What’s new with us?

• Zoe is walking quite well now. She’s managing to (sometimes) keep standing once she stops walking and she can turn corners and negotiate her way past objects. I don’t think she can get get to standing without support yet, but I’m sure it’s not far away.
• I’m probably going back to work for 2 mornings a week next term. A little extra money and seeing my former colleagues will be nice, as will getting time to do some tasks without kids around to interrupt. Less nice is the fact that it means time away from my kids and Playcentre, but Nana will look after those responsibilities
• Zoe has been sick in various minor ways for a few weeks now – a snotty nose, gunky eyes, and a nighttime cough are taking turns at bothering her (and us). Her napping has deteriorated. I’ve generally been happy for her to have a couple of 45 minute naps each day, but she’s struggling to get these at the moment – 20-30 minutes seems to be all she can manage at a go now. She’s also had a few horrible nights… in the past, because she’s in bed with us, we’ve hardly noticed when she’s woken wanting a feed, but she’s had a few nights recently when she’s seemed to wake up every hour and scream until I manage to feed her.
• Ada is occasionally using the potty and occasionally telling us when she has a dirty nappy, but for the most part she doesn’t seem bothered by what’s going on in that area. Hopefully summer will help reinspire us to support her in getting rid of nappies!
• Zoe has two teeth down the bottom now. To me they look like they’re growing at a funny angle, but we’ll see a dental nurse sometime this year to check it out.
• Linus is reading! It’s in its early stages, but it’s very exciting to see the different techniques he uses: context, memory of story, sounding out, educated guesses, picture clues, memory of word, tracing along with his finger, etc. (It’s also funny to watch Ada “reading”, following the words along with her finger while saying completely different words from the story!)
• Ada is driving us a little crazy at the moment. Her “using her words” seems to have regressed, and she’s back to crying over the slightest insult or denial. She’s also very keen on ignoring us or not doing what we ask. Perhaps we expect a bit too much from her?
• I’ve been managing semi-regular contact with the Mums in the SHEAF (home education) group. Now I just need to fit into my schedule more time for Linus to hang out with them and their various-aged children as well. We did manage it once, and I was delighted to sit back and watch how Linus observed and (eventually) interracted with the other children with no input from me.
• Zoe is now swimming with the rest of the family (minus Mummy) on their weekly outing to the pool. A friend’s teenage daughter has started accompanying them to maintain the 1:1 adult:child ratio.