’s, scissors and buckets of water saved from the shower.  He likes to sit on the plans in our front yard and to sit on the dog. He gave Sandy a dog biscuit this morning and got really very upset when she took it and ran off.  She took off so quickly and started trying to bury it so that Marley couldn’t get it back. I had to bribe him inside with promises of icypoles before he would settle down.  Marley loves using his little watering can to water the plants and has found a particularly dirty patch of dirt that he likes to play in.  He’s been enjoying catching the ball, using the cricket bat to hit balloons and particularly loves the alphabet and his little lap top.  He knows his letters and numbers quite well.  He even drew a partial A on the bath and said ‘A’.  I was most impressed but didn’t want to encourage letter writing on the bath!  He’s constantly snipping away at slips of paper with his little scissors and I caught him snipping at his finger yesterday.  He was sitting naked so I’m thinking snipping his finger wasn’t such a bad thing but that I’ll be sure he has clothes on when he uses the scissors.  Somehow I think if he did manage to snip himself properly it would be a once off (pardon the pun). 

Motherhood 2 yrs 5mths on!!!

God this child is nearly 2 and a half! How on earth did that happen? 

We’ve moved and he’s adjusted really well to our new home and to city life.  He loves the stimulation and he’s well and truly ready for child care.  I’m thinking our little dog Sandy could do with a break from him too.  A couple of days in care would allow me to earn a small wage but 3 days in care would give me a day off for my music (now I’m getting greedy!).  I’m ready now to let him go a little bit.  Just enough to give me a break and to give Marley some further stimulation.  I’m sure this will have a positive impact on his language skills, although not so sure how it will effect his social skills.  He’s actually very confident socially and I hate the idea of his losing that confidence without my being there to protect him.  (For gods sakes Nicholise, let go!)

He’s tall! I don’t know exactly how tall and have been meaning to measure him but keep forgetting but he just looks so tall to me.  His hair is wild ala Krammer styley these days.  He weighs 13.3kgs and is now having day sleeps without his nappy.  He eats with his knife and fork, loves lemon, ‘sauce’, olives, ham and cheese.  He always eats the crust off his bread first often leaving the middle bit naked and alone.  I tend to give him bread without butter because he really just wants the plain bread as I’ve learnt from watching him steal slices from the bread bag when he gets hungry.

I had forgotten the mutter-cry that I used to do when I was a kid and was upset with the world.  It’s a cry that involves a lot of talking out loud to yourself about how unjust the whole situation is while you continue to cry loudly.  I was reminded of it in the past week when Marley’s started with the mutter-cry.  The funniest thing about Marley’s mutter-cry is that for the life of me I just don’t know what he’s saying but I can tell he’s totally pissed off!  Actually, with the ongoing topic of Marley’s language development, there’s been some more progress but it just seems to get funnier and funnier.  As my sister described after her phone conversation with him tonight, it’s like he’s become really good at a foreign language.  His expression is excellent, his eye contact and his melodic tone matched with the hand gestures, head nods and waving arms are all amazing but the words! He’s hilarious to watch and listen to and I’m sure (as is he) that it’s our problem and not his.  He really does have his own language.  He does use recognisable words quite regularly now but he talks much more than his present English vocabulary can possibly cater for.

Tonight when I told him “you’re such a monkey!” he said “NO, Mumma!!!” as he pointed back at me.  I said “NO, Marley’s a monkey” and he said, NO!! MUMMA!!! LOL god I had to laugh.  Later in bed he started calling out “HELLLO MUMMMMMMA, HEELLLLLLOO DADDDDDDDDA”.  Who’s the monkey? I ask you! 

He knows most of his colours and says them by name...’Blue car’, ‘green colour’.  He recognises every letter of the alphabet and will point to each and every letter in any order if I ask where it is.  He’s learnt that from his little toy lap top which I often hear him playing with at night when he really should be sleeping.  He’s obviously musical.  I sing a little song to him each night and all on his own he’s made up a little tone that he uses in just the right spots during the song, I’m really so pleased by this; it’s a clear sign to me that he’s quite musical which of course I was hoping he would be.  He uses the word ‘Ni....ce’ in a very sleazy tone which makes me giggle very easily.  He LOVES talking on the phone.  He is now fascinated by trams and trains and anything that has wheels.  He is a cuddly little pumpkin who gives the most gorgeous kisses and cuddles.  He loves dancing and has started singing.  He sings old MacDonald’s farm and Toot Toot chugga chugga big red car over and over again. 

