Everybody! Come!

Why hello there, how are you? We're well....  digging this beautiful weather we've been having and even more so that its school holidays! Whoop whoop! That's right, its that time of the year again where I actually get some child free, work free, duty free, time off!!!! Cue happy dance. No, that's not nice is it? Its not that I WANT to be child free. Work free? Definitely! But time away from Chloe is painful, I feel guilty dropping her at day care when I know I'm just going to sit at home and creep onto the balcony to see what she's doing. But it gives me a chance to catch up on stuff that I cant do with her around, like write this.... So its a catch 22 you see.... I both love the time off, but feel guilty about it all in one. Ahhh, what a conundrum, bloody mummy guilt, gets you every time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Ok, lets shake it off..... and get on with it.

STATS (as of the 15/9)
Height: 86.5cm
Weight: 12.2kg
Size: 1-2
Shoe: 5-6

EATING and DRINKING

Chloe now never sits at her table for dinner, she just sits (or stands) on one of our dining room chairs and has dinner next to us. Her breakfast and lunch occur at her table as we tend to eat those meals ourselves seated on the couch. She eats everything we do, with slight variations in the meat department, as she seems to have issues chewing and swallowing tougher pieces of meat. She LOVES anything pasta based, as well as Mexican meals and chicken skewers. There's no issues around vegetables and she'll devour corn on the cob and be eyeing yours off if you haven't 'fi-ished' before she has. Its the quick and the dead around here when she's hungry. She always devours her meals of a night time and we believe that's as we keep snacking to a minimum of an afternoon. Normally limiting it to a cino, which she loves! After her party we had some sprinkles left over from the fairy bread, one day I sprinkled them on top of her cino and since then its IMPOSSIBLE to deliver one without sprinkles. hehehe. But its a nice little activity of an afternoon, mummy has her 'offee (as she calls it) and bubbi her cino. Then off we will shoot for the afternoon activity. Its wonderful.

COMMUNICATION

 

Goodness gracious, Chloe is a chatterbox! Her vocab and conversational skills are off the chart. But no shock there right? She loves to engage us, her friends, everyone in discussions about this or that. We've encouraged her to retell her day after day care or to daddy/mummy on the days that they haven't spent time with her. She's very good at one word responses and in some cases stringing words together to retell an event. Just yesterday I took her to playschool and over dinner asked her to tell daddy what she'd done today... her reply 'Playschool, Tao, go, where Tao go? Abby, go, bye bye'  Which was great! 

 

She's also developed some pretty neat vocab like 'wait', 'one more' and 'everybody, come!' Its deliciously cute! She's also developed a love of singing and will sing "happy birthday" over and over again. Hilarious, she sings it most often to herself, or Nee (Renee). 

 

As far as academics go, she can now count to 8, without help. Recognises all her colours, with black being her favourite, and most shapes. She is also able to recognise her and her friends names at day care. Its all very impressive.

 

 

 

GROSS MOTOR



 

Chloe's confidence is OUT OF SIGHT in the water. She can now swim a few strokes to the wall and get out completely independently. Which going into summer makes me feel so much better about her water safety. She is fantastic in the lessons participating in every activity without argument, but is showing a reluctance to put her eyes in the water, but will do it. I thought it may have been a result of her hair getting longer and it running water into her eyes. So in an effort to correct it, I tied her hair back (squeeeeee! Yes! its long enough to tie now!!!!) But unfortunately that made no difference. I also trialled a pair of goggles last week during the lesson, they stayed on for about 2 minutes and were promptly ripped from her face. hahaha. So we continue to have issues there. Her favourite activity is DEFINITELY 'crocodile, crocodile' - often having us participate in this at home with her falling off the bed, the couch, the toybox, as opposed to the pool wall. It does drive us a little nuts how often we play that. hahaha. She's also developed really great water confidence, and will happily wade out into the deeper part of the pool without me. She's so very brave!

 

 

We haven't been to the park as much as we'd like lately, since Chloe is showing a preference of staying in. But when we do go she is very confident on all the equipment. She just loves to do 'big swings' on the swings and go down the slide on her own 'no mummy, bubbi do it'. She'll often play on the seesaw and sing the 'seesaw' song or play shopkeepers where she'll ask us what we'd like, turn to get it for us, then cheekily eat it herself. She thinks she's hysterical when she does that.

 

 

 

Chloe still seems to LOVE to dance, so much so I think I need to look into a new class for her. I am NOT going back to where we were with Ballet. Maybe next year? But she loves to 'spin' and do 'ballerina' where she will hold your hands, stand on one foot and point the other behind her. Its so sweet. She also loves to 'dance' to the wiggles and any other music, her dancing is more of a 'sway' with the occasional spin and bounce. If the music is more upbeat she may run around and squeal too.

