Sunday 6 March 2016

Reu from 19-20 months

Reu 19-20 months 

How time flies! Reu is learning to do new things all the time now and there's more cute anecdotes than I can recount or even remember. 

-He's obsessed with 'Go Jetters' a CBeebies cartoon that is sort of action/ adventure for toddlers. It's pretty good actually! Reu asks for it 'Go go!' And he even sings along to the catchy song during the credits. 

- We are expecting another baby in August! We have started chatting to Reu about his baby brother/sister. He sometimes looks for my tummy under my top and then gives it a kiss. Because we've showed him the scan photos, he now points at his own scan photos (in his bedroom) and says 'baby'. Cute :) 

- Reu doesn't sleep as long at night anymore, 11.5 hours rather than 13 (which is still amazing, and we're thankful). He's pretty good and entertaining himself in the morning in his cot for 30/40mins or so. He chats to himself and this morning we could hear him giggling! 

- Reu loves to 'wak' (walk) everywhere. Getting him into the pram is a bit of a battle these days because he just wants to walk all the time. Sometimes I take him into Middleton grange so he can wander freely and climb up on all the little rides dotted around the place. 

- At playgroup this week, Reu was very enthusiastic about tidy up time. He efficiently cleared the kitchen table from all the toys by using his arm to swipe them into the box. It was very noisy but incredibly efficient. Lots of the parents laughed at his initiative.  Then he helped me put the farm animals away, he whisked the book way from Sarah's hand as soon as she'd finished reading it and ran to the book case to put it away, then I lost him for a moment - but found him in the middle of the ball pool helping to put the balls away. I need to utilise his enthusiasm for tidying up at home! 

- We had Chinese takeaway for the first time last night and he absolutely loved it! He devoured the prawn crackers, fried rice and spring rolls. Literally, the whole way through the meal he made his 'mmmm' 'yumm' noises - he couldn't have been happier!  

- We took Reuben swimming at Mill House (the first time he's been swimming for 8 months, and the last time was in Cyprus - so quite a different experience). When we first went into the pool, he screamed and just clung onto us for ages. But as time went on he really got into it, he loved jumping in off the side, being passed from mummy to daddy, he even went on the massive slide with both of us and loved it! By the end of our time in the pool he was too confident! He didn't want us to hold onto him anymore, but to play with the floats all by himself. We're going to take him a few times in the next few months and then hopefully start him on swimming lessons when he turns 2. 

- Reu has got into building things. He loves stickle bricks and mega blocks and he spends a long time building big towers. He's quite protective over his creations though, so occasionally I need to intervene if another toddler tries to pinch/knock over his masterpiece. He would easily get frustrated with them and shout 'mine!' or start crying. It's fairly understandable I think. 

- Reu also loves colouring with felt tips (occasionally on the furniture), painting and sticking things.

- He's getting good at problem solving too, he's really improving at jigsaws, shape sorters and putting the train tracks together. 

- He talks away all the time. In the car the other day he was babbling like this, 'mummy, daddy, pops, nanny!' He said this sentence to me yesterday, 'mummy, daddy gone!' Which was true, he had disappeared into the garden. He likes to finish the sentences in books, especially 'A squash and a squeeze' and he likes to do the same in songs. He's getting pretty good at saying 'please' ('peas') and 'thanks', although only when it involves food! 

- Reu can say 'I ruv ooo!' ('I love you'). This is the best milestone ever. 

- He's getting pretty good at actions (head, shoulders, knees and toes, and the like). And spinning around is his favourite dance move. 

- Reuben loves slides. He close going down head first, he loves the water slide at the leisure centre, he especially loves climbing up them barefoot! He giggled so much when we put his socks on and he couldn't grip the slide with his feet so kept on falling down. 

- Reu really recognises people now. At play group he gets excited to see toddlers and mums that he knows. The other day we taught him to say 'Athol'. He said it once. Then two days later Athol was in our house (although Reu didn't know this because I had just gotten him up from his nap). Amazingly he heard Athol's voice and recognised it instantly, and shouted 'Athol' and immediately tried to escape my arms to go and find his little friend.