Jack at 16 Months

Well, I must say, this last month has been so much fun with Jack. Every week he gets more and more interactive with us. We're always amazed by how much he understands and processes. It's fantastic. He is such a lovely little boy.

Signing
These last few days Jack's signing for "food" and "finished" has really improved. I was quite surprised when I asked him if he'd like some food and he signed "please" and then "food", and yesterday he signed "food" without my having to say the word at all (although, I'm not sure that he wanted any food as when I offered it to him, he didn't want it!).

Talking
Yesterday we went to the park. Jack loves going down the slide, and he giggles and laughs every time we went down. Before we went down I'd say, "One, two, three - yay!". After a while of doing this, I heard Jack saying "di, da, dee - yay!". I wasn't really sure what he was saying at first, but I eventually figured it out and I was so surprised that he had picked it up so quickly. I guess they say things all the time, but because their words don't sound exactly like "real" words, we don't realise. I think he also says, "Oh, dear", but I'm not too sure.

Jack's other new word has been "goggy". He says it when he says our sheep or chickens. Actually, I think he says it when he sees any animal. We've been showing him pictures of animals and saying their name, but he'll still say, "goggy".

Mobility
Jack is a super walker now. He is always on the move and walks around everywhere exploring. He's also started to run. This has posed a few problems, especially when his feet can't keep up him his desire to run and he ends up doing a face-plant on the ground, usually biting into his lip and bleeding everywhere. What's also been great to watch is that Jack has been trying to jump. I think this has come from jumping on the trampoline with his cousins. I never thought about how hard it is to learn to do this until I watched Jack try to do it. He has worked out the action and he tries so hard, but he just hasn't worked out how to get his feet off the ground. He loves doing it, though. We often say to him, "jump!", and he'll stop what he's doing and jump, and say "ump" while he does it. He loves it when we jump with him and cracks up when he sees us do it.

Sleeping
Things have been relatively settled with Jack's sleeping. His night sleeping is still going so well. He goes down at 7pm and wakes up between 6am and 7am. When I go to bed I pop some toys in his cot so that when he wakes up in the morning he'll play with his toys (well, usually!) so we don't have to get him up straight away.

I'm still giving him 2 day naps. There are some days where he will only have one nap. On Fridays he won't sleep in the morning at mothers group. I keep trying each week, but he just refuses to. Luckily, I've been able to get him down at bible study on Thursday mornings, which I didn't expect. There are some days when he'll have a morning nap but won't want an afternoon nap. His naps are never longer than 1 1/2 hours, usually only 1 hour. I thought he'd start to have a really long nap at some point in the day, but he doesn't. Even if he only has one nap, it still isn't that long. I think I'll just keep giving him 2 naps and just see what happens.. He's been happy when he's awake, so he's getting enough sleep.

Discipline
This is typically up and down. With some things, Jack is really good and does what we ask him to do. When he has something he shouldn't have, we'll say, "ta" and he'll give it to us - sometimes! When it's something he really likes, he'll run away. He is obsessed with running on to the road at the moment and will ignore us when we tell him to stop or come back. Luckily for us, we're quicker and stronger than he is!

I'm trying to teach him to finish eating one thing before he starts one something else. This comes down to the battle of the wills, as is often the case with parenting. There are some things I'm determined to win and my will needs to be stronger than his, and this is one of them. Sometimes, Jack will understand and finish what he's got, but other times he refuses. One time he wanted to eat my muesli, but I wanted him to finish his toast first. He refused and threw his toast on the floor (how do you stop them from throwing their food and drink on the floor?!). I was determined to win this battle so I kept explaining the situation. Eventually, I took him out of his high chair and moved him away from the situation. A while later, I offered him his toast again and he ate it, and then he got to eat his muesli. What a morning!

We're still using time-out and, at times, he'll get a smack on the hand. At the moment, time-out is more effective than the smacking. Sometimes he "gets" the whole discpline thing, but most of the time, he doesn't quite understand it. He does understand "no", though, and he knows when to throw a tantrum and cry when he doesn't get his own way. Luckily, those tantrums never last long and they're usually pretty half-hearted.

