Three years old

James turned three a few weeks ago. He's now very definitely a pre-schooler rather than a toddler. I am really enjoying this stage because we can have proper conversations about things, and he talks in full sentences. Quite often the things he says make me laugh but I feel guilty at laughing at him... James likes to ask 'What's that man/lady?' which may mean either 'Who is that person?' or 'What is he/she doing?'. He also seems to be just reaching the 'why' stage, which I am not looking forward to.

James loves playing with his play food and plates etc - we got him a toy kitchen for his birthday which I hope he will play with more once he has some saucepans, and once the weather means he has to play inside more. He also got a playhouse for the garden which he loves, plus a sand and water table. He got some new wooden toy food plus some dressing up kit.

The final tooth came through a couple of weeks ago, hooray! No more teething (until the next baby).

We managed to get James out of nappies about six weeks ago now. He does fine with wees with us (though still has an accident at nursery most days) but is still rather unreliable for poos. I'm glad we finally managed to find a chance to do it before his third birthday and while the weather was good.

We've had a few short breaks this summer rather than one big holiday. In June we left James with his Wiltshire grandparents while we had a child-free weekend in Dorset. He had a lovely time and the highlight was a trip to the circus, which he still talks about. We also had a few days in Norfolk where he rode on lots of little trains and paddled in the sea, and a weekend camping with friends in Dorset where he loved playing on bales of hay and seeing lots of animals.

The next big change in James's life will be becoming a big brother. He knows all about the baby in my tummy but I don't think he has the first idea how things will change in just a few weeks...

Almost three

Oops, once again it's been a fair while since I've updated this. James is now less than two months away from his third birthday and is more of a preschooler than a toddler now. He seems to have emerged from the terrible twos and is going through a lovely happy stage (presumably before becoming the feared threenager. People keep telling me three is far worse than two which has made me despair, but already the worst bits are fading so maybe people forget just how horrendous two year olds can be).

James is now chattering away in fairly long sentences. He likes to ask what things are and where things are. He hasn't quite got to 'why?' - that's probably coming next. Some of my favourite things he says include:
"I did it by all a-self" (I did it all by myself)
"Daddy carra-lou" (Daddy carry me)
"I eated it all up"
"Yes, I haves" (Yes, I am/I have/I did)

He's still not out of nappies. Whenever I try to persuade him to wear pants he yells for a nappy. He won't even try without... We must have another concerted effort some time soon. He'll get there eventually.

Teeth - I think 19/20 teeth are there. Will he have a full set by his third birthday?

Sleep - James sleeps beautifully from about 8pm-8am. Can't complain at all.

Since I last posted we have moved house. James found it a bit unsettling at first, and apparently was noticeably unsettled at nursery too. He seems happier now but most days still asks to go back home. It's been very hard to explain to him that someone else lives in our old house now. He loves being able to go out into the garden and play - he can go in and out as he likes, which wasn't possible in our old flat.

James is still obsessed with cars - lying on his front playing with them, but also real cars. He has recently learnt to recognise all the car logos, and tells me when he sees Vauxhalls, Audis, Nissans, etc. He also loves playing with his toy food.

We can often manage without the pushchair now, though it is useful if we want to get anywhere fast.

I will update again when James is three.

Oops - almost five months later

I have been a bit remiss at updating this! Oh dear.

James is now just about to be two and a half. He is something like 90cm tall and weighs something like 12.5kg. I don't know exactly. All his canine teeth finally erupted, with the minimum of fuss, so he only has the final four back molars still to come through. He stopped breastfeeding back in August.

James started at Lloyd Park nursery back in September. He loves it there and every morning over the Christmas holiday he was disappointed to learn it wasn't a nursery day.

James's language has come on hugely since the summer. He finally talks in sentences, just about. Common phrases include:
Mummy, what you doing?
What's that funny noise?
Come on Mummy, let's go!
Where's Petal gone?
Wash your hands!
Hold my hand, busy road.
Car transporter fallen over.

He can count accurately up to 11 or 12. He loves to sing songs and frequently makes up new words and actions to songs. Today we were at a library singing group and he stood at the front with the leader and did all the actions and sang beautifully. He has a CD player in his bedroom and has five or six CDs he likes to switch between - he can change the CD, skip songs, play, pause and so on.

James LOVES Thomas. He can name all the engines and sing the theme tune song. He also likes Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam and Mr Tumble. He still loves playing with cars, lining them up on his road playmat - or a rug with borders, or floorboards, or any lines on the floor really. He has also got more into imaginative play - the Fat Controller tells the trains off in his Brio set, for example, and he likes to put his teddy bears to bed and tell them off. He still loves tractors and diggers. We took him to the Paralympics in September but he wasn't terribly impressed - but at least he can say he was there!