 

Jumping has continued to be a bit of a challenge and love of little miss this past month. Despite the lack of ability she has to get off the ground independently, she knows she can do it when she holds your hands, or even better is on the bed. Eeeeeeck! We've made the decision that jumping on her own bed is not allowed, but ours is ok. The idea is that she wont get up and jump on her bed that way, when she's suppose to be asleep.

 

SLEEPING

 

So we have continued the no pull up for day sleeps at home and day care, and Chloe is accident free now at both for as long as I can remember. So YAY! She's also been waking in the morning with a dry pull up and taking herself to the toilet maybe an hour or so after waking. But does consistently ask to go to the toilet just before bedtime.... sometimes (hilariously) as a way of prolonging bedtime, but we're happy to oblige since its one step closer to doing away with nappies altogether! So when the weather gets warmer (maybe next school holidays) we're going to get rid of the pull up overnight too.... as long as this waking dry thing continues! She's such an overachiever!

 

We have dropped the tights for bedtime, in exchange for socks, just seemed easier, but she's been pulling those off (or they're coming off?!) most nights. Most nights she stays under the covers, but sometimes we need to pop back in overnight because she's cold and has called out to us. A quick pull of the blankie over her normally sends her straight back to sleep when that happens, but night wakings very rarely happen now. Thank goodness.
 

She has had a lot of naps in the car this month on the way too or from somewhere and generally transfers well. Sleep seems to be less vital now, whilst she falls asleep in our arms at 6-630 if she skips her nap, she can survive without it and isn't loosing her marbles if she does of an afternoon/evening. Same if we are going out of an evening, we just extend her sleep, or put her down later for her day nap and then she's golden til around 830.

 

Last month we had the issue of Chloe wanting us to sit and pat her to sleep. We quickly had enough of that and cut it out cold turkey, we were met with a few nights of her cracking it about not sitting with her. But after a few nights she gave up. We found that following daycare she always seemed to ask, so we asked them if they patted her to sleep. They were adamant they didn't need to, that she was one of the 'good ones'. But said some children were patted off to sleep. So with that information, we just figured she had seen others getting patted and was testing the boundaries. Now, with that corrected, she has started insisting that she take herself to bed on her own now. She'll hold her hand up at us and say 'no, bubbi do' and toddle off down the hall. We follow a few minutes after and there she is in bed, when she sees us she'll giggle. We'll give her a kiss, tell her she's so clever and such a good girl, say good night and move to the door. Here's hoping this little practice continues. Fingers crossed.

 

LOVES and HATES

 

Chloes loves this month are pretty standard for a 2 year old. With all the parties lately, she LOVES birthday parties, cake and chocolate - with all the overindulgence that's been had at the numerous celebrations. She also loves those coin operated cars you see in shops making it VERY hard and expensive - when we try to walk past one without a turn.

 

 

 

 

She also loves to pull various faces, with her most hilarious being her 'sad face'.

 

 

She continues to have her favourite people, which this month are Nee, Lei and Opa. She'll often ask to 'see lei?', want to sing happy birthday for Nee and tell everyone she's going to Opa's house. Its very sweet.

 

 

 

 

The last love this month is going to the beach, with the warmer weather creeping up, I am very much looking forward to taking her to the beach at any and every opportunity! 

 

 

 

Her hates this month, are having her hair done (despite bribes of chocolate, bad mummy!), getting dressed and going out. Hilariously, Chloe much prefers to stay home, despite the fun activities on offer. As you can see in the video below. Thankfully hair washing and brushing is no longer an issue. YAY!

 

 

 

 





 

OTHER STUFF

Toilet training

Toilet training is officially ka-put! Donezo! Chloe is trained. We haven't had accidents out in SO VERY LONG! Yipppeeeeeee! We have had the occasional accident at home, bizarrely?! Often when we're playing.... but they are rare. Day care will also have the occasional accident, but again one at most in a week. And generally the accident is a dribble, no number 2s and not soaked through. So go Chloe! She is the envy of many parents as she is still considered 'young' to be trained. But now when I look back and take into consideration the few accidents she will have, I'm SOOOO glad to have done it whilst she is 'young'.

 

Fathers Day

This month we celebrated Fathers Day, but unfortunately it also fell on Chloe friends birthday and at the end of a pretty horrific 48 hour bug I caught. So we didn't really get a chance to celebrate in style for daddy dearest. Instead we had a simple morning of yummy brekkie at home and gifts of undies and coat hangers for Jarratt. But being the practical parent he is, he loved it! And I mean, it was slightly better than say, an orchid. hehehe. We spent the afternoon (post party) at Carss Park playing and drinking coffee, so whilst it was a modest celebration, it was perfect.

