Kicking around

No need to read this time, just watch...

Honestly, this is real time, not fast forward.

Goodbye Moses

We switched the moses basket for a crib this weekend.  He was getting a bit big.

Unfortunately on his first foray his flailing arms woke him up banging on to the wooden bars. We now wrap him up in a swaddle and when he stops trying to be Houdini he sleeps well. 

Homeward bound

When I got back for the airport having said bye to Liz and Sophie, Erin looked at me with a touch of sadness saying 'I don't know what to look forward to now'.  It's true.  We've been planning Erin's family coming over here since we got pregnant, and now, those who could make it, have been over. 

We hope we've been a good substitute of Matt for Liz and Sophie since he went back to the States.

This seems like a while ago now.

Sophie has missed her dad but forgot about him on her trips to the park.

Liz has been a really useful extra pair of hands.  

Sophie helped too.

And it's been a fun insight to what life will be like with a toddler in a few years.  Although I don't think I'm going to allow Erin go anywhere near Aidan with nail polish.

It's been two weeks of Dora, PB and Uncle Jay sandwiches (that's peanut butter and jelly to most people), good curry, blowing up a mattress before bedtime, Charlie and Lola; giggles, smiles and a few tears; Dora, crafts; presents and parties; new words and who could forget the legendary karaoke session? There's now a Liz, Sophie and Dora sized hole in our place. 

Injections

'It's not this one you want to worry about.  I've just been with my three year old to get his MMR and he kept looking at me with tears in his eyes saying he didn't want it.  It was awful,' one of my colleagues said when he found out Aidan was having his injections on Thursday.

We're not looking forward to him being three then.    Erin said he was asleep by the time he got to clinic, awoke when climbing the stairs and became unhappy, then calmed in the waiting room,  didn't enjoy being stripped in the doctors room but calmed before he knew what was going to hit him.  As the realisation of the first injection took hold there were several sharp intakes of breath, his mouth froze, his whole body turned every shade of purple and he let out a scream to break his mother's heart.  For the second, repeat without any calmness. 

And that wasn't the worst of it.  Around 2:30 that night he woke up with a strange cry.  He was warm and clammy, so Erin informed me when I woke a few minutes later.  He was in a light fever.  We fed him, checked his temperature - four times - then gave him some Calpol.  For the next 16 hours he needed to sleep - preferably on someone - or feed, otherwise the whole of Vauxhall knew he wasn't feeling good.

At 10:30 last night he had a kick about, fed and gave us a few smiles. We worried what the night would entail as he slept a lot during the day. We needn't have. He just woke at 3 for some food and, hopefully, a better day started at 7.  

Fun fun fun

We've had some fun over the last few days.

Creating.

Playing.

Playing.

And more playing.

Going solo

Roald Dahl's Golo Solo is about his adventures in distant countries. For this post I didn't set foot out of the door, there are no snakes or extravert expats, just a 9 week old and a two and a half year old, both left with me.

Erin and Liz went to Spitalfields for the day.

I had a few ideas of how to get Sophie and Adian through the day but didn't factor in that since I wrote about his routine he wouldn't be sticking to it.  During the weekends, when it's Erin and I working together, we tend to keep to our times.  I presumed it would be the same today.  But with a toddler wanting to help when Aidan woke every 15 minutes, it was tough.  I was either rubbish, am rubbish or Aidan is a little off colour - which his first dose of Calpol, for good measure, hopefully saw off anything too bad.

Despite that we survived.  After the first viewing of the day of Jungle Book, Sophie and I embarked on making a mini-movie.  We had a working title of Sophie Movie but extended that to Sophie De Vos and the Search for Aidan.  Because of filming, lunch-time came quickly. Almost too quickly. This was the first time I felt slightly out of control.  As I put the fish fingers under the grill, Aidan started to squawk.  He shouldn't have been ready for a feed until 30 muinutes - straight after Sophie was due to finish. With Sophie at the table, playing but ready for lunch, it was a bit of  scrambly-multitasking-scramble.  But there were no tears, burnt fingers or burnt fish fingers.  Apart me eating cold fish fingers it was a success.

After lunch, Aidan decided to meltdown and I only got him down to sleep about an hour and a half later.  In between watching Jungle Book for the second time Sophie would come into the bedroom and offer her comfort blanket and words of wisdom like 'Calm down little guy', which eventually he did.  As he did, Sophie wanted to sleep too. I read her a Dora book and she was drifting off when her mum and Erin came home.

It looked like I was in complete control.  I'd passed - with a lot of stress.  Until Aidan woke up half an hour later and Erin asked when he had last fed.  My mind-mush hadn't recovered and I couldn't remember one hour from the other.  After a slight panicky argument about when he was fed last, we fed him and all was well.

Below is the movie we made.  It's no Spielberg production but it entertained a two year old for a while, especially playing it back after performing each scene.  Remember, The only budget we had went on fish fingers.  

Check the ad lib in the middle.  Who needs Kate Winslet?

Aidan slept well last night. I did too. No need for any Roald Dahl.

The long good night

I knew I shouldn't have written about his sleep before I went on the nightshift.  

Aidan woke at 2:30 then 5 and wouldn't go down on his own after the 5.  I lay there mulling over my dreams while I should have been dreaming them.  He, on the other hand, just spread his arms over my chest, drooled over my shirt, and dreamed for the two of us.