From the text message …

Ada Janette Brown Patterson born this morning at 1:44am, 3kg (6lbs 10oz), Mum and Ada well. Linus was a bit surprised but very happy! Dad stoked, all tired.

Watch this space for updates (and better photos)

Bug = 1 year 9 months 23 days
Bub = due in 32 days

Polite Child

After he’s blown off, we’ve taught Bug to say “Pardies“. His learning was a progression: at first, we said it for him; then we said it and he repeated it; then we asked him “What do you say?” and he said it; and now he says it without prompting.

Go Go Go!

Granny has taught Bug to say “Go!“. She taught him this in the context of a musical Christmas decoration. Whenever it stopped, she’d encourage him to say “Go! Go!” until it started again. Now Daddy uses it when he’s starting the car.

Daddy may also have taught Bug to say “Go!” (so I’ve just been informed!). A couple of months ago he played a bedtime game with Bug where he (Daddy) would get him (Bug) to stand at the end of the bed and – when Daddy said “Go!” – Bug would throw himself forward onto the bed. (I’m sure Daddy will comment to correct me on the finer points of the game!)

Bug = 1 year 9 months 23 days
Bub = due in 32 days

Mummy Guilts

Bug is very regularly spending Saturday nights with his Granny and Pop-pop now. As we drive away on Saturday afternoons, waving to Bug in his Granny’s arms, I always feel a little guilty. Because I work half-time, I don’t actually spend a lot of time alone with my wee boy, and I feel like a bad mummy “offloading” him to other people so often.

But then I look at the huge smiles on Bug’s and Granny’s faces, and think about all the lovely things they’ll tell us they’ve done when we go to pick Bug up on Sunday afternoon, and remember how much Granny and Pop-pop seem to love having him around, and remind myself how astonishingly (almost annoyingly!) well he sleeps at Granny’s, and my guilty feelings seem foolish.

The Big and Little Pleasures

There are big pleasures involved in having Bug away for a night, like:

• going out for a meal on Saturday night;
• having a long bath;
• sleeping in on Sunday morning;
• doing as little or as much as we want over the course of the weekend;
• uninterrupted computer time.

But there are also tiny pleasures that we feel just as much as the big ones, such as:

• leaving the front door wide open;
• leaving the bathroom door wide open;
• putting things beside the front door that we need to remember to take out with us;
• popping out on a whim for a coffee or movie or brunch or drive;
• going to any room in the house and make as much noise as we want at any time of night;
• doing everything at our own pace without consideration of nappies, mealtimes, or bedtimes.

Of course while we’re indulging in all these pleasures, we definitely miss our little boy! The other night Bob tried tackling Squee to the floor and tickling her to death. Her nonplussed reaction was a painful reminder of how much fun Bug is to be around!

Christmas Lights

Yesterday we stayed in Mosgiel for tea, and put Bug down to sleep there at 7pm. At 9pm he woke up, so we decided it was time to go home. As we left, Bob suggested that we go and check out the houses decorated with Christmas lights in Waldronville. We thought that Bug was at an age where he’d appreciate the lights, and since his bedtime routine was already disturbed and Waldronville was (sort of) on our way home, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to disrupt him on this special occasion.

Well.

He enjoyed the lights. Not much more to say about that.

But our phenomenally good, easy little sleeper was at his wits’ end when we tried to put him to bed at 11pm! He cried and cried! Mummy, Daddy, and nursing all failed to calm him down over the course of half an hour. Eventually Daddy managed to placate him (plus spend a couple of hours sleeping on his bed with him!), and all was well for the rest of the night.

Bug woke at his normal hour this morning, bright as a button. However his mood deteriorated, and I ended up putting him down for a nap – with no hint of argument from him – at the ridiculously early time of 10am. He had a long (2 hour) sleep, but was still quite moody and needy for the rest of the day, and nearly fell asleep on me at 5:30pm. He eventually went to bed a little earlier than usual (7:30pm), and hopefully we won’t hear from him until 7am!

Bug = 1 year 9 months 15 days
Bub = due in 40 days

In the past Bug had almost exclusively played with Squee (our tabby). The reason for this is that she is a bit of a push over – literally even, Bug would go up to her and push her over and she would sprawl out on the floor. She doesn’t mind (too much) being dragged around the lounge by one leg, or even when Bug lies on her … well, in the past maybe but now he’s a huge lump so I imagine that wouldn’t go down well.

Jasper (our ginger) has always been there, lurking and dashing past, but has never wanted to play the same way as Squee does. He’ll often bolt for the cat door when Bug comes yelling down the hallway which is not really that surprising I suppose.

However, nowadays, Squee hardly gets a look in as Bug has shifted his attention to Jasper. Bug always points at Jasper saying “bah-dah” in delight, followed by “Weeeee!” if she’s present. Outside things take on a different tone, as Jasper suddenly has a full 360 degree exit strategy and he is more than happy to play with Bug. The favourite pastimes so far have been squirting the hose and getting Jasper to chase the water (something he’s loved since he was a baby, er kitten) and the other is the good old string-and-bag trick.

Oh, and something I mentioned earlier was that Bug says “bah-dah” instead of “Jasper”. I was determined to teach him how to say it properly, and I have established that he can say “Jas” and “bah” (which is perfect), and will even repeat after me if I lead him in a chant of “Jas, Bah, Jas, Bah” but as soon as I run them together before he has had time to utter the first “Jas” then he pauses for a slight moment and reverts to “bah-dah”. Arrgh, it drives me crazy!

Bug = 1 year 9 months 15 days
Bub = due in 40 days

Bug has spontaneously started doing two new things today that are both quite exciting and – needless to say – very cute.

His Name

The first happened just after I had been chasing him around a church hall at a picnic today. Once I picked him up, he got the cutest grin on his face and started saying in a sing-song voice (probably mimicking me!) “I-niss! I-niss!“. It didn’t take long to work out that he was saying “Linus”. He still doesn’t quite grasp that it’s his name, but he’s enjoying saying it.

Looking for Us

The second thing he started today was saying “Daddy (/Mummy)… Where are you?“. The first time he said it I suspected that I was imagining it… it came out of nowhere: it wasn’t something we prompted or from any particular game we play with him. But he repeated it later in the afternoon, and this time there was no doubting (from the context rather than the enunciation) what he was saying.

Whoops!

Another (non-new) gorgeous thing Bug says is whoops/oops/oopsie. We’ve encouraged him to say this when he falls over, and he’s very keen on it (as are we – it’s much better than him grizzling!). It’s a little annoying that he’s recently taken to using it after he’s done something deliberately naughty or messy though.