He dropped his nap gradually over a few months, moving from napping every other day to just a couple of times a week. It became such a battle to get him to nap - he had to be walked in the pushchair, over rough ground (such as the park), with no distractions (such as a dog or a helicopter), for approximately 20 minutes before he would drop off. Eventually we stopped trying and he soon got used to it. At first he would sleep for 13 hours a night. That's now back down to 12 hours but still not bad.

Lloyd Park finally reopened at the end of the summer and we have enjoyed many walks around the park, walking on walls, chasing squirrels, feeding the ducks, jumping in puddles and playing in the playground. He still isn't very good on his scooter but he at least now likes to be pulled along on it. He can walk quite a long way but I still usually take the pushchair out as he doesn't much like to be carried and we have had a few very long, cold, slow trails home from places when he just refuses to move.

We had a good go at potty training over the Christmas holiday, but to no avail. It started off not too badly but he was totally unbothered about being in wet pants and he got more and more distressed about using the potty. We decided to put him back in nappies for the time being and to try again after our house move which is (hopefully) imminent. It may be that a more gradual approach would suit him as he likes to try sometimes but other times is not bothered. He's going to start going to nursery in pull ups and they will suggest he uses the loo.

James had a lovely Christmas, and was great at opening presents - he enjoyed playing with each one for a few minutes before moving on to the next one. He loved having lots of grandparents and uncles around to play with.

Two years old

Since my last post James has turned two. He had a quiet birthday at home with a wet walk through puddles and then a friend over to play. He got lots and lots of lovely presents for his birthday - a garage, lots of cars and buses, a Mini Micro scooter, some Duplo, some Brio, books, a doll's pushchair and more. The cars and garage are his all time favourite toy; a month later it is still what he goes for first every day. We've also just bought him a road playmat which he loves. Time to put the baby toys away, I think!

We've been on another holiday since my last post, this time to France with friends. We got so so lucky with the weather - after weeks of rain we got baking hot sunshine every day. The house was well set up for children, with toys, books and games galore - not that we spent much time inside. James, Josie and Ella spent the week running around the huge garden naked, splashing in the paddling pool, having tea parties in the playhouse, eating croissants, pretending to push adults into the swimming pool, pushing a dolls' pushchair around, and eating every meal outside. Toddler heaven (and us adults had a brilliant time too). Perhaps we'll go back one day. 

James is saying lots more words now and really beginning to join them together in sentences. He had me in hysterics this afternoon - I asked him to come and put his shoes on and he came through and said 'Sit down.. NOW! 5, 6, 7'! He likes counting but hasn't quite got the idea of starting from 1, and he is used to us counting to three when we're asking him to do things. 

We measured him shortly after his birthday, and he was 86cm, which would suggest that his adult height would be 172cm. Somehow I doubt that - it is very unusual for a man to be shorter than his mother. I think he'll probably have a growth spurt some time soon. He is around the 50th centile for both weight and height, and has apparently only put on about 150g in six months... oh well. He eats a relatively (well, sort of) balanced diet and eats a fair amount at least some of the time. We are currently trying to wean him off breastfeeding with moderate success so far (only one feed in the last 48 hours). 

Touching all sorts of wood, ever since our holiday back in May he has been sleeping through more or less reliably - the bliss! He still has a nap roughly every other day, though it is only achieved by taking him out in the car or pushchair for a reasonably long time. He needs about 12 hours of sleep per day in total so if he naps in the day he will go to sleep at night correspondingly later. 

Terrible Twos

Tears and tantrums abound this month, together with the word 'No!'. James has hit the terrible twos with a vengeance. Apparently he is charming for everyone else and saves his worst tantrums for me... He is still very clingy and only Mummy will do a lot of the time.

James's vocabulary is coming on leaps and bounds at the moment - he's at the stage I have been looking forward to of picking up new words every day. Particular favourites include 'bus', 'bike', 'nana', 'wee', 'dog', 'digger', 'puddle', 'car', 'train', 'plane', 'ball',  and of course 'no'. He'll make a good attempt at any word we say to him but has also come up with his own words for some things, such as 'maam' meaning washing machine, 'miaow' for cat and 'bee' for TV.