We took Marley to his first game of cricket.  A 20/20 match between Australia and India.  This was important for us.  While in the last days of pregnancy with Mar, Tim and I religiously watched the Ashes in the UK and talked about how we wanted to take our child to see the cricket when we move back to Melbourne again one day.  Marley was so good throughout and loved the charged atmosphere.  Since that day he has been doing wild running bowling actions around the house.  A week or so later we bought him a tiny wooden cricket bat and the first thing he did with it was tap it to the ground like a professional cricketer.  I took him to the local park where they were playing a game of cricket and again a few days later when the pitch was empty he got to explore the pitch and do some of his crazy bowling.  More giggling from me.  He’s very much into balls at the moment.  Enjoys catching and throwing little bean bags, balloons, actually any kind of ball. 

Around the house if I’m not in view and he’s lost interest in what he’s doing I’ll hear a massive “MUMMA!!” said quickly, loud and punctuated, it’s like as though he’d forgotten about me and has to quickly make sure I’m still here.  We can’t drive past a playground these days without a big whiney request to “PWAY” and he insists on blowing me down ala Captain Feathersword at least 5 times a day.  Marley also loves to give Eskimo kisses, sniffy nose kisses, butterfly kisses, ear to ear ‘ding’ kisses and kisses on the mouth.  He loves it when I drag him along the wooden floor to music and when I twirl him around as we dance.  He loves to sit on our shoulders and likes to walk to the toilet on my feet.  He’s a beautiful, gentle little boy with a very cheeky personality that fills my heart to overflowing with love.  Gosh I’m a lucky girl to have 2 such gorgeous men in my life

Motherhood 2.4 years on!!!

Marley’s just shown such a funny side to his personality this past month.  He’s taken a liking to placing buckets on his head.  He has even managed to get a few buckets stuck awkwardly on his little head causing waves of panicky screams and so I went out and bought him a bucket specifically for his head.  Today he found and tried out the rice cooker and yes, another good fit!  He’s actually taken to hats, buckets, beads, sunglasses, watches, bags, bangles, face masks, a tiara, anything that involves adorning himself, and unfortunately that still includes my make-up which I regularly find him dipping into. 

His speech has come along in leaps and bounds, asking me just the other day “Mumma, are you okay?” You could have knocked me over with a feather.  He’s a little more willing to repeat words I initiate but still not all that giving.  I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all in there and he’ll start talking when he’s well and truly ready.  He’s recently asked ‘Where’s Bai?’, said “Look at Bailey”, and his favourite is to knock at the door and ask “Who’s there?”

Another new quirk is to eat with his eyes closed.  This kind of play has been extended into chasing Bailey with his eyes closed which is a bit of a worry, especially considering the state of our house as we pack to move.  Marley’s been so patient as his usual play dates have been sacrificed in order for me to get on with the job of packing and he’s been watching dvd’s and video’s to allow me to get on with things; but this has it’s price.  He had a day of protest piddles one day and insists on getting out of bed at least a couple of times each night before finally settling down.  He has learnt that he is King of agility in our household; now that his high chair is packed away and he’s expected to stay put on his seat at the the table, he has learnt that we simply can’t catch him as he dodges past our reach from underneath the dining table.  He giggles and Tim and I stifle our laughs and try to sound very serious while he makes a complete mockery of us.  It’s hilarious but can also be very annoying!

Marley seems to understand that something big is going on.  I’ve been playing him a dvd of the house we’re moving to in an effort to help him feel familiar with it.  He pointed to a picture of our old house and said ‘go’ the other day.  Marley and Bailey are going to miss each other terribly and so this move will be bitter sweet.  I’ll miss them all too. 

Motherhood 2.3 years on!!!