 

 

 

Playschool

This month, Chloe and besties Ellie and Ayla (along with Zo-zo) headed to sharkies for the Playschool concert. Just like last year we got there nice and early and got ripper front row seats! Chloe and the girls were perfect, staying behind the white line as directed and dancing to the performance of Tao and Abby Tucker. The concert included some of Chloe's favourite songs like 'twinkle twinkle', 'row row, row your boat' and 'polly put the kettle on', she stood for most of the first part, swaying and doing the movements to the songs. She was so cute! Afterwards we even got to meet Tao (squeal!) and she was rewarded for her fantastic behaviour with a Jemima Ballerina (for 26 bucks! YIKES) despite mummy trying to entice her to pick the ($2) placemat!

 

 

 

Modelling

Chloe reshot her head shots for Bambini this month and was an absolute professional. Posing this way and that, and completing outfit changes no worries - given our current hate of getting dressed, I was cheerin! She hasn't booked any work in MONTHS and whilst it is disheartening, given the nature of the business, it is to be expected. We're hopeful she'll get some work with Christmas coming up, but it really is luck more than skill (which she has buckets of as you can see below) in whether or not you get a photo shoot. So keep your fingers crossed for us.

 

 

Well, that's it, all done and dusted for another month. Now to relax with a coffee and a bit of crappy tv. hehehe.

 

Til next time.
Lots of love, Bec

   

2 years on... what have I learnt?

So... we hit the two year mark last Saturday, Chloe is two! Can you believe it? And what a wonderful little person she is, she is kind, sweet, friendly, polite, bright, well behaved (I could go on and on) but most of all, looking around the hall last Saturday, I realised she is deeply, deeply loved, by all that know her. It made me realise that a lot has happened this last year, and that Jarratt and I have become really good at this. Sure we still have our moments of weakness but on a whole, I'm giving us two big thumbs up for the job we are doing, and I'm not making any apologies for being vain about it! So I thought being one year on, a little older, a little wiser, I thought I'd revisit last years post and share with you the things I've learnt in this second year of parenting.... Here goes:

1. There is no learning curve.
I think last time I wrote, I mentioned a learning curve or something similar. Bullshit! There is no learning curve. Once you've mastered breastfeeding, bottle feeding whatever, they're onto solids, once you've mastered that, they're feeding themselves with a spoon, once you've mastered that, there's cutlery... and that's just feeding. And as a result you never really feel on top of things and that's ok. Once you realise you have no control, bam! You're in total control, and more importantly, you can relax! You can cope! Everything will be ok. I promise.

2. Pick your battles.
Look, it will sound like I'm bragging and I'm sure it won't always be the case, but in general Chloe is a great kid! She's well behaved and on the most part will listen to and follow instructions when given. But sometimes, she wants to do things herself; sometimes she wants Uncle John / mum / dad / Nanny to get her out of the car, not you. Sometimes she wants to get a toy out that I've just packed away, sometimes she wants to walk the whole way home from day care on the fences and sometimes she wants to have a big pile of cheese half an hour before dinner or peas for breakfast. And while my knee jerk reaction is to say no, in the grand scheme of things, what does it really matter? Are these make or break things? Not really. Is she hurting herself or anyone or thing if she does this? Absolutely not. So why say no? I've learnt to save 'no' when it really matters. As a result, Chloe very rarely shouts 'no' at us. I really believe children are great imitators, so its important to give them something great to imitate. I don't believe that's someone who shouts a lot, or says no a lot is that great a role model.

3. Everyone parents differently.
There's a lot of differing parenting styles out there. And I've become quite aware of it this second year. I think its because Chloe is more aware. Discipline and expectations vary from family to family so when there is a difference in opinion on what's acceptable, it makes it confusing to kids. For example I expect Chloe to eat at the table when we have dinner, its hard to uphold that when there is another child running about the place. As a result I've found the times when I've had the easiest play dates, its often with like minded parents who have similar expectations of their children. I try and hold onto those that make me feel sane. Very, very tightly! Parenting is hard enough, without the added strain of difficult situations that you need to explain to a toddler. 

4. Don't worry about what other people think
Inevitably, you are going to be judged. By your family, your friends, people on the street. Its inevitable. But don't worry about it. For a long time it ate me up, if Chloe cried or squealed for this reason or that whilst we were out, I could feel the eyes of everyone burning down on me. Judging me. I then became stressed and dealt with the situation completely differently to how I normally would. If someone made an offhanded comment about Chloe that was even slightly negative, I'd jump on them, defending her. I would feel the anxiety swell in my stomach. Now, that's all changed. Why? Because I don't care what others think. I know that sounds awful already, so get ready for this next bit.... but why do they matter? In the end, all that matters is Chloe. I just care about her - that's the way it should be!

