Growing Pains

Dylan reclines in superman pose whilst we eat at the soon to be gone Oriental City Shopping Centre.













The trouble with things that grow in small increments is that you never notice how much they have grown. Take my fig plant. I bought it about 5 years ago and basically left it to rot, watering about once a month if I can even remember. But that darn plant is growing about a foot a month and continues to, if not thrive, then at least survive well despite my neglect. It’s currently taking over my lav with Triffid-like intent.
Luckily for Aimee and Dylan, my sloppy plant keeping skills do not apply to parenting and both are developing at an amazing rate.
Dylan was weighed a week or so back and is a bit over 6Kg. That’s about a kilo a month since his birth, and well over the 75th percentile for his age range. I bought a nice new Britax car seat on Saturday and just expected him to fit into the ‘newborn’ position, but was shocked to discover that he was spilling over the sides. The seat needed several large adjustments before he could be slotted in to fit. I wouldn’t say he is chubby, definitely not compared to his cousin in Thailand, but he’s definitely chunky. And his teething pains are a real torment for all of us as he screams and wails and drools. It could take weeks if not months for the first teg to appear. Aimee used to have really bad teething symptoms for her first few teeth, then only ever mild symptoms after that. A cheeky flash of her broad grin is enough to remind us that the teething thing will eventually pass.

We all cannot wait for the miserable UK winter weather to lighten up. Not least Aimee, who has clearly suffered from being stuck indoors for most of the winter. But as the temperature gets milder and the days a little bit brighter, we’ve started going out much more, and Aimee has clearly enjoyed her trips to the park, playgroups and other activities. Sadly, the potty training has gone literally down the pan as she has not produced a millidrop into the potty, although she’ll happily sit in it for ages. I guess it will happen in time. In the meantime, it’s continue with my 4-times a day phrase: ok Aimee drop your trousers, let’s potty train with Pingu (her new favouritest TV cartoon).

STOP PRESS: Cat just called me to say that Aimee had done her first EVER wee on the potty. She just sat there as usual, watching Pingu and then got up, looked at Cat and said 'wee wee'. Cat was amazed. I can't believe I missed it. Let's hope this is the start of a blossoming new habit.

Gone to pot

Well after 5 days of 'training', all Aimee has done is found herself a nice comfy potty chair to sit on and watch Pinngu. The health visitor came round and reckoned that since Aimee has no control nor even any awareness of her bladder control, she is probably not close to being potty trained and it is best to leave it alone for now. That's fine with me, but I thought it could be done. Aimee is her happy self anyhow and I hope I haven't imparted too much trauma on her these past few days.

Big Potter

Day Two in the Big Potty House.
Little Aimee has run around with no nappies and consequently passed water on almost every item in the house. Luckily her poo was caught by her naptime nappy. At the moment, she seems to have no awareness of when she is about to go, and to be honest, no awareness of even when she has gone (thus no warning whatsoever). For example, at dinner time, she was eating her supper sitting in the high chair and out came a gushing stream of wee. She did not blink or stop eating, or even comment at all.I asked, Aimee, are you wet? And she just carried on eating. Only when the warm wee started to get cold did she mention that she was wet, but stlll carried on eating. Remarkable. The running around with no pants or trousers thing is probably a bit self-defeating at the moment. So we're back to those 'training' nappies.

Poor Dylan is having a wretched time with his teething pain. We give him the full works of Bonjela, granules and Calpol but it seems he still feels the discomfort. Add to that his recent immune jabs and it adds up to a miserable time for him. But he is strong and very alert, so it will pass quickly for him, we hope.

Potty time

Potty training - DAY 1
Well I took a day off work to initiate Aimee's potty regime.
Aimee started off well by happily wearing her disposable training pants (they are supposed to feel 'wet' when they get weed on), and Aimee sat on the potty whenever asked.
But around midday, the first disaster struck when she pooed in the pants and freaked out when I showed her the result. From then on, she refuses to wear the panties. So I let her run around butt naked. This resulted in several major leakages on our floor and, following the PC advice, cleared it up without a fuss and gently reminded Aimee that if she felt the need, the potty was available. It wasn't all bad, Aimee continued to sit on the potty at regular intervals, albeit without any product, but it's only Day1.
In the evening, I was curious to note the large number of online adverts all claiming to guarantee potty training success within 3 days!
Somehow I'm rather suspicious of such claims. But then again, if our attempts prove fruitless, then who knows.

The Great Escape

It had to happen sooner or later. Aimee has now started to climb out of the cot by herself. Those longer legs and stronger arms enable her to clamber out with confidence and at will. In the past, she would raise her leg and plonk it on the guard rail, but not do anything, almost like testing the water.
This afternoon naptime, she got out twice, on each occassion without any harm. No one saw her do it, but heard thethump and her giggling and then running around in her room upstairs. Cat called me at work in quite a shock.
It may be time to consider that Aimee needs to graduate bed types. This is not all bad, in that her old cot can pass to Dylan. But it means a whole new approach to bed times. No more dumping her in the cot and letting her scream until she sleeps. The kid now has legs.

Potty day looming...

Bottoms Up

It's the moment I have been dreading and putting off for months...toilet training.
I don;t know why this, above all other baby things, brings me most fear. I mean Aimee passed all her milestones, from walking, to weaning, to talking, with flying colours, so there is no reason why potty training should be any different. In any case, she is more than physically and mentally ready for the big leap.
So far I've prepped Aimee by letting her sit on her potty and play with it and telling her it is for her poopoo and weewee. She seems to love sitting on it and today, we even pulled down her pants and let her sit on it bare-bottomed. No wee or poo came out and she didn;t even try but it was a positive start.
I have ear-marked next weekend a 'P-Day' where Aimee goes live with her training pants and, if it is suitably warm, bare bottom around the house while I will chase after her, pack of wet wipes and tissues following closely behind. I will report on her progress in the blog.

Dylan seems to find the need to chew frantically on his fist at regular intervals. I think he is beginning teething, cos he does it even after a full feed. If that's the case, he could develop toothy tegs even quicker than Aimee. It also means a possibility of some difficult sleepless nights ahead.