Yup, Nine Months Already.

My quietude here for many months is no indication of the pace or eventfulness of my daily life.  Quite the opposite.  I find it hard to remember when I had the time to keep this blog so up to date with Chloe.  I think I wrote during her naps.  Those few precious hours or even half hours alone.  Yeah, not any more.  Looking after two young children is so different to one.  It is so hard to remember that with your first child everything is so new, so different, so hard in many ways.  At the time you can't conceive of anyone finding it easy.  Then you have another, and look back fondly at how easy it was with just one child.  Nap times, for example.  A time for a break, a rest.  Time to do something for yourself.  I can only imagine that a miracle would have to occur for that to be the case now.  I can get Ben down for a nap, but then it is time for Chloe & Mama time.  And while we both love that, it isn't a break and I'm certainly not sitting down writing blog posts.  And the holy grail of both children napping at the same time?  Well, actually it has happened.  When I've loaded Ben into a sling and Chloe into a pushchair and walked.  So they get a nice rest when I do that, even if I don't.  It is a mental break though, and even for that I am thankful.  Sometimes I just need to not have to answer hundreds of questions or provide explanations, or listen to grizzling. I just walk while they have a nap, pick up a Flat White, maybe sneak some chocolate banana bread in over Ben's sleeping head, and have some quiet to myself. But again, I'm not writing blog posts.  So, I have my excuses.  

I'm here now though, hardly knowing where to start.  Ben is 9 months old now.  Seriously.  This was taken a month ago when he learned how to make music, or bang loudly with a stick.  

Weaning is going ok, he is consuming some food.  Maybe more than Chloe did at this age but honestly, it is hard to tell and harder to remember.  I think I stressed a bit more about her lack of consumption, I recall it being a worry.  I don't worry about it so much now.  I keep repeating the good old "Food before One is just for fun" mantra.  I mean, I'm not sure what I'm suddenly supposed to do after he's one and still not eating much, but I presume I can act worry-free until that cut off date.  Suits me.  I don't love weaning, if you can tell.  With Chloe it was new and exciting, we couldn't wait to start.  With Ben it is one more thing I have to find time for in a busy day.  At one point I was just like "fuck it, I'll just breastfeed him forever.  So much easier..." but of course, I won't.  So he eats, and I'm finding my groove with it a little better, we're getting a routine going.  Even if some days that routine just involves a lot of yoghurt and some cheerios, ricecakes and raisins thrown his way.  Hey, it's something, right? 

I know it looks bad, but those are NOT Cheetos.  I swear.  

This week has been a milestone extravaganza.  His first tooth is poking through his gum, bottom left.  I think he's pretty much been teething since birth if drool is any indication, but other than that, he hasn't seemed to mind too much.  Somewhat more exciting, and also terrifying is this:

He's very proud of himself, witness his exuberance:

He can go a good 10 seconds if he plants himself and has something in each hand.  That seems to be essential.  no standing without items to grasp.  Empty hands are not worth standing for.  Probably because empty hands need to be filled, and that's only going to happen if he's moving.  And moving still requires additional support.  At the moment.  

Oh, and Chloe started Nursery this week.  She is 3yrs old.  It is 11:30pm, I just can't even start on getting into the emotions of that right now.    

So, Ben can do this now...

7 months.  Already pulling himself up to a standing position.  Holy shit.  This is not good for my stress levels. Luckily Chloe has been trained to holler "Baby Ben is trying to stand Mama!" if he starts up when I'm out of the room.  It works, most of the time.  However, considering his head-donk rate even when I'm in the same room, it probably doesn't make much difference.  Like this day, for example.  I was taking pictures of old baby clothes to sell, my back was turned.  I turned around to swap some clothes and there he was.  Standing.  So what did I do?  Well, I think the picture speaks for itself.  I took a picture.  He looked so cute I took a few more:

Can you see where this is going?  In my defence he looses his balance remarkably fast for a 7 month old.  Hey, at least I didn't snap off a pic before going to pick him up.  I mean, I thought about it, but I didn't do it. 

Chloe's New Party Trick

Chloe kept looking at me strangely, mumbling something to herself and then laughing.  There was something about the eyes....  

And then I heard it, "Two Mamas!" It all became clear, to those of us not seeing double.  

Making it seem like Fun!

As an aid to facilitating getting Chloe ready for the day - the childless among you may not realise the time and effort that can go into just getting a pair of socks onto a small pair of feet - I introduced a new concept to Chloe.  As she stood snacking on some rice cakes one morning whilst watching Barney on YouTube (Oh, the parental shame!), and telling me she was "just too busy" to get dressed I had an idea.  I summoned up my voice of enthusiasm.  You know, the one that is all sweetness and light and rainbows?  Oh, You don't know that one?  I can't possibly think why....  Anyway, out it came:

"Chloe, do you know what it is called when you do more than one thing at a time?  It is called Multi-tasking.  Like right now, you are eating rice cakes and watching YouTube - multi-tasking.  Why don't we see if you can do three things at one?  You can eat rice cakes, watch YouTube and get dressed.  All at the same time! Won't that be FUN?"

