bank hols in berkies

Zack went off to the doctor on Monday and then again on Friday last week - ear infection. He's on amoxycilin. It meant the first night of our holiday (Fri) was a no sleep night and we had to take it in turns to comfort him. Thankfully by the second night we had a solid night's rest. Now Calvin is taking his turn to cry - he's been chewing his fingers for the past few days, so perhaps he's teething. He certainly has the icky bum to go with it, but no temp. Sigh. Kids. I'm tired.

Calvin is happiest on the slide

those jolly rides in shopping malls - there's no escaping them [sigh]

what can I say ?

Brothers take a walk

no sleep

Mummy and Daddy are zombies at the moment - Calvin is waking up twice and even three times a night to have a wail. Mostly I get up, but I'm getting to the point where he can just cry if I've been up twice before. I feel bad for the neighbours, but I need a bit of pity too. Poor Keith is also feeling haggard with the sleepless nights (and he's suffering from insomnia) and all the stresses and strains at work. His plate is pretty full right now.
I'm really not sure what's causing the wakefulness, but all the boxes are ticked - clean nappy, not thirsty, dummy nearby, warm, quiet. Either he's lonely or he's bored. We are going to move his cot into Zack's room so that we solve the former, but the latter is something that will have to find it's own way out because neither Keith nor I are entertainers at 1am, 4am or 5:30am. No way!
Zack and Calvin went off to Little Dinosaurs yesterday, and when I got home I heard that Zack had bitten a two-year-old. Sheesh! How long has it been since he last bit a child ? Ages and ages. He had rushed upstairs when I was talking to Tina about it, and I found him hiding underneath his bed. I went up and sat on the floor and encouraged him to come out. He was obviously afraid of what I was going to say, and apologized immediately. Now that he's older, it's easier to ask, 'Why?'. The other child was hitting him in the face. I reminded him that he needs to talk to an adult. Biting is not an option.
Calvin, Zack and I went off to the shoe shop on Tuesday and got new shoes for both of them. It is remarkable how quickly children's feet grow. Zack is now an 11, so needed to say farewell to his Gola's. I replaced them with a pair of funky white Sketchers. Calvin got his first pair of walking shoes - little navy-blue, leather ones. He seems happy in them, altho' he is reverting to crawling every now and then which is understandable.
I took Calvin to the physio on Monday morning at 9am for an assessment. Considering he'd been walking for nearly a week, I felt that my fears had been allayed and I really didn't need to be there. As it turns out she was happy to see us, but confirmed just that - he is doing well developmentally and doesn't have any issues of concern. That little outward turning foot of his will soon be straighter with the shoes and constant walking.

he walks

Calvin has FINALLY decided to walk by himself. Yesterday while at a shopping mall in Derby he walked for quite a distance with Keith (just keeping him company, not holding his hands). It is delightful - he holds both arms out in front of him like a zombie or Frankenstein, and giggles as he goes. I'll try and post a video of it soon.

totter

Calvin is now tottering along with confidence on Zack's old "push along" musical wagon thingy. He loves watching himself in the mirror and glances backwards to make sure Mummy is seeing it too. Too cute!
Yesterday morning he was playing on the carpet in our bedroom, while I was showering. He discovered a sun-beam and scampered around trying to catch it. Every time he had his back to it, it disappeared, then he'd quickly circle around so that he could see it on the carpet again.
He has a couple of new words too : Amen, and Nanny (for Tina).
This morning we were singing "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're going to the moon." and he quickly started counting with his little pointer finger in the palm of the other hand, and then putting his arms in the sky at "blast off". Just so delightful to see the developmental stages.

teething and more WARS

On Saturday we took Zack with us to the Star Wars Celebration Europe (read 'Star Wars convention'). It was such fun. Lots of people in full costume, including this chap who was a member of a polish storm trooper battalion, who we joined on the train. Pretty incredible stuff.

Zack is getting a new tooth. It's all by itself (no friends on either side) so I'm not sure what it is, but it's been sore and he's had a temperature on and off over the weekend. Poor little chap.

Other than that he is continuing to enjoy the freedom of walking by himself - we took him to the farm yesterday, and he just loved being able to go up to the fences and point at the animals. There was a narrow call with a chicken, but we escaped unscathed.

mr & mrs zimmer

Zack is now well on the way to walking. He insists on being able to hold onto your hands and totter around the flat, the garden, the pavements, the shopping mall, so that he can look at what he wants to see. Keith and I feel like human zimmer frames, heh heh. It won't be long now and he'll be running around.

I am really looking forward to the time when he can stand on his own, but I'm aware that when they're so mobile, you have to keep your eye on them every minute of the day. I had an awful dream last night that Zack went missing. That feeling of dread inside you... I remember talking to the police and constantly looking at the space where he was, and he was gone. I got an email from Kelly recently about the Jamie Bulger case, and it's haunted me ever since. I can think of nothing more evil, and terrible to lose a child to some coniving criminal. It must be terrible to feel completely bereft and unable to fix it. I don't even want to think about what I would become in that situation. It isn't something to dwell on.

Zack is also becoming amazingly stroppy: asserting his will. I can see where the Terrible Twos stories start... he's on his way already. On the one hand it's frustration because he can't tell us what he wants, while on the other, he throws himself around when he can't have his way. Tough life being a toddler, but even tougher being a parent to a toddler.

you wouldn't say so from this photo though, would you ?

We were away on the weekend and it was lovely having the space to let him run around, but it was also really tiring as we had to watch him and 'zimmer' him alot, and he didn't sleep well in the nights AT ALL. So we were both feeling decidedly smashed on Sunday morning. I was counting down to sleeping in our own beds last night !
He travelled very well, and was content to just listen to us while we chatted on the way there (about 2 hours) and napped when he wanted to. It reminded me of those crazy trips I did with my mum to Norfolk, and Keith to Edinburgh when Zack was so small. I was off my head tackling all that !