It’s already the last day in October and I am way behind in blogging. CJ is now 19 months and one day old. He has had many milestones, celebrations, holidays and fun times in the past two months. I’ll just let these pictures do the talking:
Celebrating Allan’s 2nd Father’s Day.
Celebrating my b’day and CJ’s 18months. We held a party since his 1st b’day was cancelled. It was a sunny day with all our outdoor toys in the backyard and about 12 little friends over to play. I also had some of my friends to celebrate my b’day.
Allan has been around much more since resigning so now CJ is very spoilt having his Daddy to play with. This is really good timing since I am getting bigger and less able to move about. Here they are in Wollongong. If I am with CJ he is constantly asking for “Daddy, Daddy” and if I’m absent, he constantly asks Daddy for “Mummy, Mummy”. Things are going to be a shock early next year when Daddy goes to work and a new baby arrives.
The latest morning routine involves Allan getting CJ out of bed, bringing him into our bed, removing his sleeping bag and then CJ climbing off the bed (within seconds of getting on – if only he would lie still and fall back to sleep as he used to when only a bub). He usually comes around to my bedside table and hands me my “eyes” (ie glasses) because he knows once they are on I will wake up and give him proper attention. Then he toddles off to the kitchen to get his water bottle and a banana. He brings this back to our room and once the banana is opened he can usually go back to the living room to sit and enjoy these things by himself allowing us a few more minutes to lie in bed. Allan then usually pulls himself out of bed, changes CJ’s nappy, gets him dressed and starts breaky. CJ enjoys eating cereal with us now as well as “cheesy bread”.
Most recently he has been waking at about 5:45am and calling out or singing “ee i ee i o” (Old McD) at the top of his voice. He’s gone off the banana routine (maybe because I am not putting them out anymore as he seems to enjoy pulling the skin off but not eating the fruit). He has learnt to climb up on chairs now and so we find him getting more adventurous and this is a challenge.
He certainly enjoys mimicking his Daddy. He loves all the gadgets and things on Allan’s desk including the pens, mouse, keyboard and iPhone.
But he also enjoys the things on Mummy’s dressing table. He was playing “cheers” with my lotions and bottles and also pretending to apply “special cream” on his arm (which has a touch of eczema on it). He really is into what his parents do.
A big addition to our family has been “Marsh” (No. 2). We got this bunny free off Gumtree and CJ has really taken to looking after him by feeding him hay, carrots, corn and lettuce and “gently” patting his bottom to make him “hop” and even sharing his cage.
I’m not really into pets but Allan and CJ have been doing a great job looking after this bunny and I can see how it’s helping CJ to be more responsible for something. He often asks after Marsh in the morning, wanting to check he is okay and bring him out. The name is courtesy of CJ – I think he is confused with mouse and rabbit. Oh well, it now has stuck.
Allan has been doing lots of bike riding and even joined in this charity event to raise money for an orphanage in Cambodia. CJ knows Daddy goes “bider” (to rhyme with “spider”) and whenever he sees a picture of a bike he says “daddy” or whenever Allan is out, CJ asks whether he has gone “bider”.
Hopefully one day Allan will be able to take Caleb out bike riding as a father and son activity.
We’ve just returned from another trip down south to Vincentia. CJ loves the house as it is full of new toys and has a very relaxed feeling to it because we are all on holidays. We set up this little tent on Blenheim Beach and enjoyed an afternoon on the sand by ourselves.
CJ just loves his “eyes” and looks very cool with them on.
Other things to note about these two months:
He is also obsessed with tractors, cars, trucks, bulldozers, cement mixers, dump trucks and garbage trucks. I had no idea about all the different names and functions of these heavy machinery but am learning as I go along. Every book that has a truck or tractor in it fascinates CJ and we have to read them over and over and over again. He now can count to ten in Mandarin and English. He is also very good at joining me in a rendition of “Do a deer” and “Heads, Shoulder, Knees and Toes”. He seems to know some colours and loves to call out various family members names whenever I sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children” (filling in for ‘little children’). He likes to say “Nali” which is the name of a friend and this reminds us to pray for Nali and his family. He slept on a big bed when we were down south which was a mattress on the floor and really enjoyed that. And he is probably ready to sit at the table with a smaller booster seat.
Personality wise I feel he is still shy initially when he meets new people. But if he is overtired he becomes super social and really charming which is funny to watch because that’s not his normal self. He continues to be very cheeky and loves to smile at himself in the mirror. He knows where Mummy’s baby is (0ften pointing at my tummy or belly button and pat-patting the baby). He is still napping twice a day (if we are home) for about 3 hours in total and goes to bed at about 7:30pm with minimal fuss. He is getting more frustrated when things don’t go his way and expresses this by screeching or whinging or crying whilst bending over with his head facing his knees. I can tell he is getting more and more demanding in the way he screams out which is probably the start of the Terrible Twos. But overall I think he is pretty moderate in terms of tantrums – for now!
