Mum

There's an evolution happening in our house. For as long as he could "talk," Ben has always called us Mama & Dada. A couple of months ago, he started occasionally calling us Mommy & Daddy - it came out of nowhere & it disappeared almost as abruptly as it appeared. I assume he's heard other kids calling their parents that & was trying it out. He still occasionally goes back & forth with it. Now suddenly this week we have become Mum & Dad. This is way too grown up for me, I'm afraid. Luckily he pronounces them "Muuuuuu" & "Daaaaaa." He's not so great with finishing his words yet, which I've learned in my speech classes is perfectly normal until kids are about 3 1/2.

So yes, speech classes are going very well. The first one wasn't too thrilling as it was more background information, less tactics but last night's lesson #2 was pretty cool. I learned SO much & am trying my best to use them already. I won't go into details because chances are your kid's speech is developing normally so this would be a bit snoozy. Basically at this point there is a lot of simplifying what we're saying & modelling, repeating, modelling, repeating, modelling, repeating, you get the point.

Now, if you are interested I am very happy to scan the handouts they've given us & email them to you with all my additional notes. Speech development is such a frustrating thing to those of us who are a little behind so I am more than willing to do whatever I can to help you out if you need it too!

Evan is a thriving little monkey. Had his 4-month checkup yesterday & now weighs 7.6 kilos (16.7 lbs) & is healthy as a horse. His first tooth is just peeking through at the moment & between that & his immunization jabs yesterday, he was one grizzly little fellow. Therefore, he got his first dose of Panadol & that settled him right down.

He's also started a bit of solids. We're just giving him about a tablespoon of rice cereal with breastmilk or formula once a day. He gobbles it up & loves it & it's staying down very well so we'll be increasing soon. He's desperate to eat (or drink me dry) constantly so I think he'll be a very big fan of solids as we let him have more. I'm looking forward to adding fruits & veggies & seeing if he's as excited as I think he'll be. I'll have to get some footage of him munching away, kicking his legs & loving every minute of it!

Evan's still working on his rolling over - he did his two rolls from front to back a while ago & yesterday he rolled from back to front. Just the once so now we're at a grand total of three rolls. Wowza! At this rate he'll be a rolling maniac by the time he goes away to college. But seriously, I am very proud of the little guy!

It's a bit funny, back to the speech classes, on my way out of the hospital I walk past the antenatal clinic where I went with both Ben & Evan when I was pregnant. When I go past, it's well past closing time so it's locked up & dark but the first time I strolled by I shocked myself by becoming teary-eyed & a bit choked-up! Fear not - I'm not craving any more babies & heaven knows I'm no fan of being pregnant but being there, I felt all those emotions I had while carrying my crazy boys. Excitement, fear, bliss, nausea, dread, panic, exhaustion, curiosity, boredom & whatever you call it when absolutely adore someone you've never met. Very weird to feel it all again so immediately.

Anyway, time to feed #2 & do a little wiggling with #1.