Thumb Sucking
Jack is still an avid thumb-sucker. Over the last couple of months he's been sucking his thumb more during the day when he's awake. We're trying to teach him that sucking his thumb is only for sleeping. So, when we see his thumb in his mouth, we say, "thumb out". Up until the last week or so, he didn't really respond to our instruction and we'd have to take it out ourselves, which usually resulted in him having a bit of a whinge and putting it straight back in. Now, he understands what we're saying and takes it out straight away, which is so good. But, he does, at times, put it straight back in, like he's taunting us! What's been good is that his grandparents and aunts and uncles have been saying "thumb out" to him as well, so he can't escape, there's always somebody harassing him!

Eating
This last month Jack has been eating so well. What he eats has really expanded. At dinner, we'll give him some steamed vegies to eat before his meat, and he'll happily eat his broccoli, zucchini, carrot, etc., although he's still a bit suspicious of some food! He's still obsessed with cheese and he's rather fond of grapes, too. These are great to have on hand when I'm out and I need to keep him entertained.

He absolutely loves plums at the moment. The other morning he kept point at the fruit bowl, saying "this" and signing "please". I kept picking up various fruit and offering it to him, but he kept shaking his head, until I got to the plum and then he giggled and signed "please" and subsequently ate two plums! I have no idea how he knew what a plum was and that he knew that he liked it, but he was so determined to have it and I'm certainly not going to say no to him wanting to eat fruit. Now, every morning he'll ask for a plum before he eats anything else. I just hand the fruit whole to him and he'll eat it all, minus the stone.

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

6:30/7:00am - Wake, breakfast, play
10:00am - Nap
11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
2.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Jack at 15 Months

Ok, I admit, it's been a while since I lost posted. Things have been super busy and I've been caught up sewing, sewing, sewing! This week is a more quiet week. I've just had a friend over, with her 2 1/2 year old twins, for morning tea. Jack's asleep, so I thought now would be a good time to sit down and post something.

So, how is Jack going? He's going really well. He's at a really adorable age right now. Since he started walking, he's changed quite a bit. He's very active and wants to be Mr. Independent. So, we've had to adjust our parenting with these new changes. He's talking more, too. Most of the day we hear "this", "gone", "this", "pease", "this", "cheese", "this". It's great that he can communicate more clearly with us.

Signing
This is just fantastic. I'm so glad I taught Jack to sign "please". He is really good at it and he'll do it for everything, making it so much easier to know what he wants. When he points to something he'll also say "pease", so it's obvious to us he's seen something he'd like. It's so good that he's saying please now. He's also signing "finished". It's not consistent, but occasionally when we ask him if he's finished, he'll sign "finished" and say "gone". We think that he says gone because his grandparents would say "all gone" when he's finished eating something. Very occasionally he'll sign "food", but this one hasn't been all that successful. When I ask him if he wants some food and I'll sign "food" as I say it, he'll either sign "please" (which is most of the time) or he'll sign "food".

I think teaching Jack to sign has been one of the best things we've done so far. Even though he can understand verbal language, he can't do it himself, so being able to sign what he wants allows him to communicate with us, preventing him from having to cry or whine when he wants something.

Talking
Jack is talking more now. He hasn't necessarily learnt any more words, but the frequency of his talking has increased. Every time he drops something he says, "gone". When he wants something he'll say "pease". I've just realised that when he sees cheese (which he LOVES), he'll say "cheese". I thought he was saying "pease", but he was actually saying "cheese". When he gives me something, he'll say "ta". He's always saying "daddy". One time we'll in the car and he said, "daddy gone". I'm trying to get him to say "mummy", but he just won't. Even though he sees me the most, he won't even utter a "mum", let alone "mummy". Typical, isn't it?

Walking
Jack's walking was really impressive. Once he started, he didn't stop. Even though he kept falling over, he'd get back up and keep going. We were really surprised by how quickly his walking developed. After about 2 weeks, he was walking really well. Now, he's walking all the time. Gone are the days where he would sit and play in the ONE spot for ages! He barely will spend 2 minutes playing with something before he's off doing something else. It's funny. I thought I knew what Jack was like, now he's changed and is totally different.