5. Hugs heal everything!
Even though Chloe is a great kid, we still have our melt downs. We've adopted a strategy of first asking her if she'd like a hug. Sounds ridiculous right? But 9 times out of 10 it will work. The other 1 time we walk away from her. She's in a moment, we cant snap her out of it, she has to do that herself, and she has to do that in her own time. So we walk away and wait for her to come to us. More often than not she will continue to scream, you need to fight every urge to not run in there and console her, but how will she learn how to pick herself up if we're constantly doing it for her? After a minute or so she will slowly emerge, cheeks stained with tears and fall into your waiting arms. It breaks my heart every time! Every. Single. Time. But.... the tantrum is over.

6. It doesn't get easier. But teamwork helps.
I remember being constantly told, 'don't worry, it does get easier', crap! Absolute rubbish! It doesn't get easier, the problems just change. Whether it's sleeping, eating, walking, playing, social skills, toilet training, anything at all. There's always something that's going to be causing you difficulties. Being a parent is a hard slog, it can take you to the edge of your sanity, dignity, patience levels.... and back again, but what makes it all that much easier is teamwork. I don't know what I'd do without Jarratt. He is my rock. Sometimes, when I just cant do anymore, when I'm counting down the minutes, he appears and all is well in the world again, I can breathe. I can tag out. Don't get me wrong, I LOOOOOOOOOVE Chloe, more than tea time (hehehe), but parenting is a two person job. For me anyways. Sometimes I need that solo time, that time to breathe and reboot. To just be. That doesn't make me a bad person or a bad mum. Heavens no. That makes me a better mum. It's important to be able to recognise that to be the best mum I can be, I can't always be the only one carrying the parent banner. That it's ok to pass the baton every now and then and head to the bleachers to cheer from the sideline. And thank goodness for that.

7. Its an amazing ride, savour it!
It feels like I've blinked and she's a whole year older. That makes me incredibly proud, but also incredibly sad. It feels like this time has gone so quickly. I feel like I'll turn around before much longer and she'll be heading to school, high school, driving, dating, getting married, having kids all of her own. Honestly, it makes me panic. It makes me think. It makes me reflect. Are we making the most of this? Are we making our precious time together special? Are we doing a good job? Is she happy? And the answer to all of that is whole heartedly, yes! We ARE making the most of each and every day. Our time IS special, SHE is special. We are most definitely doing a good job.  You only need to look at that little face to know she is the happiest, most loved little girl in the whole wide world!

And so ends another spiel of what I've learnt, its been nice to share with you my ramblings and get that all off my chest. Whilst this second year of parenting hasn't been the rollercoaster of the first, it has still had its ups and downs. The crazy, the crying, the cuddles. The screaming, the sacred, the scared. The minutes, the magic, the mess. It's all been part of this second year. And it's all been worth it.

Quick! Quick!

Hello you! How are you? Well I hope. Its been a busy month here at Casa de Wyatt. We've been busy hunting for houses, applying for loans, getting taxes done and eeeeeeeeck toilet training! Its all been hard, so very, very hard, but hey? Anything worth it is right? Well, lets not waste the child nap time diddle daddling around.... lets get stuck into it!




STATS (as of 1/8/2014)
Height: 84.5cm
Weight: 12kgs
Size: 1-2
Shoe: 6

EATING and DRINKING
 

In the last month, Chloe has slowly but surely spent more dinners at the table with us than at her own table. She will still use her table for lunch and brekkie, but she much prefers eating dinner in the chair next to Mummy. As a result when we are eating out we no longer request a high chair as she simply does not need it.

She's also very capable of using her own cutlery now, although has done for a while, so no longer needs any assistance with eating. She has taken a particular interest in her knife and loves to 'cut' her (and our) food up.

The other new thing that really developed out of her taking such a long time to finish dinner was having her after dinner fruit in the bath. Often she'll snack on some mandarin, or apple, whilst in her bath. She just loves it. Except when she drops a bit in the bath, and well, if that happens it's 'yucky'.

Chloe now no longer has milk in the morning or at night. Unless she asks for it. She can have it throughout the day, as a drink. We encourage water but she much prefers milk. But in the morning now we go straight to Breakfast instead of her morning milk and she has a drink with dinner and then that's it at night. Its been a relatively easier transition. She's never been a kid that's needed to nod off with her milk in her hand so it wasn't hard to just 'drop' it from the bedtime routine. So all that stress and worry I put myself through about two months ago about how it would work, turned out to be just another thing I was overthinking. hehe.

