My little Rabbit,
You are becoming the ever active toddler. You race around the house, always at a run. You explore your surroundings. You push things. You pull things. You open things. You drag things. You throw things. You hit things. Poor Jak now hides from you. I have lost track of the number of times I’ve rescued him from your over-zealous clutches. Lately he can’t even get respite up on the lounge. You simply push the cushions up against the back of the lounge and trap him there, all the while screeching delightedly.
That Jak is your favourite friend is obvious. You love giving him hugs; you’ll lie on top of him in his dog bed and hug him. Sometimes I’ll find you, tired, head snuggled into Jak’s bed, trying to fall asleep. You love playing with his squeaky toys. You love throwing them for him and watching him chase after them. You play tug-o-war with them. You are also growing very cheeky with him. Last night Daddy was feeding both of you Twisties. He’d give Jak and Twistie. Then he’d give you one. When you got one, you’d lean over Jak and screw your little face up with pure taunting: “haha I’ve got a Twistie and you haven’t!”
We moved house this month. It’s been a busy time for mummy and daddy. And, typically, as if things weren’t hectic and stressful enough, you have chosen this month to decide that sleep is seriously over-rated. You have been waking up to six times a night! Which isn’t so much of a problem if you’d go back to sleep. But you don’t always. Roughly every other night you decide that you don’t want to go back to sleep. It can take three hours to convince you to lie back down and sleep. And often I’ll tiptoe back to bed, lie down and just start to doze off, when you wake up screaming again. I’m almost to the point where my body simply will not sit up again. I’m so exhausted. You have slept more nights in our bed this month than ever before in your life. Because, by 3am in the morning, I just need to get some sleep. So to heck with bad habits and all that. At this point in time, sleep is the most important thing in this house.
I have been wondering though, if it might be the cows milk that is causing you discomfort. Because you always seem to have a pain in your tummy during the night. Just to see, I’ve put you onto goats milk (because you’ll drink that) and gradually I’m going to introduce soy milk into your diet. Gradually, I say, because I’ve given it to you before and you haven’t liked it. So we’ll try again. I hope it helps.
Living in a new house has given you lots of new things to explore and play with. You discovered with delight that the kitchen cupboard doors open in this new house. That has amused you no end. And it has frustrated me no end. I seem to spend half of my time chasing you out of the kitchen, or racing around putting things back in cupboards. Or taking things out of cupboards before you can get to them.
You are enjoying the tiled floor in our new living area. It is just great for pushing the dining chairs around on. Daddy and I can barely hear ourselves think, or communicate with each other, for the sound of chairs dragging over tiles. You’ve also finally grown tall enough that you’re able to clamber up onto the chairs. This combination has had a dramatic effect in our house. You can now drag the chairs anywhere you like and have access to all sorts of things that had been previously out of reach.
You are increasingly testing the waters of what you can and can’t do. I’m so tired at the moment that I have to say I’m not really looking forward to the battle of wills that is so obviously commencing. All I can do is be persistent. This last month has tested me though and I’m feeling slightly the worse for wear. Don’t get me wrong, Rabbit, I love you dearly. But right now what I wouldn’t do for a week holiday all on my own with no responsibilities and no demands. Sigh.
You are clever. Oh yes, you are clever. Yesterday we saw you fiddling with the cupboard under the sink. You had it open as far as it would open, given that it has a child safety latch. And there you were, reaching inside, fiddling with the latch, trying to push it open. You had worked out what held it closed.
Your vocabulary has increased slightly this month, but you still show no signs of really wanting to talk. You are really good at the word “more”. Usually uttered with a definite exclamation mark at the end. “Hoh” means hot and is usually said with a hand held up like a stop sign. Lately it seems to have extended to also mean “I’m not allowed to touch this!”. “Bobber” is definitely “Bob the Builder”. Monkeys go “eeh eeh eeh”. Snakes go “ssst”. Cows are so last year. They no longer do anything at all, it would seem. Dogs go “woo woo woo”, so fast that your chin wobbles.
You are happy to play away from me now and are more interested in interacting with other children. It’s wonderful to see. There for a while I wondered if you were going to be excessively shy, as you’d clutch hold of me whenever we were out. And, in this respect, childcare has been good for you.
However, you are still sick 90% of the time. Last week I had to take you to the doctor’s three times in two days. You had a terrible fever – nearly 40 degrees – all weekend. It turned out you had tonsillitis and an ear infection. No sooner had that started to clear up than you developed a little red rash all over your torso. Back to the doctor we went. He thought it might have been german measles, even though you’ve been vaccinated. Or it could have been any number of viral infections that cause a rash. In his learned opinion. It wasn’t until the next day when I was talking to another mummy whose children had had parvovirus, that I realized that was probably what you had. A fever followed by a rash over your torso and the tell-tale “slapped cheek” rash on your face.
You had a first this month. Your first hair cut! You were so good. And you look so grown up now. Not too grown up. Well, yes, too grown up.
Before
During
After
Love you!
Mummy
I have to say, that things have improved greatly with both sickness and sleeping since I wrote this a week ago. Touch wood! It may just appear that cows milk doesn't agree with him. Someone said today though that I should check out whether it's OK to give soy milk to boys - something to do with hormones in the soy beans? Anyone know anything about that? He does love goats milk but at $3.50 a litre, I'm interested in a cheaper alternative.
OK, that's enough for today!
Kathie
