Y3 - 99/365: My Favourite Bedtime Story

I promise he's fine...just REALLLY concentrating on something on the telly. There's a segment on Nick Jr. called 'My Favourite Bedtime Story' where they tell stories from different cultures, read by a child's parent who is from a different country. The story is 'acted out' with textured paper-characters on the child's duvet while you see the parent reading in the background.

Very clever cinematography, actually.

Ryan loves it so much it puts him in a trance!

And for anyone wondering...Ryan's two favourites are 'Peekaboo Baby' and 'Dot and Dash Go to Bed.' He particularly enjoys lifting the flaps in 'Peekaboo Baby' and will anticipate that when you read 'Puppy is grumpy. Are you grumpy too?' the girl behind the flap in the pink snowsuit is grumpy and says 'Hmph!' He will actually say 'hmmmph' before you turn the page to that part!

Makes me giggle inside every time!

Y3 - 98/365: Out and About

Although Ryan has already had his 12-month development check (at 11 mos?) I decided to take him to the baby clinic to get weighed so I could get an accurate entry for the final page of his baby book. Turns out he is 19 lbs 11 oz...which is only 3 oz up from the previous visit in November. The gains are really slowing down now...but moreso, his activity is speeding up as he's practically full-on running!

I brought up that he has been off his food the past few days...even carrots, his favourites, and the health visitor said it could be any number of things but teething was most likely the culprit. She did point out that if it's even his favourite things that he's refusing, not to give him an alternative just to get him to eat something as this could start us down the road to a picky eater.

Good to know!

On the way back we walked past the new library -- still in progress. It's due to open this year, although I'm not certain when exactly. But I am really looking forward to it. It's HUGE!!

Y3 - 97/365: B.F.F.

On the mend today, thank goodness...after a bit of a rough night. Unfortunately, after an enjoyable holiday with Daddy all to himself, Matt returns to work for the new year tomorrow. Not sure how Ryan will act given their new BFF status.

Y3 - 96/365: Poorly Buddy

He may look all smiles, but the poor mite has a low-grade fever. Matt was the observant one who noticed right away that he wasn't acting himself. He was just kind of standing there or clinging to one of us without acknowledging any of his toys and kept lying down on the pillows for long periods of time. Sure enough...felt his head, neck and back and he was warm to the touch. Fought him with the thermometer under an armpit and it measured just above 101.

We stripped him down to his nappy and dosed him up with Calprofen waiting for the fever to break. Then he had his bath and was off to bed.

I hate when he's poorly.

Y3 - 95/365: More Peas, Please.

We joined up with Em, Daz and the kids for a "boiling dinner" at Josie & David's tonight and it was absolutely delicious! Ryan hadn't actually had peas before so I put a few on his tray to see what he thought. Apparently he LOVES them and he proceeded to eat most of mine!!

Shortly before we left to go home, Ryan was having fun bouncing on his Grandad's knee and I managed to capture a really precious video of the two cronies (as my Papa would have called them) in action! And funny enough that my Papa used to do the very same with us when we were growing up, so it really brought back some fond memories.




And as an added bonus, here is Ryan from earlier this afternoon when I FINALLY caught him dancing on camera to the birthday theme song on CBeebies!

Y3 - 94/365: Oh, The Spoon!

 

You'll understand in a moment why it is so funny that the ONLY photo I managed to get today (as the camera is on borrowed time with rechargeable batteries) is this photo of Ryan -- helping to 'stir' Daddy's coffee (which was actually empty).

Let me start at the beginning...

If you're up on yesterday's blog then you know Ryan has had some potty issues the past 24 hours. Matt went upstairs just before 6pm tonight to collect Ryan from his long, late afternoon nap and soon realised we had a bit of a situation. I saw evidence of this simply by the way he was holding Ryan when he brought him downstairs with his legs resting on his forearm and bum sticking out at an odd angle. When he got closer I could see that it would be a "full-service" nappy change.

We had to keep him standing upright on the changing mat while we stripped off his clothes, tag-team style, and Matt wiped the "explosion" from his back, neck and shoulders. Once he was completely cleaned off and had on a fresh nappy and t-shirt, I went to sort the things from the washer into the dryer and Matt went upstairs to gather the linens from Ryan's cot.

Any parents knows too well, I can imagine, how things seem to happen when they're only gone for a minute or two...but we were seriously ONLY gone for a minute or two.

I hear Matt come back downstairs and enter the front room, and then the words, "Oh shit," so I make a bee-line for the living room. There sat Ryan, quietly, in the middle of the carpet holding the open tub of Sudocrem (a nappy/diaper creme) in one creamy, white-covered hand and a SPOON in the other creamy, white-covered hand with a big blob of Sudocrem on the end of the spoon and mess all over his mouth, shirt, and legs!! Oh...AND the carpet!

I thought when we left the room that the back of the seat of the sofa was far enough from his reach, but it seems our Ryan can stretch quite well...when he wants something.

Now some parents may have freaked out and rang poison control, but not us. I pass Matt the wipes as I took care of little man, getting the cream off his mouth and hands and checking to see how much he may have actually ingested. Judging by the few flecks on his teeth and inside his bottom lip I imagine he quickly realised it wasn't yogurt. Then I consulted "Dr. Google" to see if I should ring NHS Direct and soon saw that Sudocrem is actually on the low-toxicity list, so Matt and I agreed to just give him some water and keep an eye on him the next 24 hours.

I know this is only the beginning. Lord, help us. Perhaps the early photo was a foreshadowing?

I have to admit...I'm quite proud he used the spoon all on his own -- although I think our next goal is to get him to use it on his own on something actually EDIBLE.

Y3 - 93/365: 2011 Starts Off With a Bang...

Too bad it resulted in more laundry.

Welcome to the first of three wardrobe changes today. I don't think I need to go into great detail for anyone as to WHY these changes were needed...but we suspect apples and/or bananas to be the culprit.

Yeah...it was THAT fantastic!

The morning was pretty quiet and uneventful. Dear son has now gone a full week without waking in the night...full stop. No 4-5am meltdowns with Zombie-Mommy trying desperately to keep her eyes open so this, in turn, means I haven't felt as tired getting up with him in the morning. He nursed before we went downstairs and then 30-40 minutes later had a nice, warm bowl of Ready Brek. By 10am he was holding his arms up for me to cuddle him and I knew he was ready for his nap, so I nursed him once more and he napped soundly from 10:30am to 1:30pm!

He didn't get his usual cat-nap this afternoon and as a result, fell asleep on my shoulder around 7pm tonight at Emma's. When we got home later I got the bath ready straight away and it was bath, lotion, PJ's, story, cuddles/nurse, and bed. He was a bit stubborn this time going down and Matt and I had to tag the other in to get him to sleep, but in just under an hour we were both back downstairs and enjoying the peace and quiet.

I hope this is a good sign for the start of the year!