I have one of those ‘naughty’ kids.  The kind of child that people probably raise their eyebrows at, the kind of child that the nurse in the Dr’s office has had to ask me to keep away from the water cooler.  He’s always been a model child, he’s been the one who’ll sit at the table at cafes and who can be easily entertained but all of that seems to have changed in just one afternoon.  Perhaps he’s a little like his dad and tends to get ‘moody’ if he misses out on his sleep and maybe today’s not the best day for me to write an update on my ‘angel’ especially considering he only managed a 15 minute afternoon sleep and my views and his behaviour MAY have been coloured by his being over tired.  Marley’s going to grow up with a real affinity for apes considering how often I call him a monkey these days.  He’s very into squealing at the moment.  When he first started I was quite pleased and a little disappointed.  I was pleased because as a singer I liked to see him experimenting with his vocals and disappointed because I felt he was being reserved and I felt he had more to give (Tim disagreed with me on this).  Today however he found his inner squeal, a boundless squeal that only need be heard once but he felt like giving and so gave it over and over, I found myself apologising to those around us.  I felt like saying, ‘he’s a really good boy, he’s not a spoilt brat, he’s not a menace to society, he’s only just found his squeal and he’s experimenting....don’t you remember what it was like to really let go and make some noise??? this is a wonderful thing’ isn’t it??? Well first and second time I thought it was but sitting in the doctor’s surgery this afternoon as the last patients for the day, his squeal had me reeling and I’m sure the poor nurses were delighted to hear it at the end of a long week, not once but twice.  Yes, he’s found his voice. 

Marley’s growth this past month has been huge. His feet are massive, he’s tall and people are constantly commenting on his height.  He has a head of curls that are getting long enough for us to consider his first haircut.  He sleeps happily all night in his bed but enjoys snuggling up to me in the mornings as he has done for months.  He’s started to show interest in mega blocks and understands a lot more than he used to.  He asks for Bay in a questioning tone each day and points to the door way from where Bailey seems to magically appear most afternoons after school.  I say ‘No, Bailey’s at school, he’ll come and play later’ and Marley puts his hands over his face and drops his head.  He ADORES Bailey.  We’ll be moving back to Melbourne in a little more than a month and I feel so sad that they’ll be parted… I have to tell myself to focus on the bigger picture. Marley’s begun to cry at playgrounds when other children leave.  This lead me to take steps to put him into a day or 2 of child care but on the day I took Mar to have a play he ended up being bitten to the point of bleeding by another child and so that plan has been put on hold until we move. 

Marley’s started to say ‘Oh Goh’ which sounds very close to ‘Oh God’, ‘Go away’ and ‘Cool’ to name a few new phrases.  His favourite word is Ee-ole (icypole) usually associated with rapid pointing to the freezer or often he makes things so much clearer by helping himself to the freezer and bringing me an icypole to unwrap for him.  Little monkey!  I think the biggest change in him has been his attitude.  He really is fast and funny, he dances at everything and goes from unbelievably serious to kooky.  That’s a great word to describe Marley, KOOKY.  That’s what my sister calls him, a Kooky kid and it’s true.  The other day along with a gazillion other parents I watched my child from the perimeter of of the shopping centre kids play area.  I watched him as he interacted with children bigger and smaller than he is, I watched his approach, how fairly he played and how confident he appeared.  I felt so proud but then he just made me laugh so much.  He took it upon himself to individually engage the nearby adults waiting patiently for their children as they play.  He went up to a lady or a man and quietly but confidently began his monologue.  This involved a series of arm and head motions.  He threw in the odd shoulder shrug and some very strong arm swings.  He spoke softly and had these poor parents unsure if they might offend him by their lack of understanding or if they should just play along.  He was insistent and very funny, god I laughed.  I swear he’s picked these exaggerated gestures up from “Fifi forget me not and the flowertots”.  He’s so funny!

Motherhood 2.2 years on!!!

Marley’s facial expressions have become far more exaggerated, especially his sad face!  It’s like he’s learned to stretch his mouth into an uncomfortably downward position with the sole purpose of imploring sympathy.  It’s such a pathetic little face he puts on when he’s upset, it’s actually laughable.  It’s like a clown-sad face with every muscle in his little face working terribly hard to drag that mouth into an upside down U.  He exaggerates happy too...and that just makes us melt.  His eyes squint with laughter and smiles and he makes everyone around him smile He’s well aware that everyone watches everything he does now.  He is the warm giver of cuddles and kisses but as quickly as he allows such intimacy he will simply refuse it until he is well and truly begged....this cold hearted power is usually reserved for his Dadda and his aunty Cathie who always impress him with the amount of begging they’re prepared to do before he throws them a crum of a cuddle with a light hearted tap tap tap on their back as he does so.  Little monkey!  He’s very much into group hugs now too.  He loves to hook his little arms around both Tim and my necks and snuggle in for a group hug which of course is a beautiful thing. 