Going out has changed dramatically. My child is now "that" child who walks around the coffee shop and won't sit still. We went to the Carrington for High Tea for a friend's birthday. Jack sat on my lap for the first little while and then we spent the rest of the time following him around and stopping him from walking out the door. Food would only occupy him for so long. Every time we picked him up, he'd arch his back and cry, or we'd try to hold his hand and he'd through his arms about and collapse on the floor and cry. A couple of times Dave had to take him outside and let him roam around on the grass. So, going out in public, especially to nice places, is going to be very difficult. I suspect that this is very normal, though. Please tell me it's normal!

Sleeping
Well, sleeping has been up and down. A month or so ago, things were really settled. Jack was having two sleeps - at 9am and 1pm - every day. It was pretty regular for his afternoon sleep to be nice and long. Since he's been walking, and since Daylight Savings kicked in, his day sleeps have been all over the place. For a couple of weeks he started to refuse to sleep. He would stand up in his cot and scream out to us, a real tantrum type of cry and really persistent. This was such a change in his behaviour that we didn't really know what to do. Whenever we left the room, he'd cry, so we'd stand next to his cot until he'd fall asleep. Eventually, I got sick of doing this, so I'd just leave and let him cry. From then on, we decided to just leave him to cry and eventually, he settled back down and he's now back to normal (as I'm typing this, Jack's just woken up after 60 mins sleep - grrrr.). I wish he'd go back to having longer sleeps during the day though!

I've been thinking for a while that I should transition him to one sleep a day since he often only has one sleep and the morning sleep isn't very long. But, I've been really uncertain about it. When he's with his grandparents, he'll sleep in the morning and afternoon (usually) and they'll be decent sleeps. At home, though he doesn't sleep for very long. I thought that if he only had the one nap, he'd have a longer nap. But, no. He barley sleeps for longer than 60 mins at home. What do I do?? I'm finding this really frustrating.

Discipline
This is still really hard as Jack can understand more now and I can tell when he's deliberately choosing not to do what I say, but I feel that he's not really at an age where he totally understands what's going on. We've been using the "time out" method. This seems to be working reasonably well. When Jack throws things on the floor, usually his food, I try to get him to pick it up. This is really difficult. He really doesn't want to and when I insist that he does it, he throws a tantrum. So, here I am, grabbing his hand, forcing him to pick up his food while he's throwing himself on the floor and crying. The joys of motherhood :-) His food throwing is a real issue for me. I really hate it when he throws his food, but I really don't know how to stop him from doing it.

Teeth
I thought I might mention that Jack's got his 4 front top teeth and 4 front bottom teeth now. He hasn't been bothered all that much by his teeth, well, not that I could tell.

Routine
Well, I'm not going to put our routine down this time as it's all over the place at the moment. I'm hoping that things will settle down soon...

Jack Starts Walking

Last Tuesday afternoon, Jack decided that he wanted to walk. He walked to and from his Grandma and myself a couple of times. For the first time he stood up from sitting, all by himself. He spent the next hour and a half walking, falling over and getting up, over and over and over again! I was really impressed with his persistence.

Jack's First Steps!!

Little Cutie

I've finally done a blog for my handmade baby merchandise. Please click here and have a look at my products.

Jack's First Word

We think Jack said his first word yesterday, "gone". He was in the bath and he wanted Dave to remove something from the bath that he didn't like. Dave took it away and said, "it's gone now." Jack replied, "gone" with a little hand twist. We couldn't believe it so we kept removing toys from his bath and saying "gone" and Jack kept replying "gone". It was very cool and totally unexpected.

He's been saying "go" (sounds like the "go" in "gone") when his food (or a toy) would fall off his high chair. He'd look down at it and say "go". When he's finished eating we'd say "all gone". His grandparents particularly say that to him while they rotate their hands. So, it seems like he's been building on that. Amazing.

Jack's Jig

Jack's started to shake his tale feather. See if you can spot it...

Hold Your Horses!

My very clever and creative friend, Erin, is opening her very own shop, Hold Your Horses. Erin will be selling vintage ladies, mens and children's clothes as well as new and vintage home wares with a particular emphasis on handmade, local children's products. What's really exciting is that she wants to buys some of my handmade bibs and baby shoes. That's very cool.