It worked like a charm.  Granted, we did spend rather a lot of time that day seeing just how many things she could do at once but it was a small price to pay. I now whip out the multi-tasking card when we need to get things done, like, yesterday.  Most of the time it works.  Most.  But regardless of how cooperative she is, she has well and truly absorbed the concept.  

"Granny, Granny, I want to play the iPad"

"The iPad is charging right now Chloe, why don't you play a game on Baba's phone instead?"

"No.  I want to play iPad and play on Baba's phone.  I want to multi-task!"

Cue a huge burst of laughter from the Granny who wasn't aware her not quite three year old granddaughter had "multi-task" in her vocabulary.  

As we all know, my love of babywearing stems somewhat from its practicality.  A concept Chloe seems to have picked up on:

When you wrap your new friend "Blah Blah", you can have both hands free to play Cut The Rope on the iPad!

Part of my new "Life Plan"

One of the things I've been concentrating and putting more time and effort into recently is my photography.  It's something I enjoy, and something I would love to pursue professionally in the future, skill and finances allowing.  I hope I have some natural talent at it, I'd like to think so.  Even so, there is still so much to learn, I am still very much an amateur.  But practice makes perfect, and I'm not expecting to be a paid pro overnight.    I figure I've got a few years while the kids are still young do some courses, learn to edit and shoot, shoot, shoot. Maybe by the time Chloe and Ben are in school all day I'll be at a place where I am confident enough to ask for some money in exchange for my services!  I have no desire to go back to working as a Vet at the moment.  Will I ever want to in the future?  If this photography thing works out then I can't see it happening.  I liked being a Vet, and as far as doing something all day that earned me a decent wage, it satisfied me.  But I never loved it, I was never passionate about it.    

My plan is to do what basically every other photographer in Edinburgh does - Bump, Baby, Family and Weddings. In Edinburgh, the words "saturated" and "market" spring to mind, but I won't give up without trying.  Hopefully I may have enough skill and individual style to separate me from everyone else.  But then, everyone else thinks that too...

Chloe and Ben are pretty good subjects to practice on at any rate.

A gentle re-introduction

Ok, it has been too long.  Believe me, I haven't been on blogging hiatus for lack of subject matter.  There is more than enough of that!  Time, on the other hand, is in very short supply with two children and various hobbies I am trying to pursue.  I truly feel, for the first time in my life, that there just aren't enough hours in the day.  But I have to start sometime and now is as good a time as any.  Going to ease myself in gently with a short one today, and hope the emotional block opens up a bit and the words keep flowing tomorrow.  For now I will leave you with this image - Ben commando crawling at 5 months old.  His motivation?  Poken chips.  

My mobile babies like to keep me on my toes!  At 6 months now he isn't quite crawling, but he can definitely shift it towards the laptop keyboard if I put it on the floor as Mom learned when she was muted and very nearly disconnected on Skype today!   

Musings during a quiet moment.

Ben had his first immunisations yesterday.  Chloe wasn't really bothered by hers.  Ben is not Chloe.  Ben was bothered.  We saw a lot of his Angry Baby Face yesterday.  When he wasn't sleeping he was screaming.  There was no in between.  Being used to living with a 2.5yr old, I forget sometimes how different babies really are.  You can't reason with them.  You can't tell them the hurt won't last forever.  You can't offer to kiss it better (not that our 2.5yr old accepts that offer anyway - "Chloe just wait. Ouchy go away").  They feel like shit and they let you know it in no uncertain terms.  All you can do is soothe them as best you can, even if that isn't very much.  I have to get used to feeling that little bit more helpless some of the time again.  And I definitely need to get used to having a red-faced baby screaming in my face, because from his behaviour the last few days, I think it's going to be a regular occurrence.   

He started out relatively low-maintenance.  I say relatively because really, all babies are hard work, even the "easy" ones.  His maintenance levels have increased though, significantly so in the last week.  But time flies and babies change.  That's the one thing you can rely on.  It won't last forever, they will grow and they will change.  This knowledge is a double edged sword.  During the tough times you repeat it like a mantra, "This won't last forever.  This won't last forever."  During the good times, you hold your child close in wonderment  that you created this amazing being and you push that thought from your mind because the knowledge is too painful.  This won't last forever.  

One of my babies has already gone from this:

to this:

I can't even imagine what's in store for us with this little guy.

Babies in bags.

 Baby 1

Baby 2

I think Ben is a little bit ahead at this stage...

