30 December 2010
We've finally sorted the girls' bedroom
It is possible I may have overdone the wall stickers
28 December 2010
This is the first night I've outstayed Roz
She's still in insane, constipated baby mode, and so not eating very much, but having several feeds during the night. That, or waking up to clench her buttocks and wail 'poo-poo, poo-poooo!' As a consequence I haven't been having very much sleep and, although the girls both love their new bunk bed, it does mean having to get out of my own bed to feed her if she's wailing.
She's been happy as Larry about being home with us every day so far, but if we don't get out by the end of the evening both girls are fighting to sit on my lap, and pushing at each other and wailing. Yeah it's hard to take pictures of them then, because I'm usually stopping myself from shouting 'Arrgh, monkeys, shut up!'
When they're not being nuts they're great. As Roz's speech clarifies, it's quite interesting to realise that she speaks in phrases already. Alex said he only realised one day as he was carrying her to her bath. As she wailed and wriggled, he realised she was wailing 'want to get down, want to get down'. It's a bit hard to replicate her speech as she picks and chooses consonants at will. And she only manages about four: w, c, d, and b.
Similarly it's getting easier now to guess what the gobbledygook she says might be, and she's usually very pleased if you guess right. Even if it all sounds a lot like 'bibby' or 'deddy'.
So if she comes up to you and grabs both hands and goes 'Ro, ro! Ro! Bot!' That's Row, Row, Row Your Boat she wants you to sing. If she's holding her foot going 'piddy', that's This Little Piggy. Pointing to her palm and saying 'deddy' means Round and Round the Garden. And if she's saying 'chocyate', yes, chocolate she says quite clearly.
She's also learning that we now finally understand her and in the last month or so, definitely since the grommet insertions, she's learned not just to say more but to try and speak as well. She loves copying Izzy.
Once when Alex was reading them a story that Izzy wanted to read out loud herself, she shouted (giggling, not quite as rude as it sounds) 'Shut your mouth, Daddy!' And put her hand over Alex's mouth. Roz immediately parroted 'Shut mouth, Daddy!' with absolutely accurate copying of inflections, and also put her hand over Alex's mouth.
God almighty help you if they've both had too much sugar and decide to start running into your legs. Roz will run right up to you and hook her arms round both legs, just below your knee. Not much push but you never know whether her head is still in front or has gone round the back, which makes it really difficult to try and judge which way to fall. So it's very stressful.
Izzy prefers the push into your thigh or bum, quite hard actually. She's really getting quite strong and is quite capable of pushing me over. And if both of them are doing this at the same time, I'm usually thinking god, when can I get back to work?
Poor Roz. Ever since a particularly painful poo or two about two months back she's been quite afraid of going. So every time she needs one now, she locks her hip to one side and really clenches. She manages to hold it back a few days at a time and then just has to go and usually manages to do several small poos throughout a day, before giving in and having to have the big one, usually accompanied by a lot of wailing.
I do feel quite sorry for her because she does sound very distressed usually. But when you get to about the fifth or sixth wail of the day and that obstinate clenching, it really drives you insane. Even regularly lacing her food with lactulose doesn't really help. Or rather I suppose it helps me to know that it's not really painful because her poos aren't hard. But Roz really is nothing if not stubborn. We've pointed out the vegetable-fruit connection to the poos but she resolutely insists on not having any.
We've even gone down the direct blackmail route of no veg-no dessert now. But that doesn't work either. Today Izzy scoffed her pudding in front of Roz and even though Roz stared longingly at it and gestured more than a couple of times to have some, every time we pointed to the broccoli on her plate she'd stubbornly shake her head and purse her lips. And forgo the pudding. C'est la vie.
Once this Christmas is over we're just going to have to exorcise the house of goodies or find better hiding places for them, especially now Izzy knows to push a chair next to the cupboard to reach the hoard... which she then tends to leave around for Roz.
All this focus on Roz has made me feel a bit guilty about Izzy recently. Because Roz is such a wailer, I'm usually cuddling her and I think sometimes Izzy feels a bit left out. Especially because if there's a fight for my lap, she has to give in. I suppose though she does get a bit more time with me in the afternoons, before we pick Roz from nursery.
She's gotten a bit more self-conscious since school. I've been warned several times not to tell her teacher, Miss Shield, about anything that happens at home. 'I don't want you to tell her what I do.' This was after saying something about practising her line in the nativity show, I think. On the whole I usually do pretty well but I did slip spectacularly recently.
After a classmate's party, she enthused she was going to marry her new best friend Elsie. As it happened the following Monday Elsie and her mom were walking behind us on the way to school and her mom told us Izzy was invited to Elsie's party in the new year, but that the invite was in the class Christmas card post box, so she was afraid we might not get it in time (it was about a day before the school broke up for the holidays). I said Izzy would love to be there, especially since she was planning to marry Elsie now, and then saw poor Izzy squirming, out of the corner of my eye. O well. Next time I'm sure I'll remember to shut up.
The whole family
25 December 2010
24 December 2010
23 December 2010
A bit of pamper time with no 1
22 December 2010
Izzy's nativity play
What you can't hear her say 'I was a bit shy' is: A long time ago, very far away, there lived a man called Joseph. And he had a wife called Mary, who was about to have a baby.
That was originally one sentence but I felt justified in editing it by inserting a full stop. How they ever expected a five-year-old to say that without breathing is beyond me.
17 December 2010
14 December 2010
13 December 2010
It's Christmas carols at the nursery
11 December 2010
06 December 2010
04 December 2010
School nativity time
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