COMMUNICATION

 

Chloe is a down right chatterbox. Which I imagine is no surprise to any of you, given she's my daughter. hehe. Her language has improved out of sight and we're amazed at just how much she can say and understand. And its not just us who are impressed, her teachers at Day Care often comment on how wonderfully she speaks considering she is not 2 yet. The only downfall is if she tries to tell you too much or talk too quickly her words get muddled and its difficult to understand her. But that's pretty standard for little kids. But its made living with Chloe a whole lot easier as other than being able to tell you what's bothering her or what she needs. she can easily answer routine questions such as 'What would you like for breakfast?' and 'What would you like to do?' Taking much of the guess work out of what use to be a very difficult task.

Since her communication has improved so much we decided to attack the *gasp* toilet training issue this month. She is very confident and clearly understands terms like 'wet', 'dry', 'knickers', 'pants' (aka pull ups) and 'yucky'. All the universal language we've adopted in training our little lady. The most important has been 'quick! quick!' when she announces wee, wee or poo poo - its the response we give to her to hustle to the toilet. Which has made for some very entertaining looks when we tell her whilst crossing the road to be 'quick quick', she shouts back 'wee, wee' hahahaha. But more about toilet training later.

As a result of her understanding and language, we've reached the age where we've started spelling words. Yup, we're there people! At the spelling stage! Sometimes when she's within ear shot we'll say things like "Should we go to the P-A-R-K this afternoon?" or "How much M-I-L-K has she had today?" and so on. Other words that are strictly for spelling are bike, bread (as in garlic bread), cheese and woof. Particularly if we've left him at home and don't have time to go back for him. There are words that come on and off the list depending on variables like the weather, such as painting. But generally we can still distract in the event that a spelling word is said. I'm dreading the day when distraction no longer works. eeeeeck!

GROSS MOTOR

 

So, there's an activity at swimming that Chloe had been struggling with... its called a Mat Run. Basically the kids climb out of the pool (which she can do), run to the end a foam platform (which she would do) and then JUMP into the waiting arms of their parents (which she WOULD NOT do). At the final step Chloe would cautiously sit down and slide into the pool. I didn't force the issue and figured she would do it in her own time. And she has. 2 weeks ago, Chloe jumped from the platform into my arms. She was so proud of herself and the proceeding week did not blink and got straight to work. So proud of her! We also had a make up lesson on a Sunday, as she'd missed the one when I had stitches in my hand, and daddy was able to take her for the lesson. It was lovely watching them in the water together. She really had a blast with him!

In part I think the aforementioned success in the mat run is because of a real interest she has developed in jumping. Whilst she still cant get herself off the ground too well, she'll have a good crack at it when holding your hands. As well as on the walk home from Day Care, she'll walk along the brick fences and as we reach the end she'll jump off into your arms. She just loves it!

Trips to the our local park have been fairly limited since commencing toilet training as there is no toilet there. But when we do go, the swings and car wheel are a firm favourite. Whilst she still thinks their hers, she has gotten a lot better at sharing the park and crying a lot less 'mine' or 'bubbi's' when we're there.

SLEEPING

So with Toilet Training came the issue of what do we dress Chloe in for bed now? again!!!! ........ grrrrrr, yet again, another bedtime issue surrounding clothing! We ended up keeping her PJs and just subbing out the underneath onesie to a singlet and tights. As it was easier if she needed to go to the toilet once changed for bed. And she seems to be better at keeping her blanket on herself now as well as staying on her pillow during sleeps - Yippeeeeee! And it all seems to be working - So far so good.  She also still wears a pull up to bed at night, but not during the day sleep. So far, in the 3 weeks of training we've had 1 day time nap accident - and I think that's because I wasn't quick enough off the mark when she woke from her sleep. However day care has not had one dry day sleep in 6 days! I've tried racking my brain to figure out what's the difference between home and school but I have no idea! I'm absolutely against giving them a pull up for her day sleep as I believe in consistency and if she can do it at home, consistently, she should be able to do it at school. So in the meantime we're pushing on!

Towards the end of last month we had a run of bad nights. With her waking multiple times. But then she sprouted all four of her eye teeth and we've gone back to the occasional waking. She has developed a bit of a habit of needing one of us to sit with her for a while in the evening til she falls asleep. Some nights we're ok and have the time and energy for it, others we don't, and its incredibly frustrating. We're hoping its just a phase and like most things will pass. Cross your fingers for us.

LOVES and HATES

Since the arrival of Lily (Ayla's Sister) and Zoe (Ellie's sister), Chloe has been baby NUTS! Always asking for Zo-Zo and Lily! She's also developed a real sweetness in role playing with woof and more recently a doll baby Nanny bought her. She also loves listening to music, talking on the phone (mobile or landlind), sorting/matching activities and reading. Any academic pursuits really. Such a smart little cookie!