Marley is driving me to despair with his fascination with our poor little dog Sandy.  I’ve had to take a very firm stance and not let Marley into Sandy’s basket at all because he simply harasses her. He pushes her along sideways with little steps...pushing her with his legs as he walks forward, all the while he’s looking at me for my response.  Sandy doesn’t like it, she doesn’t like it when he pushes down on her back or when she’s lying down and he pushes on her stomach or continually picks up her feet while she’s standing, she doesn’t like it and it infuriates me.  SO, Sandy’s basket has to be her one sanctuary, but NO, Marley climbs into it at every opportunity.  My response to that is to immediately put Sandy outside which is probably unfair on poor Sandy but Marley has to learn to leave her alone.  She’s such a good dog but even she has started to growl a couple of times.  I find that very frightening, but then again, she seems to go up to Marley as much as he goes to her.  She follows him around and at night she sneaks into his bedroom and sleeps beside his bed.  It’s a funny relationship.

Speaking of Marley’s bedroom, he’s now officially in a big boy bed.  I felt a little sad packing away his cot but he’s so ready for a big bed.  Mostly he’s been very happy in his bed but has made a few middle of the night treks to our bed, one of those resulting in hitting his head against the door jam in the dark...you’d think that would be the perfect natural consequence for getting out of bed and walking in the dark but no, it has continued on and off. 

This child is unstoppable.  There is nothing he can’t do....except pedal his trike properly.  Nothing is out of bounds are far as he’s concerned and he’ll quickly fix anything that is by moving chairs and stools around until he can see and reach whatever he wants.  He even managed to undo the chain lock on our door the other day.  He’s curious and likes to be involved in stuff.  This is a good thing really and I encourage him by getting him to stand on a chair beside the bench as I cook.  He also has a thing for ‘tea’ right now.  I’ve started giving him a little jug to pour his own ‘tea’ which he really enjoys and which almost always must be celebrated with a ‘cheers’. 

He’s chatting more to other children, he can’t resist pointing at pictures on t-shirts that impress him, he has regular phone conversations with his little friends and his language is developing slowly but surely.  In the past few days he’s said ‘where’s the car?’, ‘dadda car’, ‘whats that?’, ‘Bailey bike’ and quite a few new things that I can’t quite remember.  He points out and says colors red and blue and points to green, yellow and purple.  He’s slow to speak really but his speech seems to be kicking in now.  He does a lot of exclaiming ‘OH NO!!!!!!’ which is usually accompanied by his little hand covering his face in a show of disappointment...normally associated with the word NO from an adult.  He’s very much into “Bum” (Brum) at the moment and I just love to hear him giggling away as he watches it.  I never encouraged him to be car crazy, in fact I’d have to say that I tried to discourage it, I’ve always provided a variety of toys and experiences and tried to avoid gender specific toys but he really does LOVE cars.  He loves his little tikes coupe and well, pretty much anything with wheels. 

The chase is always on in our house, the second his dadda walks through the door both at lunch time and after work Marley runs off giggling.  He’s such a happy little man and he loves Tim to bits.  He’s tiresome too though.  With all of the running, wiggling, squiggling and dodging that goes on in the most simple of situations...it’s exhausting.  “Marley, sit up at the table” brings about a run around the house.  He has me almost to the point of tears in Allen’s if I should ever be silly enough to let go of his hand.  I depend on the sound of his feet against the wooden floor as he runs to be able to find him.  He’s quick and agile, both of which I most surly am not. 

I’ve been having blood tests with Marley sitting on my lap watching blood being drawn.  He frowns and says ‘Oh No’ but is calmed when I say I’m ok...he respond ‘OK?’ This is his favorite thing to say right now.  He falls down deliberately, says “down” and then stands and says “Ok?”, an adaptation to that scenario is that he firmly pushes Bailey over (who at age 9 falls rather easily and dramatically) and looks him in the face asking “Ok?” as in ‘are you ok?’. 

