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.