 

On the other side of the coin, she still hates washing her hair, but there sure is less blood curdling screams about it now. Wiping her nose has improved as has brushing her hair.

OTHER STUFF

Toilet Training

As mentioned earlier, we began toilet training about 3 weeks ago. I read this whiz bang, all knowing 40 page PDF about how to toilet train in three days. Everyone, and I mean everyone (!), raved about it. And if I'm honest, it was ok. The principles were good, no negative comments, positive reinforcement, yadda yadda yadda. But you know what. Its rubbish. Its all common sense. And despite all the people I know raving about it...... no child is ever toilet trained that quickly. They may have 'learnt' the basics, but once that's done they need to master it. Well, that's my opinion anyways. But we followed the guide and for almost four excruciating days we knuckled down and stayed in for the marathon effort of toilet training Chloe complete with supplies!

By the end of the first day she was telling me and up and running to the toilet, second day same thing, third day I felt like we went backwards and I became so frustrated. I committed to another day to try and get it right! And then headed out to Renee's for a safe outing on the fourth day in the afternoon. Whilst at Renee's Chloe went to the toilet twice with prompting, it was great! Off we sent her to daycare and that's where it went a little pear shaped. She had a poo accident (which we still haven't had at home, in all three weeks) and multiple wee accidents. I felt completely defeated. All that hard work. For what? So I started again, both Thursday and Friday we had accidents (2 each day) but then by Saturday we were back on track! No accidents Saturday or Sunday, at all. Monday daddy had two accidents, but I had relaxed as one was when they were at our local park and theres no toilet. Then off she went to daycare. Picked her up.... 7 accidents! 7! I was shattered..... but I've accepted that this is how it's going to be until she really gets it. So we're now into the third week and Chloe has been accident free (at home) since Wednesday (6 days). Out tends to be hit and miss. Often with her telling us just as she's about to go, or (eeeeck!) already started. But we're so proud of her and her efforts. She's done so well considering she's not even two yet!

Teeth
Chloe has sprung 4 eye teeth this last month (and a little into the previous month as well), we think that was the cause of some disruptions to her sleeping and eating last month. The last peak is all but cut through now. Which means she has just her second year molars to get then it's smooth sailing on the teething front until she's 7 or so. Have to say I'm a wee bit excited about that!!!!

Modelling
Nothing to report as far as 'work' goes, she has got her headshots booked for the 21st of August, so I should have them to share with you by next months update. Just.

Until then, all our love, Team Wyatt, xxx

Where's ball?

Well hello there.... how are you? I'm well. A little flu-y like almost everyone in our house since Winter has decided to turn up this last week. And it is FREEEEEEEEEE-ZING! We've officially hit heater season which means Jarratt and I are at wars over the heating situation of our house.... as with every winter, I am loosing! Boo! So here I am rugged up, typing away while my fingers slowly turn a white shade of blue. Despite it being the middle of the day and him at work, I still feel incredibly guilty about running the air conditioner. Silly huh? I guess the guilt is also because I'd be running it just for me.... you see its school holidays, yippee! And its one of my days 'off'. Chloe is in care, as we still pay for the day regardless if she goes or not, so we send her. Which means each school holidays I get 4 or so delicious days of indulgence..... ha! I wish! No, no... those days are fast filled with a ridiculously long list of 'things to do without Chloe'. The blog is one.... so here I am day one of my indulgence.... typing, to you. xxx


STATS (as of the 23/6/2014)
Height: 84cms
Weight: 11.3kg
Size: 1-2.
Shoe: 6

EATING and DRINKING

The high chair is NO more. Little Miss has officially graduated to her own table and chair. She continues to eat with us and the same foods as us. Then at each meal we slide out her table and chairs and position it at the end of our dining table for her. Although she can be a little fickle. Sometimes mid meal she'll want to sit on a dining chair next to mummy, which is fine. She's a toddler after all and they haven't got the best attention spans, lets be honest. But on a whole she is so happy to be out of the high chair and have her own little space. Gives her a real sense of self worth I think. She'll still use high chairs (sporadically) when we're eating out, but I think that will slowly phase out as she becomes more and more confident in normal dining chairs through practice at home.

Goodness.... Cinos! Chloe can now ask for them, and at the mere mention on them is running full steam in the direction of those delivering them. She still hasn't mastered the spoon to mouth business when the cino is more milk less froth, often spilling it all down her. Which is great fun when she no longer wants a bib on. But hey, its all part of the process in learning for her and for me. I just know now to quickly locate a straw to delay the inevitable. She is however VERY good at drinking from an open cup. We've begun a mantra of 'two hands please', as she's taken to carrying very small items in one hand as a comfort. But more on that later. So far the mantra is working. She is a fantastic listener and loves the praise she gets when we congratulate her on drinking so well.... with two hands!