Her shop will be opening on November 6.

Check out her blog for more details.

Jack at 13months

Jack is getting more and more communicative and engaged in the world around him. It feels like he's doing something new each day. It's so special watching him grow up.

Signing
Jack is really good at signing "please" now. He does it for everything; when he wants me to pick him up, to help him move something, to give him food, to give him a toy, to read him a book, and so on. Often, if he starts to cry or whine, I'll say, "Stop. Would you like Mummy to help you?" and then he'll sign "please". We often don't have to prompt him, he just does it. It's just so good that he does it and I'm so glad I've taught it to him. It just makes things easier that he can communicate with us and we're able to understand what he wants. Although sometimes he'll avidly sign please and we have no idea what he wants :-)

He's also started to point, which is really cute. A couple of Jack's friends, Daisy & Sophie, have been ferocious "pointers" for ages, but Jack didn't shown any interest in it, until now. He now points to what he wants and then signs please. This makes it a bit easier to understand what he wants. Usually, he points at his books and signs please just before bed time, prolonging the inevitable. Yesterday, one of our friend's children, Chloe (age 8), whom Jack adores, walked through the front door. As soon as Jack saw her, he started pointing at her and signing please, over and over. He really wanted her to pick him up and play with him. It was really cute and amazing that his communication is transferring from one thing to another.

I've been trying to teach him "finished" and "food", but he hasn't quite picked these ones up as quickly as "please".

Talking
Jack's always been a babbler and hearing his little babbles is an absolute delight. He often says "ths", "adada", "dis", "broom", "ticka", etc. when he's playing. He tries to say shoe and he says "sh" and sometimes it sounds like he says "ta" and "peas". There are times when he looks like he's trying to say something to us and he'll say, "ca, cul, cul...". He looks like he's concentrating intently on telling you something very important.

Mobility
Jack is still a fervent believer that crawling is quicker and easier, so why walk? Every now and then he stands up by himself and I think once or twice he's taken a step, but as soon as he realises he's standing up, he sits back down. Even though he can stand up quite well, he still sits down. It's like he doesn't quite know what he should do next. He'll walk holding onto my finger now, which he wouldn't do previously.

We finally bought Jack a walker for his birthday and he LOVES it. He walks around with it for ages. He walks out the back door on to the deck, turns around and walks back in side, and turns around again to go back outside. Dave takes him up to the basketball courts with his walker and lets him walk around there, uninhibited, which is great for Jack. It's also a great Daddy & Jack time.

Sleeping
This is going well. He's settled back down into his usual routine. More often than not he'll have his morning nap (usually about 1 hour) and he'll definitely have an afternoon nap, which is still around 2 hours. His night sleeps are great, although he is waking a little earlier in the morning as the sun is now rising earlier. Bring on day-light savings, I say!

Playing
Jack has been playing really well by himself lately. He has a few favourite toys: wooden rings, colourful shapes, his "Little People", his soccer balls and Daddy's basketball. He particularly likes playing with balls and he especially loves to crawl around, hitting a ball with his hand and then chasing it. He'll often "hug" Dave's basketball, hold his mini soccer ball and try to crawl to take them to his play area. Eventually he realises that he can't do it and he'll bat them back with his hand. He's just learnt to throw the ball and to throw it to us, well, sometimes.

Eating
Jack eats really well. He has two weet-bix and a piece of toast for breakfast! He doesn't eat as much for the rest of the day, but he still eats pretty well. Sometimes he won't eat his dinner. I'm not sure if he's too tired to eat or he's being fussy. Either way, we try a few times and if he won't eat it, we leave it. Unfortunately, Jack's getting into the habit of spitting his food out, particularly if it's lumpy, or he doesn't like it, or he's not hungry. It's not a subtle spit either, it's loud and offensive. It's almost like he's blowing a raspberry; very hard to go unnoticed! I hate it, but there's not much I can do about it. I'm hoping it's a phase and he'll grow out of it soon.