We had a lovely holiday in Kos this month. Where we stayed was very safe, far from pools or roads, and with plenty of garden toys, so we were able to relax with coffee/beer and let James play happily. He enjoyed having a fuss made of him by all the waiters and waitresses, and we appreciated the many bars and restaurants that had indoor and outdoor play areas. If only taking him out was so easy here. We got him into a nice routine of going to bed at 10.30 or so and sleeping through to 8.30, then sleeping for two hours or more in the afternoons. During the holiday James developed his obsession with bikes, motorbikes, dogs and buses. Whenever he sees one he exclaims 'Bus!' or whatever, and as it goes he says 'Bye-bye bus!'. The accompanying adult has to agree 'Bye-bye, bus' or else he repeats it more and more insistently. The novelty of this game soon wore off, especially when travelling around the island on public transport, but the game continues...

James managed to sleep through every night we were on holiday, and continued to do so every night bar one for the next three weeks after we came home. Unfortunately he has now woken in the night every night for the last three nights and has become totally hysterical and screaming until I breastfeed him. This seems crazy considering he is now nearly two, but I don't quite know what to do. Hopefully he will go back to sleeping through very soon.

Several months later...

Oops, I have been rather slow at updating this. I realised I haven't even scanned those professional pictures yet - I must do that!

So James is now just a week off 22 months. His second birthday is fast approaching! He is growing up fast and is becoming a proper little boy. He finally shook off the endless bugs of the winter and has found some energy to have a long overdue growth spurt. He's now mainly wearing age 2-3 clothes and is rapidly outgrowing his size 5 shoes.

James is just getting to the fun stage of picking up new words every day, and just beginning to put them together (currently only at the stage of 'hello mummy' or 'night-night daddy' but it's a start). He makes a good effort at all sorts of things we say (time to watch our language). However when he's pointing at things like diggers or dogs it's still mainly 'ner' and when he wants something it's still mainly 'more?'. Some favourite words include 'Wow!' and 'puddle'.

He can now point out various body parts: nose, eyes, mouth, head, feet, hands, tummy. If you ask about something he doesn't know he points to his ears. He likes to do the actions to 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes'. He also likes doing the actions to various other songs such as 'Twinkle twinkle little star', 'Tommy fish', 'Sleeping bunnies' and his favourite, 'Row row row your boat' (Row-row).

James loves watching slightly older children and laughing at them - they then usually show off for him and the cycle repeats and everyone is happy! His best friend is Alba, and whenever we go anywhere he says 'Alba'? in a hopeful tone. When they are together they run around, copy each other, fall over together and giggle. Alba likes to hug James but James isn't so sure!

James has suddenly become very attached to his muslins - he has always liked to have one in bed but at the moment he likes to carry one round with him most of the day if he's allowed to. He sucks the corners of them and then, in a kind sharing way, offers me a corner to suck and looks rather disappointed when I decline politely.

Unfortunately James is moving rather too rapidly towards dropping his nap. At the moment he's got himself into a two-day pattern - one day he'll have a nap, then go to sleep at about 8.30-9pm. He'll then wake late the next morning and not nap that day. He'll then be shattered and go to bed at 7 and then wake at 7, so have a nap the next day. And so on. I'm hoping to keep the nap going as long as possible. At night James now sleeps through probably five nights a week, which is a big improvement. There's no one in the flat downstairs at the moment, which means we don't have to keep him 100% quiet all night. If he does wake up he's often awake for two hours at a time, but he's quite happy chattering away to himself in his cot.

We spent Easter down on the farm in Sussex with his maternal grandparents and greatgrandparents. We took him to the farmyard at least twice a day where he loved seeing the orphaned lambs, the cattle, the horses and the tractors. Toddler heaven!

Next week we're off on holiday to Greece - I'm dreading the flight, but looking forward to pottering around on the beach with James.

In which James discovers the snow

Once again I'm not writing this until the first of the next month - oops! James is now 19 months. This month he has been continuing to enjoy opening and closing doors. He can reach door handles and has got rather good at closing doors from either side - not so good at opening them. He has got better at running, but did give himself a bloody nose and mouth by tripping over in the playground.

A few more words are beginning to arrive - 'more', 'nana', 'shut'. He likes to point out other people's noses but hasn't quite gathered he has one of his own.

We had the only snowfall of the winter this month. James wasn't terribly impressed - he couldn't figure out how to walk in it, and everything looked funny. I liked it though!

Lots more bugs and teething this month - still no canines yet but I don't think they're far away. He's had a nasty coughing bug which put him off his food for a week or so, but he's catching up now. James was weighed and measured at the hospital ahead of a dermatology appointment for his eczema/molluscum on his back and is now 11.75kg and 82cm, around about the 50th centile for both measurements.

We had a photoshoot this month with a local photographer and I love the results - I'll add photos next month if I can. In the meantime here are some of my own photos from the month.