Recently we've had a bucket load of Chloes friends (pretty much the entire swimming class) turn 2. And Chloe has well and truly indulged in cake and all things party! Like all kids she loves it! We have no problem with her eating the 'rarely' foods at parties, because well... that's what parties are about. And there's something too precious about her beautiful face smeared with cake that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

COMMUNICATION

 Its like this last month, she's decided she's just going to blow us away with her language. And not just us, any of those around her that care to converse. This month her day care teachers were shocked to realise she had yet turned 2, given how well she 'speaks'. Don't get me wrong she's no Shakespeare. But she is quickly moving from 'babble' to being able to clearly and effectively communicate her wants and needs. She is stringing multiple words together (including counting 1-6) and parroting at an alarming rate. Recently we had a bit of drama at home on a Saturday as I sliced my hand (and an artery! Eeeeck!) on a broken glass, requiring an urgent trip to the Emergency Room and 4 stitches. When it happened I may have bleeped out a swear word (oh shit!) and for the rest of the day, in front of many doctors at St George Hospital little miss proceeded to repeat the aforementioned phrase numerous times. So all you potty mouths (mummy included) are officially on notice! No more! Or you'll have daddy's wrath to deal with. No joke!

As a result, we think of her language getting better and people seeming to understand her more, she's come right out of her shell and is happy to play/talk/engage with people she occasionally sees. Like poor Scott and Eimhin a few weekends ago at the Henson in Marrickville. We do a fair amount of work on keeping her clued in on whose who in our circle of friends and family, by showing her pictures of our nearest and dearest where we say their names and she'll parrot them back. I think the poor thing is being conditioned by her teacher mummy in developing good habits for language development already. For so long, when teaching her a new word/name/etc - I ask her to watch my mouth, so she can see how to shape hers when she repeats the word. Now, without asking her, she will turn and look at us when we are speaking. Which is not only displaying wonderful skills in learning, but also fantastic manners.

But.... with good language use comes good assertive language. I don't want to say bossy, but golly I could. She will often give pretty specific directions to us, which can not always be at the most convenient time. "Daddy. Sit. Here" "Mummy. Come. Please". Unless its unsafe or impossible or rude (as in she hasn't said please, which we quickly prompt her to say "What do you say?") we will follow her directions. I mean if we expect her to listen to us and follow our instructions, we need to listen to her. It is a two way street. Also if we want her to be confident in herself and her voice, we need to show her that her voice is valued. Its not always easy, its not always convenient... but it really is that simple.

The other hilarious thing that has developed this month is Chloe becoming completely aware of our 'real' names. Jarratt and I have never referred to each other directly as 'mummy' and 'daddy'. If I need to ask Jarratt a question, I ask J. Same in the reverse. "J have you seen my phone?" "Bec does this need to go in the wash?" and so on.... Chloe, the clever clogs she is, has worked it out. Leading to many funny instances of her publicly calling out "Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay" in a crowded pub whilst we are having lunch.

Meanwhile, she STILL thinks her name is"'Bubbi" :)

GROSS MOTOR

So trips to the park have become a lot fun-er this month with little miss being able to walk almost the entire block there. She is also finding the swings much more enjoyable and with little assistance is about to climb most ladders and other equipment easily. She is still cautious going down the slide and likes to hold your hand on occasion but her confidence is definitely increasing at a exponential rate. Its fantastic to see! We're so proud of her!

Dancing continues to be a favourite pass time with her now following most of the actions to songs and generally swaying to music in the car. We have each purchased a play school CD for the car and she knows them songs verbatim now. She also loves to play a simplified version of musical statues where I sing my own made up song and then say 'stop' at which point she freezes. She just loves that game.

She's made some great developments this month in swimming. She now competently monkey monkeys along the wall. Kicks and bubbles with her 'rocket arms' and when using a kickboard. She also has begun the first steps towards 'diving', being able to 'jelly fish' along a submersed platform and then 'splatting' through a hula hoop. All independently. It really is pretty impressive stuff. Given she is the youngest in the class, with all the others turning 2 already, the teacher has rolled the class over to a 2-3 year old lesson so as we can all stay in the group together. Its so nice that she's been able to stay in the class with all her little friends.

Chloe has taken a real interest in jumping at the moment. Whilst she hasn't 'jumped' as such yet, she loves to hold your hands and bounce on her toes. We've tried showing her how to bend her knees and push off the ground, but she gets annoyed and prefers doing it her own way. Often when I try and help her, she waves her hand at me frowns and says 'no please mummy, bubbi do!' Then takes my hands, says 'jump' over and over as she bounces. The best bit is she laughs hysterically whilst doing it. So, so cute!