He’s tall and thin at the moment.  A little too thin for my liking but he’s eating well and he’s healthy.  His hair is a mess of curls now, his eyes are big and blue and his lips are full and red.  He’s a gorgeous little man and gives delicious cuddles and kisses.  He also likes to play with my hair.  Enjoys airplane rides with my feet on his tummy as I lay on my back.  He is ridiculously tickleish and enjoys being massaged by a little wooden body massage thing I have.  He’s good fun and wears me thin at the same time.  He also eats all of his crusts before he considers eating the body of his sandwich...such a funny child.

Motherhood 2.1 years on!!!

Marley has done so much travel in the past month, he’s become accustomed to airports, suitcases and motels.  Captain Featherswords ‘magic buttons’ have captured his imagination and has become one of his favourite games.  He pushes eagerly at his own and in fact anyone’s chest in the hope that they’ll break into an operatic episode of rhyme and song.  He makes a funny nasally spitty kind of sound each time he presses a ‘button’ and waits with anticipation to see what magical feat might occur.  Of course most people don’t quite ‘get it’ and most children think he’s being a little pushy, but he knows what he means and that’s all that matters.  Throughout this month he has become toilet trained, even going without a nappy on the airplane.  He’s quite proud of this achievement and has managed to do it mostly without actually verbalising his need to go to the toilet, but rather, holding on for an opportunity.  I had been giving him star stickers on a chart and that combined with his love of Captain Feathersword’s magic buttons has meant that after each and every wee he pushes his chest and says ‘sta sta sta.............. STAHHHHHHHAR’ in the same sing song tone every time.  This has been a handy adaptation that’s allowed me to give him imaginary star stickers as a toileting reward.  Another toilet habit is for him when he has nothing to deliver is to say ‘NO? .....OKAY’ as though anticipating my very own words.  His use of imaginary play has really kicked in too.  He loves to have ‘tea’ and enjoys imaginary sips from tiny cups.  One of the gifts he received for his 2nd birthday was a small Wiggles car with each of the Wiggles figurines.  He has carried around those little men and that car everywhere and has them involved in all sorts of activities.  Another big achievement is Marley’s ability to stand on one leg and shake his hands.  He can’t seem to walk in a straight line without stopping momentarily to balance on one leg while the other sticks out to the side.

Mostly Marley’s a very healthy little boy but lately he’s been sicker than ever.  Add a horrible case of conjunctivitis to a very bad cold.  Coughing and blocked up, his sleep has been far from routine.  A bout of antibiotics seems to have helped.  Despite being as sick as he’s been he’s remained a pretty easy going little man.  He has travelled between Melbourne, Canberra and home mostly without complaint.  He barely eats but seems to have grown 2cm in the past month!  In between trips away Marley enjoyed a belated 2nd birthday party here at home with his friends.  It was a Wiggly party.  Before the day of that party he really showed little to no interest in his Captain Feathersword hat and sword but once he’d seen his friends use it he truly BECAME Captain Feathersword!  The other new addition to our family is his little drumset.  He LOVES it, he uses it earnestly playing along to the Wiggles. 

Most months I see massive changes in him, but this month with the illnesses and the distraction of travel and buying a home in Melbourne I’ve found it hard to think of any obvious change in him.  I will say though that even though he’s a very adaptable little boy and is so easy to travel with, we’re pleased to know we’ll finally be settling down into our own home for the first time since we left Australia in 2002 and we won’t be travelling so much.  Incidentally, the day after we hit a Kangaroo in our car, our Jack Russell found a snake in the back yard (red-belly black) and was bitten by it twice, but only after pulling it from it’s hiding place 10ft from our back door and causing it to head in Marley’s direction before wrenching it into the air.  All the while with my screaming in sheer terror.  Just a couple of signs that it’s time for us to go home to a nice concrete city.

Motherhood 2 years on!!!

Our baby boy is 2!

