Back from the ether

Facebook swallowed my blog (and I know I’m not the only blogger to say that!)  Well, that and apathy and negativity in any case.

But I’m back.  I’m in a really good frame of mind and am going to attempt to resume blogging while avoiding the incipient negativity that made me stop.

It’s been over two months so I think an update is in order before I get to some of the interesting blog ideas that have been floating around in my head over the last few days.

McBean

Is now over six months old.  I can’t believe my little guy has gotten so big so fast.  He’s been a joy and a challenge but mostly the former.  He started fully crawling at five months, and by six he was pulling up.  Now he’s more often upright than not, except when he falls backwards and belts his head on the floor.  He does this repeatedly, so much so that Lazyboo is contemplating finding a helmet for him.  I’m anticipating (with quite some horror) that he’ll be walking by 8 months.

He babbles and coos and laughs all the time.  He says MAMAMA and BABABABA constantly, which we have have claimed as Mama and Baba even though we know that it’s still just babble at this point.  He’s adding consonants and new sounds (including raspberries) every day.

He is currently sleeping really well.  Mostly through the night from 7 -7 with a dream feed.  But not last night (cos he likes to keep us on our toes!)  He has had a habit of catnapping for only 20-40mins at a time during the day his whole life, but we seem to have found a solution to that, and he’s sleeping 2 hours sometimes now.  He’s  is a somewhat stricter routine thanks to advice from our straight mothers group (whodathunk it!?) which seems to be working well for us.  Well, better than the chaos we were enduring before.  My ultimate goal is to get him used to a routine so that we can be more flexible, if that makes any sense.

The boy can eat!  He loves his food, and we’re completely enjoying baby-led weaning.  But not the mess.  He loves to munch on pretty much everything we offer him with the exception of banana and lentil burgers.  Some favourites are watermelon and canteloupe, strawberries, baked polenta, baked beans and cucumber and broccoli.  He also enjoys falafel and chunks of meat!  He’s far less interested in his bottles now and he’s drinking less and less (though we are making sure he’s getting enough because who knows how much food he’s actually ingesting).

McBean is completely obsessed with his sister.  He just lights up when she walks in the room and reaches out for her.  He crawls into her room at every opportunity and watches her in fascination.  It’s a beautiful thing to see.  Nobody exists when she’s around.

He has also been recently going through a Baba’s boy stage!  This has been a bit tough for me, but I’m coping.  He seems to prefer to be comforted by Lazyboo, and is far more settled when either with both of us or just with his Baba.  He chats and plays with her and it just melts my heart.  This blatant favouritism on his part has abated in the last week or so to my relief – it was hard!  I like it better when he wants us both equally, even though I know that he’s going to play favourites at times.

FenFox

Turned 9 during my blog break.  My baby really is growing up.  She had a wonderful rockclimbing birthday party with some great friends, both new and old.  She has relaxed socially this year and has developed some good friendships with some lovely little girls that share her interests, while happily leaving behind other more difficult friendships.  At school, she goes from strength to strength and continues to love to learn.  It’s so wonderful when she comes to me all excited about something she’s been learning about, or raving about the plot in her latest book (I’m so glad that she has developed such an enthusiasm for books and reading).  She spends hours at a time creating characters (and their houses complete with plans!) and formulating stories.  She has an amazing imagination.  I just wish there was a way I could get her to write them down.

She continues to be obsessed with computer games (especially the sims (we caved and let her have sims 1), sim city and rollercoaster tycoon).  Most of the time she’s happy to follow the strict screen time rules but sometimes it all gets a bit much for her.  FenFox has started Girl Guides this year and is really loving it.  She happily settled into a new, already formed group and made some fast friends.  I was so very proud of her.  She’s excited to go every week and is enjoying all the new experiences.

FenFox has become very interested lately in puberty and periods.  We have given her the old classic books (where did i come from, what’s happening to me) as well as had extensive conversations with her to round out that historical stuff.  Right now I’m pleased that she’s still so comfortable to talk to me about things.  I think it’s hilarious though that at least once a week she calls out to me from the bathroom saying, ‘MUM!  I think my period has started!’  I wish she wasn’t in so much of a hurry.  She has however got the hint of beginning of breast buds which is a really scary thing for us!  I feel like losing her to the blackhole of teenagerdom is imminent (even though I know logically that it’s going to probably be a very slow and gradual process over the next few years).

The last few months have been especially trying for FenFox.  She is prone to emotional outbursts that can last for a couple of hours at a time.  She sobs hysterically and everything that has ever bothered her in her life comes out.  She says she just wants to be a ‘normal kid’ which involves things like being able to watch as much tv and play as many computer games as she wants, eat whatever she wants (including the things she’s allergic to) and stay up all night.  It breaks my heart but all I can do is hold her and listen and be there for her (and stand firm by our well thought out rules!).  There’s absolutely nothing rational or logical about any of it, so we are thinking that it may be hormonal.  Again, very scary stuff! We’ve tried to respond to this by making sure that she has one on one time with both of us, and that she’s feeling comfortable with her Dad (a whole nother story – she even said once that she wanted to live with us one week and him the next!).  We have also restarted weekly family meetings to allow us to have somewhat more formal roundtable discussions so we can brainstorm and problem solve together.  It all seems to be working, but I can’t help but feel that I’m floundering and have no idea what I’m doing.

I am taking her to see a dietitian on Monday about her various food allergies and health complaints so I’m hoping we get some answers about all that then.   She hurt her neck this week – she woke up screaming in pain because it had seized during the night.  The only thing that would calm her down was holding her tight in my arms – some things never change no matter how big they get!  A few visits to the chiropractor later, she’s all but better.

The other night, after FenFox had been playing with and reading to McBean, I took him off for his bath and put him to bed.  I was so happy to hear FenFox continuing to sit on the floor playing with the baby toys.  She was chatting away to herself lost in her own world of imaginary play just like she’s done for as long as she can talk.  It was nice to catch a glimpse of the little girl that I know is still in there.

I’m finding it parenting both children quite difficult right now.  It’s a challenge to be able to meet their very different needs simultaneously.  But then they smile at me or laugh or give me a hug or a big wet sloppy kiss and none of that matters.  I love being their Mama. But that’s another post for another day.  This update has become mammoth even before I get to Lazyboo and I….  I’ll leave all that for next time.

I have to put some photos in though!