SLEEPING 

Sleeping continues to be hit and miss. Ahhhhh, the ongoing battle of sleep. I shake my fist at you! So we had a patch of about 2 weeks where we had no wake ups. Then BAM! This last week, multiple times a night. Grrrrrrr! We think it may be the change in temp with the nights being much cooler now, so we're trialling some different things. But since Chloe still really thrashes about in her sleep its hard to keep any blankets on her. We've already dressed her in a singlet, onsie and thermal PJs but still no good. Who knows. I know I report on this each month and its often sprinkled with negativity, but its just part and parcel in this parenting game for us. Meanwhile day sleeps are perfect. Often she sleeps for 3 hours, with us waking her before she sleeps past 3, as then we have problems with her going to bed at night.

Bedtime has also crept back to 730 on occasions, and once this month 930! Which was not great! But was for Jarratts mums birthday, so couldn't be avoided. Most nights though by 7, she (and us) are ready for her to go to bed. Some nights she may 'try it on', often laying in bed 'practicing' her words and having conversations with woof. If she begins to carry on for too long, or begins calling for us we've  taken a firm line of late. Telling her 'that's enough, its bedtime, go to sleep'. Once again we are doing our best to be consistent and it seems to be paying off.

LOVES and HATES

Oh lordy lordy.... so a few weeks back whilst Nanny was visiting we got some Indian food from down the road. Whilst waiting for it, I innocently bought Chloe a small bouncy ball from a vending type machine for her to play with. What a mistake! The ball.... now comes everywhere! And I mean EVERYWHERE. She sleeps with it (as you can see) and well go back and check out the eating photo from earlier. See it on the table? hahaha. Its also being held in the photo coming up of her and daddy at the zoo. Hahaha. A bit of a where's Wally? game for you there. We've had to buy a few 'spares' since it is prone to going missing. We were worried when she started taking it to bed that she may (heaven forbid) choke on it .... so try as we might to have her give it to us before putting her down, she was adamant that it was coming with her. So it went. We figured we'd just creep in and pluck it out once she was asleep. Which we did until she started waking up in a panic overnight crying out 'ball!? where's ball?" After waking in the morning its the first thing she asks for, when in the car, same thing. She's taken to hiding it in her clothes, under her 'bum bum', all sorts of places and then innocently asking 'where's ball?'. I think its her favourite game!

After her ball, her little friends are her next favourite thing. Sometimes its the only way I can get her out the door! 'Chloe, do you want to see Ayla?' 'Yeh, Nee?' 'Yeah, Renee and what about Ellie?' 'Yeh! Nic?' "Of course, lets go Bubbi". She is just smitten with them. And she is so so so considerate and loving to them. She laughs, chases, plays with them in such a way that is so far advanced for her age. I don't think Chloe has ever 'parallel played' as I'm told most kids do. She will often lean in close to her friends and talk to them. Just the other day at a party, I asked Chloe if she wanted me to get her some party num num. She said yes please mummy, then turned to her friend B and said "BB, num, yeh?" B nodded and Chloe turned back to me and shouted "Mummy, BB, num, k?" So deliciously sweet.

Unfortunately the hates this month land squarely at hygiene issues. Washing her hair, wiping snot from her face and changing her nappy. Whilst the first two are a constant battle and filled with tears, the nappy one is not as consistently hard. We've cut back on the hair washing and only put her through the trauma twice a week. Once on Friday post swimming and once on Wednesday after day care. Which is more than adequate. But it has to be done. There's no getting around it. Sorry Chloe.

OTHER STUFF

The Wiggles @ The Powerhouse
In other news we've done some cool family excursions this month. One Sunday we packed a bag and headed into the city to check out the Wiggles Exhibition at the Powerhouse. It was great! We arrived early and thankfully beat a lot of the crowd. Whilst there Emma Chloe was able to wave to the Wiggle house, cut fruit salad, make roses and have tea with Dorothy, ride the big red car and steer captain feather swords ship. It was a fantastic exhibition and I HIGHLY recommend it!

Taronga Zoo
We also had Lucy, Tom and Roy visit from Hobart! And apart from just generally hanging out, we also took Chloe to the zoo! She had a blast checking out the turtles, gorillas, giraffes and seals. But slept through the remained of the zoo. So we will definitely need to return to check out the lions and tigers and bears.... oh my! hehehe. Here she is with Daddy before she nodded off.... can you spy the ball? hehehe.

Modelling.
This month we also re-signed with Bambini Talent Group for another year. It wasn't really a tough decision, Chloe has done really well with it this past year and we thought it would be fun to continue for another year. I do need to look into booking new head shots for her which should be done (fingers crossed) by her birthday. I'll keep you posted.

Anyways, I better scoot. I want to tick off a few more things off this list before the indulgence day is done! ;-)