Bug = 4 years 2 months
Bub = 2 years 4 months Linus at this age
Bud = 8 months 7 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

The other day Linus was enjoying exploring a place called Ellis Park (about 5 minutes drive from our place). I got a bit bored, so I left him there.

Later on when I returned to check on him, he was miles and miles away driving down Three Mile Hill Rd towards Mosgiel.

And thus Linus meets Google Maps and Google Street View…

Bug = 4 years 2 months
Bub = 2 years 4 months Linus at this age
Bud = 8 months 4 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

Sweet Zoe

Zoe has decided this week that she just doesn’t want to nap (although she’s is sleeping brilliantly ALL evening from 7pmish, which is fabulous!).

At Playcentre on Monday Zoe wouldn’t sleep in the cot or on my back, and FINALLY went to sleep in a borrowed buggy.

Darling Ada

On Tuesday we were planning a home day, so I thought I’d be able to catch her up on her sleep a little, but mid-morning Linus gave Ada a shove (I wasn’t a witness) and she fell onto some Duplo blocks. She hit her temple hard and bled a lot from a small but wide gash, so I took her to our GP to get checked out. She was patched up with a single Steri-Strip and was otherwise fine.

Cherished Zoe

Yesterday, with Linus and Ada staying away at Nana’s, I got a LOT done and had a pretty productive day on home paperwork and a few errands around town. This was, however, after a rough start when – for the first time in ages – Zoe decided not to nap in the cot and that only on my back would do.

Dear Linus

Last night as Bob and I settled down to enjoy an evening with only a sleeping Zoe to think about, we had a call from Nana: Linus had been dancing around her lounge naked after a bath and had managed to burn himself on the heater. A call to Healthline had persuaded her that a trip to the doctor would be good, so while Gaga got Ada to bed, Nana brought Linus to meet Bob, Zoe and me at the Urgent Doctors.

Linus was insanely happy the ENTIRE time. Of course I’m delighted that he wasn’t badly hurt… but he could have at least sighed a little or complained that sitting hurt, but not a peep. Still, better safe than sorry and it’s good that a doctor has seen the injury (four 3cm parallel lines on his bum) and dressed it.

2 1/2 hours later we got home with Linus (we didn’t want to send him back to Nana in case his pain got worse in the middle of the night). He went straight to bed and we didn’t hear a peep from him for the next ten hours.

We had a nurse appointment to get the burn re-dressed today, and we have another on Monday.

Over It Mummy

So the week has had lots of ups and downs and upsets and I haven’t been dealing with it well, and at this point the injured children are getting a lot more of my sympathy than my little non-napper!

Bug = 4 years 2 months
Bub = 2 years 4 months Linus at this age
Bud = 7 months 30 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

Linus is OBSESSED with letters and numbers at the moment. Every second thing out of his mouth is along the lines of “Butterfly starts with ‘B’!” or “What does 7 and 1 make?” (by which he means 71, not 7 + 1). His obsession has been fuelled by a computer programme he got from Nana for his birthday called “Alphabet Express“. He gets a max of one hour screen time each day, and he would quite happily spend the whole time on Alphabet Express solving puzzles, colouring pictures, and listening to songs. The content isn’t brilliant, but it makes learning the letters of the alphabet fun.

Linus is excellent now at recognising letters. He is also getting good at working out what letter words start with, and even at spelling out words (like the names in our family). He uses objects (e.g. dominoes, Duplo blocks, sticks) to make the shapes of letters and words.

Until now, what he hasn’t been particularly interested in (or rather, to be honest, particularly GOOD at) is writing letters. However this morning I came into the dining room to find a pad and pen on the table, and on it Linus has perfectly written his name:

True, it IS backwards. But it’s otherwise been done almost correctly – and very confidently. I’m proud of my boy!

Bug = 4 years 1 month
Bub = 2 years 3 months Linus at this age
Bud = 7 months 17 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

Until today, Zoe has been getting around in a move we call “The Butterfly” (after the swimming stroke, not the insect). That is, she has used both arms to support her while she drags one or both legs forward, then slumped down forward onto the ground and repeated the process. But this morning I spied her doing an actual crawl: she was moving each arm in turn (accompanied by the opposite leg) to get to a toy.

Over the rest of the day she switched back and forth between the old and the new style, but I’m sure once she works out how much more quickly she can get around, there’ll be no turning back