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.