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.