One small step for mankind, one giant leap for TJ
For the first time, TJ is JUST strong enough to hold himself up on hands and knees. I’m so looking forward to him crawling, so he can find his own fun rather than requiring me to constantly fetch things as he uncontrollably throws favourite toys across the room (due to lack of control, not deliberate attempts to destroy my back). That and sitting up are really useful milestones!
Lazy Mum Day
Today I went, “Have I taken a photo today? Nope. Where’s the kid? Oh, there he is.”
And here you are.
And here are a couple of permutations of the kids’ Activity Wall (you load balls into it. They go down. Or possibly up, thanks to the lever on the left). Notice the fading light. (Now that it’s totally black outside, the Activity Wall is covered in blankets and towels. . . I’ll be doing my best to keep the kids inside with curtains drawn tomorrow!)
Had a great mum-to-mum moment with my mum-in-law today when I realised she had presents for my kids that she’d forgotten about (which I knew because she’d been saying how behind she was on Christmas shopping, and I’ll sold her four of our ridiculously large pile). I guarantee I’ll be personally surprised by the gifts TJ and Louisette get from me and their Dad over the next couple of days (not as surprised as Dad, who has ADD so badly I can discuss his own gifts with him and he won’t remember a thing). I’m DEFINITELY more excited than either of them.
I’ve set up an elaborate treasure hunt (with rhyming clues) for Louisette to wade through in order to eventually find the Activity Wall on Christmas Day. Given that it’s currently held together with string and sticky tape (we need a bit of experimentation and a whole lot of zip ties when we’re really sure about the placement of things) I plan to have terrible nightmares of our kids immediately pulling it to bits and giving each other concussion in the process. ‘Tis the season. . .
The joy of getting away with it (or WILL WE?)
Here is a trellis. We happily showed it to both kids, and they didn’t suspect a thing 🙂
It’s the backing for a giant Christmas present, and luckily even Louisette doesn’t have the maturity to wonder WHY mum and dad are building a super-strong trellis two days before Christmas. (TJ of course has the same reaction to almost everything, ie, “Ooh! Shiny!” so we’re not too concerned about him spilling the secret.)
This is actually yesterday’s picture (oops, I forgot to post it then). Today (during Louisette’s nap) we put together what’s effectively a functional rough draft. I might take a photo of it when Louisette goes to sleep tonight, and have a think about how to improve it before the big day.
Also, a photo of the kids and I at Dickson pool. I’m proud of this photo because I’m in my swimmers and I don’t care.
An un-handy skill
We often hear a thump-click, thump-click around the house as Louisette walks by with one of her dummies clenched tight between her toes for safekeeping. Today, in addition to continuing to show greater sitting-up steadiness (oh how I look forward to the day when he can pick up his own toys!), TJ picked up his dummy. . . with his toes. He was sitting up at the time, but the photo is somewhat safer with him lying down.
Water Table
This was a gift for both kids. I thought really carefully about Christmas, and used it to help wean Louisette of certain baby things (giving them to her younger cousin) that I want OUT OF MY HOUSE now TJ is getting too big to need them (eg we had three cot toys) – and to prepare for the long dark time when Louisette and TJ are both mobile enough to take each other’s toys, but not mature enough to restrain themselves. So our kids tended to get some joint gifts, and a lot of very carefully paired gifts (like two cars, two duplo sets) – plus of course some that are just for Louisette, and will be kept well out of TJ’s reach (or at least that’s the plan – she IS old enough to learn from negative experiences if she doesn’t pack up her own things).
Felicity Banks 