Big Sister
Louisette still sees it as a treat to hold TJ, and will ask to hold him only once or twice a week. TJ trusts her now (he has good reason to – she’s very gentle and caring), so it’s very handy!
Hide and Seek
TJ LOVES to play peek-a-boo with a towel, and is clever enough and coordinated enough to cover and reveal his own face.
Outside
TJ is starting to be able to put his dummy back in his mouth (sometimes). He’s been pretty successful for a while when the dummy is perfectly lined up ready to go, but yesterday was the first time I’d seen him (eventually) bring a dummy to his mouth and turn it around the right way. It’s definitely one of the skills he’s focused on at the moment (that and early attempts at crawling – it’s noticeable that he doesn’t tend to waste his energy practicing rolls these days).
And we spent some time outside – I even gave him a leaf to play with. This is one of those photo sessions where you end up with a reminder of just how many faces a baby can pull in the space of five minutes.
Bagged baby
TJ is sick at the moment, which means he’s spending more time on my lap – handy for photographing his main sleeping bag.
Plans Made While Pregnant
When I was pregnant with Louisette, I wrote down some of the stuff CJ and I were desperately looking forward to doing with our kids. Lately, Louisette is old enough to appreciate most of these, so I’ve added comments – three years after writing that list.
And on to today’s official topic! Here, in no particular order, are some of the plans CJ and I are looking forward to doing with our future children (and yes, there are some significant differences in the costs or age-relevance of these items):
Take the kids to the zoo.
I’m deliriously excited about taking Louisette to the zoo for her third birthday in January. She still talks about going to the aquarium a couple of months ago (partly because we made a poster with the photos in order to consolidate her memories), and the zoo should blow her mind.
Buy a house with a yard (but make the kids share a room – if we can all stand it).
We have a yard now! Also a trampoline and cubby house. When TJ starts mostly sleeping through the night, we’ll move both kids into the bigger bedroom (with a backup mattress elsewhere, for bad days/nights). I’m hoping it’ll happen this year.
Take the kids to Questacon, especially in Winter.
We’re on our second year of having an annual membership. It’s so good to always have a fun place to go that’s reasonably well contained and safe – and inside.
Play with plasticine, and playdough, and make potato stencils.
Turns out I’m still terrified of playdough (grind some into your carpet and you’ll soon see why) so I’ll probably get into that only when the kids are quite a bit older and neater. BUT I built up the courage to make painting a part of our lives, and Louisette and I have painting sessions – inside, even! – quite often. I’ll have to use potatoes someday.
Buy primary-school popularity for the kids by having a pool.
I still like this idea, but it’s extremely unlikely our yard or budget will handle an in-ground pool. Still, younger kids just want water, so I hope it’ll still happen. In the meantime, we have those blue plastic shells for paddling, which is lots of fun – even TJ has endured a go.
Expand the house (or shove CJ out of his study) so the kids get their own rooms around the onset of puberty.
Our house has three bedrooms and a converted garage, so CJ and I will most likely share the garage (as we’re doing at the moment, with difficult) as a study and the kids will have the actual bedrooms. I’m hoping that we’ll feel less cramped when we can give away the last of the baby paraphernalia (porta-cot, stroller, etc)
Have a granny flat so the kids can be “neighbours” for a while between living at home and moving out. Charge rent based on their income, until it reaches market value.
It wouldn’t be easy, but we could re-work our house to accommodate that. Probably by having the master-and-ensuite set up as a self-contained flat (with electrical cooking appliances – I lived in a similar arrangement back in the day) for one of the kids, and the garage set up for CJ and I (we’d enter the house from that direction; it has a door and will someday have windows).
Play with frisbees.
We own a Frisbee – I even know where it is – but I suspect the running and fetching would be too much at the moment.
Fly a kite.
Louisette is just old enough (according to CJ), so this will happen soon.
Take them to Canberra’s best playgrounds (the castle, and the snake playground).
We’ve been to both of those playground in the last month 🙂 Lots of fun!
Go camping with my brother and his family.
He’s just about to have a second child (of hopefully lots) so there’s still a long time to wait until our kids are up to camping. Not to mention me.
Lots of cousin time! (My sister and her family might even be living in Canberra, which would mean all my direct siblings are here in one city!!)
Yes! Louisette and my TJ and my sister’s girls see lots of each other, and it’s wonderful!
Go paddle boating.
We’ll need to wait until the kids’ feet can reach the pedals. . .
Rent a four-person bike.
When TJ can reliably sit up, this can happen.
There are quite a few cool things not on this list – CJ takes Louisette to playgrounds on his bike, and she and I often cook together. And there’s plenty more excitement still to come.
New Things
TJ sleeps in a bag now instead of a wrap, he sometimes holds his own bottle for up to a minute, and today he had his first go in a Jolly Jumper.
Felicity Banks 