Discipline
This is really hard! I feel like Jack deliberately ignores us when we say "no". He often smiles and thinks I'm being really funny, which I find infuriating. We've started to put some consequences in place if he doesn't listen to us. I tried smacking his hand, but he didn't really seem all that disturbed by it, so I started giving him time out. I put him on the floor next to the bookshelf and hold him there for 1 minute. This seems to be more effective than the smacking. I'm not sure if it's having any major affect on Jack and his behaviour, but I feel like we should be doing something to teach him to listen to us.

There are times when Jack will shake his head when he sees something he's not allowed to touch, but I'm still not sure if he completely understands. Other times I think that he deliberately goes to where he knows he's not supposed to in order to get our attention. Children are smart little cookies, aren't they?

Working
I feel very ambivalent about being back at work. I've managed to get a great job-share arrangement where I only go into to work on Mondays and Tuesdays. I'm really enjoying being at work only two days. I have a very small work load and I'm not getting involved in all the unpleasant things at work. It's really manageable. Though, sometimes I have to pull myself back from getting too involved and doing too much. On the other hand, I'm missing being at home those two days and I'm noticing that I don't have as much time - surprise, surprise. I do like being at work when I'm there, but I love being at home, spending time with Jack and having the time to do the things that need to be done, as well as the things I enjoy.

We're so lucky that we have both of Jack's grandparents very close by and they look after Jack one day a week. They have a great time with Jack and I know that Jack really enjoys seeing them. He's developing really good relationships with his grandparents, which is so good. I have noticed that on Wednesday, after he's been looked after on Monday and Tuesday by his grandparents, Jack is a little more unsettled. Hopefully he won't be like that for much longer as he gets used to it.

Routine
Here's what our days when I'm at home are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

On the days I work:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast (sometimes) go to Granny's or Grandma and Grandpa's
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
4.00/5.00pm - Get picked up by mum and go home (or stay for dinner)
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Jack's First Birthday Party

Jack had an absolute blast on his birthday. He really enjoyed his party. We had a morning tea at our place where we invited our family and friends to help us celebrate his first birthday.

Here are some photos (thanks to our friends Christie & Glenn). A bit late...but better late than never.

Granny & Jack

According to Granny, Jack snatched the chocolate cake out of her hands and ate it himself...hmmm

Uncle Chris & Jack

Dave made coffees for everyone.

Jack's birthday cake made by Granny.

Jack's Aunty Sarah made a cupcake tower for the children.

Jack's friend, Sophie (daughter of Christie & Glenn).

Sophie and Jazmin (daughter of Elvira & Jason, from MG).

Another friend of Jack's, Geordie (son of Lauren & Geoff, from MG).

Jack with Uncle Phil.

My Mothers Group friends - Geoff (married to Lauren), Lauren, Geordie & Christie.

Nina (daughter of Dom & Aud, from Brisbane) sussing out one of our sheep, Lolly.

Caleb, Rob & Isaac with our other sheep, Harry.


More Mothers Group friends: Machi, Lana (daughter of Machi & Lachlan), Erin and me.

Lana.

Friends from church: Rachel, Daniel, Jack & Uncle Paul.

Elvira & Sophie.

Claire, Daniel, Rachel & Lauren.

Uncle Paul with his daughter, Yu-Jen.

Jack & me as we're singing 'Happy Birthday'.


Dave bringing out the cupcakes for the kids. Isaac is in the foreground.

Caleb, Chloe & Isaac.

Sam with Sophie
(one of my good friends from MG. I play netball with Sam and we see each other throughout the week. Sam's daughter, Daisy couldn't be at the party).

Christie with her daughter, Sophie
(another of my good friends from MG. Christie & I do some personal training together every week).

Erin, Lana and Thea. This photo encapsulates my Mothers Group.

Yummy chocolate crackles, made by Grandma (Noelene). What would a children's party be without chocolate crackles?

Jack with Granny & Grandpa.

The birthday boy himself.

Elijah. We put a box of toys and balls in the backyard, in the same area as the swing set and some children's tables, just next to the sheep pen. It was like a little playground for the children, which worked really well.

Jack with his friend, Chloe, whom he absolutely adores.


Erin & Jack (another good friend from MG).

Thea's little boy, Harper.

Me, Jack & Erin. I love this photo.

Me & Jack.


Granny, Me and Grandpa.

Grandma & Jack.