She is out-thinking us already. We're screwed.

Around Christmas time Alex and Chloe were in the kitchen deciding what to have for breakfast one morning.  Chloe wanted to have a mince pie.  Alex wasn't so keen on that idea, much to Chloe's confusion.  

Chloe (said very insistently):  Chloe want mince pie for breakfast.

Alex:  Let's have something else Chloe, maybe you can have a mince pie later.  I'll think about it.  Maybe yes, maybe no.  

Chloe (nodding):  Yes, Dad think about it.  Then Dada choose Yes!

**********

Chloe was sitting on the floor in the living room with coloured pencils strewn around her.  She was methodically picking a pencil up, examining it, then snapping off the tip.

Me:  Chloe, don't break the tips off of all the pencils, please.

Chloe:  Chloe not breaking all the pencils.  Chloe breaking some of the pencils. 

Well, okay then.  

**********

 

Alex and Chloe were in the living room playing with a small wooden Pinocchio toy that was given to her by a lovely friend of mine.  Alex would hide him somewhere in the room and Chloe would find him.  This was a very fun game, so fun that she was in no mood to stop playing it when bath time came around.  Alex attempted some adult cunning.  Alex held Pinocchio up to his ear and pretended to listen for a moment.

Alex:  Chloe, Pinocchio says it is time for a bath!  Let's go to the bathroom and get in!

Chloe walked over to Alex, took hold of Pinocchio and held him to her ear for a moment, listening. 

Chloe:  No, Pinocchio say he hide more!  

Our two and a half year old is using our own tricks against us already.  We are doomed.    

**********

I present to you, "Shoes in Bag"

I'm cooking dinner in the kitchen one evening when Chloe wanders in and starts poking around in the laundry alcove, or the Spider Room as she calls it.  So named because a large house spider lived in a corner of the ceiling in there for a few days.  It is also where we store all our left-over grocery bags.  Chloe spies the bags, she pauses in front of them.  She stares at them for a second and I swear I can almost see a little light bulb pop into existence over her head as she announces, brightly, "Chloe put shoes in bags!"

She pulls an armful of bags from the holder and trots out of the kitchen into the hallway.  I hear the hallway cupboard door open.  I hear the rustling of bags and lots of thud-thud-thuds as she rummages about.  Chloe is quite a literal person.  Her toys are named Big Black Woof, Big Brown Woof, Yellow Dog, Kitty Cat, Small Black Woof, Monkey, Cow, Dolly, and Mousey to name just a few.  So it isn't hard for me to surmise that a game called Shoes in Bags is probably going to result in finding footwear in bags.

I go to have a look.  I'm not surprised at what I see.  Stage One had involved sweeping all the footwear off of the shelves and onto the floor, thus explaining the earlier thudding.  

    

The second and final stage, which he is in the process of carrying out, involves placing said footwear into the bags, usually keeping each pair together.  She is nothing if not organised.  

Working away....

More bags are fetched as needed.

Et Voila!  The goal is achieved.  All the shoes are in bags!

Now I get to clean it all up.  

The best laid plans of Men triumphed.

Mice.  An unpleasant but unfortunately common reality of tenement dwelling.  I actually consider us to have been fairly lucky to have lived here over two years without having any problems with them.  Yes, Alex did get a bit of a scare one morning several months ago when he pulled back the shower curtain and found one trapped in the bathtub, but apart from that we've had no other encounters of the murine kind.  Until now.  So down to Homebase (or BaseHome as Chloe calls it) we went to buy some mousetraps.  Alex came out with an assortment, all of which were recommended by the bloke in the store as being pretty reliable at catching the blighters.  There was a humane live-capture contraption and a couple of back-snappers just in case.  Peanut butter was widely advised as a good choice of bait so on it went.  We set the traps, laid them out and waited.  And continued to wait.  Then we waited some more.  Nada.  Zilch.  Sweet F.A.  

You want to know how to really catch mice?  I'll tell you.  You need a large bucket (a clear one with a lid is ideal), a long USB cord, a PEZ dispenser and some honey roast peanuts.  Then you set it up like this:

Then you sit next to the other end of the USB cord whilst watching a movie and you wait.  We left the Homebase traps out for about 10 days with not even a nibble.  Alex put this out for a few hours and then, as I laid in bed feeding Ben at 1am, brought me this:

So.  That worked.  

It only took a month.

