It’s all about the walking this month. Oh and cows’ milk and sleep....
1. Walking. R is an expert independent walker and can make it most of the way across the room before grabbing hold of something or sitting down for a rest. She is very co-ordinated and upright – must take after her father! G is more reliant on having things to hold on to: she is very confident when she’s pushing a walker or when one of us is holding her hand but is still very wobbly (with a sticky-out bum!) on her own.
2. Drink. The girls are now on full-fat cows’ milk full-time now. We finally completed the transition from formula at the end of January. R was more reluctant to change than G and refused her bedtime bottle for a couple of weeks but they are both fine with it now. G guzzles 8oz morning and night and R around 5-6oz.
3. Food. They have switched and R now eats more than G in an average day. G goes through phases where she eats everything you put in front of her and suddenly she’ll refuse things she normally loves. I’m just trying to be consistent – sticking to the same meal times, not commenting on G’s poor eating but making a point of praising R for eating so well. They still have 5 meals a day – breakfast (cereal, toast and a beaker of water), mid-morning snack (finger foods and water), cooked lunch (mains and dessert with water), mid-afternoon snack (finger foods and water) and tea (sandwiches or crumpets or crackers and cheese or chicken dippers, waffles and veg, followed by a banana or raisins).
4. Teeth. They still only have 6 each. I think that’s all they are going to get!
5. Weight. Absolutely no idea – I’ll get back to you on that one
6. Standing. They both stand unaided for long periods of time and can stand up, stoop down to pick things up and stand back up again.
7. Climbing. They have learnt to climb into and over things. I have no idea how. I seem to spend a large part of my days rescuing them from mildly perilous situations
8. Dancing. G now does a little ‘screwing in a lightbulb’ movement with her wrist when she’s dancing, which is hilarious!
9. Chatting. R is queen of TA! TA! She says it when she gives things, receives things, when she wants you to take something, all the time really. It seems to be her catch-all word. G is starting to pick up on it but uses it more indiscriminately i.e. she says ta and keeps hold of the thing she was offering to you. G picks up her toy telephone and says ‘Hiya’ when she puts the receiver to her ear. They both say Mamama and Dadada all the time now. They are still babbling away to us and each other and R gets very annoyed when we don’t understand what she’s trying to tell us!
10. Motor skills. I’m so chuffed with their ability to play with complex toys. G uses her stubby little index finger to push buttons and make things work. R will spend ages figuring out how a toy works before mastering it.
11. Naps. The long afternoon nap from 12.30pm until about 2.30pm seems to be working pretty well. I don’t let them sleep after 3pm as I’m concerned it might affect their bedtime routine. They don’t seem to be missing the morning nap that much although R could probably do with a little 15 minute power-nap mid-morning.
12. Sleep. G’s sleep is so erratic (a few good nights followed by some indifferent ones interspersed with some unbearably bad nights) that we’ve resorted to a ‘faces’ chart to monitor it. A good night’s sleep (goes down well, doesn’t stir during the night, sleeps past 5am) is rewarded with a smiley face. An indifferent night (difficult to put down, might stir briefly in the night, wakes before 5am) gets a straight face. A bad night (you can imagine) gets a sad face. We’re on a bit of a run of sad faces at the moment, interspersed with the occasional indifferent face. Not good. The chart isn’t a reward/punishment thing, it’s just to monitor her sleep behaviour. It seems to be pretty random.
13. Cross-stitch project. As predicted, my progress has slowed down considerably and I’ve completed just over a quarter of it.
So, what’s coming up? I think we’re going to have to bite the bullet and get the girls’ measured for their first proper shoes. I’d like to get them saying more actual words rather than lots of babble with the occasional comprehensible word somewhere in the mix. Oh and I wouldn’t mind a decent night’s sleep!