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).