He’s a gentle and mischievous boy, he’s quiet and cheeky, active and adventurous.  He gallops, rolls, jumps, forward rolls, climbs and falls to the ground in dramatic crash re-enactments or pin drops backward onto our cushiony bed.  Our bed is one of his favourite places, I often find him snuggled up on/in it during the day.  He loves to tumble and scramble away from us as we go to cuddle him on the bed.  He climbs from his cot to greet us in our bed each morning.  He rests snuggled in my arms quietly until he’s ready to take on the world.  He leaves his mum and dad in a partial slumber and goes to the lounge where he first turns on my computer and then the television. 

He loves books, The Wiggles, Teletubbies and Thomas the tank Engine.  He’s fascinated by heavy machinery, cars and motorbikes and nothing calms him as well as a pen and paper.  I would describe him as extremely musical.  I say this because he a responds so well to music. He dances and manages to anticipate and enact motions and movements of the Wiggles in the same way that Tim’s mum described Tim as a child anticipating the priest, raising the holy Eucharist in Church with his arms stretched to the heavens each Sunday and blessing the congregation with the power anointed by Christ himself.  His guitar is still a favourite but his preference at this moment is to gallop.  It’s a new trick and he’s good at it.  Marley is very affectionate and lately insists that his blown kisses are caught as he fires them at us like a machine gun.  He gives the most precious cuddles and yummy kisses.  When he’s tired at night it’s not uncommon to find he has put himself to bed, fully clothed and under his doona.  He’s a funny lad.

Physically he’s a tallish boy (186cms) and has a lovely covering making him look very healthy (13.5kgs).  He eats very well and sleeps very well.  He’s ready for a big boy bed and is ready to say start toilet training in earnest.  I’ve been letting him sit on the potty and he usually responds with a wee, the odd pooh and a dryer nappy for longer periods, so I’ll start him in knickers with the warmer weather.

Marley has given us a few scares with his adventurous and curious nature.  Today I had put him down for his day sleep and went about my duties.  After 45mins I stepped out the front door to find Marley who had gone to bed in only a nappy and t-shirt, stomping in the muddy puddles.  He’d gone out of his bedroom, into ours and out of our bedroom doorway to outside and had walked around the house.  This is the 2nd time I’ve discovered him playing in the mud but the first time it has happened when I was so sure I knew he was in bed asleep! Cheeky monkey.  Tomorrow is officially Marley’s 2nd birthday and we will take an aeroplane ride to Melbourne which I know he’ll love.  He has tickets to see the Wiggles courtesy of aunty Cathie in December and a Wiggles wheely travel bag full of toys and tricycle from his mum and dad. What a lucky boy. 

We love you our darling Marley Moo.  Each and every day your Dadda and I swell with pride as we watch you grow to be such a wonderful little man.  We’re so lucky to have you gorgeous boy.

Motherhood 23 months on….

So much is changing.  Marley’s comprehension is amazing.  While he’s still not speaking the ‘Queen’s English’, he certainly has a good understanding of it.  The other week I was astonished when I’d asked him ‘Where’s the Mmmmm for Marley?’ referring to his little lap top and he immediately pushed M.  He did the same for J, R, S, A, G and L.  He’s clever!  I was blown away that he was able to identify those letters with little to no coaching from me.  He plays with his lap top in the car and it’s obviously very educational!  Gosh.  Marley’s taken to jumping on our bed as though it’s a trampoline.  A big jump up in the air and legs are thrown forward so that he lands on his bum.  He tried that once on the carpet but didn’t take to it which is a good thing.  The other thing he does is stands up on the bed and does a backwards pin drop type fall landing flat on his back on the lovely soft and bouncy bed...at this stage I’m hoping he doesn’t give that one a try on the carpet. 

It must be almost a month ago that Marley pulled a steaming hot cup of tea onto himself.  It was awful but thankfully he’s healing so well.  While the burns were large blisters of skin immediately, in the end they were superficial burns and are healing quickly. 

