When the cat is away the mouse will play ....and eat

The coast is clear to eat .

19 months, 20.6 lbs, below the third percentile, just like his sister. People are always commenting on how Finlay has a different build than Heather and is bigger and broader than she ever was. That is until you lift him, he looks heavier than he feels and appears broader than he is. However he eats double what Heather eats.
He loves his porridge, blueberries and ground nuts and toast plus extra fruit and then often by 0930 he is standing by the fridge, screaming for more food and snacks. He loves his Mamma's homemade rice pudding, apple crumble and apple pie. Also her home made tomato, spinach and Parmesan pasta sauce which I can hide lots of great stuff and of course her chickpea and choc chip cookies (with raisins and walnuts and lots of chick peas!!!!!), which are also a hit with Heather.

I have great conversations and recipe swaps with friends to deceive my children !!!!!

But as long as I can get them to eat well, I feel happy.

"Best get it in while I can!!"

He has been off the bottle know for a month, at long last, that was quite the process and I have finally thrown them out and he is very happy with the straw sippy cup. He no longer needs a bottle at bedtime and is happy to climb up the stairs with his sister and head off into his room after story time.

By 06.30 they are both wide awake raring to go. I hear heather wake up, out of bed to gather her blanket, teddy and a book. She comes into our room with a huge big smile on her face asking if it is daytime yet, I get a big hug and then clambers into bed for stories. Then it is the big rush to get dressed before Finlay realises how hungry he is.

Naebdy's Bairn

Finlay is experimenting with movement, a lot of it to music, however he has been spotted enjoying the feeling of walking backwards into walls, jumping of the hearth, scooting back on his bum, taking his shoes for a walk on his hands and the funniest one was when I caught him trying to walk with his trousers pulled up to his knees.

He is 19 months and turning into quite the boy, throwing balls and stones, playing with trucks and cars with the sound effects and starting to stand up to is big sister, protecting his toys and his food. Heather is finding it more and more difficult to just take things away from Finlay and although we have been working on the trading game for many months now, she is finally seeing the benefit that it can produce. We have been trying to work on the little pushes and shoves that she sometimes delivers to Finlay, and telling her that one day Finlay will do the same back to her....
Well today was that day. This morning Finlay went up to Heather and gave her a little push, she didn't fall but she knew what he was trying to do. This made her stop and think and said. " I need to teach Finlay to do nice things !!"
She is now aware that he is copying her. At the table banging the cutlery or the cup, laughing, playing peek-a-boo behind the sippy cup, dropping food and shouting and screaming when they are done. Sometimes this encourages her to do all the mischievous things so that Finlay will copy her.

They are now playing well together and enjoy jumping off the hearth, chasing each other round the couch, round the kitchen bin, hiding in the den, dancing to music, climbing up and down the stairs, playing in the sand pit and racing down the slides.They do get on well most of the time and we can see the companionship building.

However it doesn't take long sometimes, when they are sharing the same space for too long, that things get fraught, sharing is hard and being the younger brother can be troublesome. But Finlay is beginning to figure Heather out, he protect his space when he can, protecting his toys is hard but he has learned to protect his food and will go into a corner and hunch his shoulders round whatever snack he has!!!!

The great things kids say

Kids are innocent, yet naturally so informed. They say some funny things and they say some very true and clever things too.
While Heather and I were skating one day, we watched a man fell a tree on the golf course. She stopped and observed the whole thing, ending with the tree crashing down. After the tree had fallen she asked me if it would grow back again, and I said no. Then she said " Well yes, I think it will the seeds will grow and turn into a tree!" Well yes there is some element of truth in that.

When playing together, it can usually be a hard concept to share and Heather is often taking things from Finlay and we are teaching her about trading for toys. Well one afternoon they were both playing with the train set and things started to escalate. I was trying to remind them about sharing the train set and that it belonged to both of them. Well Heather then turned and mentioned back "Well when Finlay was in your tummy, it was my train set!" Again...true enough!!!

Heather is engrossed in princesses, princes, castles and ballrooms. For the longest time Heather was a princess, Daddy was her prince, Mummy was the fairy godmother and Finlay was the little mouse!!!
Well not so long ago we were all in the truck together. Heather started to tell us that "Daddy is mummy's prince. Finlay is my little prince and when we get older Finlay and I will get married!"

Finlay has a few little words to say at the moment. These are
" Hot"
" Hat"
" Up"
" Car"
" No!!"
He loves to wave and say "Haoooo!!!" and "Bye!!" and blow kisses to you. Just recently he has been doing soooo much screaming which I am trying desperately to ignore and try to convince myself that once he has more vocabulary then he will be less frustrated....but boy is he loud!!!!
So much so that Heather will sit at the table put her hands on her ears and says "Stop screaming, make him stop!!!"

I am with her all the way, but I have a feeling that he gets it from her!!!

However he makes many sounds and noises and as a mum I know exactly what he is talking about!!!