Chloe has handled Ben's arrival pretty well.  I had visions of epic jealousy-induced tantrums, days of the silent treatment for bringing a wriggling, noisy, time and attention-sucking being into her life.  Luckily I was  wasting energy worrying over nothing (now there's a shocker).  So far, things are going fine.  If you ask her, she says she likes him.  She will occasionally touch him, gently.  She will blow him kisses though refuses to actually kiss him.  If he cries she tells me "Baby Ben little bit upset" and will make suggestions as to how to fix that such as, "Baby Ben is hungry baby.  Mama feed Baby Ben" or "Mama wrap Baby Ben".  Of course we do still get frequent "No Mama/Dada pick up Baby Ben!" if she feels it will take attention away from her, but if we explain why we have to pick him up she accepts it without further complaint.  Mostly.  

One thing she steadfastly refused to do was to "hold" Ben, by having him sit on her lap.  She was quite sure that was something she would not like to do whenever it was suggested.  Until a few days ago when this happened:

Chloe is tickling his tummy.  He is not amused.

It took a month, and it may be another month before it happens again but it's a step in the right direction.  Who knows, he may even get a hug by his first Birthday!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Getting this post in just under the wire - Boxing Day still counts as Christmas, right?  Christmas was a laid back affair this year, just Alex, Chloe, Ben and myself here in wet and windy Edinburgh. Although it was quiet as far as going out or having guests was concerned, it was busy and exciting in different ways. This is the first year that Chloe has really understood that Christmas is different than any other time of the year.  In the weeks leading up to the big day whenever she saw anyone dressed up in a Santa hat or wearing a bit of tinsel or sporting anything vaguely Christmassy, she would exclaim "That lady/man is all dressed up, ready for Christmas!"  

This year, for the first time in our lives, the shoe was on the other foot. This year no one was playing Santa to us.  We were responsible for the festive cheer, for making it a holiday Chloe would enjoy and remember (though we also had some lovely help from Granny who kicked off the baking and decorating while she was here - see the previous post for one such baking extravaganza). We started with the classics - we trimmed the tree, we made paper snowflakes and taped them to the window, we read The Night Before Christmas, we made unhealthy home-baked goodies, we listened to John Denver & The Muppets, Christmas with Nat & Dean, Bing Crosby's White Christmas and a myriad of other Christmas albums (and we listened to them all day long on the 25th, as is wholly appropriate on Christmas Day).  We left out snacks on Christmas Eve - a mince pie and a beer for Santa, some carrots for the reindeer.  Chloe suggested they might also like some juice but we forgot.  We stuffed the stockings that had been hung by the chimney with care, we wrapped the presents and tucked them under the tree.  

Luckily Chloe's anticipation levels weren't sky-high, this being her first real Christmas, so we got to sleep in 'til the ripe old hour of 7am.  I'm pretty sure that ain't gonna happen next year.  Attempts to keep her out of the lounge until we'd made ourselves some coffee failed when she ambled into the kitchen with two items from Alex's stocking.  So I collected them back, dashed into the lounge to stuff them back in and quickly switch on the Christmas lights.  Chloe then saw the remains of the snack we'd left out the night before.  She was rather upset that Santa had eaten the mince pie she had left out for him (Silly Santa!), and wanted it back in the foil casing that he'd left partly crumpled on the plate.  We talked her down and pointed out the stockings and all was well with the world again.

She enjoyed unpacking her stocking and opening a few little presents wrapped up inside.  

She most certainly liked the edible additions from Granny that all went on her "goodie pile" and were gradually consumed throughout yesterday and today.  This was not even the entire selection.... 

An introduction to PEZ!

Chocolate Stars.  They had some kind of filling but I can't tell you what because she declined to share them with me , walking quickly away from me and rapidly shoving them into her mouth whenever I suggested it.  

A lollipop.  To be consumed only in the kitchen because she keeps touching it. I tried telling her not to do that  because she would get sticky fingers but apparently "Chloe like having sticky finger"

It took her a little while but yes, she did figure out this money is made of chocolate.    

Once the stockings were done we had a little break for some Pancakes with fresh fruit, yoghurt and maple syrup.  Then it was onto the main event - presents.  Chloe had fun unwrapping her presents, Ben's presents, even our presents.  Well, why not?  Her enjoyment was what made the day for us.

  

Luckily for us Chloe is a very conscientious present un-wrapper, putting the paper straight into the bin-bag, so we didn't have to worry about an explosion of mess.  Apparently at 2.5yrs old cleaning up is still fun.

We had a really fun morning.  Seeing her genuine excitement as she opened her presents, skipped around the livingroom playing with new toys, rearranged the ornaments on the Christmas tree, stuffed her face with "sweeties" and made then re-made The Gruffalo puzzle again and again brought back to me some of the magic of Christmas that got eroded a bit with age and cynicism.

Meanwhile, Ben was rather oblivious to the whole thing.  Give him a year or two.

So thanks to all of you who sent us cards and gifts, Skyped us, and wished us a Merry Christmas.  You all helped to make it special for us and we are thankful for everything.  We hope you all had wonderful days yesterday and we wish you a Happy New Year.