Some of the changes…
A couple of times during sleep time he’s started giggling for seemingly no reason, he must’ve been thinking of something funny. 
He gives extremely cheeky looks during dinner, like he’s trying to make us laugh.
He actually took a toy from another child on Tuesday, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen him do that.
He’s a lot more interested in other children than he used to be.
He loves painting, drawing and pasting. 
He’s very very easy to manage and will always settle with a pen and paper.
He knows every scene of his Wiggles dvd’s and has favorite scenes and songs and dvd’s.
He feeds himself totally, he’s done that for a long time but has tended to get lazy at some stage in the meal, now he’s eating whole meals with no encouragement from me.
He LOVES his mum and his dad, loves morning cuddle time and the last couch cuddles before bed.
Has had some successful practice runs on the potty.
He loves to roll everywhere, that’s when he’s not jumping.
He’s constantly hiding and running away from us around the house which always ends in lots of laughter all around.
He loves Sandy our Jack Russell and lets her in and out of the house and tries to ride her like a horse when he thinks no one’s looking.
He can open the car door from the inside of the car.
Loves driving on my lap along the drive way up to aunty Cathie’s bipping the horn all of the way.
Loves it when I play my guitar.
Enjoys dancing SO MUCH!
Positions Tim and my faces so that we’re looking at what he wants us to look at.
Stages us to clap our hands in symphony and resets our hands when we’ve lost interest.

He’s a beautiful beautiful gentle boy with a very cheeky and mischievous streak.  He’s almost 2!!

Motherhood 22 months on….

My baby, my little baby boy is growing tall and lean.  His pot belly is becoming flat and his hands and fingers long.  He jumps and jumps up and down all day long.  He’s so proud of getting both feet off the ground at the same time that he just has to keep jumping over and over again.  He is easily amused by burping sounds thanks to the McD’s baby shrek doll and is repeating some single words and using words whenever and where ever he likes which is fairly rare.  It may be that I just don’t understand him.  He puts his head to the side, follows my face and eyes with his own as if he’s being ultra sincere and just tells me so much stuff that I don’t understand. It’s very funny.  He’s very funny. 

This past month Marley managed to scare the hell out of us on a couple of occasions.  One was when he and I were having a lovely playful morning and he ran after me into the bedroom and tripped and fell face first onto the corner edge of our bed.  This resulted in a 2 hr drive to Canberra and some plastic surgery performed on the space between his nose and his top lip.  It’s healing very very well considering how awful it was and hopefully he won’t scar much at all.  That was one of the most horrible days of my life.  A week or 2 later his left leg just kept giving way on him and he couldn’t walk without falling and was unable to pull himself up to a standing position or to walk up or down steps.  Again, quite frightening especially considering he hadn’t injured his leg at all.  The Dr took it seriously and sent us home with forms for a brain scan should his leg not improve.  Thankfully his leg did improve and he was back to normal the following day. The Dr thought it might have been a virus. 

During this month Marley has developed an aversion to doctors, hospitals, blood tests and even cried when I had one done the other day.  He had nightmares for a couple of weeks after the injury to his face and has become very stand-offish when being examined by the doctor.  All of this but he still managed to dance to the wiggles in his cot at the hospital.  Funny boy.  I sing him a special I love you song before bed now and he really loves it.  We did some artwork with his hand prints and made a mobile of heaps of his hand prints cut out and each time we pass it he has to give it a high five.  He has gone off his food recently, just doesn’t have much of an appetite and is only sleeping for an hour in the afternoons. 

I’ve found that until recently he’s refused to use words that anyone else instigates...eg if you were to say ‘Marley can you say Cathie???’ he’d ignore you.  If you said ‘Marley, can you say pig?’ he snorts like a pig.  The only word Marley will say when you ask him to is CAR.  Car car car car car!!!  I decided this might be a clever way to encourage him to say new words.  I started ‘Marley, can you say Car?’ and he says loudly and proudly ‘CAR’, and so I say ‘can you say TA’ and he says ‘TA’.  .....Marley can you say foot? and he says “SHOE”.  This is very typical of Marley’s use of language.  There is no doubt that he gets his message across though, nomatter what he’s trying to say. Today for example he got sick of trying to tell us something and so he walked to the table and grabbed his cup and then to the kitchen and reached up and grabbed the milk off the bench and poured himself a drink of milk!!!!!!! Tim and I nearly fell over. 

The picture above illustrates what I found him doing in the bathroom the other day when I was hastily packing our bags for a weekend away.  Turn your back, you take a risk is my new motto.